‘Prepare, prepare, prepare’, was the message from Peter Reeve, Head of HR at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, when he took to the stage at this year’s HR Software Show in June.
Peter shared the technology journey that he and his team embarked upon, from initial competitive tender through to the successful roll out of their chosen HR and payroll system from Cascade.
In summer 2014, the hard work of the MND Association was catapulted into the spotlight, when the Ice Bucket Challenge became a social media phenomenon. This craze didn’t just successfully raise £7m for the charity; it also heightened awareness of the organisation’s continuing focus on MND care, research and campaigning.
But in order to run the 160-strong business as efficiently as possible, Peter knew a new HR system was required as the system they were using at the time had limited proactivity and its reporting capabilities were virtually non-existent.
Peter said:
“In truth we probably did too much ground work – we laid out 20 pages of essential and desirable software functionality, so that our expectations were clearly laid out. Some vendors even turned down the opportunity to pitch for the work because of this. But it was crucial that our expectations were well documented – we knew this would help us get the investment right, for the benefit of staff engagement and wider business success. That’s why we weren’t willing to leave any stone unturned.”
Confident that they had found the best-fit solution for the MND Association’s current needs and future requirements, Peter and Eve settled on core HR software with fully-integrated HMRC-recognised payroll software, plus self-service, workflow, auto-enrolment and training functionality, from Cascade HR.
Read more and watch MND Association’s presentation at the HR Software Show 2015 here.