Tag: HRtech

In praise of the Old School option

The other day, I was getting my nails done and chatting with the nail tech about random things (as one does). She asked me about TV shows I watched and mentioned that she doesn’t have basic cable so she misses the network shows and has to hope it comes out on Hulu. I confirmed she owned a television, and then I said, “Why don’t you get an over-the-air antenna?” She had no idea what I was talking about.

This isn’t bashing the youths of the world – when’s the last time YOU saw an over-the-air antenna (OTA) on a modern television set? I have them top of mind because my mom has one, and I only got her one because I worked for a pay TV company once upon a time and remember when the transition to needing OTA happened. And my mom doesn’t want cable (this is the woman who uses Netflix to watch NCIS reruns, so there you go). So the fact the nail tech didn’t even think about an OTA as an option wasn’t surprising to me. I was happy she was excited to look into it so she could watch her shows real time.

The conversation got me thinking about organizations and their approach to process improvement. There is so much content pushing the latest and greatest HR technology to solve ALL the world’s problems that it impacts how teams think about solutions. Think back to the last 5 problem solving meetings you were in. How many times was technology offered as the answer? If your world is anything like mine, it was probably a lot of times. Too often, organizations think tech first, Old School second – often to the detriment of the the long-term solution.

One example that comes to mind around this topic is employee engagement. So many organizations (and providers) want to believe that if they just had the BEST software solution, all their engagement issues would disappear. Anonymous surveys and online action plans and emailed reminders are all an organization needs to get maximum engagement! FINALLY. And yet…the Old School approach of treating people better, showing value in others as human beings, and paying people what they’re worth will have a more lasting impact.

There is nothing wrong with technology as a solution. I love it. Big fan. Lots of cool things happening out there. Anything that automates administrative tasks, helps streamline a process, or removes risk from data is a wonderful thing. I just don’t think technology is always the best option all the time.Technology is dependent. If you have a bad process, technology won’t make it better. It will just let you do that bad process faster, or it could overly complicate it.

So don’t laugh at the person who eschews technology in favor of a post-it note. Listen to the idea. Be open to considering an Old School solution, especially if you’re new, whether it’s to the industry, to the company, or to the workforce. We built amazing things with Old School solutions, and some of them can still get you to the solution you need.  It may not be cool. It may not be sexy.

But it works.

 

My first #HRTechConf

You guys, I FINALLY GET TO GO!!!!!

Here’s the deal – in the past, I’ve either worked for companies that were way too big to justify sending an L&OD person to HR Tech or they were way too small to justify sending a non-HRIS person to. Or else I was speaking at a conference that just always happened to be the same week (I’m looking at you, WISHRM).

But this year, the stars aligned I get to go to the conference. And even better, I get to work with the blogger group. In return for my conference pass, I am asked to attend the sessions as an end-user, sharing what I see and my experiences as an HR practitioner in the wild. It’s like HR Tech Nerd Christmas.

I’m super stoked.

(And super dated. Who says stoked anymore?)

Looking through the agenda, I can honestly say I am overwhelmed by the amazing options available. I’ll definitely be starting my conference on Tuesday with the Women in HR Technology track.  From there, I’m trying to decide between bouncing around a number of different tracks, or just planting myself in every single AI session led by John Sumser, who is doing some amazing research and analysis in this area.

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I was looking for a something that looked like HR Tech Nerd Christmas. I found this instead. 

As an HR leader about to embark on the quest of implementing a new HCM, I’m really going to learn more about the experience that others have had as they go down this path – what did they learn? what did they wish they had known before they got started? what are the questions I should be asking the vendors along the way? who in the business was their biggest ally? I think that sometimes the HR experience in HR tech gets left out, so my goal is to share my perspective and the perspectives of other HR practitioners who are on various places on the tech savvy spectrum.

I’ll be live tweeting sessions, so follow me on Twitter at @mfaulkner43 and follow the #HRTechConf hashtag all week, September 11-14. If you’re on the fence about going, there’s help available. And use the promo code SURVIVE18 for $300 off your registration (who doesn’t love a sale?).

It’s not every day you get an opportunity to attend a conference that speaks to a multitude of your interests. I can’t wait to learn from the sessions and the speakers. And I can’t wait to share what I learned with anyone who wants to read about it.

I’ll keep you posted!

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When tech and HR combine: What I saw at #UltiConnect

I had the opportunity to speak at and attend the Ultimate Connections conference put on last week by Ultimate Software. This is the Little User Conference That Could – growing to a mighty 3,000+ attendance by those interested in learning more about how an HCM software solution can help them with their business, specifically the HR function.

As a speaker and Influencer at the conference, I got to talk to all sorts of people – product development, customers, potential customers, smart HR people, etc. Others have written some great posts already about what they saw coming out of the conference (like this one, or these). What I focused on more was how technology was impacting those who were just now starting to implement an enterprise solution. And what I learned was eye-opening.

Many of the customers I talked to were relatively new to having an HCM to help them with what they do on a regular basis. They were managing everything through disparate systems, or through no systems at all. There was a lot of talk about Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, and paper…so much paper. Now, you might think that what made everyone excited was the UltiPro Perception module that uses natural language processing to help you know what your employees are really thinking. Or Xander, the AI platform Ultimate Software has been developing to help managers make more informed people decisions. Or the ad-hoc reporting capabilities that allow HR departments to create their own reports and finally do analytics to run their business more effectively. And don’t get me wrong – these things are indeed exciting and cool, and people DID talk about them. But what I heard mentioned over and over again wasn’t really any of these things.

It was Payroll and Time and Attendance. 

Having a system that relieves the administrative burden for something so simple and so basic was a game-changer for these organizations. It meant employees could get paid accurately and on time. It meant timecards were correct and (fingers crossed) completed when they should be. It meant employees could finally go to one place – their dashboard – and know how many PTO days they have left for the year.

This is a big damn deal, people.

It made me realize that no matter how many bells and whistles technology may have, if people can’t and don’t use it, it doesn’t matter. And if the technology can’t do the basic things like payroll and timecards, HR doesn’t want it. So yes, advanced functionality is all well and good, but if it’s not grounded by a solid, simple solution to HR’s problems, it’s useless to them

In HR, we often talk so much about moving away from administration and to a more strategic role…and we need to. But the daily work in the organization needs to get done, too – things like paychecks and vacation and leave management and all the little things that employees take for granted because good HR people word darn hard to make sure they happen, no matter how manual the process may be. But the more manual the process, the less time available to be strategic. Now, these nice people I met will have TIME to cool work, and the TOOLS to start measuring the impact of that work. And they were so excited to start.

So next time you hear someone grumbling that HR is being to administrative, dig a little deeper – do they have what they need to get the blocking and tackling done efficiently? If not, then cut them some slack. And help them find a better way.

Author’s note: This user conference had some pretty amazing keynotes, and I’m sure I’ll revisit many of the themes I saw – from the humble CEO to the moving John O’Leary. And I can’t stress enough how grateful I am to have been asked to be a part of the Women in Leadership Panel. Originally conceived by Janine Truitt to be a discussion around women in the workplace, diversity and inclusion, and how HR can move businesses forward, it became an honest, open, and sometimes raw conversation with the women who came to be a part of the session. Thank you so much to all of those who shared, and thank you to Janine, Jason, Maren, Kate, and Micole who let me be a part of it. A recording of the live stream of the session can be viewed here.