Blog

Jul 29 2020

SAP SuccessFactors Core HR – Employee Central, Employee Central Payroll, Time & Attendance

The undeniable benefits of SAP SuccessFactors Core HR components

Organisations and workforces all around the world are undergoing more change and upheaval than ever before. Leading businesses are expertly managing the evolving landscape with the help of some very smart tools. What’s the number one tool in their toolkits? Without a doubt, it’s SAP SuccessFactors Core HR and its key components – Employee Central, Employee Central Payroll and Time & Attendance.

What is SAP SuccessFactors Core HR?

This cloud-based software system lets you empower and manage your workforce at both global and local levels.

It takes complex, separate, time-consuming processes and integrates them onto one powerful, streamlined, easy-to-use platform that can be accessed on a variety of devices, whether you are in the factory office or company boardroom.

With all essential HR processes centralised and consolidated, organisations can automate, improve and extend all HR services right across the board, locally and globally.

Some of the core processes that SAP SuccessFactors Core HR and its components handle include:

Workforce management
Recruitment
Payroll management
Time and attendance
Legal compliance across 95-plus countries
Work visa management
Organisational analysis
Organisational reporting structures
Service delivery

Why leading organisations choose SAP SuccessFactors Core HR and its key components

From Microsoft Corporation to Jemena and CPA (Australia), organisations all around the world are choosing SAP SuccessFactors Core HR and its components because of the concrete benefits on offer. Let’s zoom in on those benefits from two important perspectives.

Benefits to the organisation

Enables organisations to easily keep track of all essential HR information across their entire workforce
Allows organisations to keep up-to-date with changes to their business and their workforce
Helps organisations model and visualise their workforce and provides data-driven insight into operations in real-time
Creates a modern and engaging workplace that appeals to talented employees
Enhances strategic decision-making and makes a significant contribution to business performance
Drives growth

Benefits to the workforce

Access to a top-quality, user-friendly, self-service experience
A simplified mechanism for accessing, editing and getting information about benefits such as pensions, reimbursements, allowances and insurance plans, resulting in time-savings and greater employee job satisfaction
The ability to easily record absences and attendance – employees can access instant, real-time information about their overtime, premiums and balances whenever they like
Better communication with HR through the employee’s preferred channel.

Employee Central – simplifying and streamlining processes

Employee Central is where all core HR processes come together in your organisation. It’s a dynamic, responsive self-service centre with some pretty impressive applications for mobile devices.

Key benefits of Employee Central include:

Scalability – Equally effective for Australian SMEs or global players, Employee Central is fully scalable and can be adapted to meet the needs of your business now and in the future.
Technologically flexible – The software is cloud-based and updated regularly to keep up with today’s rapid pace of change.
Organisationally flexible – Employee Central lets you define your unique organisational structure. You can also choose which data can be changed and by whom (employees, supervisors or other) and what follow-up steps are involved.
Global and local intelligence – Legal compliance is a headache for many HR departments. Employee Central is designed to ease the pain by ensuring both international and local compliance of regulations. It caters for over 95 geographical locations.
Quality service – Employee Central delivers a high level of service, the kind that people are used to receiving outside of their working lives. This is software that truly engages employees, giving them direct feedback when appropriate and inviting them to give their own feedback in turn.
Greater job satisfaction – The system allows workforce members to be rewarded and recognised, both of which have a direct impact on employee job satisfaction and an organisation’s ability to retain talent.

The clear benefits of Employee Central Payroll

When it comes to payroll management, organisations need a system that is accurate, timely and global. Employee Central Payroll is all that and more.

Accurate

Employees love Employee Central Payroll because they are accurately paid for the time they have recorded, according to their contract and in compliance with local laws. Organisations love it because of its reliability and because it flags potential errors and discrepancies before they become a problem.

Timely

Processing is automated and accelerated with Employee Central Payroll, ensuring employees are paid on time. The system also allows errors to be sorted out swiftly by payroll specialists in real-time.

Global

Employee Central Payroll, just like the other components of SAP Core HR, is built to ensure full compliance with relevant regulations. This is of vital importance when it comes to paying wages across a variety of jurisdictions.

