Introduction
This comprehensive buyer’s guide is designed to educate HR professionals or anyone involved in the buying process on how to navigate an HR tech purchase decision. It
provides a valuable, neutral point of view to answer your looming questions and provide clarity on common challenges you’re likely to face along your journey.
Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to make an informed decision and select the HR tech solution that best aligns with your company’s unique needs and goals.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear understanding of how HR tech can improve your organization’s efficiency, productivity, and employee satisfaction.
Now, happy reading, and best of luck to you in your employee experience endeavors!
Jump to a section:
Gain an understanding of how HR Tech can help you attain key outcomes
Gaps you may have with your current tech stack
Tips and tricks on navigating an HR tech purchasing decision
ROI > Budget ... and in more ways than you might think
Aligning Vendors To An ROI Vision
This is critical
Determining your vision is critical in selecting both the right technology and the right solution provider. Sure, a vision can evolve over time. And the right vendor will help you hone in, expand, and adapt your vision to meet your goals both today and tomorrow. But you must start out with an end goal in mind – one that’s clear and tangible.
One that comes from within with the intent to impact your bottom line. It’s moving from a “nice-to-have” solution to a true need, that propels your organization into the future.
What’s the problem you’re trying to solve … and what’s the business impact if you don’t solve for this soon?
Real-World Example
One of our clients – aleading provider of dental insurance – identified their employee experience problem as one that was painfully manual, grossly inconsistent, and incredibly underwhelming by way of meaningful experiences.
But business impact? That took a bit more work to determine.
In the end, they found that employee promoter score was far below what they wanted, which was leading to:
- Higher turnover
- Less productive employees
- Lower customer satisfaction scores
Improving any of these areas would clearly impact the company’s bottom line!
Understanding their problem and challenges upfront set the stage for success.
Ideas to consider
Taking these steps will set you up for success before you engage with any vendor – ourselves included!
- HR Tech needs assessment to identify current needs and opportunities.
- HR Tech vision statement to clearly articulate what the purpose of HR tech is at your organization.
- Create an HR Tech Evaluation Matrix of what you find in market (LLMs can be a helpful starting point)
- Utilize an ROI calculator to estimate current ROI and what you may gain. A vendor’s sales team may also have this to input numbers you provide.
- Consider an implementation plan template that covers what internal resources can help + what a vendor will have to provide
Know Your Non-Negotiables
Non-Negotiables are your identified requirements that are firmly established and cannot be adjusted. They allow you to determine which platforms you can and will evaluate.
To satisfy the why behind your investment, you must understand particular needs and circumstances within your business. No two organizations are the same, so this step is key. Take a hard look in the mirror to understand what makes your business unique, what your employee base expects or demands and what considerations must be accounted for. Stretch your thinking further to determine not only what you need today but what you will need as your corporation evolves down the road. Don’t get stuck in today’s reality, but be sure to think long-term.
Once you appreciate the intricacies of your organization, you can stack rank your key requirements. These should be highlighted as “non-negotiable” capabilities or functionality inclusions when reviewing potential solutions. It’s like buying a house…what are your must haves? When those are clear, you can weed certain offerings out of the gate and focus on those that best address your stop gaps head on.
For example, one Click Boarding client – a Fortune 500 financial instituation – had compliance in mind when evaluating platforms to help with their employee onboarding.
They wanted a solution to simplify the overly complex process but they needed to ensure foolproof compliance due to industry regulations.
A Checklist To Consider
In our experience, these capabilities are key:
Security certification, good reputation, or secure data privacy practices
Smooth integration capabilities with implementation and onboarding support
Technical support capabilities and customer service capabilities
ROI – does the price justify the benefits you’ll receive
Years that the company has been in business, reputation, client success stories, and positive reviews
Click Boarding ROI Includes:
22M savings for a $40B+ transportation company by reducing new hire no-shows to 4% (vs. 30% industry average)
reduction in onboarding per employee for Ellis Medicine, which meant millions in employee productivity and retention.
Key Idea: Stick To Your List
Again, these are common themes to review as you identify your solution of choice. You’ll likely come across unexpected considerations that seem extremely unique to your business.
