Why Hiring an HR Consultancy for Your HRIS Selection is a Smart Investment

As an HR Director, selecting the right Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is one of the most critical decisions you'll make for your organization. The right HRIS system streamlines HR operations, improves data accuracy, enhances employee experience, and ensures compliance with labor laws. But with hundreds of options available, how do you ensure you're making the best choice?

In this blog post, we’ll explore why hiring an HR consultancy like HR Software Partners to assist with selecting an HRIS system is a smart investment for your company. Whether you're managing a team of 100 employees or 1,000, outsourcing this process can save your company time, money, and potential headaches.

The Challenges of Selecting the Right HRIS System In-House

Choosing an HRIS is a complex and time-consuming process that involves multiple steps, each of which can drain valuable HR resources. Here are the main challenges faced by HR Directors when handling HRIS selection internally:

1. Time-Intensive Research Process

The first step in selecting a new HRIS system often involves scouring the internet for the right vendors, reading reviews, and trying to make sense of hundreds of software features. This process can take up a significant amount of time—time that HR leaders should be spending on higher-value tasks like talent management or employee engagement.

2. Coordinating Stakeholders

Selecting an HRIS system isn’t just a task for the HR department. It requires input from IT, finance, payroll, and even executive leadership. Coordinating these stakeholders to ensure alignment on the company’s needs can be a logistical nightmare. Disagreements and misalignments at this stage can lead to delays, wasted time, and potentially a wrong decision.

3. Demo Fatigue

Once you've shortlisted a few HRIS vendors, scheduling and participating in demos can be overwhelming. Each vendor presents a solution that seems perfect, but without a clear understanding of your company’s specific needs, how do you evaluate whether a product is truly a fit?

4. Documentation & Compliance Risks

Documenting the requirements, setting up a scoring system for demos, and capturing key metrics requires expertise. Without the right knowledge, it’s easy to overlook essential features or make decisions based on incomplete or outdated information. If you fail to capture everything properly, the system may not meet your needs down the line, resulting in costly adjustments.

Why You Should Consider Hiring an HR Consultancy

Now that we’ve discussed the challenges, let’s explore why hiring an HR consultancy like HR Software Partners to assist with the selection process is a great investment for your business.

1. Expertise and Efficiency

HR consultancies specialize in HRIS systems and have access to up-to-date knowledge of the market. They can quickly filter out unsuitable options and provide you with a pre-vetted list of vendors that match your company's needs. With their expertise, they ensure that the right system is chosen, saving you significant time and effort in the research phase.

2. Time Savings

By outsourcing the HRIS selection process, your HR team can focus on its core responsibilities. For instance, HR Directors spend an average of 80 hours on tasks like researching vendors, gathering internal requirements, and managing demos. With an HR consultancy, the time commitment drops drastically, saving you valuable HR leadership time that can be spent on more strategic initiatives.

3. Better Stakeholder Alignment

An experienced HR consultancy will help you manage internal stakeholders effectively, ensuring all departments are aligned on the system’s requirements. Their experience in handling cross-functional teams guarantees that everyone’s needs are heard and incorporated into the selection process, helping you avoid costly misalignments later on.

4. Reduced Risk of Making the Wrong Decision

An HR consultancy ensures that your decision is based on a comprehensive understanding of your company's needs and the capabilities of each HRIS vendor. Their guidance reduces the risk of choosing a system that doesn’t meet your requirements, which could lead to costly implementation mistakes and rework.

5. Cost-Effective

While the consultancy’s fees might seem like an upfront expense, the time and cost savings they offer outweigh the investment. In addition, the right HRIS system can lead to long-term savings in HR operations, data management, and compliance.

What’s the Investment?

Here’s the updated pricing structure from HR Software Partners based on company size:

• Up to 100 employees: £2,500 / €2,500

• 101 to 350 employees (Our company’s size): £4,500 / €4,500

• 351 to 500 employees: £6,500 / €6,500

• 501 to 1,000 employees: £7,500 / €7,500

For a company with 250 employees, the fee is £4,500 / €4,500, which includes a range of services from vendor selection to demo facilitation, ensuring that the right HRIS system is chosen based on your specific needs.

Calculating the ROI: Is It Worth It?

Now, let’s break down the ROI of hiring an HR consultancy.

Cost of In-House Selection

Let's assume the average salary of an HR Director in the UK is £80,000 per year (or approximately £38.46 per hour). Here's how much time the HR Director might spend on an in-house selection process:

• Researching & Shortlisting (20 hours): £769

• Gathering Requirements (15 hours): £577

• Scheduling & Attending Demos (25 hours): £961

• Coordinating Stakeholders (10 hours): £385

• Documentation & Evaluation (10 hours): £385
  Total Time Spent: 80 hours
  Total In-House Cost: £3,077

By hiring HR Software Partners, you save an estimated 70 hours of HR Director time, which equals £2,692 in savings.

Risk Mitigation

Choosing the wrong HRIS system can lead to significant hidden costs, including:

• Implementation errors and troubleshooting: £2,000–£5,000 or more

• Employee training costs: £1,000–£3,000

• System downtime and delays in payroll: £1,000+ per incident

An HR consultancy helps you avoid these costs by ensuring the system meets all your company’s requirements upfront.

Total ROI

• Time Savings: £2,692

• Risk Mitigation Savings: £5,000 (conservative estimate)

• Total Savings: £7,692

• Investment: £4,500

• Net ROI: £3,192 (or 71%)

Conclusion: A Smart Investment for Long-Term Success

Choosing an HRIS system is a pivotal decision, and doing it in-house can be both time-consuming and risky. By hiring an HR consultancy like HR Software Partners, you save significant time, reduce the risk of costly mistakes, and ensure that your HRIS system is perfectly aligned with your company’s needs.

With a clear ROI of 71%, this investment not only saves your HR department time but also improves the overall efficiency of your organization in the long run.

So, if you're facing the challenge of selecting a new HRIS, consider partnering with a trusted consultancy. It’s a decision that will pay off, both in terms of time and financial savings.