SAP SuccessFactors solutions are cloud-based HCM software applications that support core HR and payroll, talent management, HR analytics and workforce planning, and employee experience management. To incorporate SuccessFactors into your organizational system, you must embark on a digital transformation of some sorts. 

However, according to Mckinsey, 70% of transformations fail. Why? Why does the same tool or process being integrated by different organizations end up with different results? Some succeed and some fail woefully. Isn’t it the same system and we do know that organizations are capable of growing and changing, so what’s the differing factor? I think it’s the human factor. It is probably to be blamed for the majority of such failures. Therefore, of all the suggestions you will find in this piece, the suggestion to get Employee buy-in (your employees’ commitment to your goal after they see reasons with you) is of utmost importance. This will make the process easy.

Tried and Tested Practices for Implementing SAP SuccessFactors successfully

1. Get Employee Buy-in:

Getting employee buy-in is simply gaining the commitment of your employees to a project, because they find there is something they can gain from it. Much like shareholders buy-in, the only difference being that you won’t be able to move on without shareholders’ buy-in, but you can dive headlong to failure without employee buy-in.

Educating your employees on the benefits of SuccessFactors is one sure way to get them in. When they understand that their organization sooner than later may be unable to compete in the market without this transformation, they will be more amenable to change.

It is vital that you meet up with your organization’s stakeholders who will also enlighten the rest of your employees. They should know what the plan is. Ensure that you answer their questions about how the change would affect their jobs and what they need to know. Also create a system that ensures that they get access to all the information and help they need along the way.

2. Train Your Employees:

This should come as a no-brainer. Your employees should be equipped with the new skills needed to do a great job right? So you should train them. SAP HR SuccessFactors makes it even easier. They provide free training for different functions within SuccessFactors, all your staff need is the ID. Check this out here. Inviting a SuccessFactors consultant to help in enlightening your employees is an even more direct approach.

Opensap courses also offers free courses, all on SAP services, with much help for SuccessFactors. You can check this out and then link in your employees. All these are for the training of your employees. If they don’t feel confident in their skills in the new way of doing things, there’s going to be resistance and this does not bode well for your organization. Don’t forget to leave enough time for this learning curve. The pressure of trying to learn something new within a short time frame is a shot at your own foot.

3. Define Your Scope and Success:

I am quite guilty of a crime – “scope creep”. Scope creeping is a subtle deviation from the original scope of a project to include much more. I discovered personally that the biggest consequence to scope creep is that I never get to achieve anything at all. Scope creeping creeps in when you get excited about all that could be, so that you jump from one thing to the other and by the end of the day you never quite accomplished any. 

SuccessFactors is a miracle. There is so much that it could do for your organization and I am sure that the more you discover it the more excited you will become because of the possibilities that abound. However, your employees need time to take all this in. Change is gradual. 

Start somewhere, it could be automation of onboarding. The goal could be that in 2 months time the entire onboarding process has been automated. It could also be that in 2 months everyone should be fairly able to use a particular function in SuccessFactors. Ensure that the metric for success is determined beforehand but remember to allow your employees to take little bites on this journey.

4. Data, Data, Data:

In the process of integration, business does not halt automatically to allow you make the transition and changes needed. SuccessFactors is big on data, it works with data. Hitherto, you must have had a data management system which may have to go with the transition to SuccessFactors, however you have to do everything cautiously so that you don’t lose data that you may never recover.  You run the risk of losing vital data and consequently your business of this process isn’t managed properly.

Remember to always backup your data, especially since you are now aware that SAP HR SuccessFactors is a cloud software and if you know anything about the cloud – the one just over your roof, you would know that there are downtimes. It is never steady. So you can’t trust it with all your data completely without some kind of backup. Time is money.

5. Budget Your Resources:

You need some IT experts who will help with moving data, integrating the old software with the new and other technical issues to be handled. A SuccessFactors consultant will also be needed to customize SuccessFactors to your particular organizational need.

Some extra training may cost you quite a lot too. The cost of bringing in a SuccessFactors consultant, actually subscribing to SuccessFactors and bringing in IT experts are costs you should consider. And you see, in order to keep our Employee morale high and give digital transformation in general a good reputation among our employees we can’t stop halfway ok?

In conclusion, don’t forget that some integrations between the old and the new have to be made. If you are already a SAP customer, you will have to integrate other SAP services, there are also options for integrating data from  other HCIM platforms. Remember that employee buy-in is key and with it scope definition, cost consideration and data management. Still itchy for more information on SuccessFactors? Check this out.