After making the important step of deciding to implement an Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) system, what comes next? How best can you prepare your business, and what do you need to know to transition smoothly? There are three key areas that are focused on during an implementation, each with its own objectives.
Data
Your compensation data is the first step in preparing an ICM system. All the transactional data you have across spreadsheets, files, and the minds of your employees must be transferred to the new system. This first step often sees many hiccups, as data is altered off the books or in processes, and administrators may miss key data points. To ensure your data is correct before implementation, ensure that you speak to your employees and have a comprehensive understanding of how your data works.
Requirements
What will your system require? How will it help you achieve your business objectives? What expectations do your employees have of the system? Answer these questions to determine what your system will really need to accomplish. Know your teams activities and processes, and defining your requirements becomes simple. Also, how will your business change 5 years from now? Requirements should also consider the future state of your company. While written plans encompass the how to pay, it often misses the process that the team goes through. Don’t just rely on written documentation, talk to your team and understand what they really do.
Testing
The final stage is where it all comes together. Here you will test your system to see if it is returning on the requirements you set in the previous step. User experience testing is the best form of this, as the employees who will use the system most often will spend time with it, getting to know how it works and how it will help them. It is best to test in a realistic environment.. Instead of using parallel testing as UAT, use a controlled set of data and expectations to see how your employees engage with the system, and how it can increase their productivity. Parallel testing serves it purpose, but can make actual UAT testing to cumbersome to manage.
An ICM implementation may seem daunting, but with the help of an expert consulting organization like the Blue Horizons Group, it becomes much more manageable. With our years of ICM experience, we can easily guide you through these three steps and help you see tangible results with your team.