How To Harness The Power Of HR Cloud SaaS (Part 1)

Posted by Mathew French

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3 March 2015

Last week's White Paper on Inspiring Transformational Leadership contained some valuable insight around what's required for leaders to be able to inspire their employees and transform their organisations for future success. One of the points raised, related to the increasing necessity of having the right resources, systems and processes in place to 'take care of business' so that everyone is free to work on what really matters. IBM's research on market leading organisations, which they call 'Pacesetters,' indicates that it is early adoption of Cloud SaaS technology to 'take care of business' which has given these organisations their competitive advantage.

However, the idea of adopting and implementing an HR technology solution can be a daunting possibility, and comes with a lot of responsibility. For those of you contemplating the transition to a Cloud SaaS based HR technology solution, this week's blogs focus on the behaviours of Pacesetters and how they harness such technology to their advantage. In part 2, you will also be able to access a self assessment questionnaire that outlines questons and issues related to Cloud HR best practice. This will help you familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of the Cloud and how you can leverage the benefits of such technology to take care of, and enhance your organisation's performance.

Research indicates that many organisations are still struggling with using manual systems (like spreadsheets) to manage their HR procedures and processes. This is because both leaders and the HR team are unsure about whether Human Resource Management Software can really deliver the benefits and return on investment to make it a worthwhile proposition. Leadership in some organisations still believes that an investment in technology is too risky. However, if you look at the statistics, it is obvious that the greater risk is actually not investing in technology, because the market leaders have already done so and it has helped them to gain a significant advantage upon which they continue to build.

Pacesetters derive success from Cloud SaaS in multiple ways

IBM's investigation of Pacesetters, indicates that organisations which were early adopters of SaaS technology solutions, are achieving success across three main areas as a result:

1. Deeper collaboration

61% of Pacesetters say that SaaS has increased both internal and external collaboration.

2. Market agility

68% of Pacesetters use SaaS to improve their customer experience.

3. Better decision making

72% of Pacesetters use SaaS to leverage analytics and gain insights from large masses of data.

Subscirbe-HR-IBM-Pacesetters-Cloud-SaaS

Pacesetting HR functions empower their people  

The HR functions within these Pacesetting organisations have taken up the callenge of empowering their employees and their organisations across three main themes.

1. Making intelligent investments in technology solutions

Market leaders make intelligent choices that add value and decrese cost. They do this by investing in consumer grade technology for their Human Resource needs.

2. Managing change efficiently and effectively

Succesful HR Professionals in successful organisations invest in tools, individuals and groups that own change for the organisation. Such organisation utilise multiple methodologies to increase the change responsiveness and capabilities of their employees. 

3. Balancing HR efforts and leveraging benefits across multiple fronts

Pacesetters invest their time and energy in managing their efforts evenly across people, process and technology. They harness the benefits of technology to set individuals and groups up for continued growth and success.

In order to select and successfully implement an HR technology solution in your organisation and manage the change that this adoption entails, it is imperative to have an understanding of Cloud HR best practice. Understanding the fundamentals of what Cloud SaaS technology offers, how it applies to your organisational needs, and also understanding your readiness for implementation, will make a huge difference to your success.

Part 2 of this blog will give you the headline industry standards and best practice for Cloud HR technology. It will also provide you with access to a self assessment checklist that will enable you to measure your own requirements against those industry standards and gauge your readiness for implementation.

If you missed last week's first installment of our Thought Leadership Series with alliance partners Avril Henry & Associates, click below to download the White Paper 'Inspiring Transformational Leadership.'

 

Click Here to Download Your Paper Now!

 

Credit: The image used in this blog is taken from the IBM Global SaaS Study.

 

Topics: HR Cloud, SaaS, Cloud, Pacesetters

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