Is your HCM process truly serving your organization? Your processes may be functional, but you could be swimming upstream in terms of wasted time, money, and effort. If you haven’t taken a close look at your HCM practices lately—or if you have the feeling there may be a faster, smarter, more effective way to work—here are seven signs it’s time to optimize.
1. You’re spending too much time on any one task
If you’re spending too much time on specific HR tasks, it’s a sign you should update your process. Small amounts of wasted time add up to major losses. Your HCM software should improve efficiency, not hamper your productivity. If your software—or any associated tasks that require human involvement—eats up a significant portion of your day, your HCM system and processes could benefit from optimization.
2. You rely on lots of workarounds
The demands on HR management never slow down. In the quest to respond to the needs of company leadership and employees, many HR managers employ “quick and dirty” solutions that may end up complicating the processes and eating up more time in the end. In other instances, you may not even realize you are employing a workaround. There may be a clean and elegant way to perform specific tasks, but if your HCM system is not configured appropriately, you would never know it was possible. HCM optimization reveals system tweaks that can make your HR process more seamless.
3. Turnover in your HR department
If your process is not clearly documented, your company is bound to lose bits of knowledge as HR staff leave the organization. Incoming HR managers will bring their own knowledge and experience, utilizing the system in a way that works best for them. However, failure to thoroughly train new HR staff on your company’s HCM procedures will cause the overall efficiency and effectiveness of your HR workflow will suffer.
4. You have been using the same HCM system for more than three years
In the world of technology, change is constant. Not only do Dayforce and UKG issue regular updates for their software, third-party vendors frequently release new features and add-ons to respond to real-world demands. If your software is more than three years old and you have not undergone HCM optimization, you could be missing out on helpful features that could transform your workflow.
5. Your business operates under grandfathered processes
Corporate transformation has brought together many businesses under one umbrella. An organization may have had a distinct and effective HCM process before merging and is now tasked with operating under new parent company policies that are far removed from the way things have always worked. In many cases, an aggressive timeline for M&A leaves HR departments with little bandwidth to oversee an effective transition. As a result, disparate HCM processes are held together loosely with basic commonalities that leave subsidiary companies operating at less-than-ideal efficiency. In these cases, HCM experts can help develop an effective process from the ground up that serves both parent and subsidiary organizations.
6. Employees are complaining
There is always a learning curve for employees when using HCM software, but if you consistently hear the same gripes, your system may not be set up to deliver the best possible employee experience. The HCM optimization process evaluates every stakeholder’s experience to ensure software and processes serve their needs in the most frictionless way possible. As mentioned above, optimizing your system or adding today’s cutting-edge features could be exactly what your staff needs.
7. You struggle with workforce planning
Controlling turnover and hiring top-tier employees should be a priority for every business—especially in today’s competitive market for talent. Your HCM software can play a vital role in your workforce planning efforts. The data you collect and manage through your system can remove guesswork from workforce decision-making. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are augmenting the capabilities of these systems to guide career pathing that keeps quality employees around longer and they can predict which staff members are likely to leave. These insights can be a game-changer for organizations—if your system is set up to deliver.
HCM optimization helps you achieve organizational goals
The above signs indicate it’s time for a change, but the only true way to get to the root cause of your HCM challenges is to conduct a thorough business process review. As part of Seequelle’s HCM optimization services, our experts not only conduct detailed stakeholder interviews, we also sit with the system’s daily users and literally observe their processes and pain points. This holistic understanding informs the HCM optimization roadmap, ensuring all aspects of the software—and supporting manual processes—are working together toward a clear and common objective.
Ready to optimize your HCM processes to increase HR efficiency? Contact our experts to get started.