Five Reasons why Technology is Lost on HR
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 7:08AM
Steve in HR Tech, Organization

Note: Today's post is from Tim Sackett, Executive Vice President of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim can often be seen as a regular contributor to the Fistful of Talent blog (when he is not holding out for better terms and working conditions). Take it away Tim:

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I’ve spent a number of years in the Corporate HR world in a number of large companies, across multiple industries – and in every stop I was amazed at how 90% of HR Pros just didn’t get technology and how it could help them do their job.  In my experiences, I saw individuals who only wanted enough technology to help streamline some frustrating processes, but not enough where it would even come close to making them more efficient. Why? Because fLICKR - TOM CONGERefficiency equals possible job cuts, which means technology at its core is the enemy of most HR folks.  This concept gets lost on most HR Pros who are following blogs, using social media (even newbies), have their work email on their Blackberry or iPhone, etc.   This small 5-10% of the HR population knows the other side exists, but believes it probably is much smaller than reality.
 
This being said – I wanted to give you all a little refresher of how the other 90% are living today, and why technology just might be the anti-Christ to the majority of the HR World:
 
1. First and foremost – we don’t have an HRIS Dept. or an HRIS person (which is most companies in the world), so we have to rely on IT, which puts us usually down on the “When Hell Freezes Over” priority list.
 
2. We are a cost center (at least that’s what we’ve been told since forever) and don’t understand how to build the business case to add the expense of the next greatest technology tool to help us perform our job functions better.
 
3. We are the gatekeepers of employee communication and HIPPA which means paper files, signed forms and scrolls of birch bark.  In no way could we do anything differently – it worked for our grandparents, and it works for us!
 
4. Social Media?  No, no, no…I can’t trust that my employees can use Facebook, LinkedIn or even email appropriately for proper work purposes.  Twitter? What’s that?  Look – we struggle with giving them access to a phone – do you even know how many personal calls they make!
 
5. Our employees get all the communication they need through our Intranet site and their managers – I mean we update our intranet site each Year with our benefit updates! 

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Editor's Note : Tim Sackett, SPHR is the Executive Vice President of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition, and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better.  He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side.

Article originally appeared on Steve's HR Technology (http://steveboese.squarespace.com/).
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