The vast majority of new HR initiatives fail to deliver, says one study. Why is this and how can you improve implementation?
While analysts are predicting an increase in the number of companies introducing new HR systems over the next few years, new research suggests that maybe of these rollouts will fail to achieve their goals.
A report by KPMG said that 30% of organisations intend to replace their legacy HR systems in 2016 while 40% were going to move their operations to the cloud.
Despite this push, 50-75% of all HR initiatives will fail to deliver, according to research by technology research firm Gartner. The wrong tech being implemented accounts for only a small percentage of this, the paper says, with the majority of initiatives failing because they don’t deliver the right results.
The implementation of any new HR technology needs to be managed carefully, said Stephen Canning, CEO of JCurve, a cloud ERP software provider.
In particular, businesses often neglect to focus on the people side of the technology.
“The reality is, it will be people using your new technology and it will come down to how well they can integrate it into their everyday operations which will determine how successful the technology is and the resulting ROI,” he told HC.
Resistance can stem from busy workers who have to spend time learning the systems and processes brought in by the new HR tech.
This can be hampered if there is no clear plan for the introduction of this technology and how it will impact the business, Canning said.
“New technology will undoubtedly change the way operations are carried out and a strategy needs to be developed to outline how the business will deal with the change.
“For instance, who will map out the affected processes and procedures and be responsible for creating new ones; when will staff be trained on the new systems; and what other areas of the business will be affected?”
