Introduction
Our client, a non-governmental organisation that focuses on helping at-risk individuals, wants to implement a cloud-based Human Resource Management System (HRMS) to manage routine tasks. The successful implementation of a suitable HRMS will reduce data entries and other standard processes, thus enhancing effectiveness. The organisation came to us with the requirement that the HRMS provide features, such as Benefits Administration, Employee self-service, HR Admin, Learning Management, Payroll, Performance, and Recruitment.
In our initial assessment, ForBis realised that the organisation needed to re-organise its workflow – not just the implementation of the system. The reorganisation is critical if the client wants to successfully implement the system and ultimately reduce labour-intensive paper-based processes.
ForBis: Young, yet Experienced
ForBis has extensive experience with various industries, including FinTech, Law, BioTech, and Healthcare. Our professionals from various fields work together seamlessly in order to deliver client centric solutions. While the project is lead by ForBis Advisory, the HR and payroll professionals from ForBis Accounting & ForBis Human Capital to ensure that the project is successful and the client’s employees would be able to leverage on the system to increase productivity.
The advisory team leading this project has acquired a deep understanding of IT Advisory having successfully managed numerous prior IT engagements. In addition to that, our professionals are certified in multiple areas of information security, such as CISA and PDPA x IAPP. This means that the institution can rest assured that ForBis will maintain strict data confidentiality.
A well-thought-out approach
In delivering the project, ForBis has meticulously planned the engagement in five phases:
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The first phase is setting up the HRMS and configuring the system with the institution’s requirements. Our team manually configurated the software and aligned it with the client’s specific needs in this phase. We have decided to utilise Keypay and Zoho People software as the SaaS Providers for this engagement. This decision was based on that both SaaS Providers are ISO 27001 certified. This is also taking into account that both software is cloud-based, and they can be accessed through standard web browsers and their applications. Most importantly, both software fulfils the requirements that the institution asked for.
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The second phase focuses on data migration of the client’s historical data from the current system to the new HRMS and verification of data post-migration of historical data. The client has previously never used any HRMS system. Therefore the situation required us to migrate the data of the employees to the new software. They already have their database, which we then uploaded to the software. This step is crucial since we needed to ensure that the database was correct to move on to the next step.
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The third phase focused on training administrators to utilise new HRMS and the employees to utilise new HRMS. In this phase, ForBis crosschecked the database that was migrated. Although companies typically perform data migration on their own, we felt the need to assist them in making the process easier on the client’s part. We also conducted training for the institution’s HR team to familiarise them with the new software in this phase.
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The fourth phase is conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and making changes based on feedback from UAT. In this phase, we put deeper focus into ensuring that the system conforms to its specification and meets the requirements as proposed while simultaneously resolving any issues found. This heavily involves the direct users of the system. In addition to that, we also tried to assess whether the software had a significant impact in simplifying the HR process.
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The final phase is providing continued support post-deployment of the HRMS. After ensuring that the HRMS integration in the institution. In this phase, we assisted the employees in the day-to-day use of the software and solved any errors if we found any. We also helped ensure that the employees had a thorough understanding of the software features in this phase.
Tech-Enabled, not Tech-Driven
ForBis understands that to keep up with the changing world, businesses need to pay attention to technology development, just like in this situation. ForBis believes that digital tools, platforms, and frameworks should be utilised to reduce repetitive and labour intensive tasks. Nevertheless, ForBis understands the importance of human touch and that human touch is not mutually exclusive with the utilisation of technology. ForBis leverage on technology to supplement the work of humans – we don’t replace people with machines. For example, we implement the HRMS to assist HR professionals to increase their productivity but we don’t utilise chatbots or automated answering machine that usually only frustrates the users at the other end more. This is a critical factor in ensuring that the client gets a positive experience throughout their journey with ForBis. Our experience found that the client highly appreciated our effort to maintain the communication flow without using machines. ForBis ensured that the client did not experience any stress in communicating demands, progress, or issues throughout the engagement.
Successful engagement and beyond
The client initially came to us with one of their significant concerns of manual payroll processing. There would be cases where the manual processing caused some errors in payroll activities. Now that manual payroll processing is replaced by automated payroll processing, more accurate, faster and less strenuous ways of processing payroll are achieved. In addition to that, the now-present capabilities of self-service and desktop access help the client increase workforce productivity and transparency in various areas.
ForBis understands that it is pivotal to ensure that the client is satisfied with the deliverables. For that reason, even after the engagement was completed, we talked to several employees and asked their opinion about the new system. We found that the employees feel that the system is fully equipped to manage their workforce. They also noticed that they would spend less time executing operational activities, which gave them more time engaging with other employees. Not only that, but it also helped increase their efficiency in tracking attendance and leave while simultaneously streamlining hiring and onboarding processes. This means that ForBis managed to achieve the most crucial objective of the engagement, which is to reduce time spent on administrative procedures.
This project was ultimately a success due to careful planning and the smooth flow of communication between the parties involved. We believe that ForBis managed to bring invaluable experience in helping the institution transform its business process.
