Its not about the system

The HR teams at client companies usually have very specific and elaborate requirements for a Human Resources information system. Working with client companies one often gets the distinct impression that such clients view the new HR information system to be the complete and comprehensive answer to most of their HR service delivery challenges and problems.

To be sure, most ERP-type HR information systems do have rich functionality and in terms of its programming principles are horizontally (end-to-end business processes) highly integrated. The combination of robust functionality and integration capabilities on the data layer, makes such systems extremely attractive, especially given the fact that HR is forever trying to satisfy its own and that of its customers' need for updated and validated HR related information across the people value chain.

Furthermore, ERP-type HR information systems are a lifetime commitment and it is an expensive  venture, both from a licensing as well as an implementation point of view, substantially increasing the expectations that the HR team(s) have of such an integrated HR information system. Also, increasing service delivery demands from operations place additional pressure on HR to take the initiative to invest in an information system that could deliver the HR services reliably and consistently.

Usually the HR business requirements mirror its current organisation and activities, focusing firstly on the HR Transactional process areas such as Personnel Administration, Time Administration, Payroll Administration and Employee Benefit Administration. Next follows the requirements around the typical Talent Management processes such as Recruitment, Training and Development; Career and Succession Planning, Performance Management, Employee Relations and Employee Health and Safety.

In both the Transactional and Talent Management areas clients often require Self Service functionality. There is a substantial number of Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service functionalities that, when successfully implemented, empower individual employees and operations managers to apply for, approve and execute (via workflow designs using role based authorisation profiles) HR related activities and services.

The implementation of HR information systems is often the first step in the redesign of the HR organisation in context of "HR Transformation". Because of this, the information system agenda usually includes the establishment of HR "best practices" across the HR organisation, and this is regularly sold as "part of the package" by the sales people of the software vendor or the implementation partner. However, HR "best practices" lies within the domain of the HR subject matter experts, and they are more often than not, not part of the software vendor's team nor that of the implementation partner.

The point of the above-mentioned analysis is that  HR's view on a HR information system  as the primary driver for HR Transformation, creates extremely high expectations of the functionalities of the system in context of their HR business requirements and assumes far too much in respect of the HR subject matter knowledge of the software vendor as well as the HR subject matter knowledge of the implementation partner.

When planning the procurement and implementation of a HR information system, the HR Architect need to take cognisance of the following considerations to ensure attention and action is given to the fundamentals:

• The implementation of a HR information system is an important component of a HR Transformation program, but the planning and execution of activities focusing on the larger HR Transformation program should be the first step, not the implementation of the system;
• The Transformation program needs to start with the transformation of the HR strategy to determine strategic objectives that have business context, that are not isolated from the rest of the business, and should be focused on building organisation capabilities that support the business objectives and that support continuous innovation;
• Any business transformation program should have a business case with a baseline cost visibility - there must be an investigation on the current "cost-of-delivery" of the HR organisation to determine a operating cost baseline that will be used to evaluate the financial implications in respect of cost savings that will be achieved through the implementation of the HR transformation program;
• As soon as business ratifies the new HR strategy, planning should start on the discussions and consulting relating to most ideal HR service delivery organisational model and channels - this can be achieved through a HR Architecture Assessment that will determine - in as much detail as needed - the exact current state of the HR organisation, as well as in context of the newly designed HR strategy; 
• The findings or results of the above-mentioned HR Architecture Assessment will be the basis upon which the redesign of the HR organisation will be modelled. As the said assessment covers all the critical architecture dimensions, the results of the assessment will contain most of the critical decision support indicators for the next phase;
• The Transformation of the HR organisation to mirror the larger business transformation (to increase competitiveness) is easily the most complex and challenging work that awaits the HR Architect. Some of the aspects and areas involved in this enormous task are as follows:
• Determine the KPI's and Metrics in respect of the HR strategic objectives;
• Determine the HR Service Delivery Dimensions and Service Levels - HR services are by nature integrated information, therefore the categorisation or profiling of the workforce according to their HR needs, information system access and geographical location(s) will be essential, as will be the identification of the range of service rendered to each of these (customer) groups;
  
• Confirm all the HR activities that will constitute the official People Value Chain;
• Disseminate the People Value Chain into high-level HR business processes;
• Convert the chosen HR Service Delivery Model into a HR Organisation Structure and allocate new HR Team roles with Key Performance Areas (KPA's) that supports the new structure;

• Design the new detailed HR business processes as part of the first phase (Blueprint) of the implementation of the HR information system, using an integrated process architecture methodology for the design of the individual HR processes.
• Configure the HR information system according to detailed functional specification that are a derivative of the individual HR business processes, ensuring that there are close integration between the HR policies, business rules, system rules and business processes with the HR information system or application.

From the above-mentioned, it is clear that HR Transformation is not about the HR information system - in fact the application can at best be a sub-system of the comprehensive and elaborate HR Architecture. As the principal designer of the HR Architecture, the HR Architect must take control of and plan the design of each sub-system of the said HR Architecture as well as to ensure that deep integration between all the various architecture layers is achieved.