Citation HR Launch Guide - How to introduce and launch Citation HR Software to your Team

Launching any new service or product within a business has its challenges – and that’s normal! Some team members may find it hard to adapt to change, while others simply don’t know enough about Citation HR to see how much easier it can make their lives. After helping thousands of businesses introduce Citation HR, we created this Guide to help you educate and inform your team. This Guide contains everything you need to help you successfully introduce Citation HR to your people and launch it within your business.

But what’s all the fuss about? Why “launch” Citation HR Software? We know that you’ve invested your precious time and money into technology to help you reach your business goals by reducing the burden of HR admin, ensuring compliance and mitigating risks. We want your business to succeed in achieving these objectives, and experience tells us that the best way to do this is by effectively communicating with your people and adopting a structured approach to launching the Citation HR Software. So, what are you waiting for? Follow the seven steps in this Guide, use the templates we provide, and launching the Citation HR Software in your business should be simple. Let’s begin…

Aligning Citation HR’s features with your people

It’s important to remember that not everyone in your company will use all of the Citation HR Workplace Advisory services and software features – keep this in mind when you’re launching Citation HR. Your leaders and managers will use Citation HR differently to your employees, contractors and/or volunteeers. The diagram below explains which features should be accessed by your people:

HR Managers/Leaders	Managers	Employees/ Contractors/Volunteers
Advice Line	Advice Line	eSS
Citation HR Software & eSS	Citation HR Software & eSS
HR / WHS Compliance Audit
Advice Promise

Launch the Advice Line

You need to decide who in your organisation is authorised to contact the Advice Line. Once you have authorised your team with us, you can launch the Advice Line to your organisation at any time!

HR Advice Line - Overview

Advice Line - Identify Authorised Callers

HR Advice Line - How to access

Setup Citation HR Software

To be able to launch Citation HR Software to your Managers, and eSS to your Managers and Employees, you will first need to set up your Software. Depending on your goals, you may not need to set up all features and functionality prior to launching. You may choose to launch the Management side of Citation HR software to your Managers, prior to completing the recommended setup for launching eSS.

Follow our Checklist to Getting Started with Employee Self Service (eSS), to ensure you have completed the recommended set up items prior to launch.

Plan how to communicate the launch of Citation HR Software

Its a good idea to start planning how you will communicate your launch of Citation HR Software, before you are set up and ready to launch!

Step 1: Set up your goals

Before you begin planning the launch, you need to clearly understand your goal. Knowing your end goal (or goals) will give you something to aim for, something against which to measure the progress (and success) of the rollout and may give you an early indication of timings. Ask yourself questions like:

What is it that you want to get out of the launch activity?
Do you need to get buy-in from particular users? Who?
What specific impacts do I hope the platform will have on the business – e.g. reduce the time your team spends on HR admin, make compliance easier, etc.
Which modules in Citation HR Software will you launch with to help you reach these goals?

No matter what your objectives are, spelling them out on paper will help you to achieve your goals. Essentially you want your people to actively engage with your brand-new platform to get the most out of it, and the best way you can do this is by effectively communicating the ways in which the software will make users’ lives easier and forcing a timeline for adoption by building up to an official launch!

Launch Tip: Citation HR Software has a wide selection of features. We recommend that your team access each feature over time to help you reach your initial goals and also avoid being overwhelmed with too much information. For example, launch Employee Management and Employee Self Service first, then move onto other features such as Online Performance Review or Training & Qualifications when you feel ready.

Step 2: Nominate your champions

There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’ and launching your new software shouldn’t be done alone. You’ll want to form a team of champions to spread the word, loud and clear, that Citation HR Software has arrived and is ready to use within your business.

Who will you select to help you communicate the message? You know your people best, so try to select individuals who represent the different departments within your business, who manage people and who possess various skills, so your team is diverse and strong. Think: leaders, great communicators, creative people, planners and doers.

Once you have your team of champions, it’s time to educate them so they understand how to use Citation HR Software and see its potential to transform the way they work. These champions will be experts in using the software and will be the ones your people turn to if they have questions during the launch.

You can use Citation HR Software's training guides to help you educate your champions.

Step 3: Choose how you’ll communicate

Now we’re getting to the fun part! Choosing how to spread the word is critical. And, while we can suggest some of the ways you can communicate, you know your business and people best.

