Digitalization, or the transfer of the corporate agenda from paper to electronic form, has long been considered a path that every company will have to take in the near future. The coronavirus crisis and the associated onset of home office and remote collaboration marked a turning point in the gradual digitalization process. Most companies have discovered that the future is here and they have no choice but to adapt to the new conditions. The rapid search for simple platforms for remote work began. The need to digitize corporate processes affected all company departments, but most importantly, this new situation was addressed and addressed by HR professionals. Human resource management is inherently based on personal contact, therefore moving the HR agenda to the online environment has meant an overwhelming intervention for HR work.
HR professionals responded to the leap into the digital age by using proven tools, Outlook email client, Skype communication tool, file sharing via cloud storage. In the short term, they were able to manage their personnel agenda in this way, but the longer the restrictions caused by covid-19 delayed the return of workers to the offices, the more intensely the issue of a systemic solution to the digitization of the personnel agenda came to the surface. HR specialists and managers simply found that, unfortunately, they cannot do without specialized software that frees their hands and allows automating their repetitive personnel activities. Channons and Excel tables have been ringing, but what next?
How to start the digital transformation of HR department?
Companies that had already counted on the digitization of HR agendas before the onset of the coronavirus crisis, reached for ready-made digital transformation plans in a crisis situation, or approached an internal employee or an external partner who deals with this area. For these companies, the transition to the digital era was smooth, employees often did not notice the change. A diametrically different situation occurred for companies that did not count on digitalization in HR. These companies often fumbled and the result was a waste of both time and money. At the same time, the transition to a digitized personnel agenda is nothing fundamentally complicated, you just need to follow it Three basic principles:
Find an experienced partner
The implementation of the transfer of personnel activities to the digital world is not conceivable in a situation where your company has no experience with it. In this case, it is definitely worth contacting an experienced external partnerwho has ready-made functional technologies and knows exactly how to implement them in your company. A properly selected partner will offer a software solution that will be integrated into your company's agenda completely organically and without negative impact on the department's operations.
Choose solutions with both price and quality in mind
The field of digital technologies offers a diverse range of solutions, from luxury systems, to powerful software tools with many functions, to low-cost applications. When choosing a specific software that will transfer your personnel agenda to electronic form, it is always necessary to carefully weigh the contribution of all the features of the software with the price that the software will cost. Pay attention to monthly fees, not just the initial implementation price. One of the main criteria when choosing software must be the speed of return on investment.
Involve employees in the transformation
The new software means a boogeyman for a number of employees. The concerns often stem from past bad experiences with rolling out new software. Show your employees how specifically the new tool will make their job easier. It is very important not to forget about the training of employees, because people have the greatest resistance to things they do not understand.
Choose a service that can adapt
The breakneck period associated with the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed how extremely important it is for art to adapt quickly to new conditions. And this art should also be mastered by the software you choose to transform your corporate agenda into a digitized form. Check whether the service you choose for digitization has, for example, responded to mandatory testing for covid-19 and has established records of tests performed or vaccinations.
Cloud or On-Premise?
Once you have chosen the right HR agenda digitization vendor, you need to turn your attention to the technical solution. HR software generally comes in two basic variants: in the cloud or as so-called on-premise software. Each business is suited to a different technical solution, a fundamental role in deciding which one to choose should be played by the benefit to the company.
Cloud, or Software as a Service (SaaS)
In this type of software delivery, the system is hosted centrally. The company doesn't have to worry about hardware, it only addresses the price of licenses.
On-Premise Software
With this type of licensing, on the other hand, the software is installed locally on the company's servers. The license fee tends to be smaller, the company does not pay for the management and maintenance of the cloud.
Which digitalization solution is cheaper?
With a SaaS solution, you do not expect any initial investment, but licenses are more expensive. On-premise offers quite the opposite situation, i.e. high initial investment in hardware and lower prices for licenses. In general, it can be said that the cloud solution is more cost-effective.
What about data security?
The personnel agenda has data that is very sensitive from the point of view of leakage, so it is necessary to emphasize quality security when choosing a technical solution for digitization. From a security perspective, the cloud solution wins. Most cloud providers use security measures that most organizations cannot afford.
Which solution enables faster deployment?
Cloud solutions can be implemented in a business virtually instantly. The company doesn't have to worry about hardware or app installations. The on-premise solution takes considerably longer to get up and running, which can be a significant disadvantage in certain situations.
Which technical solution is best for your business?
There is no unequivocal answer to this question. Each company has its own specific requirements. However, there are several parameters that will make your decision easier. Before your free time it is good to think about:
- Which payment model suits the company best
- How I want to keep my data secure
- How fast do I want to deploy the system
