Innovation is often cited as a reason for embracing and implementing new HR technology; pushing change through in an organisation, advancing its capabilities, providing cutting edge tools and platforms for its staff etc. I have some research live at the moment which is exploring ‘Why HR Projects Succeed’ and this is an area of investigation within that project.
But despite aaalllll the innovation. Despite automation, AI, machine learning, better UX, improved integrations, apps…the works…there is still often a ‘conventional wisdom’ to how HR rolls out its technology. Core HR is usually first – often a big suite (or “one ring to rule them all” as I often refer to it) with other key areas like recruitment stacks, specialist learning and talent management platforms following suit. Then ‘nice-to-haves’ like people analytics or employee experience platforms coming afterwards, alongside ‘tricky’ solutions like payroll. which very much seems to sit in the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought.
And yet.
There has been so much innovation in some of these areas, particularly in the last two years. Payroll has been through some of the most significant change of all as the industry adapted to furlough and self-service demands amongst a raft of other items on the wishlist. People analytics is arguably an overarching service that *every* HR function needs as it inputs into every single aspect of its strategy – and in an ideal world, business strategy too. So why do areas like this still come down the conventional list of HR tech priorities?
Daring to be different
One of the upshots of the last two years is that there has been much ripping up of rule books. And binning some pearls of perceived wisdom around how to set up a successful HR tech stack, and in what order, needs to be torn up too. It doesn’t have to be about getting one piece ‘perfect’ before you can implement the next – and there doesn’t have to be a specific order to which platform comes first.
I’m speaking to Melissa Kantor, VP of People Analytics and Insights at LEGO in a live webinar on Wednesday 19 January and it’s refreshing to hear how they have leapfrogged their analytics practice ahead of the game by prioritising which platforms they implemented and when. By embedding their people analytics platform first they have carved out a different path – and a different foundation – for the implementation of their new HCM platform, which is still in the works. She is speaking alongside Ian Cook of Visier (simply one of the smartest and most knowledgeable people I’ve had the privilege to meet in this space) who’s in a position to see countless implementations of HR systems and is delighted to see the ‘old rules’ falling by the way side.
But in the meantime, I suppose what I’m saying is not that I’m advocating choosing the shiniest new tool first. Innovation for innovation’s sake is not what HR needs. At all. But, it’s OK to step back and interrogate what your organisation really needs. If paying people faster is important then payroll might need to jump the queue. We shouldn’t be afraid to prioritise the order in which we implement HR tech. Nor should we let conventional wisdom – or a preconceived idea of the ‘perfect’ solution – get in the way of the good.
Learning as I go... 