As financial professionals, our HR counterparts are the most important allies we could possibly have. They should be our strategic planning partners and our confidants. So why don’t we team up more often? In the majority of cases, I think it’s because of how we work. Fractured systems isolate us professionally, making it difficult to understand the points of synergy between our two worlds. During my years in finance, I didn’t understand the value of human capital because it wasn’t something I could capture on a balance sheet. There is no generally accepted accounting principal to assign monetary value to talent, but the intrinsic value is there, just the same.
A growing demand to track Human Capital Management (HCM) metrics is putting pressure on already burdened HR professionals. Digital HCM is the future of HR and promises to become the strategic keystone we need. So why are we so slow to embrace it? Many companies are still struggling to manually piece together information from payroll, finance, and even sales in order to extract sophisticated insights from data. Unlike most HR professionals, those of us in Finance are already accustomed to this type of analytical work. We’ve been forced to leverage technology to track and benchmark metrics far longer than our friends in HR. We’re familiar with the challenges of disparate systems and what it takes to build bridges between human capital management (HCM) and financial ERP solutions. Think of the possibilities.
Establish HCM as an integral part of the business
As the finance leader in your organization, you are typically included in strategic planning activities. If you haven’t already invited your HR counterparts to the table, I encourage you to do so now. They could be one of your most strategic partners as they understand the value of your firm’s workforce and how to increase that value through thoughtful investment.
Below are 5 ways finance can (and should) partner with HR:
1. Establish a Human Capital Management Strategy
Encourage your firm’s leaders to establish human capital management as a strategic function and recognize that they are a valuable, untapped resource. Focus on how to grow the business organically by tapping into the productivity that results from a highly engaged workforce. Attracting, developing, and optimizing great people will help your firm lead the industry with high performing teams. 2. Create an HR Technology Roadmap
For most firms, the road to a fully integrated HR technology solution is just the beginning. Prepare your firm for the total investment in terms of budget and time. Create a roadmap to help all stakeholders in your firm understand what it will take to successfully craft and implement a digital human capital management strategy. 3. Integrate HR and ERP technology
The integration of these two technologies is a must for any strategic HR roadmap. Integrating critical business functions is the only way to get the analytics required to optimize your workforce. Integration will allow employee information to be pushed into the ERP system to facilitate the project lifecycle. Critical data around time and attendance, employee expense reports, and employees will be able to move between systems and streamline the allocation of costs to projects, improve resource planning, and automate payroll. 4. Enable Collaboration
Be sure to include collaboration tools in your HR technology roadmap. Project work is often spread across locations and teams, making it necessary to have tools in place that enable dispersed teams to communicate and work together. Collaboration tools can also help to identify disengaged employees faster and ramp new employees more quickly. 5. Choose a Partner
Software was once something that we bought and used. Today, when you choose a tool, you are also choosing a partner. Spending time evaluating features and functionality is not enough. Chose a partner that understands project-based firms and your unique challenges. Make sure they have made the right investments in solutions for your industry and aligned with your needs.
Although on the surface the goals of Finance and HR may appear different; they are much more aligned than most of us realize. We both want to be able to analyze, manage, and optimize the workforce in order to predict future needs, improve utilization and grow profitability. It’s time to recognize this and come together with a mutual understanding of how so much untapped value is lying dormant in our organizations. It’s hard to quantify, you can’t report it in your financial statements, but people are our greatest asset and the true source of our organization’s value.
We understand the numerous challenges you face in Human Resources. Your department is often understaffed, and you’re constantly tasked with finding quality hires in a tight timeline. Every day with a vacant opening means another day of lost revenue, creating pressure from the top down. We created our Talent Management solution with these pain points in mind, and it’s built to efficiently manage the entire employee lifecycle.
Available as one comprehensive package or à la carte to suit the current needs of your business, Talent Management handles every step along the way from recruiting, performance, development, and training to compensation. Each solution works in sync with the others on an easy-to-use interface.
RECRUITING
Our tools help you create an efficient employee recruiting processes, making it easier to assess qualified candidates and fill positions faster.
Digital interviews improve hiring quality and cut the time spent interviewing by up to 50%
Referral system engages your employees in the recruiting process and rewards them for inviting their best contacts to work for you
TRAINING
Nurture and grow your staff from within by providing employees with a self-service answer for continued learning.
House a full catalog of instructor-led, online or external courses
Automatically set up required training courses for new hires or for specific job roles
Manage certifications
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Our automated appraisal process reduces administrative burden so you can focus on reviewing performance and career goals.
