The Results Are In: Why You Need Cloud Based SaaS HR Solutions, and Soon!

Posted by Mathew French

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17 July 2014

The daily challenge of HR Professionals is to deliver both tangible benefits, and positive results, for employees and the Organisation alike. Successful HR Professionals harness market best practice, and increasingly, use HR technology solutions to ensure that their organisations are agile, flexible and above all, competitive. Market Leaders do this by addressing technological, structural and process related challenges, then implementing the most cost effective and benefit enhancing solutions available to them in order to meet these challanges. The key to success is to prioritise strategic needs and then match them with the right service delivery solutions.

The world cup has had us all tied up in checking results and looking at the scoreboard, but more important for HR Professionals is staying on top of trends and results in their own back yard. Let’s have a look at some of the current research about HR technology trends and what the market leaders are spending their time and money on. This will give you an indication of where you need to pitch your organisation’s HR efforts in order to keep pace with the competition.

Key Criteria for Software Buying Decisions

The Bersin by Deloitte report, Investments in Human Capital Management Systems 2014, indicates that most HR Professionals plan to acquire new technologies to support their functional requirements and their employees in the year ahead.

Identifying unintegratable performance management and hiring management software as the most likely for replacement, many organisations plan to acquire or replace both talent management and human capital management systems in the next 12 to 18 months.

Customisation, agility and flexibility (including the ability for seamless integration across multiple software solutions) are the most important factors to those acquiring a new singular or integrated suite for the first time. 

The top four criteria for acquiring new software solutions were identified as:
  • Improved analytics and reporting
  • Improved end-user experience
  • Integration or consolidation with other business management products
  • Transition to Cloud based technology

“The priority for suite seekers is the integration of hiring and onboarding, performance, and learning.”

HR Professionals Driven by Integration Capabilities

The key driver for HR Professionals seeking effective and efficient HR technology solutions, is the ability to integrate with other software solutions used in the organisation. Of less concern to buyers of is the product solution’s support of social or mobile functionality.

The key functional areas where HR Professionals seek integration are:
  • Recruitment and talent acquisition
  • Learning and development (L&D)
  • Performance management
  • Onboarding

“A year ago, cloud technology was not even listed in the top five criteria for HRIS product selection; this year it ranks fourth. “Cost-savings” as a criterion dropped from third to fifth place over last year.”

Subscribe-HR_Towers_Watson_HR_Tech_Survey_Results_2014

Run HR Like a Business

Another interesting trend, and one which Patty McCord (who was jointly responsible for the now infamous ‘Freedom and Responsibility’ approach to HR at Netflix) strongly advocates, is the commitment to running the HR function like a business. Other market research illustrates that the leaders in implementing this approach exhibit an effective mix of strategic perspective and operational discipline, enhanced by HR tech solutions.

Towers Watson reiterates the continuing trend of HR transformation efforts being focused on efficiency and effectiveness.

The key pathways to achieving this will be using e-HR solutions and organisational data to enhance:
  • Business process re-engineering
  • Strategic decision making
  • Structural changes
  • Continued investment in other technology
  • Alignment of functional and business goals

“For the second year in a row, results indicate that streamlining business processes was the number one initiative for HR functions.”

The Continued Rise of HR SaaS Cloud Based Solutions

Towers Watson's research also indicates that appetite for HR SaaS is on the rise. Their 2014 survey found that, even where HR spending is being reduced in other areas, HR technology will receive increased spending allocations. One in three respondents (33%) plan to spend more on HR technology in the coming year, with some respondents expecting that increase to exceed 20%. 

The realisation that organisations need to adopt Cloud based HR SaaS technology solutions in order to keep pace with the competition looks like it has reached a critical mass. The results are in: if you want to be efficient and effective, the best way to do this is to adopt a suite of e-HR solutions.

“40% of companies are only considering SaaS based solutions for their new HRMS, with better functionality as their #1 expected benefit.”

Based on this, and other current research, it is clear that the evolution of HR is definitively trending towards an increasing level of adoption of e-HR software-as-a-service solutions. Make no mistake, adoption of this technology will reach a tipping point and those who have not yet transitioned to Cloud based, SaaS HR technology solutions will get left behind.

It's important to note that technology will never replace the 'human' in Human Resources, however, it does enable HR Professionals to harness the benefits of HR technology solutions to help them focus on the work of putting the 'human' back in Human Resources. Just like social media, inbound marketing and other 'tools,' HR technology solutions can be employed around the clock - they work for you 24/7. Not only that, the organisational data they contain can provide priceless insight for leaders. After all, information is power!

Subscribe-HR is well positioned to fulfil all your Core-HR, e-Recruitment, Talent Management and other e-HR needs. We offer agile, flexible, cost effective solutions to enhance the efficacy of all HR Professionals throughout the entire employee lifecycle.

We offer solutions that give HR Professionals the tools, the time and the freedom to take care of business efficiently and effectively, so that you can focus on contributing to strategic and operational excellence.

Subscribe-HR will be launching our next generation e-Recruitment module soon, so stay tuned to the blog for information about the new release and an opportunity to see the new e-Recruitment solution for yourself.

Want to experience how much more efficient and effective you can be with the right SaaS solutions? Sign up for a free trial now. Go on, treat yourself!

Or, you can request a call back to arrange a Demo - we would love the opportunity to show you our HR solutions. Just click below.

 

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Credit: The image used in this blog is taken from the Towers Watson 2014 HR Service Delivery and Technology Survey results on the Towers Watson website.

Topics: e-HR, e-HR Cloud, Cloud-Based Software, SaaS and HR, SaaS, HR technology

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