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WHAT A CORPORATEHR DIRECTORSHOULD LOOK FOR INA GLOBAL HR SYSTEM

A comprehensivechecklist for the best global solutionfor your needs

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In today’s world, it is unthinkable for a multinational company to manage its Human Capital without a global management system. Multinationals are better off with a system that enables roll out of local and global best practices to the entire group; a system that unifies policies and processes, and ultimately enhances the opportunities for pooling and developing their talent worldwide.

But bringing in the right kind of global HR management system is not easy. Successful implementation of any HRIS is a real challenge, and even more so when deploying a global HR solution.

This paper makes it easier for you, as an HR leader, to embark on this journey. We will walk you through some of the different considerations you should look out for, right from the kind of focus on strategy, tactics, practical criteria and guidelines, as well as questions to ask your potential provider.

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First of all, as HR leaders you must have a clear idea of how your potential provider should escort you throughout your HRIS implementation project. You will need to work together as partners on this journey for this to be successful. A provider brings in their solution expertise and technology know-how , while an HR leader will need to share information on requirements, available resources and deeper insights on how the company works or needs to work. Both sides need to engage and collaborate openly with one another to share for the best results.

As an HR Director you need to decide what kind of partner you need in your provider:

• How do you want to work with them? How regular should contact be and where?• How to be on good terms with them? Is there a clearly defined mutual agreement to

eliminate potential friction and ensure cordiality? • What they should do for you? What do you expect them to deliver?• How should they help you? How far should hand-holding go?

CHOOSING THE RIGHT KIND OFEXPERT HAND-HOLDING FOR YOUR PROJECT

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DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST ON YOUR PARTNERSHIP STRATEGYHere’s your short list of questions that you should tackle in advance of any discussions with potential providers. These will help you focus the direction of your strategy based on realistic goals you want to achieve using existing resources. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure how to best address the more technical aspects, instead raise them with your potential provider who will be able to guide you through these issues and even help you define the technical side of your strategy based on your needs.

• Why did you decide to undertake a globalization project? What are your goals? What is the ultimate purpose of the project? What resources do you need to get there? In short, is your organization ready for global HR?

Tip: Think about where you are in your international expansion strategy and where you want to take it.

• Do you have an accurate working data repository that you can reliably use for decision making? How will you retrieve your data? And is this reusable for HR management?

Tip: Sometimes it is the payroll tool that is the building block and you should know this in advance and plan accordingly.

• What processes will you implement first? And why? Tip: Consider setting up draft timetable for the project

that is realistic to open discussions with your provider who will help you to fine tune the roadmap based on their expertise.

• How are you going to deploy the system? Tip: Decide in which country or countries you want to

roll out the pilot, which modules to roll out in the first phase.

• When and how to communicate the project to your employees?

Tip: Consider how ready your employees are for a new solution and how quickly they are likely to accept the change; then plan communication and training actions accordingly. It is important to involve the right people at the right time.

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It helps to know first of all, what the critical tasks and milestones of your HRIS implementation are. Next, identify those where you will certainly need expert assistance from your provider and close coordination between their team of experts and your own team. Sit down with the provider and resolve who does what, based on the resources available, and the expertise required.

In this section, the focus is more on the provider’s solution rather than on the relationship with the provider’s team of experts. There are five broad areas of requirements criteria you should keep in mind:

• Wide range of existing functionalities and features that meet your global and local needs. The solution should meet as many of your requirements as possible.

• Processes that meet the specific needs of your organization.

• The new solution must also be able to integrate with your existing systems.

• Company stability, watch for mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

• Quality of user support.

CHOOSING YOUR SOLUTION

IDENTIFY THE KEY PHASES WHEREYOU REQUIRE INVALUABLE ASSISTANCE

• Set up your project team. Your appointed project manager is responsible for selecting the most suitable talent for this team.

• Identify good stakeholders who should participate in the different phases of the implementation. Inform them of what their involvement entails and when this is expected so this can be coordinated with their other activities.

• Ensure solid support in the crucial phases for preparing master employee data and processes.

• Harmonize your processes, configuring them to your needs and testing them to make sure they work properly.

• Identify potential risks in advance to determine how to manage these. Your provider should alert you on data security issues, cultural differences or other local legal compliance matters.

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Technology Must Haves: see how the provider’s underlying technology supports your global HR needs while being confident that you have a modern technology in place for your evolving global and local HR needs

Global HR Capabilities: find out what global HR features and capabilities are necesary for your countries, languages, currencies and legal jurisdictions of choice

Global Talent Management Functions: discover what global talent management capabilities your provider can deliver on global talent in areas such as recruitment, performance, learning, development, talent review and compensation.

Use this checklist as a foundation to define your own list with your specific requirements.

