To standardise or not to standardise – that is the question (Part Two)

By Mandy Chapman

In part one of this article, we talked about the difficulties facing HR Cloud customers in deciding whether to go ‘standard’ or ‘customised’. To read part one click here.

So what can we do to avoid the pitfalls of being on either end of the customise, standardise spectrum. Here are three take-aways:

Take Away #1: Strike a balance between standard and customised

Know what your business REQUIRES. What are the challenges and issues across the functions that need to be resolved? In order to do this successfully, you must open up dialogue with all key stakeholders. This doesn’t just mean HR and payroll though – this will involve understanding the reality of the processes and experiences that people across the business deal with on a daily basis. Then, when you understand this fully, perform a gap analysis between standard and business need. Try to stick as closely to standard as possible without becoming a ‘standardiser’ but be acutely aware of the needs of the business that will need to be address – without becoming a ‘customiser’. It’s also important to note that processes are constantly evolving so this should never be a one-off event. Use the release cadence from your vendor to align continuous business process improvement.

Take Away #2: Don’t rip and replace existing shiny box with new shiny box

If your current technology is a ‘bag of spanners’ and not fit for purpose, are you sure that it’s the system or vendor at fault? We see customers replace old technology with new technology and then a few years later replace with more new technology but never resolve their fundamental issues. Perhaps its time to take an inner look at what is going on and why these technology projects consistently fail to deliver.

Our advice, sweat your assets and ensure that you have done all you can do to make your investment work before deciding to pull the plug. Technology platforms do vary widely in capability and functionality but essentially, they are all very similar. The key characteristics of projects that deliver well include those who have a good grasp of current processes and systems and have people fully aligned. To do this they also have strong change management capability to drive the project and the teams to the desired outcomes. For more on these characteristics of successful HR tech projects, see our recent whitepaper where we outlined the Five Key Lessons for every business systems project.

Take Away #3: It’s never too late to test the health of your approach

We work with organisations at all stages of their Cloud journeys – from those just starting to think about new technology and those who are mid-flight, through to those organisations who are several years in and can’t imagine why they still aren’t achieving what they set out to achieve. Regardless of your stage or the health of your processes, there is hope that with some periodic diagnostics and much needed quick wins you could be set on the road to recovery.

Sign up to our blogs to hear more or if you feel that you need additional help from our teams at HRCubed, then we’d be very happy to help. Get in touch. hello@hrcubed.co.uk