Module 7 - Part 2 Your HR Problem and Pre-implementation

1.  Why is the problem charter and project management, in general, important, and what role do they serve in our problem solving efforts?

Project management is essential for efficiency and maintaining focus on the objectives at hand.  It keeps all participants on track, moving forward and not wasting energy by going off on tangents.  Tangents waste time, money, and lead to frustration, discouragement and bickering among project team members and the end result will be unhappy, unsatisfied sponsors. Sponsors and leadership usually provide the budget so it is of paramount importance that they are happy!

The Problem Charter is a specific tool used in project management.  It is a snapshot, or overview, of the problem at hand, resources, and a key implementation step.  It's purpose is to define a problem and outline the steps that needs to be taken to solve the problem.  Steps such as the Success Metrics section ensure that results are measurable in an objective way.  It also serves as an organized document to present to senior management; it shows there are measurable deliverables that are forthcoming, as well as demonstrates knowledge of hurdles and barriers that need to be overcome to achieve the deliverables.

2.  In your own words, describe the HR software world and its players. What products are you familiar with, and what products intrigue you?

The HR Software world can be divided into two categories: Best of Suite and Best of Breed.

Suite Solutions typically sacrifice features in order to get a single vendor solution.  This "all in one" HRMS solution provides a suite of applications that enable businesses to manage their human capital.  They, like ERP software, house a database, from which the other processes pull information.   Typically they will provide some combination of the following core HR functions and strategic HR functions: 

• Recruiting
• Applicant tracking
• Reference collection and tracking
• Time and Attendance tracking
• Payroll
• Performance Management 
• Compensation Planning
• Learning Management
• Talent Management
• Onboarding
• Goal tracking
• Offboarding
• Succession and Workforce Planning 
• Benefit administration / Wellness
• Reporting / Analytics

Best of Breed software provide the above functions as single packages of software.  They are individually more robust and powerful, but the downside is, they are more costly all purchased separately and may not integrate well with each other.

I am familiar with the ATS, Time/Attendance/Payroll, and Wellness software that my current company uses.  The rest of the functions are performed using our ERP, Oracle except for benefits, which we outsource.

Specifically, I would find exploring the following "best of breed" solutions interesting since we currently use Oracle for them and I find it clunky, tedious and time consuming to use:

- Performance Management

- Learning Management

- Succession and workforce Planning