HR Technology & Automation

Identifying opportunities to help achieve your business objectives is difficult. Receiving approval to move forward with these opportunities sometimes proves even more difficult.

Purchasing technology or services used to be a much simpler process for HR, but now business leaders regularly find that they are competing within their own organizations for scarce company resources. Solid business cases must be developed for projects that are going to require a capital outlay, and these business cases must present compelling arguments in favor of your recommended direction.

At Sibson Consulting, we find that organizations ask for expert assistance in developing business cases because they:

• Are not sure how to develop a business case demonstrating the ROI
• Are not familiar with the options, alternatives or availability in the marketplace of the prospective direction
• Are unable to effectively compare their environment with HR best practices or peer organizations
• Feel that an unbiased evaluation adds credibility to their position

Our Approach

Sibson specializes in assisting HR with:

• Technology purchases to upgrade or acquire new HR software
• Changes in service delivery: insource, outsource and cosource
• Moving to a self-service environment
• Staffing justifications

We believe that proposals have the best chance of being accepted when the business case provides an account of the current state with a vision to the future and when they incorporate the most significant environmental factors of your business. Our approach will:

• Illustrate the opportunity
• Weave the opportunity into your overall business vision and objectives
• Provide historical significance or trending with other projects of this nature inside and outside of your organization
• Develop the proposal or vision, including the investments and benefits (ROI) and key performance indicators
• Describe, illustrate and document the proposed operational environment — whether through technology demonstrations targeted to your organization or through detailed what-if scenarios (for example, "Imagine 18 months from now, that you are able to hire new staff members within 15 days of receiving resumes. This is what it will take. . .")
• Identify the impacts on staff, budgets or business processes
• Foster support and secure decisions to move forward with the project

HR Business Process Redesign ("HRBPR") examines the efficiency and effectiveness of a company's human resource processes. It ensures that you deliver the highest quality services, in the most productive way, at the most competitive costs. HRBPR helps companies to become more innovative, but its real advantages are reduced cycle times, increased quality and customer satisfaction.

Top reasons why organizations ask for expert assistance:

• They cannot see the forest for the trees. They have practiced these processes for many years and are not familiar with practices or approaches used outside of their organizations.
• Process changes can invoke job responsibility or organizational change recommendations. These recommendations are sometimes best left for an outside firm that has no political motivation or gain in the new design.
• They do not have the tools, analysis or experience in process redesign to be able to effectively complete the process
• They have limited resources or availability to focus on additional initiatives

Our Approach

Sibson Consulting assesses the existing business and its processes, identifies value-adding and non-value-adding activities, evaluates improvements that streamline or eliminate activities, recommends organizational changes (when needed) and designs and implements technology-enabled processes that are flexible and fully supportive of your business operations. We provide our services within a methodological redesign framework that we tailor to our clients' needs. This framework includes the following steps:

• Developing the business vision and process objectives: BPR is driven by a business vision, a determined need or specific organizational objectives. If these are not clearly developed or articulated, we will help in the formulation of your business process objectives.
• Identifying the processes to be evaluated: Sometimes this evaluating can be very straightforward. If you are experiencing difficulties in a particular area, then it may make the most sense to start in that area. Other methods include a high-impact approach where an organization focuses on the most important processes or on those that conflict the most with the business vision.
• Understanding and measuring the existing processes: No organization wants to repeat their failures; however, a considerable amount of knowledge is gained from studying the existing process. This assessment provides a baseline for future improvements and ensures that any required elements are accounted for in the new design as well as creates the ability to measure your progress. We use multiple tools and approaches to create this baseline, including: swimlane analysis, value analysis, process mapping, cause-and-effect analysis and others.
• Identify levers that are enablers or disablers to the process: Frequently these can be categorized into technology, people, workflow and outside variables. Awareness of these factors can and should influence process redesign.
• Designing and building a prototype of the new process: This practice will be an iterative attempt at building the optimum design that will meet all of your business requirements. By the nature of the ever-changing business environment, this new design will be the launching pad for future and subsequent changes.

Eventually, every HR organization must select an HR software provider or services vendor. Conducting a search is a time consuming and expensive endeavor and one that an organization does not want to repeat. That's why it is critical that your decision be based upon relevant, fact-based information. While there are alternate approaches to making the selection, many organizations choose to develop a formalized Request for Proposal (RFP).

