BUT FIRST — this year was a rollercoaster & HRIS was driving it
What I really do in my free time lol
A Quick Life Lesson from a 9 Year Old
Before we talk about governance committees (super sexy topic, I know)
let me tell you what my nephew taught me in line at Mall of America.
Owning a Workday implementation made it harder than it should’ve been.
You know the feeling. There’s always something that needs you.
Newsflash: this feeling never stops.
So I asked him one question:
“What’s one thing you wish you could change about the world?”
“I wish more people would touch grass.”
If you don’t know what that means, I didn’t either.
It means get offline. Be “IRL.” Go outside. Look at something that isn’t a screen.
Newsflash: this feeling never stops.
After 8 years in HRIS, I’ve learned that being offline is anxiety provoking.
Back to business.
If everything is “critical,” nothing is.
Put your seat belt on, ladies and gents. 👠
Two Words: Governance Committees
Do you have a formal HRIS governance committee?
I ask this every year. The answer rarely changes.
New year, same burnt out HRIS team. It’s budget season. It’s roadmap season.
It’s the point of the year where everyone needs something from HRIS at once.
Here’s how people voted:
190 votes:
34%: Yes
59%: No
7%: “Slack requests count, right?” (respectfully… no.)
So where do you even begin if you don’t have one?
How I start at every company:
1. I take everything in our backlog and begin to prioritize it.
This includes requests leadership already promised without asking us.
I’ve shared my prioritization scale before.
Send me feedback at the bottom if you want it again.
2. Then I design the committee.
I look at what we are already up against. Based on the volume and priority of requests, I put everything into a quarterly plan.
3. General roles:
• Head of Total Rewards
• FP&A leader to represent financials
• Head of HR Ops
• Head of Talent Acquisition
• Head of Learning & Development
• Sometimes IT. It depends on the cross-functional work. I try to keep this small.
Basically, HR leadership and a couple cross-functional leaders.
Each meeting is 30 minutes, once a month.
We review intake requests.
We agree on priority.
We confirm where it fits in the quarterly plan.
I went from 80% of asks being “critical” to 40%
If you want change, draw attention to it and track it.
My Recommendation
Not every company needs an HRIS governance committee.
But when culture breaks down, policy beats politics every time.
When I join companies and build teams, I enforce governance until I know the HRIS team won’t get bullied into saying yes to every task.
The best part?
Visibility.
It’s amazing how quickly priorities change when updating a dashboard color competes with building ACA processes to mitigate IRS fines 😉
BUT the cool news is…
If your dashboard does need a new color, HRBench is bougie and allows custom dashboard colors.
Yes. Company branding hex codes. 💅
Thank you for voting, commenting, and sharing your experiences.
This newsletter doesn’t exist without you.
My goal is to keep giving you data and HRIS cheat codes that make your world a little better every day.
If you didn’t get a chance to share your vote, 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.