9 Box Planning maps out which employees are ready for advancement or need further development
Process-driven compensation system ensures employee incentives are tightly aligned with performance
Here at Brilliant HR, we are frequently asked complicated questions surrounding employee compensation. Questions like, “what are the best practices for asking a candidate’s current salary?” or “is it appropriate to bring up compensation during an interview?Compensation can be a tumultuous terrain, and there are few definitive answers available for candidates and Hiring Managers. Through our research on the topic, we discovered varying inconclusive results.. While one article concluded that an applicant should not give up any salary information, and stick solely to “ranges” and “current market salaries” when interviewing for a new position; the next article stated that candidates should be upfront, direct and honest with what their current salary is and what they hope to earn in their next position..For the recruiter or Hiring Manager, there’s even less information out there;however, with new laws taking effect in many cities and states, — it’s critical for your organization to have a defined set of rules regarding compensation discussion. New York City, Albany County, New Orleans, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts and Philadelphia have all passed ordinances prohibiting employers and employment agencies from doing any of the following:
Screening job applicants based on their current wages and benefits or other compensation or salary history.
Requiring that an applicant’s prior wages satisfy minimum or maximum criteria.
Requesting an applicant’s prior wages or salary history or requiring an applicant to provide that information as a condition of being interviewed or considered for employment.
Seeking the applicant’s salary history from a current or former employer.
Many of these new laws will help bridge the wage gap in the workplace; however, organizations may face greater difficulty in compensation planning and hiring without the knowledge of prior salary information. Learn about our Compensation Tool
So as a recruiter or hiring manager, where does that leave you? This article has some helpful suggestions on ways to handle these new laws.
Remove salary history questions from job applications, including online applications.
If you work with recruiting agencies and background check companies, ask them to exclude salary history inquiries in their process.
Train HR, internal recruiters and other employees who interface with job applicants not to ask about salary/benefits/compensation history, but to explore other permissible areas.
If these individuals are interacting with job applicants and the applicant offers their current/past salary without prompt, be sure your staff makes a note of it, and the circumstances surrounding the disclosure.
Post salaries for jobs on your open requisitions – or salary ranges, which can vary upon experience. This might help attract more qualified candidates!
In conclusion, we are in unchartered territory with the new laws coming in to effect. There is no precedent for how to engage and react – so tread lightly, train your employees to use caution, take notes and document in writing to protect yourself and your company. As a candidate, these rules apply as well. Read up on the latest laws and ensure you are being polite but also firm if someone asks you a question you think might be off limits. If you have any questions on this topic or any other HR compliance topics, contact us!
(If you only pick one focus in 2018, let it be this…)
Out of curiosity, I did a Google search to find out what the almighty internet had to say about the top HR trends for 2018. The results were pretty interesting and relatively consistent. The one trend alluded to in every article was that companies need to focus on creating a holistic employee experience.
If, like me, you have never worked in HR, you may ask why this is so important. Or you may feel more concerned about what impact this trend could have on profitability. Maybe you hate the sounds of this and would rather put everyone back in their cubicles (eek!).
We can all agree that employee disengagement statistics vary, but it’s reasonable to say that around half of the workforce is disengaged. This costs millions in lost productivity annually! It’s clearly time to make a paradigm shift that will only make our companies more prosperous.
Here’s why:
#1 Authenticity breeds creativity and innovation
The old adage about leaving your work life at work and your home life at home is finally becoming obsolete. The idea that you are one person professionally and a different one personally never resonated with me. What about the strength we all bring to the table as whole individuals? What about the power of authenticity in leadership, creativity, and innovation?
We hire people. They don’t become something else when we change their status to employee. We need those same people engaged and contributing at work. Every step we take toward total inclusion of the human experience in the workplace is a step toward authenticity. Who can be innovative or creative with their authentic selves buried behind an outdated belief that what we do and who we are exist as separate identities?
Make authenticity part of your culture by:
Incorporating flexibility in formal/informal policies
Opening up the possibility of remote working arrangements, when possible
Supporting your people when they need it most (bereavement, illness, divorce, etc.)
Empowering your mangers to develop trusting relationships with their teams
How many of us have worked for a company that had a great vision statement on their website, but once you were hired you couldn’t find a trace of it with a microscope? Why do we spend so much time and money defining mission, vision, and values, if we aren’t going to live and breathe those sentiments? Think about it, these core beliefs can shape culture if allowed to permeate the company. What does that mean? Well, let’s dive a little deeper.
If your organization truly wears its values on its sleeve, you will attract your team. You will attract the team that fits your vision. That isn’t to say that there won’t be differences of opinion or individual contribution. I’m speaking to a partnership between the core values of your company and the core values of your people. Don’t underestimate this, really. People, well millennials at least, want to work where they feel connected and aligned. If you ever wondered how to retain high potential millennial talent, this is a big piece of the generational puzzle. By the way, have you noticed that millennials now make up the largest segment in the workforce?
