HRMS ROI one year down the line

Once you’ve made your business case, determined your ROI, chosen your HRMS and planned your implementation, it’s just a matter of waiting for positive results. Yet how can you be sure that you're on track for predicted returns?  What if things are not going as planned, how do you get back on track if lagging behind?

Analyze the numbers

When you have counts and cost savings in your ROI, running the stats can be an early preview into how you’re performing. It’s imperative that you’re not just running the numbers; you need to apply the HR intelligence into the mix. If your ROI stated that you would have a certain count of transactions initiated by employees which would result in a reduction of HR administrative hours, keep the HR year in mind. Early and quiet months may seem that you are not on track but open enrollment could be your heavy hitter.

Use our guide to calculating HRMS ROI to draw up some KPIs for your new software

When you’ve balanced the numbers and it seems you are behind, look into the details to uncover improvement opportunities. Have the access to the old HRMS been disabled and workarounds closed? Has all training occurred? Identify low numbers early to allow enough time to course correct.  

Solicit feedback from multiple sources

ROI can be linked to numbers than are more difficult to quantify such as managers’ perceptions of HRMS efficiency or employees’ thoughts on what the HRMS brings to their career development. Don’t wait until it is time to prove ROI to get an initial read out. You should be gathering feedback in a variety of methods like online customer surveys, informal in-person roundtables or one minute quick feedback in communal places such as the entrance to the cafeteria.

If the numbers are not supporting your expectations, use HR intelligence to get to the details of why or how managers and employees think that the HRMS is letting them down in order to build plans to change that perception.

Determine the impact on HR functions

Often, HRMS ROI is heavily dependent on the HR function. Is the HRMS reducing administrative work and making required tasks easier and more efficient? Since HR feedback is crucial and directly related to ROI, I’d suggest to devote time into delving into these topics with in-person interviews and job observation. If we expected more employees to initiate open enrollment tasks, are our HR resources really being freed up as we expected in the projections? Knowledgeable HR staff will often see that something is broken long before the numbers highlight it. Consider bringing in an outside consultant for this task as a fresh viewpoint can see and question items that those in the daily trenches often miss or explain away.