Getting on top of time and attendance

Gaining control over time and attendance is fundamental for all businesses. And, that’s exactly what Employee Central Time Management was designed for. With this component of SAP Core HR, organisations can easily:

Plan, record and approve absences
Keep track of working time
Ensure compliance with all relevant labour laws
Automate the calculation of time and pay for employees
Obtain an overview of time accounts
Edit and analyse employees’ records
Manage notifications and alerts

To learn more about SAP Core HR and its components, reach out to our team today. You’ll be amazed by the benefits.

Jun 23 2020

Using SAP Fieldglass to Set Up Your External Workforce Management

What Is External Workforce Management?

The external workforce is revolutionising the way business gets done. While once upon a time there needed to be an in-house department or — at the very least — an in-house specialist required to handle each role, this has not proved cost-effective. This results in rigid business structures, out of which expansion and evolution were difficult simply because businesses could not draw upon the required resources.

The digital age has brought with it a more flexible approach to the workforce and how this workforce is managed. Surveys suggest that around 44 per cent of the total workforce is now external, and this level is increasing.

How SAP Fieldglass Makes All the Difference

SAP Fieldglass provides an overarching digital solution from which to manage all aspects of your external workforce, from creating jobs and filling roles to filing invoices and paying wages. With Fieldglass, you know:

Who’s working for you
What they are working on
Where they are located
Which of your facilities they are accessing
How much they are getting paid

By answering these key questions, your business will be able to:

Simplify the engagement of the external teams and operatives needed to fulfil key roles within your business
Structure your approach to the external labour force and to payment (supported by automated features)
Ensure security and compliance, even if no direct payment is being made (for example, you know who has access to your facilities)

These are the key tenets of SAP Fieldglass, but there are other benefits you can expect from the solution, too:

Increased efficiency through process standardisation
Cost savings through rate controls on external workers
Full visibility from a single data repository coupled with powerful reporting
Legal and regulatory compliance

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How to Set Up External Workforce Management with Fieldglass

Setting Up and Getting Started with Fieldglass

The user begins the process by setting up SAP Fieldglass. This is achieved via a four-step procedure.

Register with the Ariba and Fieldglass networks.

SAP uses the Ariba network to handle communication and transfer of files between Fieldglass and SAP ERP. This means that users will need to register for both networks before they can begin.

Set up the Fieldglass account.

With the registration on both networks now confirmed, the user simply needs to complete the set-up on their Fieldglass account. This includes reviewing settings and parameters and making sure these reflect your own needs for Fieldglass.

Provide training and education to users on how to utilise the Fieldglass account.

In order for Fieldglass to be effective, your teams need to be able to process work items in the Fieldglass account. This means individual team members should have the training and support needed to use Fieldglass efficiently and effectively, managing the external workforce in a way that achieves targets in terms of flexibility and agility.

Provide training and education to external teams and other members of the external workforce.

Using Fieldglass to connect with remote workers is a two-way channel. The external workforce needs to be able to respond to support requests and posted tasks, just in the same way as your internal teams need to be able to access the platform to post these tasks. External teams also need to be able to access timesheets and other resources. Make sure that such teams are able to access this effectively.

Follow the Category Management Checklist

Before you can begin to properly manage your external workforce, you need to follow SAP Fieldglass’s category management checklist. Take a look at the following points and ready your business for external workforce management.

Bring the top levels of management onboard.

Upper management needs to be on board with the project from day one, providing their complete support each and every step of the way. Hold initial meetings to make sure that this is the case, and schedule regular meetings in the future to keep all levels of the company engaged in the process.

Manage external talent under a centralised platform.

This is the SAP Fieldglass solution. Fieldglass provides businesses with a centralised platform they can use to keep on top of the external workforce effectively. We’ve already taken a look at the initial set-up phase for Fieldglass, so make sure that this is completed.

Agree on clear responsibilities.

Each member of the team who is cleared to use Fieldglass for work orders and other management tasks must agree on their responsibilities ahead of time. Make sure every duty and every task is covered, and that every member of the team is clear on what they need to do.

Expand strategic cooperation with staffing agencies.

There may be times when your business needs are particularly acute, and you require more external support to plug the gaps. There may also be times when these needs are less intense and urgent. Connecting with staffing agencies via the Fieldglass portal will ensure that your needs are met.

Put each process through rigorous testing.

The category management checklist is almost complete, but you still need to make sure that proper testing has been carried out. Think about how you will be using SAP Fieldglass and put each process through its paces.