Are your leaders likely to respond better to a face-to-face discussion or do they prefer email? Do you have an intranet platform where news and information are posted or is a chat program such as Teams a better way to communicate? You’ll know which channels will be the best ones to use.

Many workplaces now operate remotely, whether wholly or in part – but don’t let that stop you from launching! Below are some traditional and non-traditional ways you can make your Citation HR Software launch fun and interesting, along with a bunch of templates you can use:

Email. It’s a good idea to structure your email/s so information doesn’t get lost, and your team is not overwhelmed with details. See the Templates section at the bottom of this page to get you started.
Intranet or staff newsletter. If your business uses this medium to communicate, do it!
Personalised messages from your champions. Ask your champions to discuss the new software every chance they get – at the water cooler, within team meetings, on the phone!
Pre-recorded video. Why not get creative and film a launch video? Tell you people about Citation HR Software and how it’s going to support them. You can also use our pre-recorded video which provides an overview of the entire platform.
Make it social. Everyone loves free food and a reason to get together! Present and discuss the new software with your team, explain the new processes and give your employees an opportunity to ask questions and address any concerns. This can be done in person or via an online meeting, using platforms like Zoom or Teams. See our Templates section at the bottom of this article.
Group training sessions. Training your staff is an effective way to demonstrate how the software works and how it will help them and the business. Use the event to encourage open and transparent discussion and questions. Refer to our training options to support this activity.
One-on-one training sessions. This might be important for senior managers who need to access more modules and learn more about the software or people who are not as tech savvy as others.
Offer rewards for engagement. Lots of your important documents, policies and templates will be stored in the Citation HR Software. To encourage people to use the platform, get your people managers involved – ask your leaders and managers to use the platform to directly communicate to their employees and have the employees complete a list of tasks from the Citation HR Software. If staff complete the task/s, they get placed into a draw to win a prize. Task ideas can be things such as logging in and checking personal details are accurate, or reading and acknowledging three workplace policies, etc.
Communicate via Citation HR Software. After you’ve launched the Citation HR Platform, start communicating directly from the platform. Send messages to your people via the Employee Self Service (eSS) portal. The eSS message can announce any of your fun launch initiatives and/or can be used to circulate important HR notices. Did you know eSS allows you to prompt your staff to formally acknowledge that they have received and read a message/document? This can come in handy when circulating new workplace policies. We’ve drafted a few message templates you can use - see the Templates section at the bottom of this page to get you started.
Include the Citation HR Software in job descriptions. Make it a formal performance measure for all staff to use the Citation HR Software.

Launch Tip: If your business is looking for some additional help, you can always arrange a persoanlised training session with us. This is a one-on-one lesson with a Citation HR Software expert who will show you everything you need to know to get the most out of the Citation HR Software.

Step 4: Create a plan

It’s a good idea to make a communications plan to launch Citation HR Software. We’ve created a comms plan template for you to use, simply enter your selected channels, dates and audiences and off you go! See the Templates section at the bottom of this article.

Step 5: GO!

Now that you’ve lined up your messages, selected the ways you’re going to communicate, and who you’ll be talking to, it’s now time to go, go, go! Along with your team of champions, it’s time to disseminate those emails and start hosting meetings according to your plan in step 4! Build that buzz and open the lines of communication.

This step will take a bit of time but should go smoothly if you stick to your launch plan.

Launch Tip: Your champions can expect to be asked lots of questions from the team — that’s normal. Remember that the team may feel overwhelmed at first, so try to be patient, remain positive and provide further training as needed. In time, the number of questions will start to decrease, and they will soon start to know where to go for anything HR related — the Citation HR Platform.

Pause, take a breather and evaluate

Ok, you’ve done it: the Citation HR Platform is LIVE, your leaders and managers have peace of mind that the business is solidly HR compliant, they’re starting to notice how much time they’re saving, and your employees are getting to know how the software will benefit them.

But you’re not relaxing just yet! This is the time where you need to gather feedback from the team and assess what went well, and if there are any areas where you still need to do some work or drive engagement.

Once you have received feedback from your team and a few weeks have past, think about how you can celebrate your win. Tell your people about everything that has been achieved to date and how you can keep on winning together!

Templates

Guides

Your Guide to Using Citation HR Software - For Managers

Your Guide to Using Citation HR Software - For Employees

Launch Tip: You can announce the upcoming launch of Citation HR whilst you are still in the process of setting of your Citation HR Software account

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