7 Reasons Your Frankenstein HCM System Should Scare You!

Do you currently utilize “an HCM solution” that is actually made up of several separate systems that you or your predecessors have somehow cobbled together to try to make them function as one?  That is what we lovingly like to refer to as a Frankenstein HCM system.  It probably comes as no surprise to you, that the results of this mad creation can present some incredibly scary stuff:

1. It makes for ugly, unreliable, unstable and unsecure data

Integrated vs Unified HCMWhen you try to merge and map data together from disparate systems that store data in different ways, it is time-consuming, unpredictable and ultimately can cause major issues with data integrity. Trying to match up key fields from data stored in different formats can result in misaligned data, redundancies and/or data being omitted entirely.  Over time, you and your team members will likely start to not trust the data.  In addition, when you have to constantly download data from one system to merge with or upload it to another, that data must first be removed from its secure environment, saved to either your computer or a shared server, be processed and formatted and then uploaded and mapped to another solution.  Having sensitive employee data residing in several different places can be a recipe for a major data breach and even greater distrust.

2. The Productivity Wasteland

One KPI management frequently wants to measure and improve is employee productivity. If you have an HCM system that causes duplicated efforts, extensive training for multiple interfaces, countless logins and other time-wasting tasks to perform simple day-to-day functions, how can you feasibly try to direct other departments to focus on their own productivity improvements until you first tackle your own?  Rather than being bogged down in menial administrative tasks, a unified HCM system helps you to quickly enter, access, manage and analyze all your employee data with just a few simple keystrokes.

3. IT’s a monster

Unless you have an IT manager who revels in ensuring his/her own job security and loves to brag about all the intricate formulas and extensive effort he/she has put forth to make your system integrate and function (somewhat), having a Frankenstein HCM is hugely and unnecessarily taxing on your IT department. Moving to an all-in-one SaaS solution, frees up your IT staff, budgets and bandwidth for other projects, systems and/or data storage.

4. The problem festers and spreads with time & growth

If you have a solution made up of several systems that do not quite fit your needs now, it will only get worse over time. The band aids and patches you put in place to try to hold it together and make it work as needed, only cover up the problem instead of fixing it and they wear with extensive use.  So as time goes on and your company grows, greater stress is placed on those weaknesses and thus your problems grow as well.  Utilizing an all-in-one solution built from the bottom up on a single-database platform ensures that the solution was built with your intended use in mind and can scale with you over time to neatly and efficiently handle all your employee data whether you have one employee or one thousand.

5. GiGo

While it may sound cute at first, what the acronym actually stands for is anything but cute. GIGO, “Garbage In, Garbage Out” is the phenomenon that occurs when you have a system that end users find incredibly challenging.  If your HCM system is difficult for employees to use, they are less inclined to use it and will only do so when absolutely necessary.  Sometimes this can mean waiting until the last minute to enter some data and making some of it up as he/she goes to simply get it entered.  If instead, you employ an HCM solution with a single login and intuitive user interface that allows employees, managers and the C-Suite to all perform their day-to-day activities with ease, then the information entered by the majority will be all that more meaningful to those looking at it from the top.

6. Your villagers may revolt

Whether they perceive you as making their life difficult with challenging processes and procedures or feel you are being hypocritical in asking for improved productivity while often being the cause of drops in production with an archaic system, your people may revolt against you and your HCM monster. This will be especially true if your Frankenstein solution causes constant issues that hit them in the wallet in the way of payroll errors, benefit mishaps or poor performance management.  Lead by example and give them the best tools to ensure the masses and their leaders continue to support you and the corporate mission to strategically make workforce management a priority.

7. The monster will eventually destroy its creator

If you do not want to follow in the footsteps of Victor Frankenstein, your best bet is to plan the demise of the HCM monster you have had a hand in creating.  Otherwise you will surely end up letting it destroy you abandoned and alone, kill your beloved reputation and your love of the human side of HR. Contact Checkmate today and we’ll gladly help you build the pyre.