Defining Your Supplier Management Level

The next phase is to define which level of supplier management you are currently at so you can chart your progress over time. The levels are:

Decentralised

At the decentralised level, you will have several suppliers that you will manage internally. Procurement will be handled on an ad hoc basis.

Preferred Supplier

At this level, you will have a selective set of providers and contracts or service-level agreements (SLAs) with each of these suppliers.

Master Vendor

At this level, you may only have a single supplier who manages other suppliers on your behalf. This means only one point of contact and direct cost savings on bill rates via customised SLAs.

Managed Service Provider

A business at this level has only one contact point for their suppliers. They will leverage direct cost savings on the billing rate, leading to a better management of total spend.

Total Talent Management

This is the level everyone is aiming for, characterised by a reflexive and agile management set-up that is achieved via the Fieldglass platform. At this stage, suppliers are engaged and managed as and when required, with no gaps or shortfalls.

With your current level defined, you gain a clearer idea of what you need to do to reach the next level. In this sense, working with SAP Fieldglass can give you a better understanding of how your business is operating.

To learn more about how to get the best from Fieldglass or how to make the solution your go-to for external workforce management, reach out to our team to learn more.

May 26 2020

Should You Make the Switch to SuccessFactors Onboarding 2.0?

The long-awaited SuccessFactors Onboarding 2.0 was released in the last quarter of 2019 and being “lucky” enough to have a client keen and willing to implement immediately, I’ve been able to explore the solution in detail. While it’s a step forward in user experience, there’s a lot more to consider, here’s the key points that customers should be aware of when deciding whether to switch.

Overall, how does it rate?

Improvements Compared to Onboarding 1.0

Now part of the SuccessFactors platform, no need for user/ permission/ foundation data syncs, data mapping is simplified, use of To Do tile tasks.
Uses platform permission roles and groups; unified security setup.
Consistent user experience; what your onboardee sees prior to starting is the same as they’ll see once they are an active employee.
Continual change is being rolled out, meaning the product will only continue to improve, unlike Onboarding 1.0 which will remain pretty static.
On/Offboarding Dashboards to view all tasks in one place and flexibility in assigning those tasks to different user groups.
Utilises much of the same configuration as Employee Central, which is good for client system administrators.
More flexibility in process steps used, with further enhancements coming.
Continues to support DocuSign or SAP e-Signature for form signatures.
All UI screens built to be mobile-responsive.
Reporting available with SuccessFactors Stories in People Analytics (formerly People Analytics Embedded Edition), which requires SAP Identity Authentication Services (IAS/IPS).

Future Improvements/Features

US Federal (W-4) and state withholding forms, as well as restricted availability for I-9 compliance forms expected in 2H 2020.
External user type isn’t picked up in the standard sync to SuccessFactors Learning, so learning items aren’t available until the onboardee’s start date.
No migration tools available for Onboarding 1.0 to 2.0, requires new build. Migration expected in a future release but no date as yet.
As for Onboarding 1.0, currently no support for Contingent Workforce Management, or management of any staff types who have specific data requirements, e.g. volunteers, contractors.
Limited email notification functionality and loss of workflow ability for equipment tasks.
No support for business rules during the process steps onInit and onChange, ie. to customise the data captured with rule-based criteria.
No rules supported at all for crossboarding records created from a Recruiting/Onboarding process, as well as system-generated fields not populating. Expecting a fix on this soon.

If your Employee Central configuration is already bedded down and working for you, then Onboarding 2.0 can leverage off your existing solution to improve the end-user experience – both internally and externally. Particularly if you’re not trying to recreate numerous complex processes then put Onboarding 2.0 on your near-future radar. Note: Onboarding 2.0 can be implemented with a non-SuccessFactors HRIS or ATS integration.

If you’re about to start an implementation then I wouldn’t even consider Onboarding 1.0, you will be provisioned with 2.0 by default and that is SAP’s direction forward. Would you buy Apple’s iPad from 2 releases ago, or would you buy the latest version, knowing that it’s been updated and built with the latest technology?

While Onboarding 1.0 will continue to be available for existing customers for quite some time to come, dropping the clunky integration and sync jobs for a new build would be my recommendation unless you have a compelling use-case otherwise.

The flow is quite similar to Onboarding 1.0, with capability to create your own processes, or skip steps as needed. Further flexibility is expected in the 2H 2020 release, giving more options to reorder the process and skip steps. Currently you need to use the default process variant in order for compliance to work, but it will be great to be able to define separate processes with and without this step.

