What Does Continuous Improvement Mean to HR Professionals?

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1 HOW DOES CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT RELATE TO HR SOFTWARE? Brought to you by

2 What is continuous improvement and why is it important to HR? Continuous improvement is becoming more prolific in HR and it s important for all HR leaders to understand its relevance. In this piece, Jamie Lawrence looks at what the term means, why it s important for the HR function and how it s interlinked with the value that technology can deliver to your business. HR, like most internal functions, is under pressure to increase its agility and support the wider business in responding and adapting quickly to changes in the market. The profession clearly has a critical role to play, whether that s bringing in the right people, quicker and at lower cost, or driving performance and cultural change by ensuring the right conversations take place at the right time, or providing management with up-to-date information about skill-sets, potential and aspirations. HR technology is helping HR professionals achieve this business agility. It frees up time by automating timeconsuming processes, such as absence management, offers management information that allows more optimal decisions to be made and makes it easier to connect and engage employees. All these things help HR respond faster than before. But because the market is moving so fast, and therefore organisations needs shift fast, how can HR technology continuously deliver the functionality that provides maximum value to the business?

3 A continuous improvement mindset The answer to the question above is wrapped up in an umbrella term: continuous improvement. Also known as perpetual beta, continuous improvement is about transitioning to a new mindset on the way that technology is developed and supplied in order to consistently deliver better results to the business. This mindset is defined by a belief that software solutions aren t delivered to the market as finished, but designed instead to enable additional functionality and features to be easily added. This process of improvement is continuous, and built into the DNA of the technology itself and the organisation that creates it. It s driven by a constant willingness to make the technology better.

4 The continuous improvement mindset is demonstrated in the various ways technology companies create and improve their products. 1) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models The rise of cloud-based multitenanted software-as-a-service (SaaS) has allowed software companies to think very differently about their software and how it is delivered to clients. With multi-tenanted solutions, all clients share the same copy of the software, which is maintained and managed by the supplier. This allows solutions to be built that enable incremental change, with each change automatically and immediately delivering benefit to every client. This means vendors can focus on delivering progressive improvement that are of value to all clients rather than offering bespoke changes that mould to one client s specific needs. Continuous improvement is about taking a more inclusive, sustainable view. 2) Customer feedback Customer feedback is playing a vital role in moving HR technology solutions forward. Vendors are able to easily gather feedback, through on-line portals, user groups or in app tracking, about how clients are using their solutions, what s working well and what might be needed in the future. It s a community-led approach, where new software features are imagined, honed and refined through a collaborative effort between software developers and their clients. This is supported by HR professionals increasingly owning and having budget responsibility for the technology solutions they implement, so are much closer to what they need their product to deliver and how it needs to evolve. This is another reflection of the continuous improvement approach in action, this time in the organisations that the technology is designed to serve. As these organisations go through their own process of change and development, they feed their evolving needs into the software development process, which results in improvements which are of benefit to all.

5 3) Usability over capability The most forward-thinking HR technology companies prioritise usability and focus on making their software as accessible and userfriendly as possible nothing kills an HR technology implementation as quickly as poor user uptake. And employees are becoming more confident in what they want from technology at work. The digital natives of Generation Y have grown up with technology, expect to be able to access and manage their own data and are generally comfortable finding their way around systems. Ease of access is also vital if systems are to be used to their fullest extent. A continuous improvement mindset applied to access helps to ensure that the experience of using the technology, whether via smartphone, computer or tablet is as inclusive and easy as possible and can rapidly adapt to the new trends of usage. The uptake of HTML5 which allows for responsive design across multiple modern devices, is an example of this.