Broadcast your vision and values to attract top talent:
Live and breathe your values by making them a key part of your performance feedback cycle
Create powerful employer branding that puts your values front and center for all those perspective employees out there
Treat prospective employees the way you would treat prospective customers or clients
Utilize available technology to communicate your employer branding and to give prospective employees an incredible application experience
#3 Acquire, retain, develop…rinse and repeat
For years we have heard that job-hopping millennials have one proverbial foot out the door and aren’t worth investing in. Whoa! Hold on, have we really been treating the largest cohort in the workforce with such little regard and compassion? The oldest millennials are now in their mid-30s. They aren’t kids fresh out of school anymore. This might sound crazy, but recent statistics show that as millennials age they would prefer to stay with a company longer term. Insane, I know! What they really want in order to stick around is an opportunity to grow, develop, and advance within the company. Seems reasonable and familiar…
With this negative mindset about millennials permeating organizations, it’s no wonder they don’t stick around. Loyalty and investment go both ways. Let’s be honest, most companies will say they have at least a partial succession plan for some roles, but if someone else left suddenly, gaps would be obvious. I’ve seen this happen. So, we have a workforce that isn’t prepared for turnover and we are practically escorting millennials in one door and exiting them out the back!
Stop the revolving door
Throw out the mindset that all young employees want to leave
Create collaborative development plans for your employees that are beneficial for both the individual and the company
Shift from annual feedback cycles to continuous feedback discussions
Allow employees some visibility into succession planning and involve them when appropriate
#4 Humanize HR with Technology? Really?
Most of us have had the unfortunate experience of applying for a job and then hearing crickets. Or getting all the way to a third interview…and then crickets. It’s a common tale and it isn’t a great experience for the top talent that we are trying to recruit. As the workforce moves toward higher numbers of alternative arrangements, like contracts and contingent workers, candidates will require more touch points and communication. The trouble is that our HR departments aren’t necessarily able to scale up and meet the demand for, what can only be described as, customer service. Enter technology.
It may seem counter intuitive to enlist the help of a greatApplicant Tracking System (ATS) to humanize the applicant experience, but let’s talk through it. Some companies at least send a notification that an application has been received. Take that a step further and send additional notifications when an application is viewed or allow for status changes that are communicated to the applicant. Schedule interviews and extend offers with the touch of a button. Who has time to manage all that? Your handy ATS can do it. What happens most of the time now is akin to what the kids are calling ghosting on social media platforms. One minute you’re chatting and hitting it off and the next? Crickets.
Using a great Applicant Tracking System is just one example of how technology can help your HR department meet the demand for their time and help your applicants and employees feel more connected. Do you have a Talent Management Strategy? Many companies say they do, but struggle to execute it effectively and consistently. Again, enter technology.
Employ transparent and collaborative goal setting that can be monitored and adjusted
Use continuous feedback cycles to encourage your managers and employees to build strong trusting relationships by meeting regularly
Create Employee Recognition incentives that will allow anyone in the company to recognize a job well done
Align learning plans with development and goals for all employees. If you’re further down the path, you’ll even be able to create and manage learning content or connect to external learning portals.
Technology is meant to enable HR to do more than drown in emails and paperwork. A comprehensive Human Capital Management solution will empower your HR team to optimize the greatest asset you have, your people.
Last week at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, we spent an amazing four days with over 3000 Deltek clients and partners. This year’s Deltek Insight conference provided us with the unique opportunity to spend some quality time with our clients hearing what drives their business, what struggles they are facing in the year ahead, and their excitement around some of Deltek’s most relevant Human Capital Management offerings for their industries.
In case you weren’t able to attend this year, or if you didn’t get the chance to stop by to chat with our HCM experts, we wanted to share this year’s hottest topics and takeaways heard directly from our clients in regards to their growing Talent Management needs.
Onboarding and new hire experience. While there is still a focus on getting employees in the door quickly, customers also want to make sure that this is a positive and beneficial experience. Getting forms and documents to the new hire so they can complete them online is one part of this, but another part is making sure that they are successful after joining by providing training, check-in reviews, and other tools to the new hire proactively.
A shift in performance processes. More and more of our customers are looking at revamping their performance review process, moving away from the standard annual performance review. Of most interest are conducting continual feedback reviews in a less formal method, or providing more timely reviews through project-based appraisals.
A heavy focus on compensation planning. Whether it is annual compensation increases, bonuses, or cost of living increases, having a tool that supports you in making sure that pay is fairly and easily distributed, while keeping within budget, is important to customers of all sizes. This includes comparing pay ranges for employees to salary market data, ensuring gender pay equity, and reporting to analyze trends.
