Case Study Synopsis
General Information and Project Team Description
It is essential to note that the Global Energy Company, registered in the United States, has over 50,000 employees in 180 countries. To manage information, the company utilizes a US-based human resource information system (HRIS) that already contains 20,000 records. However, the company plans to integrate the HRIS of the European division into the US HRIS (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018, p. 12). The HR department in London, which is to be integrated into the US HRIS, has significant gaps in inadequate controls, and the internal audit was unsatisfactory.
Moreover, a partner, Limited Experience, Inc., was selected for the integration, which has no significant experience in integrating the HRIS part of an existing system. In addition, the project manager is Frankie, who has yet to gain experience with IT projects and the current HRIS in the United States. The London office has hired Lyn to lead technical support; however, Lyn lacks experience in leading a technical team on an IT project utilizing this HRIS software and is unfamiliar with the culture of the London and US teams (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). To balance Jamie’s integration, a senior design analyst based in the US is also involved. Jamie has extensive knowledge of US projects but no experience in London.
Integration Challenges
The design analyst needed to attend meetings where current processes were discussed. To inform the experts’ assessment, the analyst would ask someone from the US support team to clarify specific details. Due to the time difference between the London and US teams, this often involved at least a one-day delay (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). There was also a gap in payroll, interfaces, and reporting, as the project managers were unaware of it; they did not require rehabilitation due to incompetence.
However, it was later discovered that the reporting should have been analyzed and changed for management needs. Furthermore, the reporting codes were inconsistent, and there were problems with job security (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). Afterward, it was also discovered that the payroll process should have been analyzed. Specific fields need to be sent to a third-party company, and the audit required that additional payroll data be fed back into the new integrated HRIS. Additionally, the confidentiality of payroll data necessitates the use of specialized encryption software.
The project team scheduled meetings at times when the senior design analyst was unavailable to review their work. Consequently, their decisions were automatically delayed and then had to be canceled, causing a waste of time. One of the most complex decisions during the integration was determining whether the change was a legal requirement.
Additionally, there was a language issue: both groups spoke English, but the spelling of many words differed. At the coding stage, it became apparent that having only one representative from the United States was insufficient (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). Thus, the project was delayed by 3 months, and the initial budget was exceeded. Moreover, after the system was launched, many items required correction.
Case Analysis
The primary problems that affected the project’s time, cost, and scope were inadequate staffing and a lack of project preparation. First, they hired people for management positions from London who had no experience with projects in the United States or did not understand the principles of HRIS implementation. Moreover, Limited Experience had no known experience in large projects and no proper encryption software (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). The deployment of only one US specialist to review processes caused time delays.
As a result, the lack of experience and cultural awareness led to processes being reworked several times and errors occurring repeatedly. Consequently, the cost and time of the project increased due to the need to correct errors (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). The lack of preparation for the project led to problems with language and different results of the employees’ recordings during the work.
Accordingly, the project’s scope changed because the involved parties were unable to fulfill the scope of work, which included various legal requirements. Minor issues affecting the integration were time issues when the US staff member clarified details with colleagues (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018). This led to time delays but allowed the project tasks to be completed correctly.
It is significant to highlight that the cultural issues arose from the fact that HR used different variants of English, necessitating the need to spend extra time on unification. For example, “center” or “center” had the same meaning, but different team members spelled the words differently (Bartlett & Bartlett, 2018, p. 15). Additionally, time differences impacted the quality of team communication, and differing cultural habits and laws led to problems that required resolution, such as updating employees’ addresses. Evaluating the effectiveness and performance of the project through reports and requirements would have helped to assess the reliability of the system before implementation (Savalam & Dadhabai, 2018). If there were errors and inaccuracies, they could have been corrected before the implementation, and in the case of case studies, they could have been corrected during the HRIS launch.
For future projects, it is recommended to involve people with experience in large-scale projects and HRIS integration. Individuals who possess in-depth knowledge of the system on a global scale and can develop a comprehensive, step-by-step project plan should be involved in project management. IT/HRIS professionals should be engaged if they have experience or have been trained to build HR systems and integrate data from different systems (Cardon, 2021). This will reduce the risk of issues with varying data regulations in different countries.
Accordingly, selecting team members with professional skills and based on the principle of competence is necessary. That is, HRIS experience, intercultural competence, communication skills, project management experience, and adaptability are essential. It is essential to conduct interviews to select the most professional staff for global projects. For example, it is possible to invite special labor consultants for professional selection (Alvarenga et al., 2019). Additionally, evaluating the resumes and references of specialists during their participation in similar projects is also essential.
My own lessons learned include the importance of preparing for global projects and providing additional training to participants as needed. Accordingly, it is essential to create a plan for future projects, identifying both weaknesses and strengths, as well as potential problems that may arise. Furthermore, if these gaps relate to the staff’s lack of competence, they should be trained before the project begins (Alvarenga et al., 2019). As a result, this will help minimize risks, save time, and facilitate the successful implementation of the project.
Conclusion
In summary, the US and London HRIS integration involved people without experience implementing such projects. Therefore, this led to an increase in the implementation time and budget to correct their mistakes. Before launching a project, it is necessary to confirm whether people have a clear plan and means of implementation.
In the case of the HRIS project, there was a need for additional staff and trained support. To prevent such problems in the future, it is recommended to utilize a project evaluation system, hire competent personnel, and conduct the initial stage of project preparation. This will help ensure that a qualified team implements the project according to a plan that considers possible challenges.
References
Alvarenga, J. C., Branco, R. R., Guedes, A. L. A., Soares, C. A. P., & Da Silveira, W. (2019). The project manager core competencies to project success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 13(2), 277-292.
Bartlett, J.E., & Bartlett, M.S. (2018). Integrating a human resource information system: A module with case. Society for Human Resource Management, 1-45.
Cardon, P. W. (2021). Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world. (4th). McGraw-Hill.
Savalam, S., & Dadhabai, S. (2018). Measuring HRIS effectiveness. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 20, 75-81.