How SMBs should prepare for a SuccessFactors implementation — Part 3

Overview

• Sabya Mitra

User Adaptation and Change Management

We understand that SMB organizations might not have a lot of money or resources to spare for an elaborate change management process. But let us just break it down and understand what is required and why for a successful SuccessFactors implementation.

Most SMB organizations have seen rapid growth in some form or other. The growth could be in the diversity of the workforce in regard to country, types of jobs, region, or even geography. That is why many SMBs have a very diverse culture and a dynamic approach, unlike larger organizations where a lot of work goes into creating a unique work and company culture. This dynamism in the work and company culture is one of the principal reasons that brings about an easy acceptance of new HR systems like SuccessFactors.

Depending on the integrated or hybrid system approach, your user adaptability will be different. But irrespective of the approach you take, make sure everyone in the organization understands why user adaptation is crucial for the success of the project. You cannot achieve true transformation unless and until all your employees embrace the new platform.

We strongly recommend user participation from a cross-section of the company during the preparation phase. The goal is to design the new system keeping the end users in mind. Treat your employees like your customers and start planning a comprehensive change management, communication, and marketing plan for the upcoming project.

Create a core group of change agents drawn from your user community and ask for their input at the preparation planning stage. This group can prove to be your biggest champions. Keep them informed about why the system is being implemented, the benefits of the new way of working, and most importantly, what their role will be during planning and execution.

We always recommend interweaving change management activities with your SuccessFactors project plan. Identify each step of the change management process that can be performed independently of the other project activities without negatively affecting the phase in question. In the earlier segment of the blog we discussed documenting your current and future processes — this is the best time to start thinking about change management. Identify what needs to change in each process area, who will be affected, and what would be required to make them comfortable in the new environment.

Effectively Train your Employees

SuccessFactors is an intuitive system, and the interface is consumer-grade; hence it takes much less time for users to get trained. Having said that, moving from one technology to another still involves a learning curve.

During the preparation phase, start analyzing your training requirements for each module you plan to implement. Training needs analysis is a critical element within your change management strategy and should not be neglected at any cost. SAP SuccessFactors offers training materials to help with this, while partners like Renew HR also offer more customizable training services.

SAP Enable Now is available for the SAP SuccessFactors solution, which allows you to support your end users in adopting software faster and helps them with their daily work. It enables you to create guided tours, context help, and new content directly within the application. Additionally, existing formal and informal learning content can easily be offered directly within the application in a context-sensitive way.

The challenge with most organizations using a digital HR transformation strategy is how to encourage employees to fully utilize the new SuccessFactors system and be self-reliant for their process needs. The true business case of value and cost savings can only be achieved through more effective use of the system. The quality and ease of access to training and help resources is the key to success when implementing any module of SuccessFactors.

Business Insights and HR Analytics

One of the main benefits of a SuccessFactors-led digital HR transformation is to encourage and support managerial decision-making.

SAP SuccessFactors out-of-the-box provides plenty of useful HR dashboards, high-level reports, and real-time data related to the most critical measures of HR success. By linking the data on the dashboard to key organizational metrics, managers can extract essential insights into the business that tie HR outcomes to corporate goals.

Based on the approach you take to implement SAP SuccessFactors modules (including a hybrid approach), you may also need to consider true HR analytics that combine data from all sources. Modern data warehousing, data mining, and analytics products provide a centralized repository of selected HR data managed separately from live data.

To take advantage of HR analytics and reporting, a lot of preparation is required in the form of building KPIs, taking measures, and considering dashboard requirements. We have seen from experience that these activities are very time-consuming and need dedicated involvement from stakeholders before the start of the implementation. Big data and HR analytics are changing the way organizations do business; as the use of technology to support HR decision-making continues to evolve, organizations must take advantage of these tools to enhance HR effectiveness. You can also read our blog on big-data HR analytics.

In Conclusion

We have discussed various aspects of project preparation and planning that are essential to your success. Remember that cloud implementations are much shorter in duration compared to on-premise implementations; hence a lot of project-related activities that used to happen during the implementation now occur during the preparatory planning phase. There are SuccessFactors partners like Renew HR who provide services to prepare you for your upcoming projects.