Congratulations on successfully launching your new HR software! Now that the system is up and running, it's time to focus on evaluating its performance and making continuous improvements to ensure long-term success. If this seems daunting, don’t worry: we’ll guide you every step of the way.
And if you want more in-depth advice, be sure to check out our HR software adoption playbook.
Five tips for HR software success
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Gather feedback from super users or champions
- Set up training for new starters and managers
- Run data-led manager insight sessions
- Stay in regular contact with your HR system provider
1. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Regular communication is essential to keep users engaged and informed about the benefits of your new HR system. Consider deploying a calendar of regular communications, such as monthly newsletters, posters in common areas, and updates on your intranet or company forums. Sharing new feature updates and success stories can help to maintain interest and encourage ongoing usage.
Remember to think about how, what and when you communicate directly with employees, and when to speak to line managers. “We use our internal weekly all-hands call to share important information and actions with all our people,” says Amy Thomson, internal communications lead at Ciphr. “And then we use our managers-only area on our intranet, Pulse, to remind them about time-sensitive such as completing monthly performance reviews or mandatory eLearning courses.”
2. Gather feedback from super users or champions
During your HR software implementation journey, you’ll have created a cohort of HR system super users or champions. But their role doesn’t end when you turn on your system. These users are valuable sources of feedback on the performance of your HR software, and should have a vested interest in helping you improve organisation-wide engagement with it.
Encourage them to share their experiences, challenges, and suggestions for improvement. These ideas will help you plan a roadmap for future enhancements – which could range from minor changes such as adding reports to your analytics dashboard, to more significant changes such as deploying AI tools in your HR software.
3. Set up training for new starters and managers
As new employees and managers join your organisation, it's important to provide them with the training they need to use the HR software effectively. Look out for providers – such as Ciphr – that offers a comprehensive Knowledge Base of helpful guides, and in-app tool tips that walk new users through the software.
At important times of the year – such as end-of-year performance reviews or appraisals – you might even want to set up refresher or drop-in sessions to make sure managers are confident in using the system.
4. Run data-led manager insight sessions
Data-led manager insight sessions can help managers to understand and use the data generated by the HR software. Share top-level people metrics with your team of managers and educate them on how to use this data proactively to manage their teams. Regularly creating and sharing executive-level reports can also help to demonstrate the value of the system to senior leaders, and solidify your place at the top table.
Gwenan West, Ciphr’s head of people operations, harnesses the power of our HR software’s analytics tools to deliver insightful, data-driven board reports each month - covering everything from absence trends to DEI metrics with ease.
When it comes to tracking compliance, she turns to our HR software’s specialist reporting features to monitor completion of mandatory assessments (like risk evaluations) and policy acknowledgements.
“Achieving 100% compliance across the organisation is nearly impossible without this level of visibility,” West explains. “When managers start requesting this data, it’s a clear sign they’re invested in supporting your compliance goals. You need to be ready to answer their questions and generate the reports they need – fast.”
Want to find out how our HR software’s analytics tools can help get you more insight, more quickly? Request a personalised demo now.
5. Stay in regular contact with your HR system provider
The best way to find out about new functionality in your system, or new releases, is to stay in regular contact with your HR software provider. Arrange system optimisation sessions with your provider to ensure that you are making the most of the system's capabilities and to address any issues or challenges that may arise. And look out for webinars that showcase new functionality or recent developments.
Some providers – like Ciphr – will run a customer advisory group (CAG), which is often consulted first when it comes to fixing bugs and planning out the product development roadmap. We also love it when customers submit product suggestions through our customer care portal.
HR software isn’t one and done. It’s an ongoing journey to success
HR software isn’t a system that you can implement and forget about. As your organisation evolves, and your provider releases new functionality, your needs and the suitability of your software will change. Just as you continuously tweak and seek to improve other areas of your HR strategy – such as your employee onboarding process – so too should you review and optimise your HR software, so it is suitable for your current needs, and future goals.
We’re here to help. If your current HR software isn’t up to the job, speak to us about how our HR system might suit your needs. Or, if you’re a current customer and want to tune-up your system, book a system optimisation call through our customer care portal.
Or, if you’re still in the implementation phase of your current HR software project, be sure to download your copy of our HR software adoption playbook, created in partnership with researchers from the University of Kent.