Onboarding Software And SaaS

Last week, we took a look at Emerald Software Group’s traditional licensing option and why this is one of the choices we make available to our clients. Now, I’d like to talk a little more about our Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and why it is popular with so many of our customers.

Minimal Up Front Investment

With the SaaS hosted agreement, there is no license to pay for. Clients simply pay a set price per new hire per month for access to the software application and accompanying data storage. Maintenance and upgrades are included, so there are no unexpected expenses. Treating this software as an operating cost rather than a capital expenditure makes budgeting much simpler for some employers. ROI is easy to calculate and cost savings are often realized as soon as the client begins using the system.

Infrastructure Costs are low

When we host the software on our own servers, an employer’s setup costs are minimized in several ways. No hardware needs to be purchased or upgraded to implement the onboarding solution. The client only needs to provide internet access and a computer terminal – something every modern HR department already has in place. With our recent addition of a cloud computing option, each client’s access can be immediately scaled to handle a higher volume of new hires as needed. There’s no cause for IT to worry about purchasing additional server space or equipment.

Limited IT Involvement

With our SaaS option, IT does not have to invest significant resources in implementing and maintaining the software. It’s still necessary for IT to be involved in initial discussions to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding topics like data security and integration with backend systems. Fortunately, our products are designed to interface readily with most top brands of HR industry software.

HR clients appreciate the fact that they can finally automate their onboarding processes without waiting for IT to allocate a huge chunk of time to the project. We take care of the setup and maintain the software so your IT department doesn’t have to. This works well for:

• Small businesses that might have only one or two IT employees who can ill afford to spend time meeting HR’s needs

• Mid to large sized businesses that tend to adopt new technology slowly because the process for approving and implementing new software on-site is unwieldy

Fast Results

For HR departments that want to move quickly to reduce risk and increase compliance with labor laws, the SaaS option is often ideal. Speed to implementation and full adoption is very fast for most of our clients because they can leave so much of the process to us. At the same time, HR can be as hands on as they like in developing the electronic forms and workflow to ensure onboarding is carried out according to their company’s business rules every time. To learn more about Universal Onboarding and SaaS, go here.

Why SaaS Is Working For HR – Part 1

HR is one industry that is on the leading edge of SaaS adoption. In this blog post series, we’ll dig into several questions:


• Why HR?

• Why Now?

• What’s Next?

To start things off, take a couple of minutes to read Tom Malone’s TLNT piece on “The Top 5 Myths about SaaS”. The author delivers an even-handed look at what SaaS currently does and doesn’t offer. For example, some people think that SaaS solutions aren’t an option for handling complex processes. In fact, any BPM software application (or set of applications) that could be hosted on a legacy server can be hosted in “the cloud” and have its functionality delivered via the web.

HR Can Integrate Processes

In addition, the best SaaS solutions are constructed using an SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) approach. This means they are modularly designed with integration capability built in rather than tacked on as an afterthought. This is one reason HR looks to SaaS to address evolving needs that involve interfacing with other applications. HR processes touch those of many other departments such as IT, Payroll, Production, etc. Data must be shared for purposes of scheduling, security, and much more.

An on-site ERP suite can often provide this type of inter-compatibility; but rolling out new solutions may sometimes take more than a year of work on the part of IT. Here’s a story about Chiquita (the banana company) that shows how one employer decided to ditch the snail pace of traditionally licensed ERP development for the faster, global ERP implementation provided by an SaaS vendor.

HR Can Address Critical Needs

Of course, niche HR products that address a specific process such as onboarding are also attractive options for companies that have already heavily invested in an on-premise ERP solution and simply want to add more functionality. When HR’s budget is tight (which is pretty much always), promoting the use of a single SaaS program delivered via the web can be a lot easier to negotiate than a full system overhaul. Depending on the application and the degree of customization required, the roll out time for an SaaS product can be weeks instead of months.

Onboarding Software and Traditional Licensing

At Emerald Software Group, we believe in giving our clients options that will work for every situation. Our SaaS offering is very popular; but not every company is ready to have software solutions hosted offsite. This doesn’t mean they have to miss out on the latest innovations in onboarding automation. As a Best of Breed vendor, we differ from most of our competitors because we can and do license on-premise installations upon request.