Growing compliance demands. With the ever shifting regulations, government contractors especially are putting more and more focus on finding HCM tools that can support the growing compliance demands. AAP reporting, for example, is a crucial piece factor in deciding on a talent acquisition solution that can support such requirements, while tracking and monitoring certifications makes a world of difference in planning for upcoming projects.
Focusing on the full talent lifecycle. Organizations are still hiring and growing, and finding good quality candidates in the market continues to be a priority. However, with the shortage of good candidates out there, it is more crucial than ever that businesses focus on retaining the talent and experts they already have. This has created an increased interested in post-hire solutions to assist with career development activities, ongoing learning, and even succession planning or key positions.
These trends are no surprise and are consistent with what we saw in the Deltek Clarity Reports. We expect these topics to continue to be at the forefront in 2018, and as always, we are committed to keeping our clients informed and ready for both regulatory and strategic changes as we prepare for the New Year. Stay tuned for our upcoming blog series covering the hottest topics from Deltek Insight’s Human Capital Management sessions!
Contact us to help you build your 2018 talent strategy, and to see how Deltek Talent Management can help you with both your recruiting and your retention initiatives.
Deltek rolled out its new customer support center on Monday, October 9th, 2017. The support center has been improved allowing users to learn, connect and more effectively manage their experiences. Entering the Deltek Support Center after October 9th, you now see a message that looks like this:Deltek Support Center Welcome ScreenNew Login FeatureThere is a new login feature when using the enhanced support center. You will still navigate to the same URL that you previously used. Prior to the new help center, you would have seen a login button and an account assistance button. However, you will notice that, where the account assistance button used to be, it now says “Need Help?”When you click on “Need Help?,” you now have the option to chat with someone. This feature offers the real-time ability to speak with a Deltek professional who can assist you. To access the chat, you will need to enter your email address and then click “Start a Chat.”To get back to the login page from this page, you will need to click the silhouette in the top right corner. This will enable you to log into the support center.Stay Up to Date with NotificationsAfter logging in, you will receive the critical info pop-up announcing the new site. When you close this pop-up, or if you are logging in after the alert has been removed, you will immediately be presented with a list of notifications.Deltek Support Center Notifications PopupKey highlights of the notifications popup include:
The notifications are equivalent to the old alerts and announcements section
You can hide the notifications popup if you do not wish for it to popup every time you open the support center
Global notifications are color coded: high (red), med (yellow) and low (green)
You will only see alerts for the products that you own
You can click on the number in the orange square at the top of the screen which indicates how many notifications there are if you choose to hide the notifications
Manage Your Deltek Support Center AccountIn the upper right, you will see the gear icon. This icon allows you to open the “My Account” section. This is where you update your profile settings, and you can also see the current support plan you have.The account management section allows you to change the following:
Password
Preferred language
If you want or do not want to see notifications
Get Support for Your Deltek ProductsThe search bar offers you the ability to look for forums, posts and knowledge based articles using specific words or phrases. Everyone will see the learn and connect information boxes, and if you are an administrator, there will be an additional box that will be available. Below the information boxes are “Trending Topics,” which show the top ten articles for the products that you own for the last thirty days. You will only see the topics in this list that relate to the products that you own.Depending on the level of support you have, you will possibly see up to six icons. The icons you view are driven by permissions. If you can’t find the answer, submit a case. Deltek will then research your inquiry. Availability, however, depends on the type of service plan you have purchased. Here are the options you will see depending on your license agreements:
Cloud Solutions- You will see this is if you own a Saas product. When clicking this icon, you will be able to choose the cloud solution you are needing help with. This will open a wide range of help topics specific to your needs.
Initiate a Chat- This icon allows you to enter a chat with Deltek staff. Be sure to check the bottom of the chat page for specific hours of availability.
Product Downloads- The Deltek Software Manager (DSM) is your central place to download all the Deltek products you own, including all service packs and hot fixes.
Manage Cases- Here you can check the status, view details, and update your support cases. Previously called, “My Support Cases.”
Purchase On-Demand – Deltek’s “On-Demand Support” is available for situations that require brief, one-time access to our support experts for situations that are not covered by your annual maintenance fee.
If you have less than three icons available, they will not show. You can still access the available options by going to the upper left-hand corner of the screen and utilizing the menu to navigate to your desired destination.Enjoy the New Deltek Support CenterAs you can see, the new customer service center is not only user friendly, but it eliminates information that does not pertain to you. The updated service center’s ultimate goal is to help you continue to get the most out of your Deltek product. Click here for more information about the Deltek Support Center.
