Don’t kick IT to the curb!
Employee Onboarding horror stories, we’ve all heard them. A person’s name comes out wrong, a badge doesn’t work, two weeks to get a computer, payroll mistakes, etc. The challenge to deliver a professional service experience affects HR perhaps more visibly than any other corporate department. Making it vital they utilize an application that moves their service delivery to a frictionless, consumer-like experience.
ServiceNow HR Service Delivery application (HRSD) does just that. An integrated suite of applications designed to deliver flawless employee transitions and service. ServiceNow HRSD is designed for HR professionals to easily set up and maintain without having to be completely dependent on IT.
With this ease of implementation, HR organizations develop a strong sense of ownership, seeing a chance to deploy their service applications “in-house” without IT “screwing things up”. Viewing the HR application as a system HR needs to build — which it does — may lead to a view that IT adds no benefit to this equation. Though HR may prefer an install without IT involvement, many sound reasons remain to keep them in a consulting role.
Clearly, HR professionals best understand the system functionality required to achieve desired outcomes. They know how information must flow, what can and should be made available to employees, and what must not. The ServiceNow HRSD empowers HR as a “General Contractor” maintaining oversight of the project from inception to implementing, configuration and maintenance.
But remember HR, this is a cloud-based application with databases and access control requirements. In application configuration you’ll design workflows, build a compelling and intuitive GUI as well as design a convenient and instinctive mobile experience. This may require customization and scripting. Afterward, you’ll need to maintain the system and its upgrades. If any of this is unfamiliar to HR now, it won’t be once the process is complete.
HR departments may look to their HR Information Systems (HRIS) team to perform some of the more technical work. But even they may not have the necessary experience to complete all these facets. HR can leverage 3rd-party certified implementation partners, and in fact, should. Most IT organizations do so when standing up their own ServiceNow instance for the first time. These partners bring familiarity and expertise to get you started. Even with their help, the implementer must rely on in-house IT’s unique knowledge of your firm’s corporate needs and culture.
To avoid learning lessons the hard way, your own IT may be the white hat you need. Here are five simple pointers where they can play a vital role off your bench:
1: Platform Familiarity
Your IT organization may already be familiar with the ServiceNow platform and can navigate the forms, fields, tables, etc. An ally that knows these ins & outs can be invaluable. Having managed a ServiceNow implementation, I personally attest how helpful it is having that expertise on-hand for platform questions like:
what it does
how it does it
what it can be made to do
what it can’t do
best approaches
You’ll want this resource nearby. We all know how frustrating it can be to wait for an hour or two — a day or two — for answers that experience makes straightforward.
I‘ll never forget when I started my first implementation, there was a flurry of terms and techniques flying past us. We hired a consultant who knew a lot of things we didn’t, but he worked remotely. At first, I’d email him when I had questions, that soon progressed to multiple daily phone calls. Once you are arm-deep in an implementation you need answers pronto; by month two I was texting him repeatedly throughout the day. There was one time we even opened a Go-to-meeting and just left the thing running all day.
2: Service Management
Your IT organization knows the underlying principles and processes of service management success; these same fundamentals can be applied to the ServiceNow HRSD solution. Having IT consult on best practices for details like Dashboards, Metrics and SLAs (key elements of a service management program) can help you avoid a lot of time-slowing experimentation.
3: Workflows
Your HR application will be driven by your department’s processes. You’ll need to capture these workflows so you can effectively organize and structure the service to achieve desired outcomes. IT would have experience with workflows, especially on the ServiceNow platform. Always be sure your workflows are built by an experienced hand that understands business analysis.
4: Design Experience
Your IT organization can provide consultation on best practices as you capture the user experience and build the GUI. They can also help you maximize your services and processes on a mobile platform.
5: Project Management Skills
Your IT organization is familiar with application development projects; they can be a great resource if you want to leverage an Agile software deployment approach. This project methodology uses small, incremental releases, and has proven to produce successful results for large-scale application projects.
Just a few facets to consider when weighing the value your IT team can bring to a ServiceNow HRSD deployment. Other factors (knowledge capture, chat features, case management, etc.) will crop up depending on what services your firm needs to design, and/or the experience of your IT staff.
Looping in IT when implementing ServiceNow HR Service Delivery can remove the headaches without surrendering vital ownership of the project; valuable resources may be just down the hall. With their assistance, it’s a simple and painless effort making the upgrade to a more robust system.
And best of luck bringing your HR service delivery to the next level.
