Thinking of Getting New HR Tech? Think Again.

Eeny meeny miny moe;
Buy an ATS or its foe;
If one doesn’t work just let it go;
Eeny meeny miny moe.
If only it were that easy!
We all love the feeling of buying something new and using it for the first time. The new suit, car, bed etc, but soon after you see that loose thread growing longer and longer, the new car smell disappears, and your body begins to suffer aches and pains.
HR software is no different. You identify some challenges around existing software, go through a few demos and get blown away by the pitch, the dashboard, and user interface. With hope and a prayer you throw a few numbers into a business case or next year’s budget and BANG, it’s approved.
Post implementation, you begin to notice the warts. Users begin to shun the system, and before you know it your very expensive kit is about as useful as a top knot. Ok, this might not be the case for the larger companies, but for the SME market, probably not far from the mark.
[bctt tweet=”Trialing a product can allow you fully appreciate it’s pros and cons before purchase according to @StanRolfe.”]
Question! Why aren’t prospective buyers trialling the product for a period of time to fully appreciate the systems pros and cons? This would provide the customer a better understanding of system fit, and its pros and cons. Leading to less headaches in after sales care.
We’ve all been there, in fact we’ve probably been there several times and will be there again sometime soon. Heck, some of us are probably there right now.
‘This one time at band camp’ I remember a few year ago working with a company where we acquired a new ATS. We found out shortly after that the new ATS we had just acquired had been acquired by a much larger ATS provider. One we all know very well. The new ATS looked great, training and user acceptance testing was excellent. We were excited. We went live, and unbeknownst to me, this was the new version of the ATS not previously released. It was a train wreck. The fancy bells and whistles simply didn’t work, resulting in frustrated recruiters and candidates, frustrated managers, and for the ATS provider, A LOT of frustrated clients. I’ll never touch that tier 1 system again (that is if I had my choice).

 
What happens next sets the scene for years to come. Implementation both on the seller and buyer’s side is key to the successful take up of the system and user experience. Your success is dependent on it.
So the next time you are considering some new technology, make sure you consider and ask the following questions of yourself and your business needs:

1. Does this align to current business strategies in the short to medium term?
2. Will moving to another system create efficiencies business wide or just within your team?
3. What savings will you achieve with these efficiencies? Reduction in headcount, administration, time to hire, cost to hire etc. Can you justify this to the business and will it be enough to have it approved (don’t use the vendors calculator do your own sums)?
4. Do I want ‘best of now’ OR ‘best of next breed’?
5. How does this product tie into existing business systems? You don’t want to hear from the vendor the ATS works better on Chrome if your company only authorises IE.
6. Which end users do I engage to obtain feedback on existing system and what they would like to see in a new system? Get them involved.
7. Is your existing supplier addressing these issues, and what assurances can they provide in fixing the problems?
8. What functionality does the business require? You may want something different to what the business actually needs. Be real.

[bctt tweet=”You don’t want to hear that the ATS works better on Chrome if your company only authorises IE.”]
Get that list working. Remember, your frustrations might not be the business’ frustration and you might just have to suck it up a bit longer until the stars align.