The success of a company largely depends on having active, engaged and thriving employees. As the intersection between personal life and work continues to blur, people have high expectations of the kinds of employers they want to work for, and what they want their employee experience to look and feel like.

People want to work for companies that focus on engagement, foster flexibility and provide technology experiences that mirror their experience in their personal lives. To attract and retain the right workers, companies need to provide the best tools and technology to help employees be more efficient, flexible and confident with the technology they rely on at work.

Cloud solutions enable organizations to meet those needs by creating an open and collaborative user experience for all employees. A decade ago, HR leaders were pondering the idea of moving to the cloud and today, the word “cloud” has become a normal part of industry vocabulary. In fact, it is estimated by ISG that by 2020 over 50 percent of all companies will rely on cloud-based solutions for their HR delivery.

If your organization is considering migrating to the cloud, it's imperative to have a thoughtful transition plan in place. Most importantly, focus on the end user—employees. With this at the foundation, these four key steps can help drive a thoughtful migration:

Define your organization's strategic and financial objectives before conducting any system evaluation or making any decisions. The biggest mistake leaders can make is to skip to the execution without considering what the organization ultimately needs and wants to accomplish. Outlining your company's objectives and identifying the long-term vision of the entire HR function ensures that every future decision will align with the organization's strategic vision.

Develop an effective, scalable HR service delivery model. Still with that end user in mind, design and build your organization's data and processes to allow for meaningful workforce insights. When the groundwork is laid, your company is in a position to build a model that will be scalable as the organization grows with the cloud. It is important to keep in mind how enhanced technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation as well as delivery partners will also play a role in scaling the cloud model. The final plan will enable your organization to remain nimble and adaptive as the solution is deployed.

Leverage proven industry best practices. Simply put, your organization doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. Establish your company's global processes as a baseline to drive the cloud initiative forward and then lean on proven best practices to maintain and standardize the technology that will be used to deliver and support HR services. Leaders should stand firm on these practices, only allowing deviations if there are regulatory challenges your industry may uniquely face or critical differentiators within your line of business.

Align your company's objectives, practices and take action. Your company must have the right resources to ensure a successful implementation. Put in place a full-time team dedicated to cloud management and engage your end user throughout the process as the system is designed and new processes are put into place.

While the work does not stop when your migration to the cloud is complete, a successful migration serves as the foundation. Taking the time to prepare for a thoughtful migration will help ensure the cloud solution is best positioned to deliver for your company for the long haul, ensuring that your people have access to the best tools and technology for them to be successful.

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4 steps for effective cloud technology integration in HR

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