The Problem With Kids These Days...

From the always entertaining xkcd site:

MTV Generation

I guess there's really two problems with the kids these days - one, we (the old folks) can't be them any more and it ticks us off; and two, they eventually grow up and pretend to forget what being a kid was all about.

It's pretty tough in these mostly difficult and stressful times to ease back off the gas pedal for a few minutes and act a little childish - after all, everyone's counting on you. I get it. If you take a break you'll miss something, the other guy will get past you, and your boss will start questioning your commitment if you did not respond to that email at 11PM on Friday night.

I don't have any good answers really, or even any silly and no-one-asked-for-it advice about disconnecting, or tuning out and making sure to spend in-person time with friends and family. If you need to read some dopey blog to be reminded of what is important in life its probably already too late.

And it would be bad advice anyway. Because succeeding and staying ahead of the game is important, ands while not everyone is counting on you, some people truly are. So even if that (sometimes) means answering emails at 11PM on Friday after the kids have gone to bed, well so what?  

I guess I do have some advice after all - don't feel like you have to apologize for hustling, for staying connected (almost) all the time, for waking up and going to sleep with your iPhone.  Outworking the other guy will always be a solid strategy. You're the MTV Generation after all.

Have a Great Weekend!

Occupy HR - Tonight on the HR Happy Hour

There are probably few things more tired and lame than bandwagoning on a popular internet meme or pop culture phenomenon and twisting it for your own designs. So with that, I apologize in advance for the easy and hack use of the 'Occupy' protests for the title of this post, and for the theme of tonight's HR Happy Hour Show, also titled - 'Occupy HR'.

It doesn't take a cable news pundit to realize that most of the impetus and energy around the growing 'occupy' movement is drawn from economics - at least the perception of some people that economic opportunity is no longer fairly or even reasonably distributed or available. No doubt that is an arguable point, and I am sure you have heard of many stories of success, or even looked at your own background and career arc and thought, 'Heck, no one gave me anything, I worked my way through college working two jobs, anyone can get ahead if they just work hard, etc.' And you'd probably be right for thinking that way. But I have to believe the issues are more complex than that, and taking a look at some of the underlying issues seems to bear that out.

Last night I spent some time doing some background reading in preparation for the show and within twenty minutes I had found about a dozen pieces describing the confluence of sustained high levels of unemployment, mounting pressures from the rapid increase in the costs of higher education, (and the corresponding student load crisis it has spawned), a 'skills mismatch' causing millions of open jobs to go unfilled, significant gains in corporate profits as a percentage of GDP, reports about the trillions (that's with a 'T'), of cash that corporations are sitting on, and the growing percentage of people surviving at or near the poverty line.  It's enough to make one pretty angry I suppose, and the 'occupy' protests certainly have to be feeding off of that anger.

It's a subject worth discussing I think, and since so much of the protest seems to be about work and the workplace it makes sense for Human Resources professionals to have a chance to weigh in.

So tonight at 8:00PM ET, we will open up the lines on the HR Happy Hour Show for the HR and Recruiting community, (and really for everyone else too), to call in and talk about the issues surrounding 'occupy', and the implications for the workplace, workforce, and for the world of work our children will inherit, (or re-invent).

What can HR professionals actually do to make a difference?

Can we do better at getting people back to work?

Can we influence and change the way higher and vocational education programs prepare people for employment?

Does it make sense to see our organizations as more than self-interested entities and that have a role and responsibility to our larger communities? And if so, what does that even mean?

And whatever else you want to discuss.

So I hope you will consider listening in to the show tonight, and better still, calling in between 8:00 - 9:00PM ET on 646-378-1086 to share your views and ideas.

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

Aside - For the benefit of what I perceive to be a group of new blog readers, the HR Happy Hour Show is a weekly live internet radio show/podcast that I host where we discuss workplace issues, technologies, talent management and recruiting, industry trends, and sometime sports and movies.  You can learn more about the show here.

Never takes a day off, follows instructions, and is more empathetic?

I've noticed at least two things since I have gone off on my recent 'robots are going to take away all our jobs' kick. One, oddly enough my blog traffic is way up, something like 33% or so, as I seem to be getting a fair number of hits from Google searches for the word 'robot'. Which is pretty cool. So if you've found your way here looking to actually learn something about robots - how they work, their manufacturing process, or you were seeking information about Robocop or the Robot from 'Lost in Space', all I can say is 'Welcome!' and 'I apologize for possibly wasting your time.'  The second thing that I have noticed is just how many of these robot stories are out there, it is getting a little ridiculous and I swear that I am not going to great lengths or scouring obscure sources to find them.Robot - 'So, what's on your mind?'