When might this approach be appropriate? One determining factor is how much responsibility a company’s IT department wants to take for the software - and how much control they want to exercise. For example, they may have a risk management policy that precludes storing sensitive data on off-site servers. Or, they might simply want to have more ownership of each aspect of BPM development and integration.

Solutions are On Hand

There are a couple of different ways IT can meet these objectives with Emerald Software’s products. We offer both a licensed agreement and a managed arrangement. With an on-premise license, our software is run on client provided equipment. Upgrades and support can be negotiated separately from the perpetual software license. For a business with a fully staffed, experienced IT department, the ongoing labor required to deploy version updates and service packs isn’t burdensome.

As an alternative, we can pre-install the requested programs on an appliance server that is added to the customer’s data center. This managed option is billed on an annual basis, so it has a lower up-front cost. The level and types of support and maintenance that come with this managed agreement are determined based on the client’s requirements.

What about HR?

HR often doesn’t have the final say in which option to choose. Fortunately, your experience of using this onboarding automation software should be the same regardless of whether it is run on site or delivered via the web. This includes the ability to easily add new forms and data panels as needed.

Who Should Be On Your Acculturation Team?

Workforce.com has an article up this week that is very relevant to acculturation onboarding. Author Kris Dunn (from the HRCapitalist website) has figured out the number one question to ask on employee engagement surveys to improve your corporate culture. It cuts through all the obfuscation and gets right to the heart of the matter. That $100,000 question is basically:


“Other than your current manager, if you could pick any manager in any department in the company to work for, which one would it be and why?”

Dunn speculates that the information you collect from this survey question would be a real eye opener. Coworkers talk amongst themselves and they all know who has the reputation as being the best boss to work for. However, what they value in a manager may be totally different from what business owners think of as most important. Getting a solid read on what rank and file workers want to see as far as management style and behaviors go offers insight into how to train current and future leaders for your company.

Developing Effective Onboarding

The “popular” managers are also the ones you want working with HR to develop your acculturation onboarding program. These talented and skilled individuals have created loyalty among their direct reports and gained the admiration and respect of employees who don’t even work for them. That’s the spirit you want new hires to get a sense of even before starting their first day on the job. The people your employees identify as top managers can be involved in everything from designing welcome materials to suggesting improvements to the mentoring program. Take a look at the features available in our Acculturation Portal to start brainstorming ways for your team of top managers to get involved with this onboarding creation process.

It Doesn’t Stop with Onboarding

Kris makes an excellent point that once you hand a new employee over to his/her manager you lose control over the acculturation process. You can do your very best to make the experience in HR wonderful, but it’s no good if the freshly hired employees get a rude awakening when they reach their department. So, once you have figured out what your best-liked leaders are doing right, it’s time to develop your other managers to meet this higher standard. If you want to turn great onboarding into great long term retention, that’s an essential part of the picture.

Acculturation Onboarding Mid-Project

One of the main goals of acculturation onboarding is to speed new hires to productivity. With a job (such as entry level retail) that consists mostly of repetitive tasks, this can be done with a standardized training program. Once you’ve designed or selected a series of learning modules for that position, you can simply give new hires access and track their progress. However, with a more complex job that involves collaboration with others on a major project, the acculturation process may need to be more specialized.

In addition to introducing a new employee to his/her role within the department, it is necessary to provide an overview of where things stand on any current projects. For example, a new hire in an Engineering or R&D department would need to understand the phase of development or testing of each product currently in the pipeline. A sales employee might require a crash course in the current marketing/branding initiative.

Creating a Foundation of Knowledge

An agile onboarding solution that permits interfacing with other applications is an ideal solution in these situations. It should be relatively simple for a departmental director to conference with HR and update introductory modules to include relevant information on current departmental assignments. This might be as simple as uploading a pdf containing a project overview to the resource library. Or, it could include granting access to a third party educational program that other team members have already gone through in preparation for their participation in a project.

Obviously, the actual project details will be covered during meetings and in-person training. But when new hires go into their first departmental meeting with a grasp of the basics everyone benefits:

• Management won’t have to spend time explaining the fundamentals of the project
• The new hire will feel competent and ready to ask clarifying questions
• HR will have done its part to prepare the employee to succeed.

