We attended the NorCalPRUG meeting yesterday to listen to the users and try to understand where we could add value to their day. The meeting was fairly well attended.

I arrived a little late and only caught the tail-end of the Q&A session with the Oracle presenter. I sure did not want to be him yesterday. From the little bit I heard of the session and snipettes I heard during the day, he was not prepared to answer many of the questions presented by the users. While he handled the questions well, the content was not necessarily what the users wanted to hear.

The next presenter was Bob Stambaugh. His presentation on HR in the 21st century brought across the point that HR really needs a paradigm shift. In essence, the current systems are based on the '70s need to capture the data combined with some rudimentary forecasting that presents a linear projection of numerical data based on payroll, benefits, headcount, etc. When combine with the new generation of employees (gamers) and the fact that businesses have regional and departmental dialects, you get a very organic structure that is difficult to shove into the box created by the HR systems of today.

The driver of change needs to be the HR employees themselves. Even if the software can't see these issues, the people can. By 'seeing' patterns in departmental structure and using the existing HR reporting, the employees can make recommendations to management by giving this information and knowledge to the E-team. The E-team can be very receptive to new ideas and suggestions when given the right amount of information and a means to execute them. However, management tends to make quick decisions based on incomplete information. That means if HR personel are going to affect a change, they need to be well informed and fast to react when good ideas appear. HR is in a unique position (and because of SOX requirements may be in a position of extreme responsibility!) . Most data flows through HR and because of that they are able see the whole picture and make recommendations based on what they see. They just need the appropriate tools to make speedy, informed recommendations.

There are also tools outside of the org chart that can help with identifying existing patterns in an organization as well. Social network analyses can show all kinds of interesting relationships and lack thereof in an organization. These tools can identify the support structure for the organization's stars and what effect lay-offs and promotions might have to the organization as a whole. The lack of network links could also indicate problem areas. Since knowledge transfer in an organization can only be pushed not pulled (or conscripted), it pays to have links to all people in an organization to allow for sharing of information.

The conclusion of all of this seems to be that HR systems and employees require a paradigm shift to include more individualized service. And in the near future, HR employees may have much broader responsibilities and the systems of today may not be servicing those needs. Social network analysis should help feed information to organization to make the whole work better than the sum of its departments.

Tomorrow, I'll be writing up my notes from the afternoon sessions I attended.

Labels: Events