by Julie Wessen
As I came upon my 1 year work anniversary at HRchitect, I received the email that I had been pretending, hoping I’d never get: It’s your turn to write a blog post!
I audibly groaned. A blog post? What will I do? What would I write about? I am afraid that this will turn out horribly!
As I jotted down ideas inspired from recent projects, those words kept creeping up into my mind. They started to sound oddly familiar. In fact, I can say throughout my career, with each and every project that a client has, in some way, shape or form, uttered those words: I am afraid that this will turn out horribly.
With writing blog posts, HRchitect wants to make this a successful endeavor. We’re given ample time to prepare, write and submit blog entries. We have format templates and topic ideas. Our team generates excitement by sharing posts in our weekly internal updates as well as on LinkedIn.
When your company implements your new HCM software, you want to it a successful endeavor.
There are people who blog and write about their thoughts on the internet every day. For these bloggers, writing blog posts is easy. When you’re working with HCM systems every day, it’s easy to implement, configure and utilize every day. But to those implementing and using a new HCM system for the first time, and to me as a first time blogger, it is strange and somewhat overwhelming.
Clients almost always suffer anxiety and apprehension while implementing new software. They’re wondering, “Will leadership like the new system? It costs so much! Will the HR Administrators find the system user friendly? Will employees embrace the system? There’s so much to do! How will we get it all done? How do we get employees prepared for and excited about these changes?
Change Management can be a fundamental part of your HCM Implementation success. A change management program is designed to help you plan for all changes related to the new system. While you have spent months planning your entire implementation as a whole, a formal change management plan takes it one step further and gives you a roadmap to help you lay out the people impact of the implementation and changes that go hand in hand with your go live. The result is a “no surprises” post go live. With a proper plan, no employee or manager will say, “why have I never heard of this new system before? Or “How do I use this” or “Who can I get some help from” – they may fear the change, but they will have resources, training, and an abundance of support to get them through it and on to successfully utilizing the new system.
When HRchitect becomes in engaged in Change Management, your consultants are there, every step of the way. We take the entire change plan and work on it in logical steps so you don’t miss anything. We’ll answer questions such as: Who needs to be communicated to? What does this group of people need to know? When do they need to be told? Who tells them these things? Who is at risk for resisting this change? How do we make it exciting? How do we make your job easier? What creative avenues will we explore together to disseminate information?
Change is challenging. Doing something new is stressful.
When you roll out a new HCM software, it’s not surprising to hear your employees say, “I am afraid I will not be able to do this, and it will turn out horribly.” But don’t worry – with the proper change management, your implementation will be more successful!
HRchitect is widely considered one of the best strategic technology consulting firms and your best insurance policy for success with any HCM project. Our services span from helping organizations create HCM technology strategic plans, evaluation and selection services for new or replacement systems, change management, implementation services, and ongoing support.
About Julie Wessen
Julie Wessen is an Implementation Consultant and Project Manager at HRchitect. To learn more about Julie, connect with her on LinkedIn.