Rethinking and fine-tuning business processes are part of an HR leader’s role. When investing in software-as-a-service (SaaS) HR solutions, adopting best practices and standardizing processes are critical to the success of these projects. However, the businesses that cannot get past a “we are different” mentality are the best candidates for struggling with change or experiencing adoption risk in the future.
Embracing and driving a streamlined approach based on best practices are not always easy to achieve. They both involve change management from the highest levels and a deep commitment to evaluate and streamline the decisions that impact people, processes, and technology. SaaS deployments have a much greater chance of success when they can advance these projects with this in mind.
But what happens if your organization’s people processes are truly unique? How can you respond to the unique needs of your organization or industry, and yet maintain streamlined business process at the core?
There are simply situations where exceptions to the “one size fits all” strategy can – and do – arise. For example, a traditional annual performance management model may not make sense if 100 or more field-based employees report to one manager. Some work environments may operate with a higher than normal range of occupational health and safety risks that go beyond the capabilities of any technology out of the box. And many businesses are placing their bets on delivering stellar user experiences that reflect the organizational culture, integrate closely with all other systems, and delight users every time they open it up.
HR has certainly moved away from its reputation as an administrative function to a key partner in driving strategy and success of their organization. CHROs are playing a prominent role in optimizing systems and leveraging the latest technologies by architecting employee experiences that are attractive to new hire candidates and tenured employees alike. As a result, they are also considering emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence and machine learning – to make life simpler, more productive, and, perhaps ironically, more human. (I don’t know about you, but I personally prefer to ask a chatbot how much vacation time is left instead of clicking around in a portal to find out myself!)
Due to this shift in focus and the breakneck speed of technology evolution, HR organizations must be agile and innovative with their people applications. Leveraging platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions, HR can access the tools it needs to address unique requirements, keep up with the pace of change, and offer employees world-class technology experiences such as integrated data, seamless unification between processes and user experience, incorporated process not native to the HR system, and the ability to build awesome new mobile and Web applications.
So by all means, continue to approach core HR processes with best practices – your success depends on it. But look to the future and explore the possibilities of a cloud platform to realize the fullest potential of HR’s digital future.
Learn how leveraging an open and standards-based PaaS provides the agility and flexibility that your business needs to extend cloud-based apps. Read the Ventana Research Perspective white paper “The Digital Future of Human Capital Management” (registration required).
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