Podcasts

Human Capital Management Service

This podcast was recorded at Connect & Simplify™ HQ in Wisconsin. We help hundreds of businesses (nationwide) with their Human Capital Management Service needs. For many businesses in the 50-250 employee range, Connect & Simplify™ is a profitable or more effective alternative to full-time employees dedicating all or some of their time to managing the chaotic and complex problems of Human Capital Management.

A simplified HCM service beyond Excel spreadsheets

Excel is not a database, fact. I bet some of you out there have an Excel spreadsheet to track all your Excel spreadsheets. Full disclosure, I use Excel spreadsheets to track some of the data I move around. But I don't claim it's a database. Roger here, human capital management (HCM) service consultant and marketing nerd.

A recent interaction with a prospect started with her seeing the logo for Connect and Simplify™. She said simplify out loud and I asked her, “Is there something you need to simplify your company?” She said she came from a company that had a human capital management service in place, which is all paper processes and spreadsheets for HR, payroll, benefits, etc. I asked how it’s working out. She said it isn't. She jokingly said with pain in her eyes her company had a whiteboard of PTO.

Basic HR management as a function of an HCM service

I asked her to tell me more and she explained that’s it. We use a whiteboard to track PTO. That might work for your kid's schedule on the fridge but not for a multimillion-dollar company. Think of the extra work both of these prospects must face each day. One is working in Excel, one isn't even that advanced. I'm sure there are never any duplicated entries or errors, which got me thinking about processes. And then I saw a meme from The Simpsons. You know anything about the Simpsons, you know that every episode has Bart writing sentences on the blackboard, typically for poor behavior. So those sentences usually start with “I will not…X.” But this particular meme was Excel is not a database. And it's not. 

Human capital management admins require information fidelity beyond Excel.

Excel is a tool to store data. So when we hear that companies are using Excel spreadsheets to track data for important dates, like start dates, anniversaries, licensing requirements, time off renewals, eligibility for benefits, and retirement plans. That's just the starting point. There are hundreds of dates, timetables, and deadlines that need to be tracked. Paper and Excel are not the way to do it. So put yourselves in the shoes of the prospects I mentioned. If that were you, what would you do? To be clear these prospects were not the decision-makers, they are the suggestions people for getting information about possible solutions to take back to the decision-makers.

Antiquated HCM service replacements are not reliable.

My goal is always to learn what the big picture is, what the immediate need is, where the first thing that needs to be fixed is, and then give an overview of how we can help. Can you imagine paper processes to handle all HR forms, benefits enrollment, retirement plan enrollment, and all the updates involved between the vendors? What could go wrong? And I mentioned one prospect has 2000 employees? Is there enough paper to even do that work? Or the prospect whose company tracks time on a whiteboard. What happened if the board got touched by accident or erased? Did they ever take a picture of it after every edit? How do they know when the last update was made? Or if it’s current? 

Why you’re afraid to switch human capital management services.

So what's the biggest holdup? A reason for not upgrading services might be fear of the unknown or not knowing where to start. Gathering information about options and cost I'm sure gives no time to do the actual work. These are all factors. Why?

How AI is changing HCM services.

Because we asked prospects and they tell us a recent article on human resources tech trends stating that cloud-based HR was one of the top trends with fixing recruiting, with analytics and using artificial intelligence coming up second and third. So cloud-based HR by itself should have recruiting, hiring, and onboarding components built-in and AI to analyze the employee data to target those ready to make moves in their job, family, or potentially laterally to another position.

AI's real-time data gives management tools to make hiring and staffing decisions, as well as to help project needs engagement, and lagging departments needing adjustments. Sir, it is said that for those two prospects I mentioned right now, AI is a dream until they get a cloud-based system and take care of the daily admin tasks. But think of the rewards those prospects would realize with having their manual processes automated, just eliminating potential errors and duplications while streamlining their recruiting, hiring, and onboarding. It would be life-changing. 

Choosing an HCM service

Where to start? Well, you can get on the phone and call a handful of vendors for HR, for payroll, NTLM, benefits, and retirement plans while starting to learn that's potentially 25 interviews. Or you can call one company that has subject matter experts in all these disciplines, as well as human capital management. A company, who has competitive intelligence on the well-known players in the HCM space, works nationwide with the industry leader in human capital management technology as a tech partner, and who designed solutions to fit every individual client and timetable. Yes, it’s a decision on either making 25 calls or just one.

Excel is not a database. Whiteboards are not databases. Your homegrown system built by your IT guy is not a database. Paper is not a database. And even if they were they cannot keep up with your company's needs. Bart was right. Excel is not a database. Listen to BART, at least this time. I'm pretty sure when Bart wrote on the chalkboard. The capital of Montana is not Hana. He was just going for the laugh. The capital was Helena. So listen to BART, and thanks for listening to us. If you want to get rid of paper and whiteboards, give us a call. 

Inside Connect and Simplify™ is sponsored by The Benefit Companies and our trademarked human capital management platform Connect and Simplify™.