Key points to consider before implementing

If you’re keen to move ahead with the new product, you need to be prepared to accept the current limitations, as it is still under development.

As yet there’s no migration path so it’s a new implementation, with migration tools on the SuccessFactors Roadmap for some time in the next 24 months. If you’re willing to commit to another project and keen for the changes, then go ahead and implement Onboarding 2.0 without those tools.

However, take this as your opportunity to re-look at your processes and simplify them. Don’t expect 100% parity between what you have now in Onboarding 1.0, and what Onboarding 2.0 provides. If you want to implement soon, don’t try to replicate exactly what you have currently. Keep it simple and approach it with an open mind as if you were implementing a new module/process. Because that is exactly what you’re doing.

Consider these questions:

Are the relevant compliance forms available? While you could implement 2.0 just for Australia and keep other countries on 1.0, consider the mixed user experience and supporting both.
What data do you need from new hires? If using Employee Central, are you already capturing it, e.g. visas/permits, national id, bank details.
Review the policies and forms you need populated/signed and consolidate where possible!
Think about who should perform validation steps, onboarding tasks, and the final hiring step – this will affect and inform your role-based permissions.
Who needs to be notified, when in the process, and what data do they need? Consider third-party systems here as well. Can you simplify your existing notifications?

Also consider your future plans for reporting. As mentioned previously, Onboarding 2.0 reporting is provided with SuccessFactors Stories in People Analytics and this isn’t just a case of flicking the upgrade switch and having it working. There’s a load of information in this post in the SuccessFactors Customer Community, and while there’s no Onboarding templates as yet, there will be a standard set of reports available.

You’ll also need to implement SAP Identity Authentication Services (IAS/IPS), even if you already have an identity management system authenticating single sign on (SSO) to your SuccessFactors instance.

Is it worthwhile despite this?

What you WILL gain is a solution that fits much more with the rest of SuccessFactors, both in user experience and integration between modules. And as I’ve previously mentioned, it IS still undergoing development, which means new features and improvements will be rolling out continuously. Unlike Onboarding 1.0 which is unlikely to change much now, except for compliance updates/general fixes.

One of the major showstoppers for many organisations has been the lack of compliance forms in the initial Onboarding 2.0 release. However as of the First Half 2020 release, UK and Australian compliance forms are available (Australian Tax File Declaration and Superannuation), with US compliance planned to commence from 2H 2020.

Customers that I’ve demoed to have found the user experience more appealing and the flexibility to assign the onboarding tasks to different responsible groups is seen as an improvement on the previous version as well.

The Onboarding and Offboarding Dashboards give a visual overview of all tasks in progress, as well as drilldown to more detail on the status of the steps and forms. I’d like to see the Onboarding checklist task more aligned to the other tasks, as it’s easy to overlook, and a fairly key requirement for many customers. In Onboarding 1.0 it was easy to build these types of requirements into panels but that’s no longer the case.

How are existing Employee Central customers impacted?

If you already have Employee Central, then implementing 2.0 means that your data model is going to require changes. Similar to implementing Contingent Worker, we create a Person Type for “Onboardee” and replicate the configuration, depending on what data is required to be captured for Onboardee versus Employee (or Contingent Worker). This will likely require some tweaking of fields and business rules in the hire and ensuring relevant data is mapped from Recruiting.

Leading me to Contingent Workforce functionality; there’s still no integration between CWF and Onboarding. This is on the SuccessFactors Roadmap for sometime in the next 24 months. So while you can recruit a contractor or agency staff via SuccessFactors Recruiting Management and put them through the Onboarding process, they will all end up in Manage Pending Recruits instead of Add Contingent Worker.

Discovery have previously developed a custom solution in Onboarding 1.0 for customers so that these types of hires are removed from Manage Pending Recruits and created automatically as contingent workers, so as not to impact the customer’s licensing. Stay tuned for updates on whether we do something similar for Onboarding 2.0.

Also factor in that for existing clients, role-based permission roles and groups will need re-work, expect and allow for testing to ensure everything is working as expected.

What needs to improve?

One area I’d like to see significantly improved is the Email Services functionality. Preconfigured email templates are provided and while you can personalise the texts, we can’t yet use custom tokens, only the standard set provided – which is very limited.