We are comfortable with these unknown challenges, and we’ve seen many examples with our clients, such as:
- Compliance with complex tax requirements, based on location and industry
- Automation of repetitive, manual HR tasks that soak up lots of time
- Seamless compatibility with outdated, legacy systems to ensure data privacy and accuracy as the employee information flows through the system
- The delivery of a “wow” experience for a diverse employee base, based on groupings of cohorts
To summarize, know your list, and hold yourself to it.
When evaluating, it’s easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles on top of core functionality. Sure, gamification is cool, but will it really satisfy your need at hand?
Remember your why and prioritize a solution that gets you there in the most effective, efficient manner.
Your Options Are Endless
Point Solutions
Point solutions focus their entire business on solving specific challenges, allowing them to deliver highly specialized-expertise.
This often translates into best-in-class tools for specific needs, such as employee engagement, learning management, etc.
For instance, we’re best known for preboarding, onboarding, and offboarding.
However, point solutions can come with trade-offs. While they excel in their focus areas, they can struggle with anything that isn’t immediately adjacent to the problem(s) they solve – after all, point solutions are purpose-built to solve specific challenges.
Some platforms also may not come with a full suite of integrations, which can create barriers to working well with what you use today.
And finally, a point solution becomes another system to maintain, login to, and remember how to use – which can be a challenge for some.
Suite Solutions
An all-in-one suite is just that, one system aiming to be your one-stop shop for everything.
Suite solutions do offer some notable strengths. Their all-in-one approach minimizes the need to manage multiple systems, providing a single platform that can handle core HR tasks like payroll, performance management, and benefits administration.
These solutions excel at creating a centralized database, ensuring consistency, and reducing redundancy. For organizations with standard processes across roles and locations, this can result in efficient processes and a reduced need for unique software systems per location.
However, for companies with unique needs, such as those in specialized industries or with highly diverse workforces, suite solutions can lack the customization and flexibility required to accel. Adapting them to meet specific requirements often involves costly add-ons or lengthy configurations, eroding the efficiency gains they promise.
For businesses prioritizing tailored employee experiences that resonate across job titles, industries, and regions, a more focused point solution may deliver better results.
In-House Build
Understanding why compliance issues arise before a new hire’s first day can help
businesses address them effectively:
- Lack of Clarity: Many new hires receive insufficient guidance on required forms, leading to delays in submitting critical compliance documents.
- Manual Processes: Paper-based or disjointed digital workflows increase the risk of missing or incomplete documentation.
- Time Constraints: HR teams often focus on offer letters and contracts, pushing compliance tasks to the last minute.
- System Integration Issues: A lack of integration between HR systems, payroll, and compliance tools can cause inefficiencies and errors in new hire processing
Less Common Options
A few other options:
- Build It Yourself: You control all of the ins-and-outs, but the development and maintenance costs can be astounding – and nailing compliance or ease of use are non-negotiables for any organization.
- Do Nothing: In fact, nearly half of B2B buying decisions end up this way for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t solve your problems, but fear of messing up is a real factor.
- Stay with existing workarounds: You can argue this is a sub-set of “do nothing” but we’ve found a lot of HR and TA teams have to spend a lot of time getting things done in ways that aren’t ideal.
Great Places To Research For HR Technology
You don’t have to handle this alone!
- Associations: Think of SHRM or Hr.com and you’re on the money. These are the organizations committed to improving the industry and building a supportive, collaborative culture focused on growth.
- Peer Forums: A great way to have discussions with people in your role. The best ones are private, paid communities because you’re more likely to have robust conversations without upsells (and they’re often moderated). A great question to ask: “If you’ve used [vendor name], what do you wish you’d known in hindsight?””
- Review Platforms: Sites like Gartner, G2, and Capterra are renowned for giving options to consider backed by reviews, though it’s worth noting many reviews may be compensated (i.e. a gift card). You’ll want to check for quality of reviews and whether they were compensated or not.
- GenAI: A few well-placed prompts featuring your “why” from section one should pull from many of these sources and get you on a fast start. Be sure to fact-check what you get, ask for its sources, and give an instruction “if you don’t know, tell me you do not know” as well.
