Being an HR influencer, my email box is full of companies pitching their products and, frankly, most are not creative or helpful. But, they’ve somehow got backing and some customers. How do you weed through everything to find what your business needs?
The first thing is asking the right questions. Here are some to begin with:
What problem are you trying to solve? Well, you say, I need an HRIS. Excellent. Why? Because you have employees? Yes. But if you have two employees, you can probably handle everything in an Excel spreadsheet (although, technically, I don’t recommend that because one wrong sort and your data is messed up).
It’s essential to ask this question before you meet with a single vendor. If you don’t, the vendor will tell you what your problem is and, surprise! Their software will solve that. Then you end up with software that may or may not solve your problem, but it solves the vendor’s problems—they made a sale!
To keep reading, click here: Why it’s nearly impossible to pick your business software
It also doesn’t hurt to talk to any third parties that will have to interact with the software. I know a bank auditor who despises a certain very common, inexpensive, very easy (for the business owner) to use accounting package, because it’s very, very difficult for him to get what he needs out of it. I would image that HR folks need to deal with auditors on occasion, too.
And watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnRlB3G9fDU
It applies to purchasing:
– do I need new software, or do I need to get along better with my pre-existing software?
– is the price of my software worth the value I’ll get out of it, or is it too advanced/specialized to have a full-time job at our small company?