Top 10 things to consider when choosing human capital management software

Investing in new tech involves significant cost and effort, so you should take your time to find the best fit for your organisation’s size, scale, industry, and future. One type of software you’ll need is a human capital management (HCM) solution. But how do you select an HCM system when a simple search yields millions of results? Well, look no further. Here are the top 10 things to consider when choosing human capital management software.

1. Take stock of your business

First things first, you can’t make informed decisions about an HCM solution without taking stock of your business situation. You must know the scope of your operations to assess what you need.

A few of the essential items to note are the number of employees in your workforce, your anticipated scaling in the coming years, the size and scope of your HR department, and your current payroll and benefits processes. You should also consider workforce management aspects like time and attendance and talent management needs like recruiting and onboarding.

2. Assess your pain points

Whether you’ve been in business for decades or you launch next month, you should pinpoint your pain points as best you can or approximate them based on industry peers. Being aware of your challenges maximizes your opportunity for growth by targeting your current frustrations and weaknesses.

Do you have trouble completing payroll on time and accurately due to payroll staff shortages or a rapidly scaling workforce? Do you need a centralized place to gather all employee lifecycle data, from recruitment to retirement, for holistic metrics and reporting? No matter what your historical challenges have been, you have the opportunity to solve them with all-encompassing human capital management software.

3. Learn about implementation and support

Many new HCM software solutions require integrations and migrations for successful implementation. Before you sign on with an HCM partner, you should learn about their process for getting you up and running. The anticipated timetable may weigh into your decision.

It’s also a good idea to ask about education for system managers and employees – what resources are available and how in-depth are they? The expected timeframe for adoption and education will change from one option to another.

After you scope the front-end effort, consider the long-term support available. Research whether reliable, helpful support is accessible when you need it. If not, you might want to find an HCM partner that prioritizes your requests and helps you solve problems in a pinch.

4. Is it unified or integrated?

When working with integrations, you often encounter apples-to-oranges scenarios, where metrics, units, and data don’t clearly correlate. Instead, consider opting for a unified system that operates with a single business rules engine and draws helpful comparisons on full data sets. Without labourious manual cross-referencing, there’s less risk of mismatched, error-prone reporting and metrics.

5. Can you easily access workforce data?

When equipped with real-time data about your workforce, you can make informed decisions with meaningful, measurable impact. Your HCM software should have the capacity to gather information reliably and present it in simple-to-understand terms. If you have to go digging, data is more of a nuisance than a game-changer. Explore HCM solutions that empower you with easy-to-read workforce metrics and analytics.

6. Look for a flexible and future-focused solution

When choosing human capital management software, you need to know that it’ll support you even as you grow. A flexible system will scale with you, giving you freedom to grow your workforce without having to switch human resource management solutions. A future-focused HCM partner can handle rapid workforce increases without breaking a sweat. Set yourself up for future success by choosing an option that’ll capitalize on your growth.

7. Explore creative customisations

HCM software should offer a tailored experience with customisations at the ready. For example, can you toggle options on and off for employees in various roles? Does your company logo appear in the startup screen and throughout the application for ease of appearance? Is it easy to get creative with informational dashboards?

8. Be willing to be surprised

With an accurate picture of your business’ state and an understanding of your challenges, you will know what HCM features are most pressing. However, don’t discount a solution because it does more than the basics. Keep an open mind as you search and think about how the additional capabilities can add value to your business beyond what you initially hoped. Create a wish list of nice-to-have features that could benefit your business, should they exist.

Consider an HCM software that conducts employee experience surveys and assesses diversity, equity, and inclusion stats at your company. These aspects of employee engagement are crucial to understanding the health of your workforce, but they might not be on your high-priority list from the outset. However, when you have these additional tools, you can bring more to the table for your business.

9. Don’t forget about compliance

Whether you work across multiple states, territories, or countries, you’ll need to manage HR challenges specific to each region. Your HCM software must work with you in each of these areas, helping empower you to handle compliance concerns.

While an HR system can’t solve compliance issues for you, it can help by offering insights, tracking progress, and collecting data that informs your business decisions.

10. Make sure it protects your data

Last, but certainly not least, you must explore how well an HCM partner protects your data. HR software collects and stores highly sensitive information about your employees and your business – the last thing you want is for that data to fall into the wrong hands. Before entrusting your HR materials to new software, ensure it can safeguard your assets.

Take your time to ponder each of these top 10 things to consider when choosing human capital management software. And keep an open mind for that extra wow factor. With your checklist complete, you can step forward confidently into a new HCM partnership that will last for years to come.