Which HR Software is Right For Your Company? Choose The Best HR Software in 5 Simple Steps

Your HR process to manage your workforce can be assisted by an integrated HR software. It unifies all crucial HR tasks into a solitary platform and improves employee retention and engagement, while making HR administration uncomplicated, practical, and competent.

But how do you choose an HR software that perfectly meets your business requirements, especially when there are plenty of HR systems available today? Given below is a 5-step process to help you identify the right HR software.

1. The Objective Has To Be Clear

Your choice will depend on the specific needs and wants of your organisation. While you can scout the variety of HR systems available, make it a point to sit down with your HR team first to clearly understand their requirements.

You can establish the prerequisites by deducing certain issues at hand, such as:

• The drawbacks: Already have HR software? Then find out how it’s not helping out your organisation at all.
• The obstacles: Are there certain areas or issues that your HR team finds hard to tackle? Find out what those are, and if your current HR software can rectify them.
• The duration: HR tasks, regardless of their scope, nature, or magnitude, never cross the finish line at the same time. Identify which takes the longest, and whether your HR software can help reduce it.
• The fit: The HR software you finally choose; can it seamlessly integrate with pre-existing HR tools, solutions, and software?
• The grievance: Employees are your whistleblowers. Get to know if they have been repeatedly reporting an HR-related issue that hasn’t been resolved.
• The complexity: HR software should be comprehensive but easy to use. Measure your HR team’s tech-savviness to know if they can effortlessly handle complex HR systems.
• The funds: Yes, you have to spend money for HR software. But before you settle on one, you should be clear about the software’s efficiency and profitability.

2. Carry Out Thorough Investigations

After you identify your HR software needs, waste no time to assess HR software options that fit the bill. You can find a plethora of online resources that can carry out in-depth comparisons between leading HR software to provide profound insights.

When conducting your investigations and comparisons, you must pay close attention to all the available functionalities and tools available under each HR software. Focus on your needs and then decide which of the HR integrations are vital to your organisation, and which can be overlooked.

Your investigation will be through and to-the-point as long as you keep the following in mind.

• Does the HR application provide best-in-class data privacy, security, and encryption?
• Is the HR software investment within your company’s budget? Will it offer true value for money in return?
• Will the HR software offer customisation and flexibility as per your HR requirements?
• Is the UI/UX user-friendly, attractive, and easy to navigate?
• For your organisation, which HR software vendors have engineered the right solutions?
• Will the HR software company provide a live and free demo?
• Will the new HR software seamlessly integrate with pre-existing HR systems?
• Will the HR tool meet your requirements, and is there any detailed documentation for the same?
• Does the HR vendor provide additional resources for training, onboarding, and support?
• Are there any genuine customer testimonials, ratings, reviews for HR software?
• Have the end users repeatedly reported advantages and disadvantages of a particular HR tool?
• Is the HR software highly rated by customers? Uncover their favourite HR features and tools?
• Does the HRMS tool address concerns of small, medium and large-sized companies?
• Is the complexity and sophistication of the HR software: too much for your HR team?

3. Consolidate Only The Best HR Software

Step 2 was shortlisting the best HR for your company. You should now truncate the final contenders’ list even further. Select the 3 best HRM software that you think are right up your alley, making sure that you do not choose more than 5 (in case you can’t narrow down the list to the top 3 HR software).

What’s next? Intense head-to-head comparison of every HR software’s features, benefits, and drawbacks. While comparing HR software side-by-side, you should:

• Explore review websites, testimonials, and HR forums.
• Find out if genuine use-cases exist that demonstrate the HR software’s return on investment.
• Ask your in-house HR department to share their opinion on the shortlisted HR software options.
• Explore the HR software company’s website and online presence to gauge their reputation and trust factor.
• Individually reach out to each HR software company and ask for detailed specifications so that you can meticulously compare the shortlisted HR tools.
• Set up one-on-ones with HR companies’ sales teams (customer point of contact) to get all your doubts cleared.

4. Demand HR Software Trials

If HR software companies are of great repute, they’ll surely offer free trials. In other words, it’s a great opportunity for you to test out their capabilities, additional tools, and other aspects, such as its user experience and user interface.

Free demos will allow you to get a taste of the HR software and assess its advantages and drawbacks. While experimenting with HR tools, be sure to gather feedback from your workforce as their inputs will allow you to uncover the HR software’s strengths and weaknesses which you might have missed.

Although most HR platforms will offer free trials, there might be some on your list who won’t. In that case, don’t strike them off your list immediately. Sign up for a quarterly or monthly plan instead of a longer, more-expensive plan.

A short-term test drive will cost you more, but it’s better than committing to a long-term subscription. Remember that a long-term commitment for an HR software that doesn’t work for you is wasteful. You end up losing money and have to go back to the drawing board all over again if the HR software doesn’t meet your requirements.

5. Pick and Administer

Since employees are the end-users of your new HR software, you need to ensure that they feel comfortable using it. Most organisations don’t see their HR software investments bearing fruit because they do not pay much attention to its implementation and integration.

Investing in HR management systems means bringing changes to your HR operations. And employees must be informed about it. They should also be told how to use the software, and how the implementation and integration of the brand-new HR tool will help them.

Your HR departmentment should keep the following in mind during the implementation phase:

• Encourage your workforce to come up with questions after you let them know that a new HR software is being integrated and how it will help them.
• Your HR software vendor must offer detailed walkthroughs for your employees and the HR team. Ensure that everybody attends such training.
• Pick out an employee or a team of professionals who can oversee HR software integration from start to finish. Whoever you pick must also take on questions by employees.
• If there are any self-service resources, your employees should be in the know. They must feel free raising grievances/tickets if they cannot resolve the problem on their own.

HR Software Dictates Success

Picking the right HR software for your organisation not only reduces manual labour and improves HR team’s efficiency, but also boosts employee productivity and cuts labour costs. Before you invest in your next HR software, be sure to follow the steps mentioned above.

Additionally, you should network with HR professionals to find out their best HR software picks. Remember, an HR software is a long-term investment. Your company should choose one that works for your company, offers customisation, and is built for scale.