You are here.
You've gone through a giant, global implementation and rolled out a new system to your organization. And the early feedback is that things are going great. Perfect even. Just kidding — everything needs to be better. Of course it does.
And that’s always how things need to be, right? Even better. Even faster. Even less. Even more. 56 percent of companies are looking to invest in new technology next year — there’s an industry-wide clarion call to do more with less. And so you keep changing things and adding on more tools. Sure, it’s making stuff better, but it’s also, well, a lot. And you’re pretty sick of it.
In fact, you’re just plain sick. The prognosis: implementation fatigue.
Never heard of it? Trust me, it’s a very real affliction affecting more organizations than you’d think. Its symptoms: demotivation, increased friction, and weak rollouts with low adoption. I’ve implemented hundreds of technologies. I’ve had implementation fatigue bad, and I work with enterprise organizations suffering from it every single day.
But there’s good news. I have the cure.
Actually, I have three.
1. “Stop implementing.”
OK, so maybe “stop” is an impossibility. But you can at least make it feel like you are.
With today’s rapid pace of change, you’re not always going to be able to roll with what you have now, especially if you’re a large enterprise company. A common side effect to being one of those is the need to continuously modernize your hiring process. So “stopping” completely is out of the question. I get that.
But that doesn’t mean that you have to continuously start from scratch.
Take Compass Group for example. They’re one of the largest employers in the world in an extremely competitive industry (foodservices) and have to hire hundreds of thousands of people every year across 30+ sub-brands. If any organization needs to be constantly evolving, it’s them. And yet…
“Stop implementing,” said Compass Group VP of Strategic HR Partnerships, Shay Johnson. “[Instead], focus on prioritizing good partnerships with your vendors. When we’re looking to implement, we’ll go to our own partners first to understand how they can solve [a challenge].”
When you prioritize finding the right vendors over finding the right software, you make future implementations significantly easier. Because those implementations will be supported by an established foundation by open lines of communication.
By trust.
And you’ll also find that implementation, at least in the traditional sense, doesn’t exist anymore. The multi-month vendor hunt, the complex analyses, the dreaded RFP. All things of the past — replaced with conversations amongst partners seeking parallel growth. When Compass, who has been a Paradox client since 2016, wanted to add a personality assessment into their hiring process, they came to my team first. We’ve implemented with Compass many times in the past, notably adding screening and interviewing scheduling automation, and we understand their business needs and processes well.
And so, a comparatively lighter lift. Sure, we had to workshop how an assessment solution would work best for them, but that step isn’t anywhere near as bad when you’ve avoided the tiring process of finding an entirely new vendor.
When you prioritize finding the right vendors over finding the right software, you make future implementations significantly easier.
Eleanor Vajzovic
Head of Strategic Solutions at Paradox
Of course, you’re never going to be able to fully “stop” implementing. But you can “stop” starting at square one. You can “stop” adding unnecessary burden to your team. And you can “stop” treating every implementation like a massive ordeal.
Maybe it can just be a conversation with someone you trust.
2. Manage your scope
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen clients get over-excited during implementations and decide to increase their scope:“This is great. We want more.”
Yes, more is exciting. But more is also one inch away from too much.
Scope is a main contributor to implementation fatigue. After all, more scope means more effort. And even worse, you often end up delaying the actual impact of what you’re trying to accomplish. When all you’re doing is building, you never get to enjoy the finished product.
You can’t always be in implementation (hey, there’s that “stop implementing” advice again!)
Here is where the right partner can step in and help drive focus. You and your vendor can workshop with each other to figure out what sort of implementation will bring the most value. At Paradox, we collaborate with our clients (usually before they even sign) on what we call an “implementation experience.” That experience contains two buckets: “right now needs” that will drive immediate value, and anticipated “right for the future needs” that we can work on down the road.
That way we keep excitement high and fatigue low.
Of course we want our clients to be passionate about their new technology. But too much of a good thing can lead to burnout, so you need to manage your scope before you bite off more than you can chew.
3. Remember that thing I said about having the right partner?
When we were first looking to implement new hiring tech for a large healthcare corporation, they weren’t exactly thrilled. They were suffering from a classic case of implementation fatigue. They even wanted to delay their implementation because they thought it would take too long. Keep in mind they had already bought the software!
But after just one meeting, everything changed.
“Because we were given the right options, the right clarity, the right advice… we were able to make our decisions quickly,” said a representative from the company. “We completed our review and got approval in just a few weeks; usually it takes a few months.”
Our partnership energized them into starting their implementation immediately. It pulled them out of the mud and set up a foundation for successful implementations to come. With the right team, the right mindset, and of course, the right technology, it is possible to cure implementation fatigue.
You are here.
You have to find a way forward.
The path is easier than you think. You just stop focusing on implementation. And start focusing on finding the right people to trust.
