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Flare Employee Benefits Prepare your team for implementation
Bring the right people, information and decisions together at the right time, with clear guidance on responsibilities, data and dependencies.
Get ready for implementation
Getting ready for implementation is about bringing the right people, information and decisions together at the right time. ELMO will guide you through what is needed for your scope, who owns each action and when it is required.
What you do and what ELMO does
Prepare
Configure and test
Get launch ready and optimise
ELMO drives the implementation mechanics, configuration guidance, structured UAT, enablement and data-preparation support. You own the decisions, data quality, sign-off, internal communications, stakeholder participation and rollout decision. Payroll note: If you’re implementing ELMO Payroll products, your implementation journey may differ slightly. Your Implementation Consultant will guide you through each step.
Your responsibilities
Provide the agreed data and access, make decisions and approvals, involve the right people for advice and testing, coordinate internal communications and training, and confirm business readiness.
ELMO’s responsibilities
ELMO will confirm the implementation approach and responsibilities, guide you through preparing your data and setting up the system, support you with testing and any required changes, explain what is needed to get ready for launch.
| Phase | What happens | Your team contributes | ELMO provides | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare | We confirm what’s needed to get started, including the scope, key people, data and access. | Nominate key contacts and share the initial information we need. | Confirm the plan, key dependencies and responsibilities. | Ready to begin |
| Configure and test | ELMO configures the agreed foundation and guides your team through realistic examples and testing. | Your team provides feedback, makes key decisions and confirms whether the solution is ready to launch. | Deliver the foundational solution based on specific content requested, guide your team and external project stakeholders through testing, make agreed updates and provide additional support when needed. | A tested foundation, an enabled internal team and a pilot group ready to support the launch. |
| Launch readiness and optimisation | Roll out and build confidence | Coordinate communications and help your people get started. | Provide focused post-launch support and help identify opportunities to improve. | Ready for handover |
| Ongoing support | You continue using ELMO and build it into your day-to-day processes. | Manage ongoing use and administration. | Provide ongoing Support, Account Management and Customer Success. | Continued value |
Keeping implementation on track
For customers following the Best Practice Pathway, an Implementation Consultant will guide you through a proven process shaped by experience from more than 17,000 implementations.
For those following the Tailored pathway, your Project Manager and ELMO’s Implementation Consultant work together to keep decisions, actions, dependencies and risks visible throughout the implementation.
When an issue could affect scope, timing, data, testing or launch readiness, the agreed approach is to:
- Identify and record the issue, decision or dependency.
- Confirm the owner and required action.
- Assess the impact on scope, timing or readiness.
- Agree the next step and target date.
- Escalate through the appropriate project or account contact if it cannot be resolved.
- Update the implementation plan and communicate the outcome to the relevant stakeholders.
Your customer-specific implementation plan will confirm the key owners, decision points, checkpoints and escalation route relevant to your scope.
Your team’s estimated time commitment
Implementation requires time from your team as well as ELMO. The ranges below show your approximate effort associated with core setup and testing, optimisation and Payroll across the Best Practice pathways.
The following estimates show the expected customer effort by product. Estimates are total hours across the implementation period, not hours per week. Actual effort will vary depending on your selected implementation approach, the complexity of your requirements and the number of stakeholders involved.
| Product | Core setup and testing | Optimisation: Best Practice | Optimisation: Tailored | Indicative total customer effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HR Core | Absorbed into Learning and Performance | 2–4 hours | 2–4 hours | 4 hours, excluding absorbed setup effort |
| Learning | 22–32 hours | 4–8 hours | 8–16 hours | 40–48 hours |
| Performance | 23–37 hours | 4–8 hours | 8–16 hours | 45–53 hours |
| Recruitment | 24–36 hours | 4–8 hours | 8–16 hours | 44–52 hours |
| Onboarding | 26–38 hours | 4–8 hours | 8–16 hours | 46–54 hours |
Because payroll implementations follow a different delivery pathway, the time spent at each stage will vary compared with other ELMO products. Your team’s total implementation effort is expected to be approximately 60–90 hours.
