Alice Snell

<p>Choosing a talent acquisition software solution for your organization can be complex and time consuming. This task is often assigned in addition to-not in place of-your substantial workload. With time at a premium, you can hasten your selection process, yet ensure an informed choice that reflects thorough investigation of the options, vendors, and software available and is aligned with your organization s goals.</p><p>This article provides a basic framework for organizations of all sizes, particularly if you don t plan to undertake a long and tedious RFP process. The key to this efficient and effective approach to making a talent management software solution choice is to quickly frame the context of your needs and then gather specific information.</p><p><strong>Step One: Your Project Scope</strong></p><p>First, outline what the project is intended to accomplish by defining the business needs and major concerns that must be addressed by vendors. Overall project objectives may include:</p><ul type="disc"><li>Improve quality of hire.</li><li>Streamline workflow.</li><li>Staffing metrics.</li><li>Reduce time-to-hire.</li><li>Global processes.</li><li>Workforce logistics.</li><li>Support for a decentralized hiring process.</li><li>Data management.</li><li>Improve efficiencies.</li></ul><p>Establish the type of staffing this project covers: professional hires, hourly hires, internal redeployment, campus recruiting, and contingent and contract workers.</p><p>Determine whether this will be a phased approach, such as a pilot in one location, followed by a sequential roll-out across all company locations, or a simultaneous rollout across all locations, divisions, or business units.</p><p>Be ready with these data points as they are applicable to your project:</p><p>-        Total number of company employees.</p><p>-        Number of exempt employees covered by this talent management solution.</p><p>-        Number of non-exempt employees covered by this talent management solution.</p><p>-        Number of locations.</p><p>-        Where the talent management solution will be implemented.</p><p>-        What language(s) the talent management solution needs to support.</p><p>-        Number of recruiters who will work with this talent management solution.</p><p>-        Number of hiring managers who will work with this talent management solution.</p><p>-        Number of expected new permanent professional hires this year.</p><p>-        Number of expected new hourly hires this year.</p><p>-        Number of expected internal redeployments this year.</p><p>-        Number of contingent staffing suppliers.</p><p>-        Number of expected contingent assignments this year.</p><p>-        Current spending on contingent labor.</p><p><strong>Step Two: Software Solutions</strong></p><p>Your software selection team should have a short list of market leaders and work to ascertain fundamental answers in these areas:</p><ul type="disc"><li>Vendor Profile</li><li>Functionality</li><li>Implementation</li><li>Support</li><li>IT Infrastructure</li><li>Integration</li><li>Global Expertise</li><li>Reporting, Benchmarks, Scorecard and Metrics</li><li>Pricing and ROI</li></ul><p><strong>Vendor Profile</strong></p><p>What is the track record of each vendor? Do they have quality references?</p><p>Is the vendor financially stable; will it be in business for ongoing support, maintenance, and upgrades?</p><p>Who is on the management team?</p><p><strong>Functionality</strong></p><p>Is the software designed for professional hires, hourly hires, internal redeployment, campus recruiting, and contingent and contract workers?</p><p>Does a demo of the software and features align with your current or preferred business processes?</p><p>Is the solution scalable for future expansion?</p><p>Does it support global processes?</p><p>Does it provide reporting, benchmarks, and metrics?</p><p><strong>Implementation</strong></p><p>What is the implementation methodology and timeline?</p><p>Do they have a history of on time, on budget implementation?</p><p>What are the arrangements for training?</p><p><strong>Support</strong></p><p>Is support provided onsite, online, or by phone?</p><p>When is support available? 24x7x365?</p><p>What languages is support provided in?</p><p><strong>IT Infrastructure</strong></p><p>What technology does your company need to run this software?</p><p>What programming languages and databases underlie the software?</p><p>If the vendor is delivering an on demand Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, what is the expected uptime?</p><p>What data security-such as encryption, virus scanning, or backup procedures-and physical security is in place?</p><p><strong>Integration</strong></p><p>Can the software integrate with your organization s existing systems?</p><p>What other companies have had integrations similar to your needs?</p><p><strong>Global Expertise</strong></p><p>Does the vendor have operations around the world?</p><p>Can it accommodate several languages?</p><p>Can it modify its processes according to the geography?</p><p>Can it support you in all your locations around the world?</p><p><strong>Reporting, Benchmarks, Scorecard, and Metrics</strong></p><p>What are the reporting and analytics capabilities?</p><p>Does the vendor enable scorecards?</p><p><strong>Pricing and ROI</strong></p><p>What are the costs? Are they all-inclusive?</p><p>What are the maintenance and upgrades costs?</p><p>Is there a proven ROI case?</p><p><strong>Step Three: Selection</strong></p><p>Once this information is collected, the evaluation phase of the selection work can begin. Cut your short list down to one or two finalist solutions based on the:</p><p>-        Vendor's ability to meet business and technical requirements.</p><p>-        Vendor's service, support, and warranty.</p><p>-        Estimated investments.</p><p>-        Similar client installations.</p><p>-        Overall current client satisfaction.</p><p>-        Implementation plan.</p><p>-        Contractual terms and conditions.</p><p>-        System performance.</p><p>-        Training capabilities.</p><p>-        Vendor profile.</p><p>Take a deeper dive into each area of concern to make sure the selection is a good fit. Then be prepared to move forward with the project rapidly. Design a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to detail and specify the implementation and utilization of your chosen new system. Before long, your organization will benefit from the technology and process support for your talent management practices. Staffing will be optimized and you can refocus your efforts on other strategic projects.</p><hr /><p><strong>Alice Snell</strong> (<a title="mailto:asnell@taleo.com" href="mailto:asnell@taleo.com">asnell@taleo.com</a>) is Vice President of <a title="http://www.taleo.com/" href="http://www.taleo.com">Taleo Research</a> . The specialty research practice analyzes the best practices and economics of talent management. Taleo Research focuses on critical issues and key trends in talent management that impact organizational performance. Taleo Research is the research division of Taleo, which provides on demand talent management solutions for organizations of all sizes, worldwide<em>.</em></p>