HR Technology, Amtrak, and Priorities

Amtrak American Orient Express
Originally uploaded by Roadsidepictures

Last week Amtrak announced it would spend $9.4 Million on HR Technology, specifically for what it is calling 'Employee Information Management'. Notably, the $9.4 Million is significantly more that will be spent on 'Customer facing' type initiatives like CRM and an improvements to the passenger information systems.

Full details on the Amtrak projects can be found here.

Of note in the article is how Amtrak feels its HR Technology is 7 to 10 years behind other similarly sized organizations, and that significant cost savings can be realized by the introduction of automated processes and the use of Employee and Manager Self-Service. A key component of the project is the E-learning portal to help define and deliver needed development content to the employee.

It does beg the question of how did Amtrak allow the critical HR Information Systems to get so out of date and how can such a large organization still be so reliant on manual and paper-based HR processes to such an extent.

I don't claim to know the inner workings of the Amtrak IT strategy, but since they are earmarking $9.4 Million for HR Technology, and only about $6 Million on the CRM and passenger systems combined, it does seem apparent that the HR systems have been neglected and underfunded.

So it is good and refreshing to see such a significant investment on HR Tech, the key systems to help employees manage their infromation, learning and development, view competency information, and hopefully become more engaged and productive in their careers.

Maybe Amtrak is finally seeing that a great CRM and a fantastic passenger information portal are not the only critical systems in an organization.  Because truly, it is the employees that have to serve the passengers, deliver excellent service, and make the crucial decisions to execute the strategy.

And employees can't do any of those things at their best if they are busy filling out HR forms, waiting days for HR information, and chasing down data that should be readily available.

So Cheers to Amtrak for making a commitment and investment in HR Technology and in their employees.

Corporate Social Networking Vendors - Here's your chance

to give something to the community, support an educational program in Human Resources, and get some free publicity.Flickr - pascal.charest

Some background - I teach a graduate course at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY.  My course is one the very few in existence 100% devoted to Human Resources Technology.

We cover the fundamentals of HR Technology (ERP, HRIS, SaaS), the important Talent Management processes (Performance, Succession, Comp, Recruiting), and lastly the emerging and growing area for corporate social networking and collaboration tools (blogs, wikis, Twitter, and such).

Since I started teaching HR Technology almost two years ago, I have spent considerable time soliciting assistance and trying to build partnerships with the HR Technology vendor community, in an effort to get more hands-on access to software and 'real' experiences for my students, the vast majority of which have not ever had such an opportunity before my class.  To date several vendors have graciously offered access, assistance, and support, most notably Halogen Software and SpectrumHR. To both of these organizations, once again, I offer my sincere thanks, and I certainly hope that we will be able to continue our partnerships in the future.

But for my next class that starts in June, I am faced with a new challenge that makes integrating a core HRIS (like Spectrum's iVantage), or a robust Talent Management suite (like Halogen) quite difficult. I will have  a class of students unfamiliar with these types of systems and the course will be offered completely online.

No 'in-person' class meetings means no opportunities to do 'live' demos or in-class exercises that were the primary benefit of using these 'donated' platforms. Based on my experience with the class so far, attempting to integrate these systems in the manner that I would prefer is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible in an 100% online delivery method.

So for the new class, the online class, I still need to provide a 'real-world', 'hands-on' experience with a relevant technology that the students could very well encounter in their workplaces, or better still, bring to their workplaces, armed with the expertise and knowledge gained in class.

What better technology then, than Corporate Social Networking?  The very type of solution that is designed to foster connectivity and collaboration amongst a dispersed workforce, is meant to be simple enough to use to achieve rapid and widespread adoption in the organization, and is growing in popularity in the corporate world, thus exposing the students to a technology that is suddenly 'hot'.

My idea is to essentially 'run' the class in the social network, have the students collaborate on assignments, post and respond to discussions, create 'HR related' content and resources typically housed on corporate intranets, and interact with each other in real time from their dispersed locations.

The types of vendors that I think would be a good fit for this project would be SelectMinds, Jive, or perhaps Telligent. There are many other vendors as well that would be a fit, too many perhaps to list here.  Or perhaps one of the newer, less well-known vendors would like to participate in the project to generate some publicity.

It would be a pretty simple effort on the vendor side, since I need a hosted solution, the vendor would need to create an instance for my class, with perhaps 20 user licenses for a period of about 3 months. I would set up and administer the class network, and the students would be the 'users'.  At the end of the class, the vendor could simply close off access to the network.

In return for the software use and support, I would offer good, constructive feedback from the class as this project amounts to a 3 month extended 'test', I will publicly blog, tweet, and otherwise promote the product and the vendor, and make myself available to the vendor as a reference for articles, internal blogs, press releases etc.  It is a mutually beneficial arrangement that I think worked really well last class with Halogen, and I think it would be a good opportunity for the right vendor.

Ok, that is the pitch.  For any social networking vendors who might be interested in this project here is my contact information:

E-mail - steveboese@gmail.com

Twitter - sbjet

Or simply leave a comment on the post and I can get in contact with you.

Thanks in advance for your support of my class and the education of some future HR leaders.

The Man Without Fear

My favorite comic book super-hero is Daredevil, known as 'The Man without Fear'.

