Lessons for good HR software implementation

When plugHR started with the mandates of taking over HR departments and running them like embedded service way back in 2007, idea was to make use of existing softwares and cover the last mile that was always undone.

Having built over 450 HR departments, we discovered a few things about making HR work and here are those learnings, so we all can get better at building HR in our ventures.

1. To implement software successfully, you must know the talent philosophy behind the software. Tools without philosophy won't do much for you as they'll ask you to customize every bit yourself. That becomes insurmountable work for you, that's mostly why your HR tech is still not in place.

2. If evolution was visible, we wouldn't let it happen. Change causes inconvenience and most of us would avoid it, no matter what we say on forums. Force it, or don't bother. We get so many signups on plugHRapp daily, just a handful take the effort to even begin creating their account. Some push it to managers and then you know where it lands.

3. Inspiration has no substitute. No software can replace an inspired talent driver inside your venture. That's why, inspite of plugHRapp being there to automate all HR functions in a day, demand for deploying plugHR consultant onsite remains perennially high. Inspired execution makes the whole thing work. We have come to believe that it's not the software that one needs, one needs a THOUGHTWARE with inspired execution.

4. You don't start with perfect systems, you reach there, passing through challenges of adoption, laziness, ignore, disbelief, iterating sometime the system, sometime your habit, but you do reach there. Starting and being at it is the key.

5. Without automation, not much would be achieved. Humans may create stuff, but to distribute, sustain and improvise, you'd need a platform. While we know this well, often we delay actioning it. You'd do it at your own venture's risk.

To summarize

While building great HR, focus on automation but figure the product philosophy before signing one up. Get an inspired HR professional to work closely with you, for some time if not perpetually. Start and improvise, remember that change would be inconvenient for a sometime.