Reduced HR Admin Workload

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that following their organisation’s deployment of ELMO, each member on their HR team was able to save several hours per week across manual administrative tasks.

Modelling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:

• Each FTE saves six hours per week on average.

• Fifty percent of time savings can be captured and applied to productive work output.

Risks. Organisations may realise results different from those presented in the financial model due to:

• Variance in size of HR or P&C team.

• Variance in achievable time savings per FTE.

• Variance in ability to recapture expected time savings.

• Variance in the average fully burdened hourly rate paid to HR FTEs.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $122,000.

Increased Recruitment Process Efficiency

Evidence and data. Customers reported a significant decrease in the time required for talent acquisition teams to handle candidate applications as a result of an integration with external job boards, AI-generated job ads, and automated workflows (e.g., rapid contract creation from the organisation’s dynamic contract templates).

• Hiring managers were able to access candidate info easily and enter interview notes seamlessly and promptly.

• An effective early screening process from ELMO’s configurable candidate application forms improved the quality of the shortlisted applicant pool, diverting attention to serious contenders.

• The director of people and community from an arts and recreation services organisation told Forrester that their organisation saw an increase of about 50% in applicants and they were able to comfortably handle this surge in volume.

• The group manager of people and culture from a healthcare organization and an executive general manager of people and culture within the same industry also noted they reduced time-to-hire by around one week. Full integration between ELMO’s recruitment and onboarding modules facilitated a seamless transition from applicant to employee, and electronic forms and document upload enabled a fast start.

Modelling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:

• The composite organisation raises 20 job requisitions per month.

• Use of ELMO’s recruitment module reduces the time spent on candidate management from four hours to between one and one and a half hours, reflecting a reduction of roughly 70%.

• Fifty percent of time savings can be captured and applied to productive work output.

Risks. Organisations may realise results differnt from those presented in the financial model due to:

• Variance in volume of monthly job listings.

• Variance in current time spent on managing applicants and achievable reduction.

• Variance in ability to recapture expected time savings.

• Variance in the average fully burdened hourly rate paid to hiring managers.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $38,000.

Improved Training Development And Rollout

Evidence and data. The most significant benefit highlighted by interviewees was in relation to ELMO’s learning management system (LMS) module. This module allows for the rapid development and rollout of eLearning modules as part of onboarding and regular training requirements.

• Interviewees noted that it could previously take three to four weeks to put together a training booklet, including time spent on research and cross-checking.

• Interviewees were delighted to have access to ELMO’s library of over 400 courses that could be used to quickly create rebranded learning plans that are tailored to fit the requirements of the organisation.

• The executive general manager from a healthcare and social assistance organisation revealed that they used to incur significant costs while hosting onsite inductions for new employees. This has now been reduced to two half-day workshops that are completed online.

Modelling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:

• It develops one training package every quarter.

• Developing each training package manually requires 120 FTE hours, including time spent on preparation, research, material retrieval and collation, and final editing and quality checks. This is completely removed post-implementation.

• Employees were required to devote 15 hours to complete each training package when delivered in its prior state.

• Delivering personalised learning plans via an intuitive, accessible, user-friendly interface allows employees to complete their training in 50% less time, enabling them to digest all necessary content at an increased pace.

• Fifty percent of time savings can be captured and applied to productive work output.

Risks. Organisations may realise results different from those presented in the financial model due to:

• Variance in number of training packages developed annually.

• Variance in time currently taken to develop training packages.

• Variance in number of hours currently allotted to employee training annually.

• Variance in efficiency gains post-implementation.

• Variance in ability to recapture expected time savings.

• Variance in the average fully burdened hourly rate paid to training and development specialists and general employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $772,000.

Increased Reporting Efficiency

Evidence and data. Interviewees noted their organisation previously lacked strong analytics capabilities — they either had to manually pull data or miss it entirely. ELMO has allowed them to easily surface key information, thereby increasing visibility and bolstering strategic decision-making.

Having a centralised data source, configurable dashboards, and clear visibility of data allow organisations to gain a more holistic understanding of their workforce.

• Interviewees shared that it used to take anywhere between half a day to a full day to manually produce quarterly reports, including time spent searching for required data, pulling together various spreadsheets, and preparing the final deliverable for various audiences (e.g., the board).

• ELMO’s recruitment reporting and analytics allowed greater insight into applicant profiles.

• Onboarding tracking capabilities enable managers to easily keep an eye on the progress of new employees.

• Real-time learning reports allowed the organisations’ employees to track completion and compliance rates, ensuring that critical skills gaps are closed in a timely manner.

• Performance reporting capabilities equipped managers with the tools needed to gauge their team’s adherence to established goals and view progress throughout the employee lifecycle, which allowed them to take action when necessary.

• Most interviewees also set up templated dashboards and weekly reports.

Modelling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:

• It now takes only between 15 minutes and 30 minutes to set up and generate the required data outputs from relevant modules, and time spent on internal preparation is reduced.

