It’s easy to get stuck in a rut, and if you work in HR for a well established company that’s “always been doing things this way,” you might be struggling and have more work than necessary. Just because your HR department has “always” used software X or an old school approach to document management doesn’t mean it’s the best. In fact, it’s nearly guaranteed to be outdated if you haven’t made any changes or improvements in the past 12 months. How can you get everyone on board?
The best payroll software for your company might come from a new startup, or might be another version of a proven system. It’s not necessarily too expensive, too difficult to use, or too challenging to install. People are creatures of habit, including HR professionals, but it seems that these professionals are particularly resistant to technical changes. Here’s why HR software and technology is lagging behind, and how to fix it.
The big shots are old school
Most HR departments have a hierarchy based on experience, which means those who make the final calls are probably older, more established and have a rhythm down they’re comfortable with. If you have, for example, a 50-year-old HR director who’s not particularly tech savvy and has been with the company for 20 years, it’s going to be nearly impossible to persuade him to try a new software from a small startup. In this case, you may have power in numbers.
Talk to whomever you need to convince on their level, and come with charts and statistics to back you up. For example, did another company use Software Y and get concrete results? What problems can new systems solve that you’ve learned to “just live with?” Find disparities you want to address, the right software to do it, and showcase it.
It’s a lot of work (right?)
Even when the whole department is on board with a change or update, actually getting it going can seem overwhelming. Won’t it take days to transfer everything into a new system? There’s the worry over losing data, not being able to manage it as well, and the sheer frustration of too much down time. However, the right system does the work for you, transferring information seamlessly.
The best thing you can do is research just how long it’s actually going to take and choose a quiet period for the change. Bring experts on board, even temporarily, to make the process as simple as possible.