Automation Can Save Your Most Valuable Resources
Leave and accommodations management software can streamline processes and save time for overburdened human resources teams. Your organization, like so many others, might be manually tracking and managing requests for leave that fall under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, or you could have complex processes that span multiple platforms and solutions. Consolidating and streamlining these processes can save time, improve compliance, and create a better experience for absence management professionals and employees.
Establish Your Team
To set the stage for a positive implementation, ensure the right people are involved in the process. Include the primary users of the software as well as people from the information technology department who will support integration logistics and ensure security. A successful software implementation can take a few weeks to a few months based on the complexity of deliverables. To avoid delays, ensure the process implementation group is fully prepared with pre-work, committed to the process, and able to meet deadlines.
The number of decisions that need to be made during software implementation often surprises people. Assigning new responsibilities, determining who will have access to systems, identifying the process changes that will be necessary, and other outcomes are just some of the decisions that need to be made, especially if you are automating manual processes. This is why having decision-makers participate in the implementation process is important. If that isn’t possible, delegate decision-making power to someone who is part of the process.
Prepare the Data
Once you have your team in place, locate and prepare employee data to ensure the data entered into leave and accommodations management technology is accurate and comprehensive. Many eligibility calculations depend on an employee’s length of service, so you may need to compile at least two years of data. Implementation usually includes a large, one-time data transfer and an ongoing data transfer process. The implementation team or at least one representative needs to know where data lives and what it takes to prepare it for a new system.
Accept and Manage Change
Finally, be willing to embrace change. Fully leveraging technology can mean adapting processes and learning new skills. Your team may have been managing leave and accommodations a certain way for a long time. If you discuss change ahead of time and emphasize the ways in which technology can alleviate manual work so teams can focus on people instead of process, the team will be mentally prepared to get the most out of a new solution.
Implementing technology isn’t about changing everything all at once, and it doesn’t have to be hard. Start with a dedicated team that is ready to embrace new ways to manage leave. Every implementation is unique. Simply put, the more you input data and automate modules, the more you maximize the system’s capacity to automate manual tasks.
Ultimately, a successful implementation is on time, within budget, and has the important foundational pieces in place. Over time, automation is like a fine-tuned machine. It can help optimize and streamline your processes to save on one of your most valuable resources — time.