• Fifty percent of time savings can be captured and applied to productive work output.

Risks. Organisations may realise results different from those presented in the financial model due to:

• Variance in volume of reports generated annually.

• Variance in hours currently devoted to data generation and internal preparation.

• Variance in achievable reduction in time taken to produce reports.

• Variance in ability to recapture expected time savings.

• Variance in the average fully burdened hourly rate paid to an HR reporting analyst.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $14,000.

Enhanced Employee Self-Service

Evidence and data. Most interviewees noted their organisation previously had no capability for employee self-service for HR- or finance-related tasks. This led to an inefficient email exchange for every request, including checking and requesting for leave, accessing payslips, and updating information.

• Requesting payslips, for example, was previously completed via an email dialogue between employees and the finance team. This resulted in time spent by the employee to create and send an email, a member of the finance team to review, complete the request, and reply, and the employee to check their response, plus any downtime between interactions.

• Organisations that did have some systems in place used separate applications for different tasks, which required employees to log into multiple portals to check, update, and retrieve information.

Modelling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organisation:

• Non-HR/finance personnel complete an average of four self-serviceable tasks per quarter, including checking and requesting leave, accessing payslips, updating personal information.

• Completing each task via an email dialogue with the HR or finance teams takes 45 minutes on average, capturing the time devotion from each party.

• These tasks can be completed independently in five minutes with ELMO’s employee self-service capabilities.

• Fifty percent of time savings can be captured and applied to productive work output.

Risks. Organisations may realise results different from those presented in the financial model due to:

• Variance in average number of HR/finance interactions per FTE annually.

• Variance in current time taken to action each HR task.

• Variance in achievable reduction in time to action each HR/finance task after implementation.

• Variance in ability to recapture expected time savings after implementation.

• Variance in the average fully burdened hourly rate paid to general employees.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $268,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organisations experienced but were not quantified within this study:

• Mitigated data security risks. Holding employee data in a centralised system has led to greater confidence around information security. Prior to ELMO, customers’ organisations had data spread across different point solutions, and some were even paper-based due to manual procedures. Now that all employee information is consolidated onto and managed via one platform, organisations are able to maintain an accurate single source of truth while protecting sensitive data from unauthorised access and breaches. The director of people and community from an arts and recreation services organisation told Forrester how ELMO meets the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) requirements that they needed to satisfy. In addition, manual spreadsheets could have easily been shared externally, whereas ELMO’s multifactor authentication has eradicated concerns about losing candidate information, and the data is less prone to errors.

• Improved compliance. Customers have gained greater control and visibility of training completion, as they were able to track each employee’s training hours to validate their learning progress. Managers and HR professionals can also use ELMO to push automated reminders for mandatory training modules, instead of chasing employees repeatedly via emails or manually following up with each individual. Employees on the other hand, enjoy the ease of completing training sessions on mobile devices, and their records are automatically updated to accurately reflect their certification. The executive general manager from a healthcare and social assistance organisation highlighted that ELMO helped them provide stronger evidence of training and qualifications of healthcare professionals during external audits.

• Elevated EX. ELMO provided an intuitive platform for employees to self-serve, whether it is updating personal information, applying for absence, or checking their performance reviews. Employees do not need to jump across several systems, but can access these everyday tasks via a single login. This integrated and centralised user experience has led to greater satisfaction and employee engagement. The executive general manager of people and culture from a healthcare and social assistance organisation told Forrester that they have received over 80% completion of their annual staff survey, and observed growth in their employee assistance program (EAP).

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement ELMO Software and later realise additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Additional modules. Most ELMO customers begin their journey with the core modules of: HR Core & Analytics, Recruitment, Onboarding, Learning Management, and Performance Management. Once these are firmly embedded and customers mature in their HR capabilities, it could make sense to augment these with additional, supplementary modules that can support longer-term strategies. These include: remuneration, succession planning, and increased employee insights via surveys.

• Position-led workforce management. ELMO offers the option of being a position-led solution. This approach focuses on managing roles or positions independently of the individuals who occupy them, which is especially useful for workforce management (e.g., budget and headcount/vacancies), compliance, and scalability.

• Increasingly AI-powered solutions. ELMO Software already embeds AI and machine learning (AI/ML) in its solutions, and deepening these capabilities remains a top priority for the product team. The platform will continue to broaden its use of intelligent automation across critical HR processes and workflows, and its AI-driven analytics will uncover richer workforce insights and power faster data-informed decisions.

• Demonstrated social impact and responsibility. Monitoring the employee demographics landscape is extremely important for organisations that wish to showcase their social responsibility. The director of people and community from an arts and recreation services organisation explained how ELMO supported their gender equality action plan that aimed at encouraging females to join and stay in sports. The platform enabled them to understand the background of candidates during the recruitment process, ensuring that they were targeting diverse groups. Their organisation was proud to see 60% of their workforce being female, with 30% of them coming from a minority cultural background, and 11% of them speaking a second language.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).