How to Get Your Leadership Team on Board with Consolidating HR Tools (Like Charlie) – and Proving the ROI

What consolidating HR tools can bring to the business

Having all your data together in one place makes perfect sense, but sometimes you’ll need to explain the benefits beyond this.

Consolidating all your HR activity into one platform has some strong advantages, like:

• Cost savings compared to multiple subscriptions
  
• Easier and more efficient for team members to use
• Less time and money spent on training
• Simplified HR management
• Faster adoption for new hires
• Better engagement from team members
• Improved compliance and reporting
• Easier to identify ROI

Once you understand the impact, and can demonstrate that to others, you’ll stand a better chance at convincing leaders and budget-holders to sign off on your proposal.

How to build a solid business case for leadership

Preparing a business case for your leadership team isn’t easy — especially if this is your first time doing it, or if you know they’re very hard to please. 

Use this step-by-step process to build a proposal or business case that highlights all the benefits and gives them more reasons to say “yes”.

1. Quantify your current costs

Before you write a proposal, you first need to understand what your existing costs are. Audit your existing HR tech stack and include anything you use for HR, whether it’s a dedicated tool or not.

Your list might include: 

• Onboarding tool
  
• Time-off management tool
• Performance management software
• Survey software
• Knowledgebase software
• Time-off tracking
• Benefits or perks platform

For every tool on your list, note down all the associated costs including:

• Subscription fees
  
• Training costs
• Support fees
• Hours spent on admin and troubleshooting

Gather all your data together in a simple table or spreadsheet so you can calculate the costs and arrive at a total. Use either monthly or annual spend, depending on which is more likely to convince your leaders to agree to your business case.

Here’s an example of how this might look, using our software categories from earlier:

Adjust this template based on the number of tools you have, and add columns if you have other costs — for example if you pay for add-ons, a premium service, or a yearly fee in addition to a monthly subscription.

2. Estimate your new costs

Knowing your current costs is essential, but you also need to be able to compare them to the alternative. In this step, estimate the costs associated with moving to a single platform — like Charlie.

If you’re proposing a switch to Charlie, this step is easy. Our pricing is clear and simple, with one monthly subscription cost for access to all our core features — no hidden fees, expensive training courses, or unexpected charges.

As well as our core features, you can also choose one or more add-ons to enhance your experience:

• Charlie Concierge: Get faster, premium support from a dedicated customer advocate
  
• Charlie Recruit: Add recruitment features and a careers site
• Charlie Advice: Get expert HR advice and unlimited support and guidance

To help you visualise how much Charlie might cost for your team, here are some scenarios and associated costs: 

Charlie’s pricing scales in brackets not per user, which is especially useful when you’re growing and adding new team members. Use our pricing tool to see what Charlie would cost for your company at its current size and what the potential cost might be as you grow.

3. Highlight strategic gains

HR might be your priority, but if you can tie your proposal into another strategic business goal you’re more likely to get approval. 

Leaders are often concerned about priorities like: 

• Financial cost
  
• Efficiency
• Scalability
• Risk reduction
• Employee retention

Frame consolidation as a way to enable the company to reach its wider strategic goals. Switching to one platform, like Charlie, allows you to make positive gains in all the areas above, so include narrative and evidence within your business case that demonstrates this.

4. Prepare for common objections

Sensible business leaders will approach any business case or proposal with scrutiny, so be prepared to face objections. 

Stay confident by having answers ready to common challenges like: 

• “What about switching?”: Explain how easy the onboarding and employee adoption process is — especially with a clean user interface like Charlie’s.
  
• “What about other tools?”: Use our comparison hub to show how Charlie compares to popular alternatives. 
• “What about integrations?”: Research compatibility with tools you already use or can’t consolidate, using our integrations page.
• “It’s too expensive, and our current processes work.”: Explain how all the tools combine into one, and how this saves time and money not just now but as you grow. Show evidence that your current processes are difficult, time-consuming, and cost you money.
• “What about security?”: Reassure your leaders that Charlie is safe and compliant by mentioning or including our security policy.
• “There’s no time to focus on this right now.”: Confirm that you only need their approval or budget sign-off, and that you can take care of the rest. Setting up Charlie takes less than a day, and can be up and running quickly with no training required. Any admin time spent now will be saved in multiples in the future.

How HR teams convinced their leadership with Charlie

Time-off management used to be dealt with ad-hoc at Fix Radio, before their Head of Ops found Charlie and encouraged the leadership team to sign up. 

Not only did Charlie give Fix Radio an easier way to handle time-off requests, but it also solved a key problem — compliance in recruiting. With Charlie, the team can store all data securely, manage passport and right to work checks, and generate reports.

Over at London Nootropics, HR processes were scattered when Sophie, their Customer Success Manager, joined. Information was spread across different platforms, and the system wasn’t efficient or reliable.

With no real system in place, it was hard for employees to engage with HR and simple tasks like booking holidays felt like a hurdle. The founder was on board with making a change, and Charlie came out on top.

Build a business case for better HR

Managing time-off and keeping track of employee data shouldn’t feel like an overwhelming challenge. Give yourself (and the rest of your team) the gift of a smoother, more efficient experience with an all-in-one platform like Charlie.

‍Book a demo with our expert team and they’ll introduce you to the platform and explain all the ways Charlie can help you consolidate your HR tasks. Either take the tour solo and report back on your findings, or invite your leadership team along to see exactly why Charlie is your first choice.