Topic Outsourcing HR / PEO,
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Adopting the proper process when switching to a new HR data collection technology improves employee retention, safety, and productivity. It’s easy to botch up the process of transitioning technologies without the appropriate expert guidance.
Questco recently deployed new data collection technology for our clients. It was a difficult task, and we learned much from the implementation process. Below are seven lessons we learned about how to implement new technology.
1. Designate a Champion
Your champion is an individual at the helm of a project. Having a project management group is not enough. You need someone appointed as the leader for this group to have a direction and arrive at its destination.
When adopting new data collection technology, the champion helps the team define the comprehensive goals the technology aims to achieve, works with the team members to formulate a plan for achieving this goal, and helps each member understand this plan. The roles, however, don’t stop here.
The champion also identifies bottlenecks in the implementation process, suggests solutions to these problems, and ensures communication remains clear amongst team members.
Finally, by further ensuring compliance with budgets and prioritizations, the champion assures that the integration process gets realized.
Your champion doesn’t have to be an executive. You only need an individual that understands the whole implementation process and can guide other team members accordingly.
2. Decide on a Timeline
An implementation timeframe is used for more than just process planning and predicting when technology will be fully integrated. When the timeline and adherence to it are both strict, you reap the benefits. These include:
- Adhering to a strict timeline helps prioritize tasks and define clear directions on how the implementation process plays out. More importantly, however, it ensures accountability amongst team members.
- When you have a regular timeline that identifies tasks, who is responsible for each job, and the deadline for every deliverable, you can easily monitor the performance of team members. You see members who don’t work quickly or effectively enough and give incentives to those who outperform expectations.
For comprehensive accountability to be possible, you should try not revise the timeline once the implementation of the data collection technology starts.
3. Test Every Feature Before Release
When you use flawed features to facilitate employee data collection and management, you risk security breaches which leave your business and employees open to financial attacks. Some clients have even faced lawsuits.
Comprehensively testing the features during the implementation process helps you identify possible loopholes before they affect you.
4. Check Relevant User Comfort
Data collection technology cannot be used to its full potential if no one knows how to operate the software.
Through one-on-one and group sessions, you need to train all relevant users on how to use every relevant feature the technology offers. This helps users recognize additional benefits this new technology brings.
Making users comfortable with new technology is essential, given the fragility and importance of the data collation process.
5. Be Open to Feedback
Going with a strict implementation plan is good, but what if one of the team members is having difficulties out of their control? What if a team member identifies loopholes that could seriously affect the integrity of the data collation process in the future?
Feedback is key to the continuous improvement of the implementation process. Take any form of criticism in good faith and address the issue judiciously.
Ignoring feedback doesn’t make you meet deadlines or integrate the technology any faster. You only postpone the effects of lousy implementation to the future.
6. Have a Two-Month Review
Once you integrate the new data collection technology into your company’s structure, a retrospective review of its efficiency helps you gauge its actual value.
Having a review two months after implementation helps you understand areas for possible improvement and if your technology provider has the appropriate solutions. You identify how the technology works with your employees.
You can then work closely with your findings to know the appropriate steps. Remedial steps could include engaging users in more training exercises or alerting providers on existing problem spots.
7. Get Executive Buy-in
Adopting new technology in your company is like changing your business location. These introduce a barrage of new factors into your environment and affect how you work.
However, if you are sure that a change in data collection technology is the best for the company, convincing the executives should come first. When you have the executive buy-in, the implementation process is more seamless as you have the appropriate permissions to apply a change across the company.
Successfully Implementing New Data Collection Technology
Transitioning data collection technologies can be complex and prone to error. However, Questco found that four themes define a successful implementation of new data collection technology: leadership, discipline, review, and agreement.
You need a leader to guide the process, disciplined team members to follow it, regular reviews to reaffirm its effectiveness, and agreement from top-level decision-makers to make the process seamless.
