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Human Element Of Software Implementation

The Human Element of Software Implementation

When it comes to adopting and implementing new software for your labour hire business, there are a lot of critical factors you need to consider and account for.  The more of these critical factors you neglect, the higher the probability of failure and inability to get buy-in from your team.

One critical factor that many companies and even consultants that are helping to implement the software forget is the human element.

Let’s dig into this for a couple minutes and explore how humans – AKA your employees and team members – can stop a successful software implementation dead in it’s tracks.

Let’s start with a question…

What good is new and improved software if you keep using the same old procedures?

No, seriously.  Think about that for a minute…

Because the problem with many companies is, they go out and spend tons of time and money trying to find the latest and greatest technology.  They meet with multiple vendors and review all of the bells and whistles, and they find the perfect software that will take their company from the stone ages to tech leader in their industry.  They sign on the dotted line and everyone is excited for the new software that’s going to change everything for the better! 

Then comes implementation, and what do they do?

They try to take the old way of doing things and cram them into the new system.  They want to keep all of the old procedures – even though they’re old and dated – and carry them over to the new system.  Ironically, they want the new system to be just like the old system they spent so much time and energy trying to replace.

Does this make any sense?  Absolutely not!

But we get it… its hard not to do this, because it’s human nature.  People don’t like change.  Even if it will make their life better.  They have the beaten path they’ve followed for years, and even if you point out a new path that will get them there twice as fast, they won’t use it because it requires them to step out of their comfort zone.

There’s a quote that sums this aspect of human nature up very well. 

“I’m very excited for change, as long as I don’t have to do anything different.”

Isn’t this so true! 

Now for a second question:  Now that we know this, what can we do to avoid this in our software implementations?  How can you as project manager assigned to oversee the implementation at your company fight back against human nature and implement real change that doesn’t carry over old and bad habits/procedures?

The answer is don’t forget to focus on effective change management.

When learning all humans go down this path if we don’t take steps to intervene and stop it.

1. Excitement.

2. The actual change.

3. Stress because of the change.

4. Feeling overwhelmed and over stimulated. 

5. Failure.

Do you want your software implementation to be successful?

If you want your software implementation to be successful we need to cut it off at 3. 

The way we do this is by remembering one thing:  As we get older, as an adult, we’re looking at things through different colored lenses. We’re looking through this new software system that’s actually awesome but relating it back to our old system or the system before that, or how things are done generally in the industry. 

You’re going to hear questions and statements like, “But, this isn’t the way we used to do it?, or, “The old way we did it was fine.  Why are we doing it this way now?”

And when you hear questions and statements like this, that’s a flag to you that your team doesn’t fully understand the benefits of new procedures.  And the next step is getting overwhelmed and reverting back to old procedures if you don’t immediately step in and coach them on WHY the new procedure is more efficient, and explain that sometimes we have to take one step back to take two steps forward.

If you can focus on the human element of the implementation and remain keenly aware of how your team is responding – you can avoid having your team get overwhelmed, bringing over old procedures and habits and you can keep everyone excited for the new change that a new system will bring. 

At Entire OnHire, We understand the psychology of change and know how important it is to the successful implementation of your new software.  Even though everyone focuses on all the technicalities of software implementations, it’s the human element that is responsible for 80% of the implementation failures.  When our team works with your team to implement our labour hire software, we don’t let this happen.  We help you effectively manage change and keep your team educated, engaged and excited to adopt new procedures, habits and ways of doing business. 

 Is recruitment/labour hire software worth for agencies?

This is a question a lot of recruitment and labour-hire business owners ask themselves:  Is software worth the investment?  The short answer is yes. Read this blog – https://bit.ly/2YlicsK on how recruitment software is crucial for agencies.

Read Also – The simple way how to get buy-in for your new software launch

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