Three cloud HRMS mistakes your company is probably making

Cloud computing brings a number of benefits and advantages to your HRMS landscape such as lower operating costs, quick implementations and ease of user access. Cloud HRMS is not an open and shut story - it brings with it new challenges and opportunities that are different from traditional HRMS systems. Here are three areas where you could be making significant cloud HRMS mistakes, and steps to take to avoid doing so.

1. Thinking only in the short term

Many companies take full advantage of the short term wins offered by cloud technology to implement extensive functionality in a short timeframe such as manager self-service and time reporting. It is important to balance future offerings with short term delivery.

Recommended reading: implement safely and efficiently with our nine-step guide to HRMS implementation success.

In a traditional HRMS environment most companies will have an HRMS roadmap showing five or more years out, how the expected landscape will grow and evolve. When a cloud solution is involved, it does not seem to get the same attention, perhaps because the focus and expectation is on short term wins. Many companies are missing out on longer term gains in the cloud area through only seeing quick wins.

2. Not monitoring and measuring performance

Cloud providers are often in distant locations with services provided by a third party vendor. In such an environment it is easy to forget that there is still ownership for the HRMS user experience, especially when things seem to be running along without a problem.

Even though you may no longer manage the hardware and infrastructure, it is still relevant to measure HRMS performance and to ensure that the user experience such as system downtime and speed is meeting your expectations and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). It is particularly important for global companies to be proactive in monitoring performance as a cloud provider may not have extensive experience in your locations or countries.

3. Not making the most of the technology

One of the key advantages of cloud solutions is that many of them come pre-delivered with integrations to standard systems and government reporting agencies, pre-built regulatory reports and best practice processes. However, I’ve seen a number of companies who decide it’s easier to build their own so that they can keep their current teams and procedures to minimize the outside and downstream changes needed. In many ways, this closed mindset defeats the purpose and advantage of cloud HRMS. As you implement and enhance your cloud HRMS, a key question to ask is "why are we doing things this way and what is the advantage to us?"