Managing your HRMS training schedule

Implementing a new HRMS can be a busy time and training is often considered as an afterthought, with the focus on launching the system first. Yet your HRMS training schedule needs to have a higher priority as it will empower your employees to get the most out of the system from day one. How can your HR department best oversee training so that normal company operations are not disrupted too much?

Package training into bite sized modules

It is often difficult to remove an employee from their day job for a half or full day training. A better plan is to design your HRMS training schedule into recorded segments that can be studied in 15 minute to one hour blocks, at an employee’s convenience. While some employees may prefer to block out a day and do all training at one sitting, others may benefit from being able to focus on one topic at a time in a short burst between meetings.

Recommended reading: go beyond your HRMS training schedule with these nine steps to HRMS implementation success.

Offer ‘just-in-time’ training

A pet peeve of managers and employees is when training is done too far in advance so that it is no longer remembered. Your HRMS training schedule will be seen in a positive light if employees can immediately accomplish a task after being trained to do it. For example, if an employee needs to change an address via self-service or enroll a new dependent, an effective way to guide an employee is to offer a library of ‘quick tips’ or cheat sheets where they can find out how to accomplish a simple task via a one or two page guide.

The key to making this manner of training successful is to ensure that the documentation is accessible and easy to locate, otherwise employees may attempt transactions with no guidance.

A tip when you’re training internal HR staff: use project time and incorporate training into other tasks. For example, as a part of testing the new hire process, instead of having your HRMS consultant to do all of the testing, use the consultant to train some of your HR staff so that they can participate in the testing process. This type of on the job training does not need to be in a formal classroom setting but instead can be a casual session.

Bring training into other environments

One of the more successful self-service campaigns that I have seen recently included HR representatives reaching out to employees in informal settings, such as standing near the cafeteria entrance with a tablet to give a quick demo of how to log in to the new HRMS and view a pay slip. It was a classic 30 second elevator pitch but very effective as it showed off the technology and created interest for employees to check into more detailed recorded trainings once back at their desks.