After having worked with many clients on the implementation of StarGarden I have observed one common theme over and over again. No matter the type of industry or the size of the organization, many clients were just not prepared for a full scale Payroll/HRIS implementation. I thought that it might be helpful to provide some tips on getting ready for your implementation:
Dig into your organization’s pay and benefit rules
Do certain groups of employees receive a paid meal break after 5 hours of work? Or perhaps a small subsection of employees receive a $2.00 per hour dirty pay premium when they work in sanitation. How are employee life insurance premiums calculated? Often pay rules were determined long ago and by staff that are no longer with the organization. By doing your homework up front and really understanding your organization’s pay/benefits rules, calculations, and policies you will help your Implementation Consultant to assist you in the smoothest implementation possible and with the least amount of after-live re-configuration required.
Is it time for things to change?
An implementation is a great time to re-assess current organizational policies and procedures and to weed out and make changes to what hasn’t been working. Perhaps it is time to consider what HRIS related information is currently being captured by your legacy HRIS system and what information your organization really needs to capture in order to meet future needs.
What makes YOUR project a success?
Before starting work on your Implementation project, work with your team to determine what project success will look like for YOUR organization. Is it as simple as an on time and on budget go-live? Or are there other factors to be considered, such as involving and engaging all team members in the Project or getting buy-in from all department heads?
Resourcing matters
In any Implementation Project one of the most significant barriers to success is insufficient resourcing. When determining a Project go-live date, really review the project plan provided to you by your Implementation Consultant in order to determine what timelines will be realistic for your team. Factors to consider in resourcing include: team member vacations, internal projects (such as audits) and unrealistic expectations on staff already strained by their “day jobs”. Once these factors have been taken into account, you will be in a better position to determine whether additional resourcing may be required to meet the Project go-live date, or whether it would be better to change the go-live date to one that is more realistic for the team.
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