If you want your employee scheduling, leave management and timekeeping implementation to succeed, you must focus on three key variables:

• People
• Process
• Product

The three Ps provide the highest return for your efforts because they act as the cornerstone for everything your business does. It’s critical that you understand how to manage your people, your process, and your product for maximum yield.

Employee scheduling, leave management and timekeeping software is pivotal to the operational success of an organization. Applications for employee scheduling and time tracking represent the most widely adopted technology for workforce management.

An implementation lead will oversee all team members and provide support for a high-quality evaluation, implementation, and assessment of the workforce management product. Daily tasks include project management, process reviews, and working together with other teams and strategic partners to ensure an effective product launch.

In this article, we’ll discuss the skills and capabilities required by an implementation resource to ensure your workforce managements system is deployed successfully.

Essential Duties of the Implementation Lead

On the surface, it might seem like the implementation lead has a one-dimensional role – they implement the software to schedule and pay employees in alignment with company/regulatory mandates. But there are several other duties you would expect in this job role daily. These include:

• Answer employee questions about the workforce management system
• Shape and influence employee experience of the system
• Oversee technology upgrades and implementation
• Analyze and reconcile data
• Train new employees
• Formulate workforce management processes
• Collaborate with stakeholders

Essential Skills an Implementation Lead Requires

Besides having basic knowledge of the latest trends and developments in workforce management, the implementation lead must also possess several other skills and capabilities. The following have been identified:

• Self-motivated and sincere
• Systems view of HR and its relation to the rest of the organization
• Sensitive to security and privacy needs
• Collaborative
• Computer skills in understanding the interface between computer technology and HR functions
• Open to multi-disciplinary learning
• An understanding of the future of the HRIS field

Professional Qualifications to Assist and Implementation Lead

A person possessing these skills likely will not be readily available, and one wonders if tertiary institutions should not include a workforce management specialization. The following education areas have been identified:

• Bachelor’s degree in HR
• Professional certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)
• Training experience
• Technical knowledge