There’s no shortage of shiny new platforms promising to transform your hiring. But for every tool that accelerates and simplifies, there are plenty that become expensive shelfware or, worse, systems your people actively dislike.

The stakes are high. Talent technology impacts not just recruiters, but candidates, employees, and leaders across the business. Before you sign another vendor contract, pause and ask these five questions.

As Sarah Blanchard, our Head of Talent Advisory & Implementation here at Solve, puts it:

“It’s really important to actually understand the problem you’re solving for. Otherwise, you risk buying a platform that’s just not fit for your business long term.”

1. What problem are we really solving?

Too often, businesses buy tech because it looks impressive in a demo. The real questions you need to be asking are: what’s broken? Is it inefficient processes? Lack of meaningful analytics? A clunky candidate experience damaging your brand?

“Start with the end in mind. Get clear on the problem and your measures of success, so you can go back to your exec team three, six, or twelve months later and demonstrate real business impact,” says Sarah.

2. Does this align with your business strategy?

If your organisation is planning to expand into new markets, scale rapidly, or adopt new workforce models, your tech must support that. Consider: does it allow for multi-geography operations, language support, or integrations with other business-critical tools?

Fail to align your tech with strategy, and you could be replacing it sooner than you think.

3. How does this fit with our existing ecosystem?

The average HR tech stack already has an ATS, HRIS, learning tools, and employee engagement platforms. Adding another system without checking for integrations can create hidden costs in time, resources, and budget.

“Integration gaps are a hidden cost that can derail projects.” Sarah advises to, “Understand your current tech map in detail, and don’t underestimate the effort required to configure, maintain, and administer new systems.”

4. Do we have the right resources to implement (and maintain) it?

Most vendors can lead initial implementation, but after that, the reality is, your People & Culture team is usually responsible for ongoing configuration, system updates, and user training.

With already lean teams, this can be a recipe for failure.

“Suggesting someone configure an end-to-end HRIS or ATS as a side job to their actual responsibilities is setting yourself up for downstream pain,” Sarah explains.

If you don’t have the internal resources and capability, you’ll need an external partner to manage it or risk a poorly configured system that your people may refuse to use.

5. What’s our change management plan?

Buying tech is the easy part. Getting your people to adopt it is where the difficulty may lay. Without a rigorous change management program that covers communications, training, feedback loops, etc. your expensive new platform can quickly become the system everyone complains about.

“These aren’t just technology projects, they’re change management programs. The first three months post-launch are critical for adoption and success,” Sarah says.

What happens if you skip these questions?

You could end up with:

• A system that doesn’t fit your long-term strategy

• Blowouts in time, cost, and resources

• Poor adoption due to lack of change management

• Analytics and reporting gaps that limit ROI

Or worse: 12 months down the track, you’re right back where you started, but with a much lighter budget.

So, where does Solve come in?

At whatever stage of the journey you’re in, whether you’re just considering your options or already running outdated systems, we help executives cut through the noise.

“Over the last five years, I’ve worked with clients at every stage of the buying journey, from early-stage needs analysis to full system audits. Being tech agnostic means we can identify what actually works for your business today, and in the future,” Sarah explains.

Thinking about a new platform? Don’t risk wasted spend. Talk to our Advisory team.

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