5 criteria often overlooked during HRMS selection

HRMS selection can be an exciting, yet stressful time. There are so many considerations and opinions to include in the decision making process. If you’re looking to make the best choice, be sure to consider these five often overlooked criteria as you’re selecting your new HRMS.

1) Vendor stability and availability

When you are purchasing a new HRMS, it’s important to confirm that you’re buying into a solid, long-term relationship. Will the vendor be responsive to your requests in a timely manner? Where is the vendor located and what are the core support hours and service level agreement (SLA) times if there are problems?

2) Implementation timeframe

In times gone by HRMS implementations would be multi-year projects with concerns that staff would remain throughout the project for consistency and knowledge transfer. Current HRMS products on the market have more functionality and are faster to implement. As a result, your company may struggle to keep up with an implementation partner or product that requires a quick implementation due to frequent upgrades. To guarantee a successful HRMS selection you need to specify a criterion that reflects how quickly your organization is able to accomplish an implementation and any required change management.

Recommended Reading: HRMS Selection Survival Guide - 9 steps to selecting the best HRMS solution for your business.

3) Product update frequency

Frequent HRMS updates offer the latest functionality such as tax updates but require more resources due to testing and possibly training too. More static products do not offer those new releases but are more easily supported with a smaller staff as there are no changes or process impacts to consider. Your HRMS selection should take into account your long-term resource plan or potentially your HRMS choice will drive your staffing needs.

4) Future growth plans

What are the vendor’s growth plans? We’ve all seen acquisitions of smaller HRMS or niche products by larger vendors which can change the application’s direction. Inquire specifically about the vendor’s future roadmap and where it sees itself in five to ten years.

5) Ability of the HRMS to fit into your technology landscape

Overall harmony of systems and the ability to connect them is an essential, yet often overlooked component of an HRMS selection. Your future HRMS needs to be able to integrate with your other systems as HRMS data is a necessary item for many receiving systems and as well the ability to receive data is important. While technically ‘anything is possible,’ cost is a driving factor if the systems and technology are not compatible. As well, your HRMS needs to match your future technology strategy. For example, if the strategic IT direction is to move to the cloud, then buying an internally hosted system may cause some headaches if there is not enough staff or sufficient infrastructure to support it.