The latest article on the growing, (and I think concerning) trend is from the MIT Technology Review, titled 'The Virtual Nurse Will See You Now', a review of a new virtual nurse and exercise coach technology program developed at Northeastern University. The virtual nurse interacts with patients, helps them to understand their diagnoses and aftercare programs, and by virtue of some additional programming, even can engage in rudimentary small talk about sports or the weather, a capability that helps to increase patient's comfort level interacting with the virtual nurses.

According to the MIT Technology Review piece, the virtual nurses are proving effective, with patients that had interacted with the nurse more likely to know their diagnosis and to make a follow-up appointment with their primary-care doctor than patients who had not worked with the virtual nurse. The second set of trials with overweight, sedentary adults that were exposed to the virtual exercise coach, (named Karen), were also successful, with users reported to have "checked in with Karen three times a week, while she gave them recommendations and listened to their problems. Over 12 weeks, those who talked to the coach were significantly more active than those who simply had an accelerometer to record how much they walked."

While it's not surprising anymore to read about how robots and other automation technologies like the virtual nurses are fast becoming so advanced, powerful, and capable to the extent that they can perform more and more traditional human jobs faster, more accurately, and cheaper than us mere mortals, some of the comments in the virtual nurse piece were striking for their assessment of the need and benefits of these new tools. Here's a sampling, (but you really should read the entire piece):

Patients who interacted with a virtual nurse named Elizabeth said they preferred the computer simulation to an actual doctor or nurse because they didn't feel rushed or talked down to.

Dang, that's not a ringing endorsement for patient care and bedside manner of our health care professionals. But once we get more people in the field I am sure the standard and quality of care will improve. After all, health care is one of the few consistently growing career fields.

Not so fast though, check out this quote:

Such technologies will become increasingly important with rising health-care costs and an aging population. "We already know we don't have enough health-care providers to go around, and it's only getting worse," says Kvedar. "About 60 percent of the cost of delivering health care comes from human resources, so even if you can train more people, it's not an ideal way to improve costs."

That doesn't sound good. When even health care, one of the most hands-on, high touch, and needs the human element to be effective, kinds of fields is under pressure to cut costs via increased automation, well that does not seem to bode well for the long term employment prospects for a field most of us have come to see as safe, secure, and even in more demand as our population ages.

But beyond the simple automation and efficiency play here, more alarming is the idea that the virtual nurses and coaches can be seen as more understanding, attentive, and even empathetic. How can a robot or a computer actually demonstrate empathy? It's probably a question for another day, but if the robots can start beating us on empathy, well, it's going to be tough to find something else we can still do better than them.

User Adoption and Following Orders, Sort of the Same Thing

I almost never talk or write about changes that are made to the myriad of free online services or social networking sites that for the most part have offered tremendous benefit, access to people and information, and have generally greatly improved the overall internet experience. Facebook changes the news feed? Get over it. Twitter starts pushing ads into the timeline? Log off if that offends you. These services, while occasional straddling the line that separates personal and fun from professional and critical to one's business and livelihood; are still free to adopt, to use, and to leave.Get in line.

No one has to be on Facebook, or Skype, or Dropbox, or any other service of their type. So if you decide you no longer like the rules of the game, due to some new or changed features, some additional loss of the illusion of online privacy many people still like to cling to, or perhaps a free service has decided that to actually continue to offer their service they have to generate some revenue and start charging for what had previously been free; then typically walking away, (or finding an alternate service), is your only option.

What started me down this line of thought was when last night I logged into what is still my favorite resource on the web - Google Reader, to find that -  Hurray!, I'd received the new and improved version of the venerable RSS Reader, with an improved layout, cleaner interface, and the removal of the limited 'social' features in Reader, (following people and sharing posts), with the now ubiquitous G+ sharing button. Checking my Google Reader - 'Items Shared by my Friends' list was usually the very first thing I'd do when checking Reader.  I'd been following about 75 or so people, mostly friends and colleagues from the HR industry, and do a quick scan and review of the few dozen or so posts these friends had shared in Reader that day often provided an excellent summary of the news and buzz from the day. It was my 'go-to' place online, and now of course it is gone. 

Again, I, (nor anyone else), is really allowed to whine and complain when free services change the rules of the game. I am free to find another RSS reader, convince all my 75 reader friends to share items there, set up some kind of G+ Circle to replicate the sharing function on Reader, (like that will ever happen), or do something else entirely if I feel like my online experience is irreparably harmed. It's Google's ball, their field, their rules.

