Choosing Human Capital Management Software in 5 Steps

social hcm software connectionsSocial technologies are working their way deeper into business processes. Sales activities and customer service through Facebook and Twitter is pervasive. But there are many other ways that businesses can benefit from their deployment.

A new report from Constellation Research tracks how leading companies have become consumers of interactive technologies, and in which business domains they expect the most growth for these services in the coming months and years.

103 businesses were asked how they currently use social software. The majority wield it for multiple types of customer service and support. They also use it to generate leads for their sales teams.

The next most common uses (with about one third of companies using social software for each of them) are as a collaborative workspace, for recruiting, in the employee feedback process, as a form of public relations, and to offer discounts to prospective customers.

Interestingly, there is no one business practice that gets analyzed or assessed using social software by more than 15% of the companies that were interviewed.

Every use of social software can be considered either internal collaboration, external engagement, or analytics. Basecamp is project management software for internal collaboration. Twitter is an easy way to engage externally. Social software options that offer analytics—assessing things like sales person effectiveness, reputation, or delivery timing—however, are less widespread.

For human capital management, social software can help to analyze and improve your reputation among prospective employees, or look at the satisfaction of current employees. It can be used for performance reviews, feedback mechanisms, and establishing compensation levels. There are even options that can run background checks and help with recruiting.

According to Constellation’s DEEPR framework, effectively adopting HCM software, or any social software, is a 5-step process:

1. Discovery

What products are offered? What do they claim to do? What can they actually do? Who will support purchasing the software? Who needs to support the software in order for purchasing to move forward?

2. Experimentation

Is the software easy to use? Does it integrate with existing business practices? Where it doesn’t, how difficult will it be to adapt models and processes? What meaningful and actionable information can it offer?

3. Evangelization

What features are a usage priority? How can you get employee buy-in? Specifically, how does the software improve collaboration? External engagement? Analytics? What needs to happen for employees to love and appreciate the product?

4. Pervasiveness

Will the software still be effective if the company grows? Will it still be affordable? Implementing software requires a resource commitment: Is the company prepared to commit long-term? Does the service provider offer quick and easy customer support?

5. Realization

How is the software helping the company? Has it positively affected corporate culture? Is it still the software of the future, or is it stale and dated? Is it being used to its full potential? How can company policies change to promote social business?

(We recommend) that adopters of social business prepare for a day when social business is just good business.
              —Ray Wang, Constellation Consulting

 

You can view a live showcase of social HR Software made by TribeHR. If you prefer, David Crow has suggestions about other great social software.



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