How to make the business case for HR tech investment

The HR Tech Summit is underway at the The Hilton, Sydney. One of the sessions has involved panellists from diverse business sectors discussing tips and methods for justifying HR technology investment.

The talk also featured comments on getting senior management on board with the idea of spending money on HR tech and explaining how relevant data will enable senior leaders to make better strategic decisions.

One of the panellists, Julie Carroll director, talent advisory & solutions, people & performance, at Deloitte, told HRD that it’s important for HR professionals to be clear on what you will deliver and why.

“It’s important to work closely with key stakeholders in the business and ensure they are engaged in what you are trying to achieve and assisting you with both developing the business case and getting it approved,” she added.

“Your business case will not be compelling if it is based on benefiting the HR team – it needs to be seen as essential to the business and designed around improvements for employees and leaders.
“This should then flow through to the design of your new technology – with employees and leaders at the centre!”

Moreover, another session looked at strategic decision-making using big, deep data, and featured comments from Vaishali Vijay, director, Insights & data, at Capgemini.

The talk looked at how successful companies make intelligent, strategic decisions based on robust HR systems.

“Despite the plethora of tools at their disposal, HR professionals still rely heavily on seeing data presented in a tabular format,” Vijay told HRD.

“Finding real insights quickly from the data and presenting it in a simplified storytelling format for the executives has become extremely crucial in this competitive market.

“My advice would be to embrace data analytics and make data storytelling a part of everyday life.

“Data visualisation enormously simplifies the strategic decision making process from complex, big, deep data to finding real quick insights through data storytelling.

“HR professionals can immensely benefit using new analytical and technological approaches, through modern and attractive interfaces using data visualization, KPI restitution, intelligent search engine etc.”