- Platform websites. See how each platform presents its ideal option for you! Does one talk to a specific industry that’s similar to you, or maybe feels like it isn’t speaking to your needs? Your impressions matter – trust them!
HR's Favorite Point Solution? Us!
Key Idea: Do Your Research And Stay Aligned To Your Goals
There is no perfect solution – there never is. However, sticking to your ideal list from section one and then staying aligned to the critical problem(s) you’re solving for should keep your entire decision process anchored to business outcomes.
Because ultimately, you’ll need positive ROI to justify the investment.
Budget Isn't Everything, But Buy-In Is.
ROI > Budget. A good vendor gives this to you upfront.
Let’s start with this – yes, HR technology is an investment. And tech should always be strategic in how it’s being purchased, nearly never as a “one off” because technology is used over and over again.
The true investment isn’t just dollars, too … it’s people, processes, tech adoption, and more.
So when it comes to your ROI, this matters – and your shortlist of vendors should know that and be able to speak to it. Ideally, they’ll have some sort of a calculator waiting on your inputs that can provide concrete starting points.
This is critical for both building confidence in your decision and presenting a tighter business case to Finance / Purchasing / IT when it’s time to ask for approval.
When it comes to costs, you’ll pay a recurring subscription fee, and that’s expected. Some vendors also bill based on time and materials, while others use a flat fee based on specific ranges. It’s important to be aware of usage fees tied to product administration and implementing.
While not inherently negative, these fees can add up quickly if overlooked!
What about process?
Technology accelerates how you do business today. It can be a catalyst for change, of course, but it needs the right training around it to be used most effectively.
So as you’re considering ROI, think of this quote from our own Danielle Balow, Director of Digital Transformation:
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it right later?”
Knowing your current process, break points, and how this investment will fix those is vital – and your buying committee wants to see this in simple terms.
Let's talk about the buying committee.
Who’s on the buying committee? It could be a task force, business case reviewers, or called something else … but ultimately these are who should be involved from the outset as you whittle your HR technology list down.
Typically, the following are involved:
- HR
- IT
- Legal
- Finance
- Business Operations (or similar team, i.e. Digital Transformation)
- Procurement
For HR technology purchases, we’ve often seen Purchasing / Finance operate as the final approver, with IT as significant influencers. HR or Talent drive the initial discussion, and often the CHRO may partner with Finance to ensure a technology is a good investment.
At the end of the day, you need stakeholders to see your side – and agree with the business case that you’ve built for your technology purchase.
Did Somebody Ask For ROI?!
1M annual savings with greater HR process automation for one client.
50% increase in new hire productivity (Global Fortune 500 financial firm)
ROI = Buy-In For Your Goals
Budget isn’t everything, but what using that budget leads to absolutely is.
Build your business case speaking to:
- ROI
- Timeline to make gains
- Who’s impacted and/or responsible
- The cost of doing nothing
If you have a winning vendor, they should be able to help you build this to circulate internally.
Find your right HR Tech partner
So, you’re heads-down in your buying process … but what factors should you think on with evaluating HR tech platforms and vendors? Here’s a few!
Customer Referrals
When speaking with someone, ask what customers they work with who are similar to you.
You’ll know immediately if they’re a fit by their answer (there’s yes and no, and also “we don’t have one specific to your industry, but here’s a couple of similar use cases” which is still valid and helpful), especially if they try to dodge the question.
Service Model
What’s best for you? It depends, but don’t think about it until you’re already in sales conversations.
Do you need the following?
- Hands-On Implementation. Will you need a third-party provider for this? How long does this take, and what costs are there? Who handles integration work?
- Training. What’s included, and for whom? Who provides the training … and is it hands-on live or a canned video course?
- Support Trends. How quickly are support requests responded to? Does the vendor have a robust team for when self-help documentation maybe doesn’t quite answer the need?
If you’ve read this far, then you’re likely nodding along. So here’s our pitch to you: if you’re looking for a vendor that checks all of these boxes, we’re right here and ready to share more.
Key idea: Get specific
Distinguishing between competing tech platforms can be tough. Ask them the hard questions and see how prepared they are to answer, from support stats to understand how hands-on they are with your implementation.
How they answer will guide your decision, often eliminating options you may have thought were leading candidates!
