Five top tips for buying HR Technology

Buying any new technology can be a minefield and HR Technology is no different. There are so many new products on the market from point solutions to full suites – where do you begin? In this blog we’ll take you through our five top tips for buying HR Technology so you can purchase with ease.

Tip 1: Why do you need new HR Technology?

New HR Technology can provide innovative solutions for longstanding challenges. But it’s important to ask yourself these three key questions before heading off in search of that silver bullet.

What is the problem your new HR Technology needs to solve?

It’s vital to understand what challenges your new tech can solve for your business. The tech is never the ultimate solution to a challenge, but should support and align to the goals of your people strategy for it to be successfully integrated and utilised internally.

What value will your new HR Technology bring?

Maybe your new tech will help save your team time? Maybe it’ll help deliver a greater candidate experience? Whatever that value might be it’s good to call that out before going on the hunt for tech so that you can clearly communicate that with potential vendors and see if your values and theirs align.

What metrics do you want to be able to measure?

Data and metrics are vital! Not just from the perspective of data you collect through your platform but what data and metrics are you going to use to highlight whether your new HR Technology and processes have been a success?

If you want a deeper dive here’s HR Influencer, William Tincup, sharing his thoughts on the right questions to ask yourself when buying HR Technology.

Tip 2: Analyse your HR Technology stack

Before you go putting your technology wish list together it’s vital to understand how your new HR Technology will sit within your current ecosystem. Perhaps your new tech can help you consolidate systems or pull your data together in one place, but it’s important to think through what other systems exist and how they connect. This is also helpful information to have on hand when you speak to potential vendors. Here’s what you’ll need to map out:

1. What legacy systems do you currently use and for what purposes? We recommend mapping this out so you can see your HR Ecosystem and identify where data is fragmented.
2. If you want your new tech to replace old tech, then map out specifically how that system is used and any interlinking dependencies.
3. Engage your colleagues in IT and cyber security at this stage! It’s vital to get their buy-in and support for your new tech roll-out to be a success and trust us, they know what systems you’ve got and how they connect.

Tip 3: How to find the right HR Technology

There are so many ways to research HR Technology, but where do you begin? And what sources can you trust? We’ve compiled the definitive list of where to start:

1. Ask your network – there is no greater place to start than asking people you know and trust.
2. G2 – is a SaaS (software as a service) review website, here you can look at features, analyse competitors and see what other customers have to say about the technology you’re looking for.
3. Client stories – this is a marketing secret, but clients only provide testimonial’s, logos and share their stories if they genuinely love the tech. Within those stories, they’ll talk about the challenges they were able to overcome, you can see if these align to your business’s challenges and goals. If they do, this tech might be a good fit! If you’re evaluating a vendor, ask to speak to a customer as a reference.
4. HR Communities – have you joined any HR communities online for free? Sova has a FREE network of over 1000 HR professionals who you can reach out to and ask for recommendations.

Tip 4: Features and Integrations

Now you know what HR Technology you’re trying to buy, why and where to look for it, it’s time to think about what features you need, what integrations it must have and a wish list of functionality you’d like to see. No technology is perfect, so it’s important to make sure you have a clear picture of what’s a must have or a nice to have.

We recommend mapping this out under two headings:

• Must haves – including the core purpose of the platform, integrations and security requirements
• Nice to haves – things you either would like the tech to do or do in the future

If you’re in the market for assessment and recruitment technology we’ve also created this handy checklist you can download to support your search.

Tip 5: Think about change management upfront

Our final tip is not so much about your new HR Technology, but more about how you’ll embed the technology and manage the internal change you’re about to embark on. Here’s a summary from our latest article about change management to steer you in the right direction:

1. Scope the project out – you need to think about your project team, communication plans, and training
2. Stakeholder buy-in – you need to win hearts and minds so who are the key people you need to get buy-in from and how are you going to do it
3. Project team – who do you need for this project? IT and cyber security are a must!
4. Communications plans – workout when, who and how you’ll communicate
5. Advocacy – find your early adopters and workout how they can support the project
6. Training – ensure teams have plenty of time and resource for training on the tech and any new processes you implement
7. Sustaining the change – create a feedback loop and opportunities for those involved to keep connected to the project