We also can’t configure custom triggers, so while we can create custom notifications, we don’t get a lot of choice about when in the process they are triggered. Being able to trigger a notification to a user that there are onboardees ready to hire is one example of these limitations.

Existing customers with very customised notifications will really feel the pain of this one, there’s just not the flexibility we are used to in Onboarding 1.0 for generating notifications and workflows for equipment, IT and systems provisioning, etc.

Final thoughts

One other area I’d love to see SAP give more focus to is the interaction between the business and the onboardee, prior to their start date. Many customers are looking for this to be more conversational and interactive, rather than just pushing out a bunch of emails and forms, they want to better engage with their new hire. It’s nice that you can now login from a mobile device for the paperwork & tasks (responsive!) but it just isn’t enough in this competitive market for HCM solutions.

This might look like the hiring manager sending an SMS to ask about their new team member’s favourite coffee or tea and letting them know where the best local cafe is before they start. They might like to record a quick video and send it, without having to upload to the system and create a tile to link it. They might ask for 3 fun facts to share with the rest of their team members.

These are all actual requirements from customers and not something we can currently cater for in the way clients really want. Not everyone reads the many emails we send them and we have to recognise that different age demographics respond better to some communication methods than others.

Once Onboarding 2.0 is more settled, it’s time to consider the new hire’s experience just as much as the business necessity to streamline a data-driven paperwork process. Please put the “experience” in HXM!

Next steps

In my next post I’ll go through the process steps and features in more detail, including screenshots. You can also read more about my lessons learnt from implementing 2.0. Meanwhile, get in touch and arrange a demo and a chat about the new Onboarding 2.0 solution to help you decide if you should make the switch.

May 18 2020

How to help employees build resilience

The current work scenario for a vast majority of employees around the world is one of constant change and uncertainty. Under circumstances that require high levels of pressure, acute mental execution, and the ability to shift focus constantly without losing track of activities, one of the most critical skills that companies are seeking to promote in their employees is RESILIENCE. But, where does resilience come from, and how can you develop it within your team?

This article will show you some simple initiatives that will help you and your organisation to bolster resilience and sustain your employees during hardship.

What is resilience?

Let us start by defining resilience. Various researchers have defined resilience as the ability to overcome change and adversity, ‘bouncing back’ to a position of hardiness, and making the best use of the resources at hand¹. Diane Coutu, a former senior editor at Harvard Business Review, found overlapping research describing resilient people as having three main characteristics: a firm acceptance of reality, a deep belief that life is meaningful (often sustained by a strong set of values) and an exceptional ability to improvise².

When I think of resilience, I imagine having to reach a point that is preceded by a labyrinth full of terrors and holding the mental strength to move through it until the end.

Though resilience seems to be an innate characteristic, it indeed can be fostered, and employers have a crucial role in its development. Next, we will see some simple initiatives that can help organisations cultivate employee resilience and its impact on business survival.

1. Recognise and acknowledge individual strengths

Have you ever stopped doing good deeds at work because nobody cared? Clear identification and support of individual strengths, communicate appreciation of unique everyday contributions, bolstering self-confidence, and trust in one’s ability to create useful solutions with the resources at hand.

This belief of being able to respond appropriately when the circumstance requires it, empowers employees to challenge themselves and take actions towards innovation.

Some of the behaviours that are not usually recognised or rewarded, and can help building resilience are:

Prosocial behaviours (e.g., promoting social activities or actively participating in those promoted by others)
Proactive behaviours (e.g., rethinking methods to increase efficiency, taking the lead on housekeeping chores)
Change-related behaviours (e.g. discussing with peers positive outcomes of change, volunteering to be change champions, etc).

Here you could ask yourself, how do we recognise employee’s everyday contributions? Perhaps mentioning in the weekly meeting individual milestone achievements? Or sending a personal note to acknowledge efforts that are usually given for granted? Noticing when employees are undertaking new challenges also secure feelings of being valued.

2. Create workplace memories and record them

Isn’t it good to have a look at the pictures of that BBQ where you could not stop laughing with your colleagues’ stories? The principal moderator in an organisation’s atmosphere of stability is the employee network. Promoting the creation of strong emotional ties between associates reassures support from peers and supervisors during unusual times, as well as commitment to collaborate. Those ties are reinforced when people share moments of fun, recovery, and relaxation.

