One of the most common and increasingly necessary tools for businesses is Human Resource Information System (HRIS) software.  HRIS software helps HR departments decrease their workload by managing employee information, provide reports, integrate with other systems and much more.  With such a large need for this type of software, it’s not uncommon for businesses inexperienced with the software selection process to make a mistake.  In fact, the six most common HRIS software mistakes are more widespread than you may think.  According to a PwC study on change initiatives, 75% fail to fulfill their goals and objectives.  These 6 HRIS mistakes have been made by businesses large and small, and hopefully this guide will help you to avoid making any of them.

1. Not Taking Adequate Time

The first mistake is one that many of us struggle with in our everyday lives.  There’s oftentimes a tendency to rush into decisions, no matter what type of decisions they may be.  In the HRIS world, this can have lasting negative implications if you hurriedly choose a vendor.  One of the most important parts of selecting an HRIS vendor is taking the time to fully assess your business’ needs.  This should happen entirely before even taking a look at any vendors, so that you have a full list of requirements you can compare with the capabilities of potential vendors.  After all, the whole point of adopting HRIS software (or switching to a new HRIS vendor) is to improve your business processes and help your employees with their workload.

2. Refusing to Ask Lower-Level Employees for their Opinions

Another mistake during the software selection process is the temptation to only gather the opinions of higher-level decision makers within your company.  Although you certainly need to consult the people who will ultimately be choosing an HRIS solution, the opinions of your lower-level employees is just as important.  These are the people who will be using the software every day, and who are currently experiencing the downside of not having a proper solution.  These employees are likely to have different perspectives to offer, which may add an item or two to your list of HRIS needs.  HR Payroll Systems describes that holding company-wide meetings at multiple stages of the selection process helps these employees feel included and more willing to accept the change, which has benefits in and of itself.

3. Looking at Only a Few Vendors

As with any major decision in life, it’s a good idea to survey the field by looking at several options before choosing your new HRIS vendor.  ITQlik recommends vetting 6-9 vendors before receiving any demos.  This helps you gain a thorough knowledge of the HRIS landscape, so you can accurately determine what’s unique about each vendor and what’s industry standard.  For example, if you only look at one or two vendors you may find a payroll feature that your company could use, but the vendor’s price is over-budget.  If you take a look at a larger number of vendors, you may find the same feature in another vendor that fits in your budget.  If you’d like to start your search for HRIS, take a look at our Leaderboard to see our top-ranked vendors.

4. Preparing for the Present

Possibly the most common mistake companies make when making their HRIS selection is only taking into consideration their current needs.  ITQlik gave their take on why it’s important to look ahead when choosing a vendor: “If you focus only on present requirements, without paying attention to future needs, it can drastically reduce the lifespan of your HR software solution. If you choose a solution that focuses on future growth and development, it would be a successful investment. However, if you pick HR software that is not scalable, it cannot cope up with the expanding needs of the business and risks failure quickly.”  With how quickly technology is advancing these days, the scalability and flexibility of SaaS products are essential to keeping up with these advances.  You want a long shelf life from your vendor, so make sure to assess their ability to add new features that your company may need in a few years.

5. Failing to Assess Data Security

Now we’ve reached the point where needs have been assessed and vendor features have been vetted, so the last piece of the puzzle before making a decision is to assess each vendor’s data security capabilities.  This is where several companies have fallen short in the selection process.  They fail to assess how secure their data will be when using a vendor, and after a while data security becomes a major issue.  No matter what type of data you have you want to protect it, but HR data is some of the most sensitive any organization possesses.  Ensuring that a vendor can properly protect your data is a key component of HRIS software.  HR Lab recommends to “get answers about security for data in transit and data at rest” as well as collecting independent audits and reports on their data security.

6. Not Preparing for the Impact of Change

After deciding on a HRIS vendor, the common mistake companies make is failing to asses the impact of a change in HRIS software.  Failing to do so can undermine the potential ROI the change was meant to create.  HR Lab details the specific mistakes that companies can make in not preparing for the impact, which  include poor communication (for example, not telling employees when the change will occur) and poor employee training (or a complete lack thereof) both before and after the change is implemented.  The solution is to be proactive about preparing the company as a whole for implementation.  In other words, frequently discuss the change with your employees and train them as much as you can before implementation.  This can help make the transition between your business’ old processes and those that come with new HRIS software as seamless as possible.

These six common HRIS software mistakes are all too prevalent in today’s software selection processes.  In general, the solution to these mistakes involve doing your homework and being proactive at every stage of the process, and we hope that this guide can help you do just that.