1. MOTIVATIONS

• In PwC's 2017 HR Tech Survey, the top motivation to use cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) for HR managers were software innovation, quick releases, lower cost of ownership, and less dependence on IT.
• The above survey also reveals that the major motivations of HR managers while consolidating tech vendors are greater integration among different solutions offered by the same vendor, consistent user experience, ease of maintaining relationships with one vs multiple vendors, price negotiations, lesser human support to operate the tech, and good tech support from the vendor.
• Most of the HR managers (56% to 72%) are driving their people analytics using tech solutions, without any definite strategy or road map.
• According to a 2017 study conducted by Camilla Bengtsson & Moa Bloom of Lund University, some major motivations of HR managers to integrate tech are the incompetency of the traditional HR systems, rising digital awareness, and the flexibility and agility offered by tech solutions.
• These insights effectively conclude that HR managers are basically motivated by the ease of operation & more automation; and flexibility, agility, & customizability offered by tech solutions when considering whether to buy them or not.

2. CONSIDERATIONS/CONCERNS

• According to PwC's 2017 HR Tech Survey, major concerns of HR managers moving core HR/Payroll system to the cloud/SaaS were data security, customization abilities, and maturity of product.
• The same survey reports that HR managers considered product functionality, user experience, subscription costs, data security, integration capability, and level of effort and implantation costs, as important factors while consolidating tech solutions from vendors.
• According to the 2019 HR Federation survey, modern HR leaders expect "HR platforms and applications to both offer connections to other employees in workflows that require it like learning, feedback, performance management, or hiring and to integrate that communication into enterprise communication platforms like email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc."
•  Employee experience and new levels of recruitment are an essential consideration of HR managers while buying tech.
• HR managers are also looking to employ technology to help change behaviors "in areas like diversity & inclusion, sexual harassment, gender and pay equity in the workplace, etc."
• According to Terri Gallagher, President of Gallagher and Consultants which is a workforce strategy solutions company, HR leaders planning to seek out vendors for HR tech are also looking for vendors who also provide mobile-based solutions.
•  Lack of features; the tech operation being too manual, uncentralized, and complicated; and bad customer support are the major reasons why HR managers reject a vendor.
• We see that security, agility, and customizability of the tech solution are the major factors that HR managers take into consideration before buying a tech solution.

3. PRIORITIES

• In a 2017 HR tech survey by PwC, 38% of HR managers had plans to move to cloud/SaaS for talent review & succession, 34% for HR analytics, 35% for onboarding, and 31% for performance management. Other major fields of interest for HR managers to move to cloud/SaaS were compensations, core HR, time reporting, learning management, and recruiting, in order of decreasing priority.
• In the same survey, HR managers actively sought HR solutions on mobile platforms, their major priorities being review and approval of employee time/absences/expenses, job requisition initiation and hire approvals, individual performance management, talent analysis and management, and job change approval.
• When HR managers consider HR solutions/analytics, their primary focuses are foundational analytics, transactional reporting, workforce planning, data governance, comparing external benchmarks, and advanced analytics.
• The above insights make it clear, that the priorities of an HR manager when buying a tech solution are multi-faceted, reflecting various aspects of HR management.

4. PROBLEMS THEY ARE TRYING TO SOLVE

• Taking the 2017 HR tech survey by PwC into consideration, the common challenges that HR managers seek to solve with tech are lack of consolidated reporting between Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and other HR systems, data quality/inconsistent analytics, moving beyond simple queries in transactional reporting, lack of internal resources to make a more sophisticated use of HRIS.
• A majority of HR executives believe in and is trying to address the skill gap due to tech automation.
• We see that an HR manager looking to buy tech solutions is trying to overcome the challenges of consolidating all the data from various HR systems, while also completing advanced analytics.

5. MARKETING LANGUAGE THAT SPEAKS TO HR MANAGERS

•  Workday, Inc. is one of the leading global HR tech solutions' vendor.
• The webpage of Workday, Inc. focuses on integration as depicted by a large bold headline of "A single system for finance, HR, and planning."
• Further, the main page also provides size flexibility presenting itself as suitable for both medium and large enterprises.
• The strategy of Workday goes one step ahead then, to present testimonials from its clients, reviewers, and experts. It also features some big names who are using it as their HR tech solution. This all adds up top build confidence in the portfolio of Workday and bridges trust in its system, which is very important for HR managers seeking tech solutions.
• Workday works on multiple platforms, including mobile platforms which increases its desirability, since HR managers actively seek solutions which also work on mobiles.
• Workday also speaks on fronts of security, flexibility, agility, customizability, and employee-focused mindset, something we clearly have seen in a tech buying HR manager.
• Thus, we see that Workday, Inc. unites itself with the mindset of its target consumers (HR managers), and it has helped itself become a globally popular HR tech solution company.