How Long Does It Take to Implement HR Outsourcing?

When you plan to outsource HR, it’s essential to understand how long implementation takes. In most cases, you can start processing your first payroll within three weeks. The duration of the onboarding process depends on the number of your employees.

The size of your team affects each stage of the implementation procedure. For smaller teams, you can complete the process within one week. If you have more than 50 employees, onboarding could take two weeks or longer.

Let’s take a look at the stages of HR outsourcing implementation.

What Happens After Signing the Client Service Agreement?

After you sign the Client Service Agreement, the implementation begins immediately. The key steps that lead up to the first benefits of HR outsourcing are:

Establish Points of Contact for HR Issues

When you delegate HR to a reliable outsourcing solution, you need to establish solid communication points. For that, you need to designate an employee who can help coordinate the transfer of the requisite payroll information.  Another point of contact is an employee who handles billing.

If you already have an HR department, establishing points of contact is usually straightforward.

Gather Employee Information

Next, you need employees to start using the self-service portal provided by the outsourcing solution. You have to send a link to each employee and make sure they fill out the required information.

This particular step of the implementation process is automatic. However, some employees may not have the time or knowledge to fill out the forms correctly, especially if you haven’t leveraged self-service portals before.

A designated person should monitor the process and ensure that all the data is accurate. If you only have a few employees, the process shouldn’t take long. In a large company, gathering accurate data could take several days.

Assign Credentials

Once your employees provide all the necessary information, the outsourcing solution integrates it into its database. Then, the company assigns credentials to each employee to use the available HR technology.

The quality of HR technology provided by the outsourcing solution is often higher than small companies can afford by themselves. Many businesses also avoid implementing new technology since it has integration issues. Outsourced HR solutions will provide best-in-class HR technology for no extra charge.

Technical Training

Even if your employees are familiar with self-service portals, they may still need the training to access, manage, and report hours in real-time. An HR outsourcing solution can provide webinars to walk employees through the new HR technology for:

• Sharing Personal Information
• Entering Payroll Data
• Learning Company Policies
• Time-Keeping and Scheduling
• Submitting Information about Travel Expenses and Reimbursements
• Leveraging Benefit Enrollment

A webinar will teach your team how to leverage self-service portals in the most efficient way possible. It will also answer common questions related to privacy issues.

Since self-service portals contain highly sensitive information, the technology comes with strong security elements. However, your employees need to learn to keep login data private and change passwords frequently. 

Process First Payroll

Once the technical training is completed, the HR outsourcing solution is ready to process the first payroll.

Throughout the onboarding process, you have the opportunity to ask any questions you have about payroll processing and other HR functions. The HR specialists responsible for your company should be readily available to provide answers.

The implementation process is an excellent time to adjust your company’s operation to the HR outsourcing model. This involves speaking with your internal HR team members and explaining the importance of flexibility when working with an outsourcing solution.

Your employees need to understand that you aren’t partnering with an HR outsourcing solution to replace your HR team. You are doing this to help it focus on core HR tasks without looking back at time-consuming manual functions.

How Does Company Size Impact the Implementation Schedule?

The size of your company has a direct impact on the implementation schedule. While the time it takes to establish points of contact is more or less the same for companies of all sizes, it varies for the rest of the steps.

If you have a large team, it:

• Takes more time to gather employee information and make sure it’s accurate. 
• Takes more time to populate the HR outsourcing solution’s internal database and assign credentials. 

It may also take more time to educate employees in a large company, since you may need to arrange several training sessions.

How Long Does Implementation Take?

For smaller companies with responsive and educated employees, it can take less than a week to implement HR outsourcing. For larger companies with multiple departments and busy employees, the implementation can take more than four weeks.

A reliable HR outsourcing solution will work hard to complete the onboarding process as soon as possible. The duration depends on many factors including the responsiveness of your employees, the availability of designated people, and the size of your team.