Life After Go Live: 4 tips to successfully empower your HRIT support team

Imagine: you build a ship, but as soon as it's finished, you let an inexperienced crew sail it on a wild sea. How likely is it that the ship will safely reach its destination? Many organizations face a similar challenge when setting up their internal HRIT support team. How do you ensure your team can not only steer the ship but also successfully navigate the management of the HR IT landscape? In this blog, I provide four tips to help you reach your destination successfully.

Internal or external management?!

When establishing an HRIT support team, there's often a debate about who the system management role should be assigned to and how it should be shaped. Should you handle this entirely internally or should this role be fulfilled (partially) by an external partner? Often the wish and goal is to maintain ownership of your systems. This not only saves time and costs but also keeps control over your HRIT landscape. The reality, however, is different. Often, an internal team is hastily assembled without adequate preparation. This leaves the internal HRIT support team ill-prepared, resulting in a heavy dependence on external parties.

Get control over your HRIT landscape

To better manage your HRIT landscape, it's essential to have your internal team ready post-go-live, with an external support partner as a backup. Has your organization not yet trained its own people? Then there's work to be done! We're here to help with some crucial tips to make your HRIT support team successful:

• Governance 

Determine the tasks and responsibilities related to maintaining and further developing your HRIT landscape. Establish clear roles and responsibilities within the organization, such as: What role does HR play? What role does IT play? Who is the process owner? Who makes decisions? This clarity helps the HRIT support team understand their tasks and responsibilities. 

• Service delivery model 

Besides tasks and responsibilities, it's important to outline the processes to be followed. For example: what process should be followed when a new request for a change or an incident is raised. Choose a model that fits your type of organization. In this model, you should define when to involve an external partner and turnaround times for certain types of incidents or changes.

• The profile of an HRIT support expert

Identify the skills and knowledge your internal team needs. This largely depends on how you have structured your governance and service delivery model. Do you aim for a self-managing team with a business analyst profile, or do you only want technical support for incidents and changes? Once these choices are made and the profile is clear, start recruiting team members internally and/or externally. Note: begin this recruitment before the implementation of your HRIT system starts.

• Onboarding and training the HRIT support team

Now that you have the right team on board, it is crucial to onboard and further train your team. By having the team onboard during the implementation, they immediately build a lot of knowledge and experience. They understand, for example, which decisions were made at what moments. With this knowledge, they are better able to fulfil their roles and advise the business. Additionally, it provides the opportunity to shadow project consultants and learning technical skills. It's also important to develop a training plan that includes both on-the-job learning and identifying necessary technical training.

The road to success

Just as a well-trained crew leads a ship successfully to its destination, your HRIT support team can then navigate the HRIT landscape.

Do you have any questions after reading these tips, or do you need more detailed advice? Contact Ruth Leijten.