6 Questions About HRMS Data You Should Ask Your Vendor

If there’s one critical factor when choosing your new HRMS (and HRMS vendor), it’s the impact the purchase will have on the data that you’ll be storing in it. Your new system will only be as good as the HRMS data that it contains, so it’s essential that you ask your potential HRMS supplier a few searching questions about how they’ll take care of your precious information.

HRMS Vendor Question #1 – How Do You Engage with Users for Data Cleansing?

Assuming they are involved – even if only on an advice level – with implementing the new system, this should be part of the vendor’s engagement strategy. Transfering data from the old system to the new is an opportunity to ‘cleanse’ it, i.e. check it for accuracy. And the best way of doing this is to ask each employee to check their own record.

HRMS Vendor Question #2 – What Do You Advise by Way of Parallel Running?

Part of testing the accuracy of the HRMS data installed in the new system is to conduct parallel running exercises with the existing system; maybe a payroll run or a particular set of reports. The two outputs can be compared for consistency, ensuring that the new database is at least as accurate as the old.

HRMS Vendor Question #3 – When Do You Advise Migrating Data?

Timing is everything. Data migration and go-live dates depend on a number of factors, including staff readiness, business needs, HRMS data testing and parallel running exercises, and system testing. Your vendor (or implementation consultant) should be able to recommend an appropriate date.

HRMS Vendor Question #4 – Is Your System Ready for Big Data?

HR data is so varied, the possibilities of linking and cross-referencing the various data sources to corporate goals and performance information are huge. The question is, how will the vendor’s system tie together HRMS data relating to performance management, timekeeping, recruitment, talent management, and so on to create new strategic insights?

HRMS Vendor Question #5 – What Are Your HRMS Data Backup Procedures?

This is particularly critical for cloud systems in which your data is kept in some distant location. As a buyer, you need reassurance that in the event of a problem your data will still be available. This is especially important if the vendor is offering to use a virtualized server as conventional back-up techniques may cause system problems.

HRMS Vendor Question #6 – How Will You Ensure Ongoing HRMS Data Integrity?

It’s all very well to start with a pristine set of data but you also want to know how the vendor/system will maintain the contents of your HRMS database. Maintenance measures might include random spot-checks, manual data-cleansing exercises, reconciliation reports between multiple databases, and checks that newly-added HRMS data is available via appropriate access points such as management dashboards or self-service portals.