Providing socialization spaces forges the possibility of discussing interests and challenges that usually come with solution brainstorming. Likewise, having a display of those memories works as a reminder of the organisation’s gratitude and willingness to keep facilitating good moments, which encourage meaning and purpose, instrumental factors for resilience.

If the circumstances don’t allow for face to face contact, ignite your creativity and consider innovating with some on-line activities that could spark laughter and positive memories. How about a zoom background contest over a coffee? or a recollection of the funniest working from home stories in the company news blog or social media? Having an accessible memories box conveys the message “you are not alone!”.

3. Exemplify resilience by adopting transparent and continuous communication strategies

How many times have you thought “I wish I knew what was really happening, then I would’ve acted differently”? The ability to have a down-to-earth view of reality, pinpointing what is really under one’s control and what is not, depends greatly on the quantity and quality of information someone has about the matter at glance.

When organisations implement steady communication systems where both positive and concerning scenarios are openly discussed with employees as well as the proposed solutions and expected outcomes, change adaptability can be reframed towards what is vital for the company and not only what is assumed by each employee.

Likewise, remember that attitude can be taught through role modelling and there is no better opportunity for role modelling than when communicating with one’s team. You can demonstrate a resilient attitude using challenges to your advantage by exploiting all the work and casual communication channels. Dedicate time to catch up with your team members and try to get a complete panorama of how current contexts affect each one of your employees, they will reciprocate being more understanding and feeling more confident to ask for help when needed.

4. Strengthen the sense of control that employees have over their own jobs.

Mahatma Gandhi said “Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock”, the same can be said for employees who do not have control over their work.

Job ownership and autonomy amplify belongingness and intrinsic motivation (that one fuelled by personal interests) when the employee associates work-related targets with personal achievements.

Additionally, holding a high level of discretion over job-related tasks elicits meaningful creation of goals and boundary identification, which hinders time and resource utilization. Every time I am able to succeed with my self-determined work plans, I feel more confident I can do greater things!

Helping employees to take deep responsibility for their duties and how those are performed, requires not only a clear explanation for the need of monitoring practices but also a supporting context in which employees are encouraged to seek advice and let team members partake in their advances.

When faced with the fact that accountability for effectiveness and improvement of one’s tasks depends mainly on one’s decisions and actions, our brains focus on the challenge and leave aside debilitating feelings like fear and sadness. The latter is known in positive psychology as ‘flow’ which arises in moments of a hurdle, then, let employees increase their sense of flow by supporting them on taking the reins of their work carriage while you guide them through their paths.

5. Foster a culture of feedback based on company values

When challenging situations arise, an unyielding set of values becomes the framework from which adaptive actions are originated. Those values are propagated by means of providing timely and constructive feedback where leaders can enact guiding principles, recognise employee value-driven behaviour, and pave the way for harnessing errors as learning opportunities.

Animating employees to seek and provide feedback consolidates support baselines that unravel social tools to thrive through uncertainty.

Practising empathy with your team will help you find the right words when providing feedback. What did you do to overcome similar situations? What did you feel then? How did your personal, along with your company values help you to take the right direction? Share and re-share (if necessary) with your team those professional past challenging experiences that threatened business survival and how the company values served as a beacon to guide you.

I have never felt more supported and inspired than when my mentors entrust me with the recollection of their stumbles, the emotions triggered and the approach they took to move forward. It helps me see the light at the end of the tunnel, and value the game-changing learnings that I can obtain from difficult situations.

Boiling it down…

Being confronted by ongoing changes in the way we live and work, all of us have been obligated to draw on our resilience reserves. Some of us learning to be more with ourselves, some of us learning to manage merged life spaces.

It has not been easy, and the horizon appears full of new battles. That is why nurturing our resilient capabilities is so important. As leaders, we can help ourselves and our teams to build those competencies by shaping the essential platform bricks that sustain resilience.

Keep in mind that:

Recognising individual contributions, strengthen employee confidence.
Creating memorable moments reinforce emotional ties within the team.
Communicating reality in a transparent way helps your team to have a clear perspective and make better decisions.
Giving employees control over their jobs under a supporting framework encourage their sense of capability. And,
Timely and sincere feedback based on values serves as a navigation guide to move through the challenge.

Reflecting on these initiatives has helped me recall all those occasions when my mentors and team stimulated my resilience, building up positive feelings towards my job and workmates. I invite you now to share your resilience-building stories and giving us a hand knitting a support net for the upcoming future.

