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Unlock the key to successful HR vendor selection with our guide on '5 Secret Ways to Vet HR Vendors.' Discover insider tips and expert insights to ensure you choose the right partner for your business needs
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Any time an HR team is kicking off a search for a new solution - whether that’s something big like an HRIS, or something ancillary like a new wellness program - one of the biggest challenges is narrowing the field.
In the past decade, there’s been an explosion of new HR services and hundreds of companies have sprung up to offer those services.
The challenge is no longer finding someone who can fill your needs - it’s identifying the best two or three options from the immense pool of choices.
At OutSail, identifying the highest quality vendors in each space is something that we’re constantly doing for our HR partners. In doing so, we’ve learned a lot of research strategies that save us from meeting with vendors that aren’t worth the time. Below are a few of those strategies:
G2 Crowd is essentially Yelp for business software and services. If you’re in the market for a new solution, you can search the category - “Benefits Admin”, “Time Management”, “Corporate Wellness” - and refine the rankings based on your company size.
I always recommend taking G2 Crowd’s rankings with a grain of salt. Just because one service is ranked 1st, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best option for you. That being said, their rankings are generally accurate and can help you weed out low quality vendors from the start.
Now that you’ve identified the top 5 or 10 choices, it’s time to move onto the next step:
I actually recommend visiting a LinkedIn company page, before visiting a company’s website. Every company’s website is designed to get you to fill out their demo request form. Because of this, the information is kept intentionally vague. However, I’ve found that visiting a company’s LinkedIn page will get you more straightforward information.
Pay special attention to a few things on a company’s LinkedIn page. The first is the employee size. If a company is extremely large, you’ll want to make a note to ask about their customer support standards. If a company is extremely small, you’ll want to dig in on their functionality and integrations. Additionally, the growth trajectory can be an important indicator of how much success the company is having. If it’s up and to the right, they might be doing something right!
At this point, you should be able to weed a few options out. But don’t be afraid to add a few new ones by using the LinkedIn “People Also Viewed” panel on the right side.
Going with a startup can seem like a risky choice, but oftentimes the rewards can be tremendous. Startups come about because their founders have identified new ways to solve problems that the older, established vendors have ignored. Additionally, many startups will go above and beyond to support their early clients, including rolling out new features based on your feedback.
To avoid the downside of going with the wrong startup (one without funding or direction), it’s really helpful to visit Crunchbase and make sure the company you’re looking at has received funding at regular intervals (every two years or so) in increasing amounts. This means that investors believe in this product, and it’s probably safe for you too do so, as well.
Who is more plugged into the quality of software vendors than software vendors, themselves? One way to identify top vendors is by visiting the website of a vendor that you trust and seeing who they’ve formed partnerships with.
For example, we can all agree that Greenhouse is a top-notch ATS. So if you want to see what other vendors, Greenhouse thinks are top-notch, go to their partnership page and browse around. Do this with a couple vendors you trust and, all of a sudden, you’ll see the same options rising to the top.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a famous book, called Blink, that showed how powerful our subconscious brain is at distinguishing the wheat from the chaff. We all spend hours a day online, and without noticing it, our brains have all gotten very good at identifying junk websites from quality ones.
Go to the websites of some vendors that you’re considering and see if they pass the blink test. In the blink of an eye, do you feel you more excited about learning about their product, or less excited? Does it seem like this company cares about their appearance? About attracting new clients? If not, maybe you should trust your gut and keep moving on.
To identify your organization’s needs and priorities, start with an internal assessment of your current HR processes, challenges, and strategic goals. Avoid relying solely on vendors to define your requirements, as their guidance may be biased toward their own solutions. Instead, use resources like OutSail’s RFP building services or detailed step-by-step guides to clarify the features that are essential for your business, those that are nice-to-have for future growth, and any specific requirements such as integrations, compliance standards, or data security needs. Defining these priorities early helps ensure that the HCM system you choose truly supports your organization’s unique objectives and delivers value over the long term.
Selecting the right vendors from the many choices available can be daunting. Rather than relying on vendor websites or online reviews, which can be subjective and incomplete, it’s helpful to use resources like OutSail’s shortlist reports. These reports provide side-by-side comparisons of vendors based on factors such as organizational size fit, ease of use, pricing models, integration capabilities, and customer support. Engaging with professionals who have deep market knowledge can save time and help you avoid the confusion of too many choices, ensuring that you focus only on vendors best suited to your specific requirements.
During vendor evaluations, it’s crucial to be proactive and well-prepared with insightful questions. OutSail’s demo guides offer curated lists of questions designed to help you assess how each system manages complex HR workflows, reporting and analytics needs, scalability for future growth, user experience for HR teams and employees, data security and compliance standards, and the details of implementation timelines and post-go-live support. Asking the right questions not only highlights each vendor’s strengths but also exposes potential gaps or limitations that might not be obvious in a standard sales pitch.
Securing budget approval and stakeholder buy-in is essential for successfully implementing a new HCM system. OutSail’s business case template offers a practical framework for building a persuasive case that links the investment to high-level business outcomes. Focus on presenting quantifiable benefits, such as time savings, cost reductions, improved compliance, and risk mitigation, while also emphasizing the risks of maintaining outdated systems. Tailor your message for different audiences, whether executives, finance teams, IT, or HR leadership, to ensure you address their specific concerns and priorities. A clear, data-driven business case significantly increases your chances of gaining support and funding for the project.
Negotiating the best possible deal with your chosen vendor is critical for maximizing value and avoiding future surprises. OutSail’s negotiation guide suggests several effective strategies, such as understanding your leverage based on the vendor’s competitive landscape, requesting detailed and transparent pricing breakdowns, negotiating key terms related to implementation costs, contract lengths, and renewal increases, and securing strong service-level agreements and performance guarantees. Additionally, involving professionals who specialize in HCM contract negotiations can help you advocate for terms that align with your organization’s goals, ensuring that your agreement delivers both financial and operational benefits.
