The most interesting concept I’ve learned in the past few weeks around how HR people can better buy software and tools is the use of cross-Functional Buying Committees.

This sounds like a bunch of business jargon, but is actually a very powerful tool in any professional’s journey to getting buy in for a particular initiative.

Putting Together Your Committee

Do you have a broad issue you’re trying to work on? Maybe it’s hiring more engineers, or building a stronger culture for remote workers.

Whatever the case may be, you’d be surprised at how many people across the organization will care about what you’re up to.

Some potential committee members will be obvious – the head of engineering cares about filling their open reqs. Some won’t be – the Director of Customer Success that feels their team is overworked because the product isn’t where it needs to be.

Once you find these people, assemble them into a 5-10 person committee that is dedicated to getting the solution to the problem at hand. Make sure your committee is well represented across the organization, and that it’s clear the time commitment for this won’t be more than a meeting a month.

Benefits of The Committee

A cross functional committee means you have some of the most powerful parts of your organization represented. The benefits are many:

• Better brainstorming with a diversity of thought leads to a better solution
• Easier time getting budget for your initiatives as each function is pulling for this
• Easier navigation of internal roadblocks (security, marketing, etc)
• Faster implementations of tools that require employees from across the organization to participate

Overall, this concept is a great way to move faster when looking to buy new HR software and tools generally, something I’ve become very interested in with my new project SelectSoftware.

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