When a key employee is replaced in the middle of a major project, this type of customized acculturation can significantly reduce the loss of productivity when a new hire comes on board. With the AllegroHR Acculturation Portal, creating a customized learning environment based on specific job assignments can be done efficiently – ensuring that time is actually saved.

Acculturation Onboarding & Employment Agreements

Many companies are faced with a dilemma during onboarding when it comes to employment agreements. On one side of the issue is the desire to fully protect the organization's best interests at all costs. This is very evident in the way non-compete and intellectual property policies are written. Some employers take unprecedented ownership of every innovation an individual comes up with (whether at work or at home) as long as that person is an employee.

Who Owns an Employee's Creativity?

This has led to some hotly contested court cases over what a company can lay claim to and how. A recent case involving an employment agreement came down to a dispute over the exact wording used. In this situation, a worker claimed that his employer did not own an idea he came up with. The extensive agreement he signed did refer to inventions, designs, improvements, developments, processes - even "know-how". The employer's HR attorney must have cringed at having forgotten to include "ideas" on that list.

Of course, when employees are working in R&D or Marketing, the use of employment agreements makes sense. There is a high likelihood that an employee will come up with a useful and lucrative concept at some point. At the same time, workers in these fields are often well compensated so it can be argued that requiring such an agreement is not unfair or unduly restrictive.

However, there is some debate over whether every person in an employer's workforce should be required to sign such controversial agreements (and over exactly how they should be worded). Sure, you can get a new hire to sign almost any policy on their first day just because they are happy to have a job. But, starting people out by making them feel like they are signing away all their rights isn't necessarily going to endear you to them later on.

Acculturate Employees So They Want to Share

Is there a missing piece in this puzzle of how to get employees to value the success of the company they work for? In a recent Workforce Management interview with Dov Seidman, some interesting points about this "fortress" mentality on the part of employers came up. Seidman recommends encouraging compliance with policies that benefit your company by using inspiration rather than punishment/reward systems or authoritarianism. In this type of corporate culture, your employees would naturally bring their ideas and innovations to you rather than shopping them around to the competition.

This is one reason why acculturation is just as critical as gathering policy acknowledgement signatures in transactional onboarding. Your new hires should be introduced to a company that is interested in creating a win-win situation for everyone. Using the AllegroHR Acculturation Portal is a great way to start this process since it allows you to immerse new hires in your organization's history, current mission, and vision for the future in an easy-to-access online format.

Acculturation Onboarding for Executives

Are you bringing in a new addition to your C-suite? Onboarding an executive can be a pretty involved process. These are often the only individuals in a company who are hired under contractual instead of at-will employment terms. Hammering out the fine print and ensuring all agreements are clear is an important part of the transactional portion of onboarding. Then, there is the acculturation side of things.

An executive is actually responsible for helping create the company culture - as well as upholding the norms and expectations that are already in place. Here are some ways to use the acculturation process to set your new executive up for success as a leader in your organization:

Networking at the Top

An executive needs to be integrated into the company hierarchy starting at the top. Arranging a conference with the newly hired executive's peers can help start things off on the right foot. Department directors should be included in discussions about the role of the new executive to ensure that the importance of interdepartmental collaboration is emphasized early on.

Connecting with Middle Management

Arranging for an in-person group introductory meeting with managers and supervisors sets an example for good communication. This is especially effective if one or more helpful suggestions from the managerial staff are implemented by the new executive within his or her first 2 months on the job. Creating a reputation for taking advice from those who have been around long enough to "know the ropes" is a good precursor to making other changes that the executive may feel are necessary for improving operations.

Getting to Know the Troops

The exec should also be introduced to your rank and file employees. At a large company (or one with multiple locations), this can be done online. A podcast, a video introduction, a guest post on the corporate blog, and other social networking tools can be used to make the executive approachable. With the AllegroHR Acculturation Portal, uploading fresh content is a simple process that can be carried out whenever a change at the leadership level requires updated messaging. Having your executive go through the same process of online tutorials and orientation as your entry level employees can also be helpful in making sure the new exec fully understands your HR branding and how workers perceive the company.