6 Reflecting the business environment The HR technology sector s focus on agility and continuous improvement is a reflection of the way the business environment is changing. The rise of social media has led to greater openness and collaboration at a personal and business level and, many would argue, a much more fluid and demanding workforce with everincreasing expectations of what work means, and how technology should support them. Rapid business innovation and globalisation, creates both opportunities and challenges for organisations, and in the way they manage, develop and motivate their people. A reduction in hierarchical structures creates an environment for more varied and diverse feedback, for example, while more and more companies adopt no-blame cultures that encourage honest, fast feedback that can improve processes and structures so that the organisation can adapt quicker. HR technology is following this trend because of similar and different drivers, but there is no doubt continuous development, both as a mindset and a process to create better software, is what organisations need if they want to become more agile and responsive to their employees and to rapidly-changing market conditions. Jamie Lawrence Editor, HRZone

7 How does continuous improvement relate to HR software? Continuous improvement is critical to the future of business, but how does it relate to HR software and the choices available to you? In this piece, Sue Lingard looks at how the HR software landscape has changed over the last few years, and how a continuous improvement mindset is now shaping development of the products available to you. Phrases like perpetual beta and continuous innovation sound alien to most of us. But in reality, we are all using software that s developed on these principles all the time. Think of Facebook, LinkedIn, online banking, the apps on your mobile phone or tablet. They aren t static, but in a continuous state of improvement. The truth is that much of the online software we use today is in perpetual beta. It is released and stable, but never finished. As a concept, continuous innovation sounds deceptively simple. But it isn t. It requires a total new product architecture that has revolutionised the way that modern business systems including HR software are developed, delivered and priced.

8 How it used to be Continuously improving HR software isn t new. The first release of any business application has always been followed by more. However, in the past updates would have been infrequent, perhaps every year or so, and typically fairly disruptive. As buyers, we learnt to live with this. If we needed something changed, we d pay the supplier to customise-build the new feature for us, using our copy of their software as the starting point. With this approach, new bits of code were bolted on to what was already in place. And, with each modification (and usually with each release), the underlying code grew bigger and more tangled. Even simple enhancement requests were rarely straight forward. Since everything was connected, it was like moving your kitchen sink to a new location. Without changing the plumbing, the outcome was messy. And, when the vendor updated their core application (stay with the house analogy!), some serious re-routing of plumbing and electrics, and possibly even doors and windows, was likely if all of your extensions or modifications were to keep working. This was invariably time consuming and costly. Understandably, this put most software out of reach of smaller businesses, and even larger organisations started looking for alternative routes to the seemingly never-ending cycle of expensive customisations and upgrades.

9 The new approach With the Cloud a new approach, Software as a Service (SaaS), evolved. Pioneers like Salesforce in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Workday in software for enterprise human resources management, recognised that the internet and associated technologies were mature enough (and cost-effective enough) to allow enterprise software to be delivered online. And that, with the right product architecture, they could keep all of their customers on the same core application code. With only one code base to maintain, and all of the updates under their control, products could be enhanced more easily, and rolled out to customers automatically. It was now possible to update solutions incrementally, and keep every customer is on the latest release, so no one got left behind. The architecture that underpins this new way of working is referred to as multi-tenanted, and is sometimes described as being similar to an apartment block. Your supplier looks after maintaining and updating all of the infrastructure the core building and all of the shared services and each customer has their own instance within it: effectively their own secure apartment that they can configure or decorate themselves. With the new breed of multitenanted SaaS HR software - including Cezanne HR s - code has been untangled, dependencies between different parts of the system made easier to manage, connecting to other applications simplified and, importantly, new rules applied.

10 For example, instead of encouraging individual customisation (think of all that revenue!), SaaS vendors purposely build systems to be configured by the customer (with help if required). The same applies with interfacing with other applications. One-off custombuilt integrations, that need to be managed and updated with each release, have given way to standard interfaces, or APIs, that make it simpler for systems to talk to each other. This allows interfaces to be built more rapidly and maintained more easily. Since enhancements - large and small - are easier to make (and shorter contracts the norm, so easier to walk away from), SaaS suppliers now have an almost continuous dialogue with their customers about how their products can be improved. For example, as a customer, you can expect to see, vote on and add to a published list of ideas, and see the most popular suggestions find their way into the product in months, not years. You may also be invited alongside other customers to have more detailed input into specific areas of functionality earmarked for development.

