HR Rethink: From Intent to Impact

Build Your HR house from the ground up

The first step is all about assessing your current HR setup and mapping out a clear vision for the future. To do this, you need to answer three key questions:

· Where are you now? (Point A)

· Where do you want to go? (Point B)

· How will you get there? (The path from A to B)

Taking the time to get this right is crucial. Without a clear direction, it’s easy to be tempted by flashy solutions with big promises—only to realize later that they don’t actually solve your problems and might even disrupt what’s already working.

We call this phase HR Rethink, also known as Blueprinting. To ensure a successful transformation, you need to focus on five key areas:

1. HR Vision & Design Principles

2. Future HR Platform Structure

3. Employee Journey Mapping

4. Project Approach, Team & Timeline

5. Business Case & Risk Assessment

1. HR Vision & Design Principles

Just like an architect starts with a vision for a house, you need a clear vision for HR in your organization. This means defining your strategic goals, key values, and fundamental HR design principles.

Why does this matter? This will act as your guiding star throughout the project. Every decision you make later on should be aligned with your strategic goals, ensuring you stay on track.

Here are four essential questions to guide this process:

· How should your future HR function serve employees and managers? (HR Service Delivery Model)

· What role should HR technology play in supporting this model?

· Who does what? What responsibilities lie with HR, managers, and employees?

· How will you balance global vs. local HR processes? What needs to be standardized, and where do you need flexibility?

The result of this step shouldn’t be a vague mission statement, but a clear and actionable strategy document that explains how HR will function and what principles will guide it. This will help align stakeholders and make change management smoother.

2. Designing Your Future HR Platform

With a vision and service model in place, it’s time to define the structure of your HR technology landscape. Just like when building a house, you need the right materials, layout, and connections. In HR, this means selecting the right tools, systems, and integrations to create a seamless experience.

Three key considerations: Global vs. Local Needs – Your HR setup should be scalable across different countries but also flexible enough to accommodate local laws, languages, and cultural expectations.

Integrations – Instead of replacing everything, leverage what works and integrate new solutions smartly. Payroll, for example, might already function well and just need better connectivity with other tools.

Solution Shortlist – Based on your strategic vision, create a shortlist of potential vendors that actually fit your needs. By taking the right approach now, you can see past the marketing hype and focus only on the best-fit solutions for your company.

The output of this step is a clear and structured blueprint of your future HR platform; something you’ll refer back to throughout the project and use to get buy-in from leadership.

3. Employee Journey Mapping

Technology alone isn’t enough—it needs to work for your people. Mapping the employee journey ensures that HR services are designed with the end user in mind.

Pro tip: Don’t create processes in isolation! Test them with real employees to make sure they actually work in practice. Ignoring this can lead to frustration and resistance.

The outcome? A detailed employee journey map that visually connects HR processes, employee needs, and system capabilities - so HR stays aligned with business and employee expectations.

4. Project Approach, Team & Timeline

Before jumping into a tech selection, you need to prepare the groundwork for implementation. This step defines how and when your team will execute the project.

Key elements:

· Project scope – What’s included? What’s not?

· Key deliverables – What concrete results should be achieved?

· Timelines – How long will it take?

· Stakeholders – Who’s involved, and what are their roles?

By creating a detailed project plan early on covering risks, milestones, and roles, you’ll be in control and well-prepared before engaging with potential vendors.

5. Business Case & Risk Assessment

Finally, don’t forget the business side of things. You need to justify the investment and show why this transformation matters.

Your business case should clearly outline:

· Expected benefits & ROI

· Potential risks & mitigation strategies

· Cost estimates (time, money, resources)

The output? A persuasive, well-structured business case that makes it easy for decision-makers to support your HR transformation.

Conclusion

Launching a successful HRTech project is like building a solid wall—every brick needs to be carefully placed to create something strong and future-proof.

With this blog, you’ve taken the first step: laying the right foundation before jumping into system selection and implementation.

Up next: How to choose and buy the right tools and technology - without falling for the usual traps. Stay tuned!