You are here.
You've gone through a giant, global implementation and rolled out a new system to your organization. And the early feedback is that things are going great. Perfect even. Just kidding — everything needs to be better. Of course it does.
And that’s always how things need to be, right? Even better. Even faster. Even less. Even more. 56 percent of companies are looking to invest in new technology next year — there’s an industry-wide clarion call to do more with less. And so you keep changing things and adding on more tools. Sure, it’s making stuff better, but it’s also, well, a lot. And you’re pretty sick of it.
In fact, you’re just plain sick. The prognosis: implementation fatigue.
Never heard of it? Trust me, it’s a very real affliction affecting more organizations than you’d think. Its symptoms: demotivation, increased friction, and weak rollouts with low adoption. I’ve implemented hundreds of technologies. I’ve had implementation fatigue bad, and I work with enterprise organizations suffering from it every single day.
But there’s good news. I have the cure.
Actually, I have three.
1. “Stop implementing.”
OK, so maybe “stop” is an impossibility. But you can at least make it feel like you are.
With today’s rapid pace of change, you’re not always going to be able to roll with what you have now, especially if you’re a large enterprise company. A common side effect to being one of those is the need to continuously modernize your hiring process. So “stopping” completely is out of the question. I get that.
But that doesn’t mean that you have to continuously start from scratch.
Take Compass Group for example. They’re one of the largest employers in the world in an extremely competitive industry (foodservices) and have to hire hundreds of thousands of people every year across 30+ sub-brands. If any organization needs to be constantly evolving, it’s them. And yet…
“Stop implementing,” said Compass Group VP of Strategic HR Partnerships, Shay Johnson. “[Instead], focus on prioritizing good partnerships with your vendors. When we’re looking to implement, we’ll go to our own partners first to understand how they can solve [a challenge].”
When you prioritize finding the right vendors over finding the right software, you make future implementations significantly easier. Because those implementations will be supported by an established foundation by open lines of communication.
By trust.
And you’ll also find that implementation, at least in the traditional sense, doesn’t exist anymore. The multi-month vendor hunt, the complex analyses, the dreaded RFP. All things of the past — replaced with conversations amongst partners seeking parallel growth. When Compass, who has been a Paradox client since 2016, wanted to add a personality assessment into their hiring process, they came to my team first. We’ve implemented with Compass many times in the past, notably adding screening and interviewing scheduling automation, and we understand their business needs and processes well.
And so, a comparatively lighter lift. Sure, we had to workshop how an assessment solution would work best for them, but that step isn’t anywhere near as bad when you’ve avoided the tiring process of finding an entirely new vendor.
When you prioritize finding the right vendors over finding the right software, you make future implementations significantly easier.
Eleanor Vajzovic
Head of Strategic Solutions at Paradox
Of course, you’re never going to be able to fully “stop” implementing. But you can “stop” starting at square one. You can “stop” adding unnecessary burden to your team. And you can “stop” treating every implementation like a massive ordeal.
Maybe it can just be a conversation with someone you trust.
2. Manage your scope
I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen clients get over-excited during implementations and decide to increase their scope:“This is great. We want more.”
Yes, more is exciting. But more is also one inch away from too much.
Scope is a main contributor to implementation fatigue. After all, more scope means more effort. And even worse, you often end up delaying the actual impact of what you’re trying to accomplish. When all you’re doing is building, you never get to enjoy the finished product.
You can’t always be in implementation (hey, there’s that “stop implementing” advice again!)
Here is where the right partner can step in and help drive focus. You and your vendor can workshop with each other to figure out what sort of implementation will bring the most value. At Paradox, we collaborate with our clients (usually before they even sign) on what we call an “implementation experience.” That experience contains two buckets: “right now needs” that will drive immediate value, and anticipated “right for the future needs” that we can work on down the road.
That way we keep excitement high and fatigue low.
Of course we want our clients to be passionate about their new technology. But too much of a good thing can lead to burnout, so you need to manage your scope before you bite off more than you can chew.
3. Remember that thing I said about having the right partner?
When we were first looking to implement new hiring tech for a large healthcare corporation, they weren’t exactly thrilled. They were suffering from a classic case of implementation fatigue. They even wanted to delay their implementation because they thought it would take too long. Keep in mind they had already bought the software!
But after just one meeting, everything changed.
“Because we were given the right options, the right clarity, the right advice… we were able to make our decisions quickly,” said a representative from the company. “We completed our review and got approval in just a few weeks; usually it takes a few months.”
Our partnership energized them into starting their implementation immediately. It pulled them out of the mud and set up a foundation for successful implementations to come. With the right team, the right mindset, and of course, the right technology, it is possible to cure implementation fatigue.
You are here.
You have to find a way forward.
The path is easier than you think. You just stop focusing on implementation. And start focusing on finding the right people to trust.