11 Isn t everyone doing it this way now? Not yet. Developing business software to be delivered as multi-tenanted, from the Cloud, requires a new product architecture and a new mind set. While moving olderstyle systems to be hosted in the Cloud is relatively straight forward, being able to systematically and seamlessly deliver updates, without compromising individual customer s systems, is not. Companies with well-established solutions have often taken an easier path, giving their software a bit of a facelift, and moving it to be hosted online. That way it can be marketed as a modern Cloud solution. But, underneath the bonnet, it s still the same code, with all of the implementation, update and development challenges that brings. These systems can still be a good option, especially for companies that want a really comprehensive solution, all at once, right now. They ve been around for longer than the more modern SaaS alternatives, so tend to have more features. The company will also have the benefit (at least for now) of a bigger customer base and because of the nature of the system a healthy income from up-front licences and implementation and customisation revenue.

12 Where these companies will struggle, is in areas where a native Cloud architecture is designed to shine. Frequency and ease of updates: With most native Cloud solutions, new features are added almost monthly, with updates automatically applied with minimal disruption to each customer s configurations or use of the system. Set up: Since systems are online and in the Cloud, and purposely designed to be configured, customers can be up and running in just days or weeks, and at a much lower cost that in the past. Performance: Applications designed for deployment in the Cloud are built to take advantage of the more flexible and cost-effective technologies available today, such as elastic load balancing and failover support. As well as helping keep costs down, these ensure that the system is not only available, but performs well, whatever demands are being made of it. Security: With systems designed specifically for the Cloud, online security can be built into the core of the application from the very start. For example, to separate sensitive HR data from other layers of the system, and ensure that passwords and user names can t be hacked. Connectivity: Most modern solutions offer an API, which makes interfacing with third party applications considerably easier and more cost effective than the alternative customised route. Pricing: Since multi-tenanted solutions are easier for the supplier to manage and quicker to deploy, they cost less to implement, update and manage than their hosted or in-house equivalent.

13 Conclusion In a sense we are all in perpetual beta. All of us believe that things can be improved. And, as the pace of change accelerates, we re being challenged to become more agile. From a business perspective, that makes it even more important than in the past to make choices that keep options open, and provide a cost-effective platform for growth and change. As an HR software buyer, it is important to look beyond an impressive features list or slick demo and invest in HR software that s good enough right now, but designed for growth, from a vendor that is open to input and provides you with feedback and can demonstrate that they really believe their software is not the finished article, and never will be. Sue Lingard Cezanne HR

14 About Cezanne HR We ve built something special at Cezanne HR; a powerful, configurable HR software solution that s simple to deploy, easy to manage and remarkably cost-effective, whatever the size of your business. Most of the HR solutions on the market today fall into one of two categories. Simple and cheap, or sophisticated and expensive. The first are easy to deploy and straightforward to manage, but rarely offer the range of features or flexibility needed by today s HR-savvy businesses. The second are bigger in scope and include advanced time-saving features such as automated workflow, HR analytics and international capabilities. They are also built to be customised or configured to fit specific company requirements, usually at a high cost in terms of implementation and maintenance overheads. Thanks to our innovative Cloud-based architecture, Cezanne HR offers the best of both worlds. It provides many of the advanced features of enterprise-level HR management solutions, but can be deployed faster, updated more frequently and configured by customers more easily but still costs a fraction of the price of these older-style enterprise HR systems. We haven t sacrificed sophistication, performance or security but we have taken out cost and complexity. You benefit from an affordable HR solution that is quick to deploy, easy to manage and lets you achieve more for your business and your people. Cezanne HR Limited 46 Loman Street London SE1 0EH Tel: +44 (0) info@cezannehr.com

15 About HRZone.com is an online destination for HR professionals offering advice, guidance, opinions and up-to-date information on how the working life and responsibilities of the modern HR professional are being shaped. We cover a range of topics including employment law, people management, leadership, employee engagement and more. Our content is written by HR leaders as well as consultants and industry commentators.