Workscape Institute

As competition increases for scarce talent, leading companies have begun turning to software solutions to help support and enhance their retention and reward strategies.  However, global operations, disparate in-house technologies, and company-specific HR processes can all pose challenges when deploying an automated solution.  Buyers prepare for this by conducting extensive research before choosing a provider; asking detailed questions, checking references, and watching demos.  There’s a lot at stake, since an effective Talent Management solution delivers new efficiencies, process standardization, and company-wide visibility.  It’s therefore critical to verify that a tool meets your specific needs, but these high expectations should also extend beyond the software to the team that helps deploy it.

The 1st Key of successful rollouts: Organize your resources, data and processes

Before engaging a vendor’s implementation team, make sure you have a clear understanding of your current compensation, performance, and succession processes and a complete vision for their new direction using automated solutions.  Important steps in this stage include:
o Where the required data is stored (employee, job, salary, etc.);
o How that data is currently shared within processes and existing systems;
o How will the new solution(s) change or complicate that data sharing model;
o What new data will be captured by the new solution(s);
o Which internal subject matter experts (SMEs) are required; and
o What business process changes will be required to leverage the full benefits of the solution.

The 2nd Key: Implementation is a joint process

Ten years of meeting time and budget constraints for large, multinational customers have consistently shown that the best results come when both internal and vendor-side employees are linked through every step.  Ideally, the combined implementation team will demonstrate characteristics such as:
o A shared attitude of collaboration that is supported by their respective businesses (client and vendor); 
o Strong communications and streamlined processes;
o A shared vision of the goals and benefits of the project; and
o Subject-matter expertise and experience.

The 3rd Key: “Experience” is a multifaceted term

The Talent Management space has been dynamic since its inception, and new functionality and choices of technological architecture continue to reshape the market.  To successfully deploy these types of technologies an experienced team is a mandatory requirement. In such a rapidly changing and nuanced environment, a mere tally of years isn’t an accurate gauge of expertise.  For implementation work, at least, there are 4 distinct dimensions of experience to bear in mind:

1) Project experience (depth of experience in delivering software related projects);

2) Subject matter experience (depth of experience in compensation and organizational development);

3) Product offering experience (depth of experience in the vendor’s product offering); and

4) Employer experience (tenure on the job).

Adhering to these three keys will dramatically improve your chances of an effective deployment, for Talent Management solutions and generally across the software landscape.

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I hope that this information is helpful for your current and future selection processes, and welcome feedback on this topic or ideas for future articles.