Why an HRIS Director/Manager needs a good contractor

As an HRIS Director/Manager your ability to take the data in your HR systems and transform it into information for making business decisions about human capital makes you a valuable resource and business partner. Spending your time in system configuration does not.
This is where leveraging contractors come in. First I want to define what I mean by a contractor. A contractor is a resource who can complete the task; perform the work. They are not showing you how to do the work, or suggesting better ways to get your work done. They know the system you are asking them to perform work in and know it very well.

You do need to understand your data, and fundamentally the processes around your data so that you can clearly create specifications for your contractors. Then turn the work over to them.
Just provide them with access to your environment, and they work from wherever they are located. No travel, no need to procure a desk, phone,or PC. Just work.

Do not confuse this with a more traditional consulting engagement, where a person, or persons are hired to be part of a larger project team. The contracting engagement is a specific activity, usually shorter in duration that is very well defined.

Finding a good contractor and building a relationship with one is relatively easy these days. With Internet sites like Dice.com; LinkedIn and even leveraging your Facebook contacts, you can find a resource that will work within your budget.

Many HRIS Directors/Managers spend far too much of their time being the project resource. Become a more valued resource to your organization and learn to leverage contractors.

Making Sound HR Technology Investments

Business is not standing still. Companies are making technology investments in their supply chain and customer facing systems. Human capital is the #1 expense of an organization, and making investments in managing information about that expense needs to happen too.

Where do you start?

If you do not already have a technology strategy for Human Resources, than that is where you need to start. If you do have a strategy are you using it or has it become "shelf ware"?
What initiatives are you currently involved in that were launched from your strategy?

If you currently do not have any HR Technology initiatives underway you probably have identified projects that are too costly to achieve support.

Revisit your strategy and look to see where a larger project can be scaled down.
The investment that costs least, has the best ability to achieve a return and get approval.

Some good sound investments today are niche SaaS products that provide intelligence about the workforce, portal technologies and social networking tools.
They cost significantly less than an HCM or Talent Management Application suite and will provide you with tools that will be essential as the workplace transforms.

Keeping your HR Systems current when budgets are tight.

The rapid evolution and adoption of on-demand computing came about because companies no longer have to plan and support costly application upgrades. In the SaaS delivery model, the provider of the software takes care of this for you. Yet, there are plenty of HR Systems in use out there that are on premise today. Given that budgets are tight, I was interested in learning about the upgrade strategies that people are deploying for their on premise HR Systems.

There are 2 reasons to upgrade your application, to maintain a version of the software that is current and supported by your vendor, and to take advantage of new functionality that extends the use of the application and potentially eliminates the need for an existing customization or process work around.

Rich Berger, HRIS Director at Citrix and member of the IHRIM Board of Directors notes that upgrade projects whose purpose are to maintain a currently supported version are important "you will need to do this if the vendor will no longer support the existing code base you are on or take a gamble at being unsupported."

These are the type of upgrades that over 70% of people I polled are undertaking this year. Once you are on an unsupported release, it is a much larger and more expensive undertaking to get up to a supported release level. Thus, technically keeping your applications current is in the long run a very cost conscious means to manage your existing applications.
However, there are projects underway where the upgrades are taking advantage of new functionality. In these projects often times one can eliminate customizations or manual workarounds by implementing application functionality that was not available in the previous release.

Mario Ellis, Director of Compensation and HRIS at University of Chicago Medical Center believes in performing upgrades for improved functionality where there is business benefit " We did not want to stop implementing business rich features, but we were wise in which to roll out. . .For UCMC we found that basic processes that kept the end-users going into the application gave the best results such as employee self service for demographic changes, and manager self-service for personnel actions.”

As long a you own the software application, support and maintain it with internal resources, you are going to need to plan for the upgrading of the software. Even when budgets are tight, you must plan for routine support and maintenance of these applications. If you plan well, you may be able to get added benefits from new functionality.

SOA and other options to save on HR data exchange

Probably the most time consuming operational item when managing systems is interface management. If you are like most, HR Data goes EVERYWHERE. Internal business systems, external vendors, Recruiting or other HR applications all interchange data with your core HRMS. We all know the value in having as few interfaces as possible and in having them as automated as possible, however getting there is always the challenge


First, you have to catalog all of the interfaces that send data to or get data from your core HRMS. This catalog needs to show what data is sent, the method and frequency of the transmissions and any dependencies that exist.


Next you need to determine which methods of improving this data interchange is best:

• Eliminate the need to interface at all. The fewer the applications that have HR data in them the more secured and accurate your data will be. What are you interfacing to? From? Are these other HR Applications whose functionality could be incorporated into your HRMS? Are the point solutions that may now be a part of an integrated Talent Management System? Are they still required or are other sources being used for the information?
• Automate where possible: Are you sending data to sources manually? Can this data be sent in an automated fashion? If yes, can you use an existing file that is already being created? The goal should be to have 100% of all data exchange from your HRMS to be automated.
• Leverage Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) technologies : If you have determined that the data is required by the other application, this is the most efficient way to share data among applications. SOA is a technology that allows you to create a "Service" for a common set of data to be read by all who need that data. Instead of each application requesting and sending information directly to other applications they obtain and receive information via these services. The HRMS sends its data once to the service and all applications that need that data subscribe to it via that service. Likewise, if the HRMS needs data, it would go to the appropriate service. When fully implemented, it eliminates the need for system to system data interfaces.
• Consolidating existing interfaces for common use: If you cannot get to a full SOA environment, you can limit the number of interfaces you maintain by consolidation. Are there interfaces that have all or most of the same data elements? Can the receivers of this data accept the same file? The fewer interfaces you have to maintain simplifies the support and lowers the cost to maintain your HRMS.

