The Number One Mistake When Implementing An ERP System

The other day in a meeting, I was asked what is the number one mistake people make when implementing an ERP system an a college or university setting, This one came out of my mouth so fast that it through me back for a loop; I stated a lack of a retention policy for newly trained staff with new skills. It is easy to get an administration to understand why the organization must then hundreds of thousands of dollars on hardware and consultants and additionally the battle for millions of dollars for software has all ready been fought by other people. The most impossible thing to get An administration to realize is implementing an ERP system without a staff retention policy is literally suicide. we'll take a staff member, who is an administrative assistant, and give them highly needed Oracle skills, relational database skills, train them in the latest and greatest reporting tools as well as business process analysis as well as other skills that other universities are dying for.

At the end of the project, after the organization haves invested 18 months of training and $25-$60,000 per person to ensure the staff has the necessary skills to manage the ERP system, we seem to still believe it is reasonable to pay them the original administrative assistant salary of approximately 24,000 a year. Amazingly down the road there is another university or college that is in desperate need of this skill set. We have just spent 18 months plus a boatload of money to train our staff and we expect our staff to stay with us when a University or college down the road are willing to pay them $55,000 + a year.

This begins the vicious cycle of hiring unqualified people, and spending a lot on my of money and time to train and bring them up to speed. Only to have them leave once they have acquired highly marketable skills, this is so easily avoidable by simply listing out gradual pay increases, as an individual picks up the necessary skill set to manage the ERP system. They will get a market rate increase that will match their new responsibilities as well as their new skills sets. I have found over the years that they do not even have to be major salary increases; it's a matter of the administration letting people know that they highly appreciate the effort that each individual has put into launching the new ERP system and the overall individual contribution to the organization. So for example: if we had taken the administrative assistant who's making $24,000 a year. Then laid out a detail 18 to 24 month training plan with incremental salary increases as each new skill set or certification was achieved, At the end of the process the administrative assistant would be making approximately $35-$40,000 a year depending on the overall changes in their day-to-day responsibilities. But by laying out a detailed plan with achievable goals you will boost morale and have less chances of this highly trained employee leaving for greener pastures.

PS to all the Presidents and Chancellors out there always remember human capital is by far the hardest resource to replace easily