It’s important to find the right solution for your organization. A tool that doesn’t fit your needs or doesn’t closely align with your goals will pose challenges and cause problems. Let’s go through six key areas you should consider when you decide to implement a payroll and HR solution.
1. Establish your goals
Determine why you need a solution and what you hope to accomplish by implementing one. Goals that are vague, unclear, or generic will get you nowhere! Some poor examples of goals like “increasing sales” or “save time and money” cannot be measured and are unclear of how you can measure success. Be well-versed in the practice of creating and achieving SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. Let’s look at this a little more:
- Specific – By being specific, your goals should answer the five ‘W’ questions (what, why, who, where, which) in order to be focused on what you are trying to achieve.
- Measurable – You must be able to measure your progress on your goal to know how you’re doing (e.g. “reduce employee support inquiries by 40%”, “spend 20% less time on payroll”).
- Attainable – Your goals should be realistic and achievable. Setting the bar too high can make you doubt the effectiveness of your solution, but setting the bar too low can make it seem like your solution isn’t doing enough.
- Relevant – Your goal should be relevant and important to your organization. Choosing an irrelevant or unimportant goal can force you to believe that your solution doesn’t work for you.
- Time-Bound – Set a deadline so you know you have achieved your goal by a specific time (e.g. “by the end of the year”, “within three months”).
Now that you have your SMART goals memorized, let’s focus on the next key area.
2. Determine your key features
Choosing a solution with the right features and functionality is obviously important, but remember to be realistic in what key features you need. Picking a solution with all the bells and whistles that you don’t need will be counter-productive and can make you overlook other better-suited solutions for your organization’s needs. Be thorough in your evaluation to make sure you know what features are required to achieve your SMART business goals.
3. On-Premise versus Hosted Delivery Options
Companies normally offer you two types of delivery options: hosted (on the cloud), or on-premise. Knowing what you need and what you want to achieve, determine which option is a better fit. For more information about the differences between these two, take a look at our Products page. Depending on the key features your organization requires, either option may be ideal. After you make your decision, it’s time to narrow down your choices even further to ensure you make the perfect choice.
4. User-Friendliness
When picking your solution, make sure that its features and functionality aren’t cumbersome or difficult to use. Otherwise, it can disrupt your workflow and waste time. Let’s look at a few other reasons why user-friendliness should be a priority to you when you’re deciding on a solution:
- Low Adoption Rates – If the solution is hard to use, it’ll be difficult for your employees to find the information they need or input their details. In the end, your frustrated employees won’t be using the tool properly to receive the most value from it. All your hard work will be wasted!
- Inaccurate Data – When a tool isn’t easy to use, your employees won’t be using it as intended and will have a difficult time inputting data. This will lead to inaccurate and inconsistent data that will need to be cleaned up later, causing more time spent on using the software.
- Inefficient Processes – It will take longer to complete simple tasks in combination with more questions, which all adds to the time spent on supporting the system, increasing your costs.
You’re going to be using this system for a long time, for a process that you need to do regularly! Making sure it’s easy to use will lessen the burden on your shoulders.
5. Scalability
As your organization grows, your tool should grow with you. A scalable solution can help support your business as needed so you’re not taking on more than you can handle.
6. Customer Support
If you have issues or require support with a particular area, you want a dedicated team that will be there with you every step of the way to guide you to success. Make sure you get the best bang for your buck – use your software to its fullest potential!
Processing payroll is something you do regularly, so it shouldn’t be a complex and time-consuming process. With your ever-growing team of people, it’s critical to recognize how important they are when it comes to achieving your goals and growing your business. That’s where payroll and HR solutions come in. They can help manage these processes effectively and efficiently, without any worries. These six key areas are very important to consider when searching for a payroll and HR solution that’s a perfect fit for your organization.
If you have any questions about choosing the right solution for your organization or if you would like to take a closer look at our solutions, feel free to contact us!
Contact us
1 (866)-PAYMATE (1-866-729-6283)
sales@paymatesoftware.com
www.paymatesoftware.com
