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It can be challenging and cumbersome to implement new HR technology in the workplace. According to a Brandon Hall Group study, 29% of workforce management solutions have been in place for five years or more and 45% wanted to alleviate the burden of manual tasks from HR. So, how exactly do you effectively implement HR technologies in the workplace? The success of a new HR technology rollout depends on several key aspects being clearly thought out beforehand. If the HR technology touches multiple people internally, it is important that all stakeholders are onboard from the beginning. Your goals should be to make an HR technology rollout as pain-free as possible, and the benefits of the new HR technology easy to understand for employees. Here are three ways to ensure a smooth implementation:
Get Employee Buy-In
First and foremost, you should find an HR app or technology your workers will love. How do you that? Ask them which apps or technologies they are already using on their own. This includes apps outside of work. The more you can understand how your employees interact with technology, the better the adoption curve when looking for a solution that your employees might already be familiar with. In fact, you might be surprised to find that half of your workers have already banded together to use similar applications on their own.
Ask them which HR apps or technologies they wish they could use at work. They may have heard from a friend that their company is using a particular app.
If you already have an HR app in mind that you would like to implement, you can first ask employees for their thoughts and see what your workers think of it. If that goes well, the next step would be to pilot the HR app with a small group of employees. If they love using the new app, then present the idea of rolling it out to the rest of the team and ask for feedback. If all goes well from there, then plan for a company-wide rollout.
Communicate the Purpose and Benefits of the Technology
When presenting the new HR app or technology to stakeholders, it’s important to communicate why the company is rolling out the new HR app or technology. Equally as important is discussing the benefits the workforce will see from using the new HR app or technology. Tell them how it will make their lives better!
There are many ways to do this. Individual managers can discuss the new HR app or technology with their teams. A special email can be sent out giving specific information about the rollout. Posters can be displayed in break rooms displaying the benefits of the new HR app or technology (like an advertisement). A special event, like a pizza party, can be held to entice workers to attend an informational session about the new rollout.
Clearly, there are many ways to go about communicating to your team why you are rolling out a new HR app or technology and how it will improve their working lives and the company.
Create an Easy System for Onboarding
It’s important to provide a seamless onboarding experience. Onboarding is often laborious when rolling out an HR app or technology. But it doesn’t have to be! If you choose apps and technologies that are easy to find, easy to download, and have a built-in tutorial, it takes some of the pain out of getting your team on board. A dedicated FAQ section or knowledge base with videos and tutorials is also helpful as a quick reference guide that can be viewed at anytime.
It’s up to you to decide how and when an existing employee or new employee finds out that they are to be using the HR app or technology. Offering incentives for employees once they start using the new HR app or technology always helps to get them onboarded faster.
Another important consideration when thinking about onboarding is how upgrades will take place. One way to eliminate this worry is to select HR apps and technologies that have dynamic upgrades. With this feature, when it comes time to upgrade, the process will be done automatically.
Rolling out any new HR program is a costly venture. Even more costly is having to re-rollout a technology. If your organization focuses on the three tips above, the long-term viability of the technology will be adopted earlier and will lessen future training and implementation costs. Once your company comes up with a plan for a technology rollout, you will be able to replicate the plan for future rollouts and make adjustments as needed. This will help make future technology rollouts even faster and less expensively.
To learn more about HR tech, check out this webinar recording on how AI helps HR to be more human, not less.