For more information on ways to save time and money through interface management, join me on CORE; the IHRIM social network where a discussion on data management is in process.

The Value of Process Documentation

I was struck the other day by a Dilbert cartoon, were Dilbert had to take over a job from someone else, there was on documentation of the process and the person had left with no one really familiar with how the job is to be performed. All he knew was that if he pressed a certain button it would cause him to blow up, as that was the fate of his predecessor.

Once again, Scott Adams has turned a real problem, the lack of documentation on how people perform critical tasks of their jobs and made us laugh. However when this occurs, it is no laughing matter and can put your business at risk.

Earlier this year, I encouraged you to create your HR Process and Systems inventory in order for you to understand what processes are supported by which applications. The next step in the process is to understand how those processes work, what processes impact each other and which are dependant on each other

As your organizations reduce its workforce, understanding who your process owners, stakeholders and users are will enable you to make informed workforce decisions. Going one step further and documenting the key steps in your processes will give your employees who have to assume the additional job responsibilities a better understanding and avoid being in the position that Dilbert was in.

Your organization gets information about how it works and your employees get information about how to do thier jobs. This is a win-win for everyone.

The Commuter Savings Account - a Thrifty Win-Win

The local paper has a WallStreet Journal insert each Sunday in the Business Section. This past Sunday there was an article that reminded me about a much underutilized benefit the commuter savings account.
For those not familiar with this, it is a plan where the employee can set aside money on a pre-tax basis to cover commuting expenses. Under Section 132 of the IRS Code, employees can contribute up to $120 a month for mass-transit passes (including van pools) this year and $230 a month for qualified parking. New this year, is the ability to contribute $20 a month to cover biking expenses. Unlike other savings accounts money left in these accounts can be rolled over each year so you don't lose the funds.
At a time when employees are becoming disenfranchised as benefits and employee programs are being cut and everyone is looking at how to reduce costs now is a good time to introduce or increase awareness of this program.
This offers a real savings for both the employee and your company while at the same time improving your Employment Value Proposition *.
How does your company realize the savings? Since the money is taken pre-tax it lowers the FICA amount that your company needs to pay.
How does an employee realize the savings? It reduces their taxable income which could save a few hundred in owed tax each year. It can also reduce the overall cost of them to commute to work.
You may be asking how I as a Thrifty HRIM Director can make this happen?
As the holder of the information you have the power to inform the decision makers and create the business case. Whether you are looking to get this program implemented or expand enrollment the same process applies.

1. You want to look at where your employees live relative to their work location. Determine if there is public transportation available, or a concentrated group that can car pool.
2. Work with your Payroll Manager to identify the potential FICA savings if this population would enroll in the program.
3. Contact your Benefits Director to determine plan administration costs.
4. Pull it together in a short PowerPoint deck and you have a money savings and value add proposal to take to your management team.

Being a Thrifty HRIM Director is more than just managing the HR Systems in the most cost effective manner that adds value. It is also about looking for ways to help your company save money, be more productive and increase you Employment Value Proposition*. This program is just one way to achieve that, I am sure that there are others if we just look around and remain open to new opportunities.

* For more information about the Empoloyment Value Proposing attend the IHRIM March 11 webinar where we will be presenting information about the Employment Value Proposition. Go to http://www.ihrim.org/ for registration information.

Untapped HRMS Assets - Add Value In A Thrifty Way

The contents of this post will assume that you have taken your process and systems inventory as described in my blog of Jan 5.

Today, businesses are looking for ways to use assets already on hand to drive out costs and become more efficient. If you are like most, you have underutilized assets in your HR Applications.
Taking a look at your inventory you are probably like most and you have an assortment of applications that are being used for very specific processes. Your core HRMS is used for the basic personnel administration and benefits processes. There is a recruiting system for applicant tracking.; a learning management system for online training and perhaps you have already invested in a talent management suite to automate performance reviews. You also probably have many processes on your inventory that are being supported by excel spreadsheets and access databases, or even paper based manual processes.

Now review the applications that you have listed in your inventory. Do you have applications with functionality not implemented but could support those processes that are currently manual? If you are like most, the answer is 'Yes'.

The Thrifty HRIM professional will leverage their existing software applications. Review the contracts to see what modules you have the rights to without having to add licenses or use fees and see where this functionality can fit the gaps in your system and process inventory.
The cost to configure these additional features can typically be absorbed in your existing staff budgets as an internal project. This will allow your employees to be engaged in new project activity which is typically more desirable work than maintenance and support. You will also be improving the efficiency of these processes and the effectiveness of the people who perform the process.

If you need external services, a business case can be built based on process efficiency and increased value of the existing application investment. Leverage your vendor as you create this as it is in their best interest that you use their product to its full extent.
Start tapping into those under used HR Applications and value in a truly thrifty way.