Three HRMS stakeholders that get overlooked too often

It’s a simple project management truism: If you overlook a stakeholder, they are unlikely to forget you. Let’s face it, most of us harbor grudges. Then there’s the impact on the business of an HRMS that isn’t 100% fit for purpose because a particular group of stakeholders was left out. Being as inclusive as possible in your stakeholder engagement is just good sense.

Naturally, some stakeholders – C-suite, managers, users – are more obvious, and tend to carry more weight, than others. Which is why the following are often overlooked.

1. External HRMS stakeholders

It’s all too easy to focus on the people inside the organization to the exclusion of all else. After all, an HRMS is designed to manage information relating to staff. Why would anybody external have a stake in it? But they do.

Your customers respond to the quality of your goods and/or services. And the quality of your goods/services depends on the people you hire. How exactly will your HRMS help you find and hire people who will have a positive impact on your customers?

This step-by-step HRMS selection survival guide lays out how to identify key stakeholders and purchase new software successfully

Similarly, the potential recruits themselves will experience some aspects of your HRMS first hand. When selecting the HRMS, put yourself in the position of a job applicant and consider their experience of the recruitment functionality.

Changing tack but still ‘external’, if your new HRMS requirements include benefits management, suddenly you have to consider the needs of insurance companies and even the government. If you’re intending to implement online benefits enrollment then the system has to be compatible with your favoured policy providers. And it has to be able to comply with the various reporting mandates in your particular territory.

2. Non-office staff

Let’s look at staff now who are also kind of ‘external’. The rise in popularity of flexible working, virtual teams, home offices, etc. means that many organizations have a significant mobile or non-office workforce. This is a discrete HRMS stakeholder group within the “user” category who may have some unique opinions and input concerning remote login, automated procedures and data security.

3. Specialist staff

Most large organizations have various specialists on the payroll, and each of these groups will have their own specific needs in areas such as staffing, information, learning and performance management. Accounting & Payroll staff may be hoping for a payroll management module that will transform their working lives. The IT department will have a specialist advice role on the technical aspects of the system. If you have a procurement or purchasing team, they will at the least insist on input into the selection process as you choose your new HRMS.

And of course, the other directly affected specialist team is HR. But you’re unlikely to forget them, right?

None of this is to say that you have to start running focus groups for clients and insurance companies. But a wise project manager ignores these groups of people and their needs, and the impact of a new HRMS on them, at their own risk.