Learn more about HR technology and tech trends designed to help you identify HR tech opportunities in 2015 with my new ebook, The HR Technology Field Guide. 

When working with your HR technology suite and other important software and systems, it is important that you be aware of how everything you use works together, or its ability to be integrated in a way that makes your job easier. You want to be sure that you are not creating extra work for you or your colleagues.

Imagine it is the dead of winter and you are gathered together with your extended family celebrating the holidays in a big beautiful house, somewhere in the north where it is really cold and really snowy. Because it is frigid outside, most of you will likely want to stay warm indoors and spend time together. Members of your family are staying in rooms spread throughout the home. When it comes time for you to all gather together you realize there are no doors between various wings of the house, no connection allowing you and your family to move internally. To come together. You have to go outside, into the bitter cold, before coming back in. At that point, the house probably isn’t looking so big and beautiful anymore. It has likely become more of a nuisance, a series of small, separate and now seemingly useless structures. Why would they not just all be connected? It seems silly, doesn’t it?

EVERYTHING SHOULD BE INTEGRATED & CONNECTED

Like the hallways of a house should be properly connected and easy to navigate, the same holds true for your system integration in HR technology.  Depending on the number of HR technologies you have purchased, it’s likely that not every single product is part of an HR techn suite of products. Because you have multiple technologies from different vendors that you want to communicate and work together, systems integration is what you need. In your home there needs to be a flow of information and access between all parts of your home. Each room must interact and flow together. Otherwise, you are wasting precious time and money.

From a functionality standpoint, it is extremely important for a technology suite and other related system to be interconnected. Imagine if you had to access your bedroom from the outside window. How difficult would that be? HR Technology systems that don’t integrate are exactly like that. What good are they if they do not work together or communicate? In all likelihood, they are doing nothing more than creating extra work, increasing the potential for errors and giving you and your colleagues a headache, all while wasting your time.

THE OPTIONS IN HR TECH

When it comes to HR technology, it is important to be aware of the applicable differences between on-premise and cloud of SaaS based HR technology. Many cloud based systems make accessing stored information faster, easier and more secure. Let’s be real. On-premise systems are a thing of the past. What you really need to be concerned about is integration whether it’s a single unified suite system or a place where different technologies are working together allowing for information, access and data to flow from place to place.

The availability of options when it comes to selecting your HR tech can be quite overwhelming. Making the correct decision for you and your company can be complex and stressful. It is important to know what you are looking for. In the event you are unsure, many potential providers have demo processes available for purchase.

The more aware you are of your options as well as your needs, the more likely you are to select software that will not only work for you but also has the capacity to be integrated with your existing options.

This is why integration is so important. It allows for data and information to flow between systems. Otherwise, you are having to do a whole lot of extra work, walking from the front door to the other front door of the home instead of accessing the hallways of HR technology.