HR technology, from inside the work.
Essays on HRMS selection, transformation, vendor evaluation, and the quiet decisions that determine whether a system fits an organisation or merely lives inside it.
Your Implementation Won't Fail on Features. It'll Fail on Data.
You are not moving data. You are moving the accumulated mess of every HR decision your organization has made for the last fifteen years — into a system that, unlike your old one, will actually enforce rules about what is allowed to exist.
You Spent Six Months Choosing the Software and Six Minutes Choosing Who Implements It.
The software you agonised over is largely the same in anyone's hands. The team that implements it is not. Give the same platform to two different implementation partners and you will get two different systems, two different timelines, and two different verdicts on whether the whole investment was worth it.
By the Time the Pricing Proposal Lands, You've Already Lost the Negotiation.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: the hard conversation already happened. You just didn't know you were in it. By the time a pricing proposal lands on your desk, the most important variables in that document have already been set — and most of them were set by you.
The Scorecard Is Supposed to Make the Decision. Here's Why It Usually Doesn't.
The scorecard gets filled in after the fact. The weights get adjusted to produce the number that matches the preferred outcome. The vendor who impressed the CHRO in demo two wins — not because the evaluation said so, but because the evaluation was quietly shaped to confirm what was already decided.
Every Reference Call You Make Was Arranged by the Vendor. Of Course It Went Well.
The reference check is supposed to be the one moment in a selection where you hear from someone with no stake in the sale. In practice, it is the most stage-managed step in the entire process - and the one organizations scrutinize least.
The Demo Looked Perfect. That Was the Problem.
Two things are happening simultaneously in that room. The vendor is executing a presentation they have refined over years to land precisely this reaction. And your organization is experiencing it for the first time, with no shared criteria and no one whose job it is to ask the uncomfortable questions.
Your HRIS Evaluation Is Being Run by Your Vendors. Here's How to Take It Back.
The vendor who presents first shapes the questions. The vendor who presents best shapes the shortlist. By the time the scorecard gets filled in, it is measuring what the vendors chose to show — not what the organization needed to know.
"We need a leave management module" is not a requirement
Feature requests tell a vendor what to build. Real requirements tell them what problem needs solving. Most HR tech documents skip that step — and pay for it during UAT.
The Role Nobody Budgets For — But Every HR Tech Transformation Quietly Needs
Not because the tool was bad. Not because the vendor failed. But because there was no one truly owning the thinking behind the transformation.
Why Most HR Tech Decisions Fail Before Implementation
Most HR tech projects don't fail during implementation. They fail much earlier—at the point of selection.