Five steps to reclaim HR's role as a strategic partner
Unlock your HR department's strategic potential with an enterprise content solution, empowering them to focus on your organization’s most important asset: Your people.
It’s no secret that for most of its history, human resources (HR) has mainly played an administrative function in an organization. Buried under mountains of paperwork and manual processes, HR staff used to spend a tremendous amount of time on repetitive tasks that added little value to the business beyond keeping employee files in order.
An enterprise content management (ECM) solution takes the heavy lifting out of managing documents and processes, allowing your HR department to prioritize value-adding activities such as talent recruitment, development and retention, which can ensure continued growth.
When HR professionals are empowered, it lets them focus on the humans that are your organization’s most valuable resources. Studies have shown that HR practices that put people first have the highest market value per employee. Your organization benefits, too, as numerous case studies demonstrate that HR departments that play a strategic role are able to deliver results directly linked to a firm’s profitability.
Reclaiming HR’s strategic role in the organization begins by equipping your people with the right tools, like an ECM solution that allows instant access to employee information, accelerated processes and assurance that sensitive documentation is secure. Here are five steps you can take to get started:
1. Define your needs
First, take stock of your current processes. Perhaps you have an inkling that cumbersome processes pose a burden to your HR department. Establishing the extent of the headache will help you determine the solution. Ask the following questions:
Where are your employee files?
HR handles dozens of documents per employee, whether
locked in a filing room or scattered across the HRIS
and other systems. In addition to hiring information such as
employment details and onboarding records, HR must
ensure the security of sensitive documentation such as I-9 forms and medical information. Failure to safeguard
employee privacy risks heavy penalties and fines.
Do you have a retention policy?
Federal and state regulations dictate how long certain
records must be kept. Many organizations tend to hold onto
documents forever, with a manual process (if any) to delete
files. Audits that uncover non-compliance can come with
hefty fines per document. Automating this process helps
minimize risk and gives time back to your HR personnel.
What HR systems are in place?
According to HR.com, more than 70% of
organizations report using four or more systems in
addition to their HRIS, many of which don’t integrate. If
you have separate systems to carry out niche functions
— such as applicant tracking, performance management and onboarding and offboarding — the sprawling tech
landscape may be contributing to costly information
gridlocks instead of alleviating inefficiency.
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2. Identify your scope
Once you’ve determined where the problem areas are in your current HR processes, you can prioritize what to tackle first. Implementing an ECM solution doesn’t mean getting rid of your current systems. Rather, it should complement your existing HRIS and other systems. A good ECM solution should integrate seamlessly with your HR tech landscape.
In the rush for change, it may be tempting to overhaul your entire HR environment at once, but starting small ensures a greater chance of successful implementation. Changing your processes incrementally, with achievable and measurable milestones along the way, helps keep the project on track.
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3. Plan a phased approach
Implementing an ECM solution is a multiphased project, beginning with the first step of digitizing your processes. You should also focus on integration with existing HR tools, such as an HRIS or HCM system. Directly connecting the employee records in your HRIS with corresponding documents ensures that HR staff have immediate access to the information they need, in full context, to expedite HR processes and respond to employee inquiries.
The second phase would focus on records management, automating document retention timelines with either time or event-based rules. This will help minimize the risk of non-compliance with corporate policies, government or industry regulations.
Finally, phase three would tackle processes to reduce the administrative burden on HR staff. This involves building workflow automation, allowing information to be seamlessly managed and transferred between systems, so HR can spend less time double-checking that information is accurate and more time on value-adding activities. Providing HR with a single source of truth for each employee ensures you stay compliant and no information gets lost.
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4. Choose the right technology
When deciding on a content management solution, take into account its ability to meet your needs — now and in the future. You want to ensure you’re getting value for your investment. The solution should offer deep functionality without requiring custom code to scale it, should your needs change.
Also consider deployment options to meet your needs: on-premises or cloud-based. Deploying on-premises allows you to keep your solution in-house and grow the solution as it makes sense for your organization. Meanwhile, hosting in the cloud allows you to take advantage of unlimited server retention.
Finally, the ECM solution must be able to integrate with your existing systems.
5. Select the right vendor
Choosing a partner to transform and empower your HR department — and your organization — can be a daunting task. Consider the vendor’s expertise and experience. The vendor should know your market and the challenges you face.
To unearth the best choice, consider crafting an RFP that clearly identifies your needs, with a focus on business requirements, functional and technical requirements, as well as implementation, support, training and professional services. Ultimately, you want a partner that understands why your HR department needs to evolve as a strategic partner — and how to help you achieve that vision.
Ready to get started? Contact us or request a demo to see our innovative solutions in action.