Top reasons why organizations develop an RFP

• To increase competition for your organization's business, and to open up new options and potentially drive down the cost of ownership
• To identify and select qualified vendors capable of supporting high levels of service in the most cost-effective and administratively-efficient manner possible
• To select stable, organized and efficient vendors interested in developing long-term relationships
• To award opportunities to the most capable and qualified vendor — the one whose capabilities and experience can support demands and can grow as needs evolve
• To outline a formal working agreement with clear terms and conditions for both the buyer and the supplier
• To ensure a fair and equal opportunity for service providers

Areas of Expertise

We regularly review the products and offerings of vendors in key HR service areas including:

• Human resources administration
• Benefits (health, welfare and retirement)
• Payroll
• Talent management  
  • On-boarding
  • Recruitment
  • Training
  • Performance management
  • Compensation
  • Succession planning
  • Social networks
• HR service centers
• Absence and leave management

Independent Evaluation

We have the ability to objectively evaluate software and service providers as well as assess their capacity to meet your short-term and long-term objectives. Sibson Consulting has no affiliations or partnerships with software or service providers.

Methodology

We follow a proven Six-Sigma methodology that has been tailored specifically for vendor selection services, including:

• Define
• Measure
• Analyze
• Improve
• Control

Project Management and Reporting

We use state-of-the-art project management tools to monitor, track and report the project's status to your organization. Our reports can be tailored to the needs of the various stakeholders — from those on the project team to those the team reports to in upper management — within your organization.

• Sample detailed project plan: Detailed task plan with resource assignments, due dates and task deliverables
• Sample management milestone reporting: A milestone snapshot of the key and relevant progress points obtained throughout the term of the project

Business-Specific RFP Content

Through careful listening and proven methods of discovery, we develop full-featured RFPs based upon the detailed business needs and other requirements of your organization. There is never a "one size fits all" approach with our services.

• Sample RFP Table of Contents

Unparalleled Analysis of Responses

Our analysis of the RFP response is unsurpassed. We combine two types of full analyses to achieve our overriding goal of helping our clients make the best and most informed decisions:

• Sample quantitative analysis: Graphical and numerical representation of vendor responses
• Sample qualitative analysis: Narrative comparisons and evaluations of vendor key differentiators

With human resource functions like HRMS administration, recruiting, benefits administration and payroll, organizations are faced with the decision of whether to manage the work in-house or hire a third-party vendor to handle the work.

Deciding when to insource and when to outsource requires a comprehensive knowledge of the supplier market and an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

We find that organizations often ask for our expert assistance in making this decision when they:

• Are not sure which processes or services work well with outsourcing
• Are unclear on their service alternatives
• Are not familiar with the products and services that the market can deliver
• Want to reduce costs
• Want to free up organizational resources
• Want to find providers who can augment their organizations' capabilities

Sibson Consulting can assist with this process by:

• Conducting a feasibility assessment of insourcing versus outsourcing
• Assessing the value of sole-source versus multiple-source or co-source models
• Reviewing the capabilities of vendors

Sometimes Human Resources organizations feel that they are performing "the best they can," yet they are not making forward progress with their initiatives and goals. Even the best-performing people working within an optimal organizational structure will not perform as effectively as they can if their environment lacks the key enablers that create and maintain efficiency, accuracy and reliability.

Specifically, Sibson Consulting believes that properly tuned technology, tools and process workflows are key building blocks that enable professionals to reach their optimal performance. We help HR professionals identify and assess these components when:

• A key business process is not operating at optimal levels, and you cannot identify the root cause or solution
• The issue involves a complex business process that is very difficult to analyze
• You need a baseline evaluation of your technology and process capabilities
• There are conflicting evaluations or recommendations from your internal experts
• Your organization is not knowledgeable about the capabilities of your existing HR systems
• Your organization is unfamiliar with marketplace alternatives or best practices
• There are limited internal resources to focus on additional initiatives

Our Approach

Sibson Consulting begins the Process and Technology Assessment with two different approaches, each tailored to custom-fit your exact business need.

