The perfect HR tech stack: seven takeaways from a webinar

Workable recently partnered with Checkr and Bamboo to bring together experts to discuss technology priorities for small-to-medium businesses.

Sharing their insights and expertise in the webinar were:

• Max Wesman, VP of Product, Checkr
• TJ Davis, Head of People Operations, BambooHR
• Rob Long, CHRO, Workable
• Trevor Schueren, Product Partner Manager, Workable

The focus of the hour-long webinar was to share insights and expertise on how to build the perfect tech stack to meet the needs of HR teams.

Strapped for time? We’ve pulled together the top seven takeaways for you:

1. Know your needs before buying

Understand your processes first before procuring new technology for your HR tech stack. Map out your current workflows to identify pain points and areas for improvement. Then look for solutions that can address those needs.

“Really take the time. If we’re talking about onboarding, map out your onboarding process. And when I say map out, [I mean] what’s every single touch point that’s going on in your onboarding process? Is it manual? Is it automated? Is it one of those critical touch points that’s really about the employee experience that you need to nail?” – TJ Davis, Head of People Operations, BambooHR

“When you think about optimization, one of the key points I would say is don’t confuse your technology solution for your process.” – TJ Davis, Head of People Operations, BambooHR

2. Prioritize ease of adoption

Ease of use and user adoption are key. Look for tools that are intuitive and easy to implement so that hiring managers and others will actually use them.

“If adoption across your company of your recruitment technology is important, if getting hiring managers involved in hiring, [and] if getting interviewers involved with the tool is important, then work will tend to be a very strong option there.” – Rob Long, CHRO, Workable

“I think of that very much from our user’s point of view, which is HR people, hiring managers. But I think then [about] the ease of use on the candidate side, which we often call candidate experience; it’s so important as well.” – TJ Davis, Head of People Operations, BambooHR

3. Understand your compliance needs

Compliance and regulation requirements may determine some of your tech needs. Industries like healthcare, for example, require background checks, so that would need to be part of your stack.

“We work with certain customers that are in very compliance-heavy industries like healthcare, and so they don’t have a choice when they’re hiring someone new. They have to run a background check, and that has to be part of getting off the ground.” – Max Wesman, VP of Product, Checkr

4. Nail down what you need right now

Core HR tools like an ATS, HCM, background check, and payroll system will meet most companies’ basic needs as they scale to 100-200 employees. After that, you can consider more targeted solutions.

“I think when we think about the core, what do most companies have by the time they’re a hundred employees? Typically most of them are gonna have an HRIS. They’re gonna have an an ATS. They’ll have their background check provider. They’ve got their payroll set up, they’ve got a benefits provider maybe on a platform or a broker.”

“It depends on different things that different people need.” – TJ Davis, Head of People Operations, Bamboo HR

5. Integrations are uber-important

Integrations between tools in your HR tech stack are important, especially if you have a small team. Look for turnkey integrations that transfer data automatically without requiring technical resources to build and maintain them.

“If it’s not an out-of-the-box integration like the one between Workable, Checkr and Bamboo, do you really have the resources internally or the time yourself to try and go and connect an API with a third-party tool? Or will you get support if you have a tech team internally or an IT team to go and build that out?” – Rob Long, CHRO, Workable

6. Look at scaling capabilities

Consider both your current and future needs. Choose tools that can scale with your business but also meet your most pressing needs today. Don’t buy for what you might need in five years at the expense of solving today’s problems.

“Early on in the life cycle of a business, it’s important to find the right partners and ones that can grow with you that have flexibility.” – Max Wesman, VP of Product, Checkr

7. Get recommendations

Get recommendations from peers but evaluate tools for your own needs. While peer advice is helpful, make sure any solutions align with your company’s specific goals, priorities, and pain points.

“Those referrals are a great, great way of creating that initial list of what we want to look at, but do really make sure that they’re a good fit for your business and what you are trying to do right now as well.” – Rob Long, CHRO, Workable