BUT FIRST — hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
This week was inspired by my trip back home to the Tundra (aka Min-ne-SNOWTA)
The Lunch That Sparked This Newsletter
As soon as I landed in Minnesota, I was scooped up by someone who has played a huge role in my HRIS career… my former HRIS manager.
She’s the one who watched me finish my MBA and promoted me to a senior analyst.
As we both navigate HRIS teams, we trauma-bonded over how much of a struggle it can be to build teams. Then we got to talking.
“So… how big are HRIS teams supposed to be?”
We hadn’t even finished ordering our food.
We ended up doing what HRIS pros do best: navigating endless politics, pushing back constantly, finding our dopamine hits by writing calc fields no one understands, and empowering others through technology.
We didn’t quite come up with an answer…
The good news is she isn’t subscribed to this newsletter so there is a 50% chance I won’t get in big trouble for posting this lol
You know what I love to do when I can’t figure something out?
I ask my besties on LinkedIn.
Obvi. 👠
The Million-Dollar Question: ANSWERED!!
So how big are HRIS teams?
“What team? lol” — 17%
(Translation: I don’t have another one, bless your heart)2–3 ppl — 33%
(The most common team size, even in environments where Workday is supporting thousands.)4–6 ppl — 25%
(Not bad, not bad)7+ ppl — 25%
(These companies are money bags. I kid. Shoutout to the companies who invest in their tech — as Lizzo would say, it’s about damn time.)
So where do you even begin?
Now there are a ton of variables here. This wasn’t a specific pulse check for a reason.
Here are some I always consider:
• Industry
• Company size
• Entities
• Number of modules
• ERP system
• PEOs/EORs
• Integration portfolio
As you can see, the different items are overwhelming for new managers.
My Recommendation
I’ve spent the past several years in Private Equity.
We have a common playbook:
• One leader who is a little dangerous with Workday that can manage intake, governance, testing standardization, and can configure if needed
• Integrations developer
• Senior Functional SME
• AMS support for ticketing/one advisory consultant
That is the setup I see over and over again.
Pro tip: Have HRIS report into HR, not IT. My email is open for this debate lol.
And if you want to be smart, don’t use an FTE for reporting and analytics.
Call my friends over at HRBench instead.
Thank you for voting, commenting, and sharing your experiences. This community makes HR tech feel less isolating and more connected.
If you didn’t get a chance to share your HRIS team structure, you can always email me at [email protected].
Stay tuned, gang 🔥
your HRIS BFF 👠
If you haven’t explored HRBench yet, you’re missing out. They’re building tools for the same HR leaders this community was created for. 😉
Want a closer look? You can reach them at [email protected] or visit hrbench.com to book a demo.