The Answers are Different

I have to spend the better part of this weekend preparing materials for the next session of my HR Technology course at Rochester Institute of Technology as part of the Master's program in Human Resource Development. Flickr - michael.heiss

The course, one of very few in the country with a 100% focus on HR Technology, has been in existence for about three years, and each time I prepare and deliver the course I try to change and enhance the content, structure, and assignments to keep the course fresh and interesting, and to attempt to provide to the students an accurate and relevant overview of the current set of technologies and the latest thinking of how Human Resources professionals can better leverage technology in their organizations.

Or I could roll out the same set of content as the last time and rely on the old Einstein line alluded to in the title of the post.  Short version - Professor Einstein gave the same exact final exam two terms in a row, a student asked him if that made sense, since savvy students would always connect with kids in the prior class to learn about the exam content.  Einstein responded with 'Yes the questions are the same, but now the answers are different.'

Anyway, we cover the basics, Core HRMS, payroll, time and attendance stuff.  We then spend quite a bit of time on Talent Management tools, like performance management and succession planning.  Finally, we wrap the course with a look at new collaboration technologies and ways that technologies and social networks can be used to further organizational objectives. We do quite a bit of hands-on work and get to try and test several really cool technologies.

And do you know what my past students have consistently wanted me to focus on in much greater detail?

Helping them with their personal LinkedIn profiles.

The second we start discussing LinkedIn in an organizational context, its power as a corporate recruiting tool, and the importance of groups, answers etc. in employer branding efforts, at least two thirds of the class will ask for advice and guidance on completing, (and in some cases creating), their personal LinkedIn profiles.  Many of the students are in an active job search, or will soon be in search mode once they complete the program, so this kind of personal and practical knowledge is way more important to them than me waxing philosphic on the benefits of SaaS deployment of HR Technology.

So when that happens, I will carve out some time to spend on LinkedIn profiles, as well as some other places where students can consider for building up an online identity and reputation that can benefit them in their job searches.  I am certainly not an expert on this, but I give it a shot.

The whole 'LinkedIn' discussion though takes me to a more interesting question though:

As the instructor should I be talking about and stressing what is 'important' or what the students really need to know?

Postscript - Since I know I will have to have the 'How to make a better LinkedIn profile' discussion again soon, if you have some tips or links to good resources, tutorials, etc. please let me know in the comments.

The HR 101 E-Book

Over at the Creative Chaos Consultant blog, the King of NYC, Victorio Milian has organized a great series of posts called the 'HR 101' series.

These posts cover a wide range of business topics that HR professionals (and students) really need to become more familiar with and to develop a stronger understanding of to strengthen their skills, and to continue to make more significant impact in their organizations. 

The series covers topics like Law, Finance, and Technology among others, and has been a collective project (led by Victorio) to provide a forum for various subject matter experts to share their knowledge.

And better still, Victorio has assembled all the 'HR 101' contributions into a handy E-book that can be viewed and downloaded from his site.

The E-book can be found here - 'The HR 101 E-Book'.

I encourage you to check out the E-book and to share and distribute.

Thanks Victorio for allowing me to participate in the project, and for all your hard work creating such a valuable resource.

The HR 101 Series

The King of NYC Victorio Milian, at his Creative Chaos blog has organized and published an ongoing series titled 'HR 101'.

The goal of the series of articles: to provide introductions and insights on many of the seemingly 'non-HR' subjects (Finance, Statistics, Law, etc.) to the many HR professionals that read his blog.

There are some fantastic pieces in the 'HR 101' series, and I was honored to be asked to participate with an article on HR Technology.

I highly recommend you check out the 'HR 101' project, you will find wonderful pieces from Jason Seiden on 'Statistics', Joan Ginsberg on 'Law', and Fran Melmed on 'Internal Communication' (and many more).

Thanks very much Victorio for allowing me to participate in the project!

New Class, New Ideas

The latest installment of my HR Technology class (I think this is number 5) is set to begin in about two weeks time.  Since I am now a veteran of developing and delivering this class, there is the temptation to to think I have it all figured out, and I can simply roll out the last term's content, assignments, readings, etc. and the class will more or less take care of itself.

But I think to do that would be a disservice to both the students and to myself to some extent. 

The market for HR Technology is constantly changing. Great and new content is being published every day.  Heck, even the legend Naomi Bloom is now blogging, a new development since I last taught the class.

And my perspective is changing as well. Since the last class I have attended a half dozen events, read stacks of papers and blog posts, done ten or so HR Happy Hour Shows and met some incredibly smart and talented people.

So for the new class, I am determined to keep the content and the delivery fresh, relevant, and here is the key I think - forward thinking.  More emphasis on what is 'next' I believe is of more short and long-term value to my students than spending too much time on the past.

Finally, another goal I have for this session is to have even more community involvement in the class and more external expert interaction with the students.  In the past I have done virtual guest speakers, an HR blogger/student guest post project, and some online discussion forum moderation by outside experts.

These activities were all interesting, reasonably successful, and to some extent fun.  But I want to do more, push the 'community' aspect even further and try to ensure that once the students have completed the course they have established a real connection to the broader community of HR and Technology stars that have done so much to further my own knowledge.

If you are an HR pro, HR Technology expert, vendor, or blogger and want to get involved in the HR Technology class, leave me a comment, or send me an e-mail - steveboese@gmail.com.

If you have some suggestions or recommendations as to what technologies, strategies, and skills I should emphasize I'd love to hear those suggestions as well.

And as always, thanks for your support.

Majoring in Facebook

Saw this article via a Tweet from the really cool folks at Socialcast,

Oshkosh creates new social networking major

Classes will revolve around technology, publicity, outreach

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is creating a major in social networking. The course of study, expected to launch in 2010, is meant to provide students both the technical and 'business' perspectives on the use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Program designers are trying to attract students to Oshkosh that might not have previously considered the school.

The full article can be found on the Badger Herald site.

Most every college has elements of social networking interspersed among various programs. Public Relations, Internet Marketing, Graphic Design, Journalism, and Advertising programs all typically include aspects of social networking. Curiously, most courses of study in Human Resources have not incorporated much social networking content.  My HR Technology class does include some discussion of internal and external social networking in the contexts of recruiting, performance management, and workforce collaboration, but truly even my class does not spend nearly enough time on the topic.

I have wondered in the past if I should try and create an entire class in the HR program to concentrate completely on social networking and so-called Enterprise 2.0 technologies, and now that Oshkosh is pioneering with an entire major in the subject, I think it is time to re-visit my idea and try to get such a course created and delivered.  I had a guest post last week on the Fistful of Talent where I took the position that current and future HR leaders have to get educated in this area in order to be in position to leverage these emerging technologies effectively.

What do you think, should a Human Resources program have a dedicated Social Networking course?

And if so, what specific topics should be included?