“You want money for what?”

Dreaded words no one ever wants to hear from their boss, especially when it is for something we know we need and from which the company can greatly benefit.

Workforce software often falls into this bucket of unjustified expenses with little impact to the bottom line. The employees doing the grunt-work at the ground-level would have something different to say—they know how much time they waste shifting between disparate data systems, manually transferring data, and shuffling through stacks of paper and basement archives.

Indeed, all the alt-tabs and paper shuffling add up, but how do we quantify these inefficiencies in relevant stats for the officers holding the purse-strings?

If Human Resources truly wants a seat at the strategic table, we have to learn how to speak in strategic language. That means presenting your appeal for an integrated workforce software through a well-thought out business case.

Without a doubt, it’s hard to quantify the work that HR professionals do on a daily basis to keep an organization running, foster a dignified work environment, and optimize employee engagement. In a business world that prefers business cases filled with pie charts and predictable ROI, making a case for an integrated HRM System can seem daunting.

Be not afraid!

How to Build Your Integrated Workforce Software Business Case

Building a business case is nothing more than telling a story. Of course, at the end of that story your aim is to have brought your listeners to embrace your vision. When building a business case for an integrated HRM System, the following five questions provide a good framework.

1. What are the organization’s objectives? You want people to listen to you, then you have to talk about the things that they care about. Start by taking a look at your organization’s objectives (ie. Increase cross-selling opportunities, reduce cost of turnover, etc.), and pick those which you think you’d best be able to positively impact through an HRM System investment. This is more than just looking at the immediate data efficiencies. Think of the opportunities gained! With the time and labor return your system provides, you’ll be redeploying those resources toward strategic HR projects.

2. What efficiencies are there to be gained in our current processes? This is the grunt work. Essentially, you are comparing life before your HRM System to life post-implementation. In this analysis you’ll be identifying a mix of concrete savings (savings from off-boarding old systems), and soft-savings (efficiencies gained, increased productivity, and employee engagement).

Time and labor efficiencies, depending on how quantifiable they are, can fall into the soft or concrete categories. Try to lead with as much concrete savings as possible, as they tend to provide a more predictable ROI.

3. What is the required investment? There is more than just money going into onboarding a new HRM System. Beyond the system base cost, implementation fees, maintenance fees, and marketplace add-ons you have to consider

• Implementation timeline
• Employee system training
• Formatting and uploading data from old software or paper systems to the new system

This is a heavy lift, and having a deliberate system onboarding with training and consultation will be the difference between leveraging the new HRM System to its fullest potential and purchasing an expensive new electronic paperweight.

4. What is the proposed solution? It’s a given that the HRIS itself will create labor and time efficiencies. The extra selling point is presenting those projects you identified in Step 1, and adding the forecasted impact of those initiatives to the discussion. Again, it’s tough to quantify how building a better compensation package will reduce employee turnover, but case-based evidence from other HR professionals that have the potential to lend some objective validity to your forecasted ROI.

5. What’s the expected ROI? We’ve been leaning into answer this final question in the previous steps, but now is the time to add all of those projected savings and positive HR initiatives and wrap it up with a good happily-ever-after ending. Show how your HRM System and redeployed resources will positively impact those selected company objectives. Be sure to include when people can expect to see the first fruits of this projected ROI, and show how you plan to accurately measure and report success. Don’t embellish on your impact—it’s the quickest way to shut your project down. In short, let the data speak for itself.

For a guided workbook for building a business case for an integrated HRM System, check out our latest workbook.

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