You’re thinking about investing in a cloud solution to address your HR pain points, but aren’t sure where to start. Here are 7 things to consider before choosing an HR cloud solution.

Recognize Your Pain Points

Know exactly what your HR problem areas are before contacting vendors for an HR cloud solution. Doing so will prepare you to effectively communicate your pain points to the vendor. It will also help to ensure that you’re acquiring the right product. Many HR cloud solutions will address a myriad of problems, but that doesn’t mean they will solve your existing issues.

Consider Your Processes

It’s best to find an HR cloud solution that functions like your business. To reduce the risk of implementing a product that doesn’t work as expected, you’ll need to look at or identify your own processes and existing workflows. This will help you determine what HR tasks are the most important to either streamline or improve.

Decide What Software Features You Need Now and Later

HR cloud solutions offer many features, such as performance management, employee self-service and attendance and applicant tracking. To help narrow things down before you decide on a solution, you should prioritize a list of core features.  This list should begin with those features you’ll need to meet your business requirements.

Keep in mind that some businesses may be satisfied with the feature set in an entry-level cloud solution.  Others, those with more complex requirements, may need a software that specializes in a certain area, such as benefits administration, for instance. Also, think about how well the software will scale as your business grows.  This will help you to ensure that it offers the necessary features and capabilities you’ll need down the road.

Determine Integration Capabilities

Before choosing an HR cloud solution, you’ll need to determine if the software must integrate with your existing infrastructure.  For instance, will you need it to integrate with your legacy software packages, corporate website, email client, enterprise resource planning apps and other back office software?

Furthermore, keep into consideration HR programs or other programs you already use, such as payroll and accounting software, to ascertain if those items have the capability to integrate with your new solution.

Establish a Budget

Determine an appropriate budget for an affordable solution that best meets your business requirements before shopping for vendors, and consider your company size and functionality needs. This will ensure your budget ties into your HR strategic goals and can handle purchases that help grow and support your business.

Try Before You Buy

Before committing to a particular software, test the solutions that meet your needs by attending demos or participating in free trials, if available. This will help determine how user-friendly the system is and how much user training will be needed. Also, check if the solution offers phone support, video tutorials, setup wizards and 24/7 live chat to help aid your decision. Read customer reviews to help ascertain what the software will or will not do for you.

Think About Cloud Security

As with any cloud-based technology, you’ll need to look into how the solution protects customer and employee data before purchasing, as this information is stored online. Be sure to ask every prospective vendor questions regarding its security certifications, incident response plans, access controls and encryption options to protect critical data.

By considering these 7 topics, you’ll be on your way to choosing an HR cloud solution that adds value.