What you need to provide at each stage
The sequence below is indicative. Your implementation plan will confirm the exact dates, owners and dependencies.
| Journey Stage | Customer input | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Prepare | Products, priorities and agreed scope | Defines what ELMO will configure, test and prepare for launch. |
| Project team and decision-makers | Make sure questions are answered and approvals are not delayed. | |
| Employee and organisational data | Creates users, reporting relationships, organisational structures and the foundation for testing. | |
| System access and technical details | Enables configuration, user access, SSO, integrations and relevant security checks. | |
| Configure and Test | Configuration decisions | Confirms workflows, templates, approval paths, notifications and other choices within scope. |
| Testers and realistic scenarios | Allows your team to validate the solution before rollout. | |
| Launch ready and optimise | Internal communications and training plan | Helps employees and managers understand what is changing and how to use the solution. |
| Early-use questions and agreed optimisation priorities | Helps refine workflows, strengthen adoption and focus follow-up support. | |
| Ongoing support | Support contacts, open items and ownership | Ensures your team knows where to go for ongoing product and operational support. |
Data, people, access and decisions
Once the overall inputs and timing are clear, identify the people who need to contribute and the data, access and decisions required to keep the implementation moving.
Who needs to be involved
Here is an example of who may need to be involved when decisions, testing or approvals are required. Your project plan will confirm which roles are required for your products and scope.
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Sponsor or decision-maker | Confirms priorities, supports escalated decisions and contributes to the rollout decision where required. |
| Project lead | Coordinates your internal activities and acts as ELMO’s day-to-day customer contact. |
| Product subject matter experts | Confirm current processes, review configuration and test realistic scenarios. |
| IT or technical contact | Supports access, SSO, integrations, email authentication and technical dependencies where relevant. |
| Change or training lead | Coordinates internal communications, end-user training and adoption activities. |
| Testers and sign-off owners | Complete UAT, record issues and confirm whether the agreed scope is ready for rollout. |
Data preparation
The right data upfront helps your team move into configuration and testing with greater speed and confidence.
| Full name | Employee # | |
| Legal Entity | Manager / Reports To | Start Date |
| Country | State | Position |
| Department | Location |
Don’t wait for all employee data to start seeing value. ELMO can use these initial data fields to create an environment for users and testing while you prepare the rest. As you provide more information, you unlock more of the solution through richer configuration, reporting, integrations and product-specific testing. If you already have the full data set ready, we can use it to progress faster and help you get more from your implementation from the outset.
Data you provide and what it unlocks
The table shows examples of what you can unlock.
| Data you provide | What it can unlock |
|---|---|
|
Core employee and organisational data Examples may include employee identity, contact, reporting, employment and organisational details such as manager, start date, location, position, department and legal entity. |
Customer UAT for Learning, Survey and Forms, Performance, Recruitment and Onboarding; Insights reporting; position-led database structures; interactive organisation charts; and manager team lookups. |
|
Payroll and extended employee data Bank, super/KiwiSaver, TFN/IRD, employment details, personal contact, diversity and emergency contact information. |
Supports Payroll and integration implementation, self-service profile updates and maintaining ELMO as the source of truth for extended profile information. |
|
Position description information Create position descriptions in ELMO or add existing descriptions manually or through CSV import. |
Supports Capability Framework and Career Development self-implementation, including manager-led assessments and employee capability uplift. |
Prepare your payroll data
Payroll data preparation is an important step in your implementation. Before your ELMO Payroll Implementation Consultant can begin configuring Payroll, you’ll need to provide accurate employee, payment, payroll and business information. This helps support a smooth implementation, accurate pay outcomes, employee confidence and compliance with applicable requirements.
The information required will depend on the ELMO Payroll products and modules you’ve purchased. Download and complete the Payroll Data Preparation Scoping Document to give your Implementation Consultant an overview of your requirements for payroll configuration, integrations and optimisation.
While the listed data fields offer a general overview, specific requirements and terms will vary based on your chosen payroll products and modules. ELMO is here to help you navigate these details for a seamless setup.
Integrations and technical readiness
Technical dependencies are considered alongside your existing setup and new-product scope. If your implementation includes SSO, Microsoft Entra ID or Active Directory, Payroll or another third-party integration, involve your IT or technical contact early.
Before configuration or integration testing, confirm:
- System ownership and technical contacts.
- Identity, authentication and security requirements.
- Data sources and technical dependencies.
- Email authentication, whitelisting or domain requirements where relevant.
- Testing responsibilities and approval points.
ELMO will confirm the technical inputs, dependencies, test steps, mappings and configuration instructions relevant to your agreed scope.