Full Assessment

A full process and technology assessment can cover your entire HR function, including:

• Compensation
• Benefits
• HR Administration
• Recruitment and Staffing
• Development and Organizational Effectiveness
• HRIS

The resulting analysis is a scorecard prepared by technology and HR process professionals. In a clear, straightforward way, the analysis will tell you how your HR functional areas measure up in terms of process and technology. Depending upon your particular need, this assessment can also be base-lined against identifiable peer organizations, benchmarked data or known HR best practices.

Hot Spot Assessment

Frequently an organization already knows the general area where a particular issue occurs or is all too familiar with the unsatisfying outcome but needs a specialist to further define the root issues and causes. We specialize in the following areas within the HR boundaries:

• Self-service capabilities
• Intranet usage & presence
• Data quality
• HR administration
• Data privacy and security
• Benefits administration
• Reporting
• Software utilization
• Issues unique to your organization

The project management process is a collection of management tools, techniques and skills learned through years of various project and implementation experiences. Whether your HR organization has already selected a new technology or you are about to embark on another new HR project, the use of our Project Management skills and methodologies will help to ensure that your project meets the expectations of your internal customers and management, is delivered on schedule and within budget, and makes the best use of your valuable resources.

Top reasons why organizations ask for expert assistance:

• There is a lack of internal expertise in a particular subject matter area
• Staff resources are too busy or unavailable to focus on a particular project
• Management wants an experienced external set of eyes to focus on industry best practices
• The project team is bound by pre-determined timelines or schedules
• There is a need for expert-quality project status reporting for management and stakeholder acceptance

The following are components of our project management services and comprise the core elements of successful project management. Clients and prospects typically ask for help in one, many, or all of these areas of our expertise.

Resource Management

Effective management and direction of key project resources is required to complete a project on time and within budget.

• Time management: Ensures the timely completion of the project with the human and financial resources that are available to the project
• Cost management: Creates, monitors, maintains and reports project financial information to ensure that the project is managed within the approved budget
• Team/Resource management: Directs or oversees project team members and instills a cooperative and effective team culture

Issue Management

Issues management includes tracking, escalation and resolution of issues. We monitor the progress and activities of project team members against their resolution tasks and develop alternate ways to solve the most difficult issues.

• Sample Detailed Issues Plan: Detailed issues plan with priorities, resource assignments, due dates and resolutions
• Sample Issues Summary: Summary snapshot of the progress of project issues

Communications Management

Initiatives can fall short of expectations if they are not supported and understood by key stakeholders and senior management. Our approach is developed around the effective use of these fundamental components of a communications plan:

• Audience: Identify the audience that will be affected by the change
• Impact of change: Identify the magnitude of the impact
• Expected resistance: Identify the expected resistance from the targeted audiences
• Behaviors: Identify the behaviors that stakeholders will need to demonstrate in using the new method
• Key messages: Identify the key messages that will be reinforced through each communication
• Media: Identify the communication vehicles that are available for use
• Timeline: Identify when each vehicle will be rolled out to employees

Change Management

The lack of acceptance and adoption of a new technology or way of conducting business can frequently slow or even stop a project dead in its tracks. Too frequently, project teams, sponsors and others forget about the "people side" of change. New technologies or processes typically change the way people do their work, possibly eliminating jobs or requiring individuals to acquire different skills sets. To manage this change effectively we:

• Manage the "people side" of change, not just the business side
• Develop a change management strategy for your project
• Create a communication plan
• Actively manage resistance to change

Risk Management

Risk in itself is not bad. Risk is essential to progress; however, an organization must balance the possible negative consequences of risk against the potential benefits of its associated opportunity. We employ strategies and tactics to identify, control or avoid project risk and provide a disciplined methodology of proactive decision-making to:

• Continuously assess what can go wrong (risks)
• Determine the most important risks to take action upon
• Implement strategies to deal with those critical risks

Quality Management

We ensure that all project activities and work products are in alignment with the most relevant industry standards, practices or requirements. Our vast experience in HR project management will help guide your project through the distractions that can often create inefficiencies, misalignment or poor design.

Project Tools and Coordination

We use state-of-the-art project management tools to monitor, track and report project status to all levels within your organization.

• Sample detailed project plan: detailed task plan with resource assignments, due dates and task deliverables
• Sample management milestone reporting: A milestone snapshot of the key and relevant progress points obtained throughout the term of the project