Alignment from Policy to Application -1

The objective of aligning the different dimensions present within the HR organisation necessitates the adoption of an integrated HR service delivery perspective. This perspective is made practical by using an architecture approach when attempting to establish said alignment. One of most daunting challenges facing the HR architect is to ensure that there is deep integration between the HR policy layer and the specific HR information system in use. Even more daunting is the work required to establish the above-mentioned alignment when the HR information system is not yet implemented.

The opportunity presenting itself in the latter scenario (when preparing to implement a HR information system) must not be overlooked in the face of the above-mentioned challenge. Should the alignment be achieved just before the blueprint phase of the implementation project, the more successful the system implementation will be - something that is not at all guaranteed, even if the most prudent process is followed to select the implementation services partner.

The HR architect's first priority is to discover all the HR and related policies that are present in the organisation. Making an assumption that all policies are updated and available in a central repository with easy access, is exactly that - an assumption. More often than not, HR and related policies are not updated and lack documented version control confirmation, could differ substantially in format,  and there could be a lot of duplicate policies, etc. Each individual HR policy should be confirmed and signed-off by the specific policy owner who officially has the authority and allocated accountability for policy development and implementation. 

This work could form the basis for the first facilitated workshops with all the relevant policy owners in HR. Should there be policies that are outdated or not enforced for some reason, the HR architect must request that the policy owner engages with the necessary stakeholders and finalises the specific policy via the governance process.

Therefore, part of this first stage in the alignment could be to decide and document a HR policy documentation management strategy and governance process in the instance where such strategy and process are not in operation.

Taking the offical People Value Chain as reference, the HR architect must now ensure that a set of Business Rules are designed and documented for each individual HR policy. A Business Rule has two perspectives: one is an information system perspective that governs the way in which the content of the policy via the business rule will be represented in the information system environment; the second perspective is a behavioural perspective that directs the behaviour of people when executing their activities associated with the specific policy. The latter perspective is known as the traditional "policy and procedures" in HR, but has since been replaced  by business processes.

The format for the documentation of business rules should be standardised to ensure efficient governance and version control that should in turn, be aligned with the governance and version control of the HR policies as indicated above. For each rule developed, there should a risk assessment and consequence of non-compliance to the rule.

Developing System Rules from the Business Rules is essential as system rules will direct people's behaviour  with the information system, specifically regarding the capturing and maintenance of data. As indicated in a previous post, the integrity of HR data is of utmost importance to ensure the quality of HR services. When conducting workshops to discuss and develop Business Rules, it is important that the policy owner, the process owner and the system consultant be present to actively contribute to the developement of such rules.

The HR architect must initiate and drive the development of business rules and must ensure that all business rules are considered during the development of system rules. The system consultant must indicate in each individual system rule whether the information system will automatically guide the HR user to capture data via a specific manner or convention, but if not, then it is imperative that a system rule must be developed with a risk and governance portion attached to it.

The importance of the systematic development of business rules cannot be overstated. Initiatives around Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) in the HR domain must be dealt with as a priority. There are a number of HR policies that carries substantial risks to the organisation in the case of non-compliance. The development, documentation and migration of business rules into the information system via well-developed  system rules as well as into the business processes will ensure the day-tot-day complicance to all HR policies.

Next: Alignment from Policy to Application - 2, looking at the Data Models and Templates.