References

Kuntz, Joana, Malinen, Sanna & Naswall, Katharina. (2017). EMPLOYEE RESILIENCE: DIRECTIONS FOR RESILIENCE DEVELOPMENT. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 69, 223-242. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000097
Review, H. B., Goleman, D., Sonnenfeld, J. A., & Achor, S. (2017). Resilience (hbr emotional intelligence series).
Parul Malik & Pooja Garg (2020) Learning organization and work engagement: the mediating role of employee resilience, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31:8, 1071\-1094, DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2017.1396549

May 06 2020

Before You Start Your Cloud HR Implementation

Best Practices Before You Start Your Cloud HR Implementation

For those looking to modernise HR administration and control, migrating from legacy HR management systems to a comprehensive cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solution may be the best approach.

Integrating cloud HR with your overall digital strategy will help align your HR processes with your business objectives in an increasingly information-based environment. These processes include talent search, onboarding, performance and experience analysis, and payroll.

However, the success of implementing an HCM system hinges on several critical internal factors that dictate the overall end results. Here are a few essential things you need to do before making the switch to cloud HR, in order to realise the full benefits.

Understand What You’re Getting Into

The very first thing you need to do before embarking on cloud HR migration is to ask yourself whether your organisation is ready for the radical change, and what an SAP SuccessFactors HCM solution really brings to the table. Part of the readiness assessment is HR’s willingness and capacity to unlearn old ways and adopt new practices.

Take an objective look at your current HR model and identify all the roadblocks, bottlenecks and inefficiencies you’re hoping to eliminate by shifting to cloud HCM. In addition to this, make sure you understand all the changes that come with moving HR processes and data to the cloud. Examine all this with a long-term perspective, to understand the big picture of what this course of action entails, and to gain an accurate projection of the ROI.

Involve Your End Users in Solution Design and Decision Making

Although the ultimate goal of an HCM system is to serve the best interests of HR for the greater benefit of the company, you must consider how the transformation affects those directly involved. Your end-users, in this case, are potential job candidates, team leaders, supervisors, department heads and the individual employees.

Collaborate with the end-user’s representatives in brainstorming ideas for an ideal system that fits perfectly with everyone’s expectations. Keep in mind, however, that even with a highly customisable solution, there are limits to how well a digital system will match the already established HR structure. As you define the fundamental principles of the system, help everyone understand that some of the HR culture may be lost during the translation to digital. Also, identify and resolve any political, social and hierarchical issues before they arise when making significant changes.

Prepare Your In-house IT Team

Your in-house IT team will do a lot of the heavy lifting in facilitating the migration to cloud HR. On top of that, they’ll have to work closely with HR and management in collecting data, making essential system configurations and installing support equipment where necessary. Prepare your IT team for the additional workload by arranging training sessions or bringing in extra hands with useful expertise and experience in cloud HR prior to implementation.

Also, ensure that the IT and HR departments are well aware of their roles and responsibilities during the implementation process and continued support of the HCM. This will help smooth out the transition by avoiding any delays and complications due to unforeseen technical challenges.

Define the Implementation Methodology

Once you have decided on what you need and have prepared your business for the transformation, it’s time to decide on how it’s going to take place. You can go one of two ways when implementing the cloud HCM. One approach is to install the entire SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite and adapt all HR processes to the platform across the board. The other is to implement just the core application at the beginning and making incremental expansions with time.

A slow and steady implementation gives your businesses some breathing space after every major change and lets your staff adjust to every transition. Complete integration means your business makes the switch in one go. Either way, remember to keep your eyes on the price and consider the long-term plan of the implementation.

Selecting an Implementation Partner

Adapting and running a cloud HR facility is not a journey you want to take alone. Find the right SAP SuccessFactors partner to assist you in planning and integrating the right SAP solutions for your HR needs. You want a partner who knows the industry inside and out and with vast experience in guiding businesses formulate mission-critical strategies. That partner must also be in a capacity to provide long-term support, ideally for the foreseeable lifespan of the product.

A SAP SuccessFactors partner will help you make well-informed choices for your business and update you accordingly as new changes in methodology and technology emerge. At Discovery Consulting, we work closely with businesses in planning and implementing SAP HCM as a way to modernise and improve the efficiency of outdated HR management styles. Get in touch with us today and start your cloud HR journey with a capable, hands-on partner.