For those in the HR Department, what are some of the common criteria(s) for choosing a relevant software for your organization. Remember the saying, one man’s medicine can be another man’s poision? Well, this probably ring true here.

Depending on your budget versus your needs, one can start sourcing for vendors and conduct your selection base on the following standard criteria (not in order of importance):-

What is available in the market?

There are plenty of HRMS providers in the market. From top tier vendors to cheap ones flooding the market, there are plenty to choose from. Of course, at the end, one would prefer to choose base on one’s needs and that suit one’s budget.
You may have heard of some prevalent ones in our Malaysian market including Kaizen, Peoplesoft, PeopleTime, Flex, Boss, WorkPlaze, InfoTech, Kakitangan, Awantec and the list goes on.
Simply speak to a few more people in HR to find out more about them. Look for what you need. A solution that caters to Enterprises or SMEs that is affordable, and caters well to your needs and does the job.

What to look for in your search?

1. Company stability

You wouldn’t want to indulge in a new software house that has just been established for less than 5 years. It can just be a fly-by-night organization and the next moment they are gone.
Reliability is the key word, together with commitment and presence in the market. Do ask around if any of your business associates, ex-peers or friends know about them. Engage with people who are familiar with such software to understand better. If no one ever heard of them, forget them.

2. Support system

Are they on cloud or still doing the traditional way of storing all data on server? In this era, relying on remote servers could be a lot more riskier as it is people dependant (to manage) and the other risks including breakdown or being hacked.

3. Client Support Management

Do they have a dedicated team to cater to your needs for guidance, reference or when you have a new team handling the HRMS including payroll? Don’t let this become a setback after you sign up. This can be critical for your organization.
On another note, you may wish to check where the vendors’ office are. You may be able to imagine the difficulty if they are based overseas. Worse still, if they are home-based.

4. Industry savvy

Does your vendor knows your industry well? It can be dicey if they don’t. Vendor who are
in the industry will understand your needs better, and is able to cater to your HR needs
without you even asking. Solutions that are readily available will save time and reduces
administration tasks. Take a peek at their list of Clients (who and in which industry). Get
a reference or two from those companies. That will help.

5. Flexibility

By mentioning this, we mean in all aspects. This is of paramount importance as you may decide to make changes and corrections to your process flow, authority level, terms and conditions in your HR policies as you progress after implementation. Most vendors call this customization.

Selected vendor must be able to cater to your unconditional requests as and when required. You will face much difficulties if your vendor is unable to fulfil such requirements, take too much time or event get a third party to do this.

Note : Usually some minor charges may apply for change request made after implementation stage, which may be chargeable.

6. Upgrades and Updates

Find out if there were any version upgrades conducted by the vendor in selection. Free. Good vendors continuously upgrade the existing version of the system for improvement. Their R&D is an investment that must be committed. No two ways about this.

Updates must also be done. For example, the terms stipulated for changes in the Employment Act 1955 (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2022 must be readily updated by the vendor (without charges). This is an important element for HR business continuity in any organization.

7. Pricing

It will still boil down to this for consideration. How to decide?

Remember the saying, “Good things no cheap. Cheap things no good?” A good HRMS system requires good planning. Planning includes R&D and development. This would require resources. Resources means know-how involving good people. After development, it will need maintenance. And support.

Cheap software means the above is not properly done and engagement between vendor and Client will be minimal.

A good software should address all the factors above and cater to your organizational need, at a reasonable price. Of course, usually the pricing is determine by the overall needs, modules chosen, level of customization required and fundamentally dependant on the size of data required to support the number of headcount in your organization.

To help support this matter, is the training cost for HRMS implementation claimable from HRDF funds? This is definitely claimable!

8. BPO Payroll Outsource services

For those organization who needs a HRMS in place but does not have the people to do payroll or opt not to do a non-value add piece of work in generating payroll, does your vendor provide the option of opting for it to be outsourced?

Good vendors provide the expertise in this matter of importance, yet mundane and purely administrative. This will provide an ease of mind while tending to more important matters like sales and operations of your business.

9. HR Consultancy & Advisory

This will be even better. Some organizations do not have a HR expert to begin with. Business owners rely on HRMS vendors to advise and consult them when is come to what matter most in its’ people matters, performance measurements, yearly appraisals, terms of the employment act, HR policies and more.

All these factors, options and enhanced services form part and parcel of your considerations for a relevant system to be put in place. Commitment, variation of capabilities and services, stability, progressiveness, responsiveness, continual development by vendors would be the key essence.

For further information, check out www.rymnet.com or speak to our Consultant at 019-265 0303 and ask for a demo or any question on how and what is on offer.