If you are not familiar, Daredevil is the only blind super-hero. A childhood accident blinded young Matt Murdock, but somehow his other senses compensate to such an extreme degree, including the development of a "radar-sense" that allows him to perceive his surroundings, that he is able to assume the persona of Daredevil.

Daredevil is 'The Man without Fear', because he never hesitates to leap into action, he never second-guesses himself, and never hesitates to put himself at risk for fear of his own safety.  He is bold. He takes action. He takes risks.

He is the kind of guy we all wish we could be.

I know, Daredevil is a comic-book hero, real life is so much more complicated, and the economy is so bad that most of us feel afraid to take risks, to expose ourselves to scrutiny and potential problems.

So many of us just want to go to the office, keep our heads down, and hang on.

Believe me, I completely understand that point of view. We all have bills, mortgages, kids to worry about.  Taking unnecessary risks is just about the last thing on our minds.

But the future, whatever it holds, will not be written by the folks who spent most of their time staying out of the line of fire.  History forgets the timid.

You have a great idea, or maybe just a good idea.  A way to fix a broken process, improve a customer experience, or build a better, more productive workplace.

Don't keep it your yourself.  Don't be afraid for your reputation or image. There may be more opportunity now than any time in the last few years. The markets have perked up lately, it for a time anyway, seems the stories of massive corporate layoffs have slowed down. 

If a blind man can put on a costume and venture out into the night to protect his city, then you can be bold too.

The economy is not going to be revived if all of us just keep our mouths shut and hope not to get fired.

We all need more men and women 'without fear', and I include myself in that admonition.

Another Small Business HRIS - Human Services HQ

After my post on HRIS for the small business ran last week, I thought I might be

contacted by a vendor or two who I omitted, as the market for these solutions is so crowded.  Sure enough I did receive a few comments, and I wanted to highlight one of the vendors, Human Services HQ.

Human Services HQ is positioned as an online HR database that provides easy access to your employee records, relieves paperwork headaches, and reduces employee management costs for small businesses. There are three main functions, employee record keeping, tracking of employee training, and document storage for things like manuals, handbooks, and forms.  

The service is deployed in the SaaS mode, and is priced on a monthly basis ranging from $24/mo for up to 15 employees, to $399/mo for up to 900 employees, but the solution seems to be most applicable to very small organizations, say less than 100 employees. All paid plans include a 30-day free trial.

Human Services HQ might be a good option for a very small business that wants to stop tracking employee data on spreadsheets or on PC-based databases, and also wants some flexibility to store important HR documents in the same tool.

Thanks to Human Services HQ for reaching out and making me aware of your solution.

When 'free' can be very expensive

You are a mid to large size company.  You bought and deployed a big ERP solution for your HRMS, Payroll, maybe your Accounting and Procurement as well. Flickr - JeffChristiansen

It was crazy expensive, likely took longer and cost way more to implement than you figured, and you ended up making lots more customizations than you had planned for (despite the initial desire for a 'plain vanilla' project).  Aside - you know your Project Manager used that expression at least 10 times in the beginning.

You finally have the ERP running relatively smoothly, to the point where it's time for other long put off projects to get considered.  More 'strategic', high value-add type projects. Things like a new Applicant Tracking System, an automated Performance Management tool, or perhaps Succession Planning.

But in these tough economic times, do you even have any funds for new software?

After all, you are locked in to some hefty annual maintenance/support fees for the big ERP system. But wait, the ERP system can support all these 'strategic' processes. And five years ago, when you hammered out the ERP license contract, you made sure that you would have the right to use all those modules at any time in the future at no additional cost.

It's a no-brainer then, right?  You will simply use whatever functionality that is inherent in the ERP package for your new ATS or Performance Management solution. It is already paid for, it integrates with the rest of the system, and you have functional and technical staff who know the technology.  Slam-dunk.

But wait a second, five years ago when you did your due diligence in the ERP purchase process, did the modules for ATS, Performance, or Succession even factor in to the discussion?  Did you even consider them at all? If you approached ERP selection like most organizations, you spent 95% of your energy on things like integration, technology, and 'core' business processes.  These are all important, and it was altogether fitting and proper that they were the priority. 

But now, when you are ready to deploy some of these 'strategic' modules, are you realizing that while your ERP package supports them, they are difficult to use, don't offer most of the latest advances in the technology, and are not well-received by your end users?  ERP packages are developed and sold from the 'inside-out'.  The tight integration, the unified database, the ability to leverage tools like workflow and security management across a wide swath of the enterprise is what 'sells' ERP.

No one, I mean no one, ever bought an ERP solution for the wonderful E-recruitment capability, or for the fantastic Performance Management module. 

It is a concept that has been repeated for 20 years, it is almost a cliche, but it usually bears true. The big ERP packages simply cannot be as good at all the ancillary strategic capabilities as the best-of-breed vendors.

And when you implement ERP-based, sub-standard capabilities for ATS, Performance, or Succession, areas that impact a much, much wider audience than your core HRMS, you had best be prepared to justify and support that decision. 

When the candidates, hiring managers, line managers, and executives start complaining and griping about the solutions that you have implemented, and adoption rates are slower than you would have liked,  is your primary response going to be, 'Hey it was free'?

'Free' can be very expensive.  Implementing software just because you have already paid for it can be a very costly mistake in the long run.