By Elissa Montoya
For weeks, I have been searching for my next blog topic to no avail. For some reason, even with all the exciting stuff happening in HCM these days, I was coming up with a total blank. I put in a Google query “HCM news”. All the top results were related to Ho Chi Minh City. Then suddenly I realized, I had something to say after all!
I have been involved in many global implementations of Applicant Tracking Systems. Some have been “Big Bang,” in which all regions go live at once, while others have been regionally phased implementations. In all of these there have been pitfalls, surprises, lessons learned and ultimately some wonderful happy endings.
There are so many considerations when you are deploying globally, that it can be a bit overwhelming. I know there are many companies out there who are very comfortable with the various cultures, workforces, and technical environments in which they exist, but there are many more who are not. Let’s say you are a retail company who has grown ten-fold in the last three years. You were U.S. only the last time you implemented an ATS, and your new global locations are being tracked manually on paper. What if you are a fast growing US based company who went on an acquisition spree, and none of those acquisitions were on the same ATS or HRMS as your organization, and none were U.S. based. Now what?????
It’s very easy to say “we are driving a global recruiting initiative;” however, what does that mean to your organization? Does it mean the same business process, same technology, same Mission, Vision & Values? Has legal provided an opinion on all the different hiring laws and requirements which vary from country to country and how these may impact your system design? Do you even employ a similar workforce across the globe?
Entire books have been written regarding global Human Resource/technical deployments, so to say we can walk you through all the steps in a blog would be highly presumptuous, but providing a couple of very important considerations to get you started is reasonable.
• Plan more than you have ever planned. When you are sick of planning, go back over your plan again and plan some more. Start with the macro items, such as your overall strategy and work your way down. Give more time between UAT and deployment than usual, as re-work in multiple languages will be very time consuming.
• Be sure to identify SMEs in all regions in which you will deploy and be sure to choose well. Time zone differences make it even more important that team members are engaged and self- driven.
• Put focus on Change Management and Training. While these are often overlooked in implementations, to overlook them on a global implementation could be catastrophic.
• While collecting business requirements be sure to include all of the following needs: Languages (both users and candidates), Security, Reporting and Local Governance/Employment Laws.
One final suggestion would be to get help. Implementation partners like HRchitect come with the knowledge and experience of all of their previous clients. Having worked with over 1,000 clients across the globe, HRchitect can use this experience gained over two decades to help ensure that any HCM related project goes smoothly. With an experienced partner you will not be recreating the wheel and you will benefit from other organizations’ mistakes and successes.
About Elissa Montoya
Elissa is an HR professional with over 15 years of HR experience in the world of Talent Acquisition, General Human Resources & Project Managmeent. Throughout her career, Elissa has worked with companies across many industries from small to Fortune 500 with a focus on optimizing their Recruiting and Onboarding processes and managing large scale projects.
In her role at HRchitet, she acts as both project manager and functional consultant on the implementation team. Elissa is both a certified Project Management Professional and a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources.