HR Tech Best Practices

Workforce.com has a new whitepaper available on Best Practices in HR Technology. It’s free (registration required), so make sure to request a copy. The paper covers different aspects of technology selection and implementation with contributions from major players like SAP, Ultimate Software and Workday. The first segment is about questions HR should ask potential vendors. Not surprisingly, 2 of the 7 questions are about SaaS. Customers expect 24/7 accessibility and selecting a web-based application is one of the easiest ways to ensure this.

Ultimate Software also talks about the latest HR technology buzzword “unified”. So, you can expect to see more discussions comparing pros and cons of unification vs. integration – just like the current discussions about integrating vs. interfacing. Of course, as a suite software provider Ultimate Software has a vested interest in highlighting any problems with integrating applications from multiple vendors. There’s a balance to be struck between the ease of using a unified system and the strategic benefits of selecting and integrating Best of Breed modules. Chuck Ros talks about precisely this topic in his ere.net article here.

A Payroll Provide Weighs In

Perquest offers some interesting insights about the complexity of HR. According to a recent research study, human capital management at many mid-sized companies is as complex as it is for large organizations. The belief that the challenges faced by HR are directly tied to the size of the workforce is widespread but just doesn’t hold true. So, mid-sized employers may be allocating less money than they should to strategic technology initiatives for HR. This can have serious repercussions.

The fact is that a mid-sized company must meet the same standards as a large company for labor law compliance. The actual risks associated with non-compliance in HR may actually be higher for mid-sized businesses than for large businesses. A single costly incident can disproportionately impact an organization with less capital and fewer high-priced lawyers on speed dial.

Perquest noted that the complexity of compliance is one reason employers often outsource various HR and Payroll functions. However, there are some processes such as onboarding that can’t be effectively outsourced (since using a PEO doesn’t necessarily protect against non-compliance penalties). So, HR may want to use a blend of outsourcing and internal process improvements to achieve their compliance objectives. Implementing Universal Onboarding is a good place to start for mid-sized businesses since the costs are low, ROI is swift, and the benefits are easy to communicate to upper management.