To make this easier for you, we have come up with a checklist of 50 key features that will guide you in your search for the right Global HR solution. Use it as a starting point for your own list. This checklist is divided into three main sections:

YOUR GLOBAL HR CHECKLIST: 50 FEATURES & CAPABILITIES

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TECHNOLOGY MUST HAVESFEATURE CHECK

1. One common HR tool that is a single system of record for both local and corporate HR

data management and includes the vital or core HR processes

2. All HR processes unified in a single platform

3. Person-centric: one ID for each person added to the system, with flexible relationship

management, creating a reliable source for global employee data

4. Multi-person model to include employees, contingent workforce, candidates, etc.

5. Fast integration with your existing systems

6. Advanced self-service tools (Employee Self-Service & Manager Self-Service)

7. Easy-to-use platform to reduce global learning curves

8. Configurable workflows

9. Predictive Analytics & Strategic Dashboards

10. A robust Cloud/SaaS IT that includes a solid platform hosting and administration

11. Assuring strong data security (legal data protection regulations and security

certifications like ISO 27001)

12. SLA (Service Level Agreement) that guarantees that a high quality IT service will be deployed

13. Scalability: from 500 employees up to 3-4 million employees

14. Access from any device, including PC, smart phone and tablet

15. Guaranteed support and maintenance services (24x7)

16. Underlying technology constantly updated transparently to customers without

negatively impacting their HR functionality

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GLOBAL HR CAPABILITIES FEATURE CHECK

17. A global system that supports local compliance requirements

18. Multi-tenancy model

19. Multi-country management

20. Multi-regional capability

21. Multi-language

22. Multiple legal entities

23. Multi-reporting capability

24. Flexible modeling of your entire organization

25. Quick search and view of the org chart across all levels

26. Simulate future org structures

27. Move employees, branches and entire divisions easily using drag and drop

28. Ability to create and maintain multiple competency frameworks across the organization

29. Update changes immediately across all business rules

30. Global workforce analytics and KPIs management

31. Real-time global headcounts

32. Standardized employee information

33. Ability to control the global salary budget

34. Case management for your entire workforce

35. Embedded document management system

36. Global/local absence management

37. Global reporting

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GLOBAL TALENT MANAGENT FUNCTIONS

FEATURE CHECK

38. All talent functions are natively integrated (recruitment, performance, training and

development, career and succession planning)

39. Find people with any characteristics across the organization

40. Manage high-volume recruitment

41. Global framework to manage competencies, skills, objectives and goals

42. Flexibility in defining your performance processes

43. Dashboards to follow-up on your performance process in real time

44. Identify key positions and the employees best suited to fill them

45. Create and manage talent pools across the organization (Talent matrix)

46. Analyze critical talent groups for strategic decision making in the organization (Talent

review)

47. Plan successions & career development

48. Training linked to performance appraisal to quickly identify ways to improve

49. Establish global compensation policies

50. Manage talent related KPIs

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After carefully choosing your provider, start developing your integrated global HR management strategy. At the end of the implementation process, you will enjoy a wide range of benefits:

THE BENEFITS OF A GLOBAL HR SOLUTION

• Manage your organization locally and report to local c-level managers

• Access global HR policies and best practices and report to the corporate office

• On demand global and local headcounting capabilities• Get an instant view of all new hires/employee movements• Register local legal information on employees• Create a means for communicating corporate-wide

policies/guidelines• Support line managers and employees via self-service• Control access to sensitive HR data

• Less dependence on corporate HR.

• Manage a changing workforce: real time demographics (headcount, turnover, etc.) always up-to-date

• Control the global salary budget monthly• Flexible organizational model design• Enhance your global and local analytical capabilities• Create and maintain core competencies across the

organization• Provide a more efficient and comprehensive HR service• Give local HR departments intuitive HR tools and

processes• Quickly rollout HR policies and best practices across the

entire organization• Reduce local HR technology investments• Improve HR involvement in the core business and

empower local departments

BENEFITS FOR LOCAL HR

BENEFITS FOR CORPORATE HR

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• Align the HR strategy with the business• Access global and local HR information• Integrate processes and transactions• Access HR dashboards for strategic decision making• Enhance analytical capabilities with predictive

suggestions and proposals• Tools to review the talent pipeline• Identify, engage and retain talent across the company• Create new development paths

• Plan for succession

• Directly and actively involve managers in HR processes• Less reliance on HR guidance for people management

activities• Proactive reminders for managers and employees to

complete HR tasks• Empower any manager’s daily work: request vacancies,

performance processes, development actions, etc.• Ease any employee’s HR related tasks: holiday, training,

benefit, etc.• Motivate employees with training courses, benefit

incentives, etc.• Create a feedback channel with HR for work-life balance

issues.

BENEFITS FOR C-LEVEL

EXECUTIVE

BENEFITS FOR LINE

MANAGERS AND

EMPLOYEES

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10 key guidelines walk you through a smooth global HR implementation

Includes “Humorous classification of projects on globalizing HR processes“ by Dominique Thomann, CEO of Thomann Consulting

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