Google, or any other large online service, knows that any changes they make will understandably tick off some subset of their users. They make the call on changes by balancing the ire of the (small) group of angry users with the larger business strategies they feel are important, and by (usually), offering more and better functionality and capability somewhere else. They try to do a good job of warning users about these changes, of communicating the benefits of the 'new thing' that is coming, and doing the best job they can of helping users manage through the change.

But what Google, and even those of us inside organizations that are charged with developing or deploying new technologies, (often at the expense of old technologies), sometimes forget is that even the oldest, most arcane, most underused piece of technology or functionality still likely has some incredibly active and passionate supporters. Google doesn't really have to care all that much about this, I can't convince them to re-activate sharing and following in Reader,  but inside organizations, the truth is user adoption, when 'forced', is often problematic and slow.

It is no secret that change is hard, and technology change can be even harder. Don't compound the problem by forgetting to empathize, at least a little, with those people whose worlds are having change thrust upon them.

The Wall: An Old School Self-Service Example

Over the weekend I spotted out in the wild a classic example of the oldest of old-school Human Resources supplied Employee Self-Service implementations - the Wall of Forms, (see picture on the right and click the image to view full-size).

Years ago, these displays of paper forms to support employee transactions like changes of address, set-up of payroll direct deposit, benefits enrollments, expense reporting, and on and on were once common, particularly prior to the emergence of automation tools designed to simplify these and many other employee initiated processes. If you as an employee needed to get something done, you walked over to HR, picked up a form, filled it out, (hopefully without needing too much help), and turned it in. If you HR or Payroll department was really cool, the person accepting the form whipped out a big red-ink stamper thing and stamped 'Received' on it. Click image for full-size

But as time passed, and more and more HR organizations of all sizes were faced with the insistent pressures to become more efficient, to reduce the risk and impact of errors inherent in manual processes, and often sold the promise of 'chance to do more strategic things' with the decentralization of many manual and administrative tasks, (let's save for a moment the debate of whether and to what extent this has really happened), the 'Wall of Forms' method of employee communication and entry point for HR/Payroll administration seems to be a relic of a bygone age.

And while that is altogether expected and mostly necessary, when I looked at the Wall of Forms pictured above, I couldn't help but be struck by the effectiveness in design from this old-school presentation. Sure, it is not pretty. Sure, it doesn't make one marvel at the amazing use of white space or offer much in the way of personalization or customization, (as far as I can tell, the 'wall' appears and presents exactly the same no matter who is looking at it). And sure, it won't port well to the iPhone or iPad.

However the wall does a few things really well that should not be completely discounted in this age and world of self-service. Here are just a few aspects of this old-school Employee Self-Service portal, (yes I called it a portal), that those of us that design and deploy these kinds of systems should keep in mind:

1. The Wall requires no training. Once the employee knows where the Wall actually is, then no further specialty training is necessary.

2. Maintenance is simple. Once a form is no longer needed, or a new one needs to be added, maybe 15 minnutes of someone's time is required to make the changes to the Wall. Like a good SaaS product, once the Wall configuration changes are made, they are immediately available to all Wall users.

3. Everything you need is there. While many system designers are wondering how to shrink applications and functionality to 'fit' smaller and smaller form factors for mobile and tablet, the Wall happily and unapologetically expands as needed. There are over 30 form containers on the Wall, and room for more as needed. If processes/rules/regulations etc. require that many forms, then why not have a system that puts them all within view?

4. Help is only a few feet away. The door right next to the Wall is the main entrance to the facility's Human Resources department. Can't find something on the Wall? Have a question about something you have found? Take two steps to the right and find someone to ask. Sure, this method of front-line, in person help can't scale really, but for this facility it probably works. Here, like most of the rest of the world, employees really don't want to spend much time at all futzing with HR processes and paperwork. They have better things to do.

In technology, heck even in general life, it can be pretty easy to turn down our noses at our less than enlightened or 'lower-tech' colleagues. It's also common to fall into the trap of thinking that applications and strategies that worked 15 or 20 years ago have no relevance today - after all everything has changed, blah-blah-blah. But I am not so sure about that.

I think we still can learn from organizations and designs of the past and when we work to combine the best ideas from back then with all the amazing capability and potential of our technologies today, then we can really see the greatest impact on our workplaces. 

What do you think? Do you have any 'old-school' practices that still work for you in your organization?