H1N1, Twitter, and Apologies

Some folks that know me, or follow me on Twitter, know that I have been sick for about 11 or 12 days with H1N1 followed by an opportunistic infection that has proven very difficult to take out.  Day 7 of antibiotics and I am just now feeling sort of normal.

This was the sickest I can ever remember feeling, and the duration of the illness is still stunning to me.

I beg you, go get your H1N1 vaccination, you do not want to pick up this bug.

Yesterday I took my son to a locally sponsored, free H1N1 vaccination clinic for so-called 'Phase I' patients, little kids, elderly, and folks in various at-risk groups.  Naturally, there was significantly high demand for the the vaccine, we arrived at 10:00 am, and based on the volume we were staring at a four hour wait time.

Rather than have hundreds, if not thousands of people standing in a massive line on a cold, gray day, the clinic used a 'virtual line'. You took a number then simply had to return to the door when your range of numbers was called.  So due to some smart, and forward-thinking by the Town of Penfield, NY, we waited it out from the family room instead of in the car, or in a lawn chair outside.

How?

Because in addition to on-site announcements, a low power FM radio station, and a web site, the town also provided updates as to the progress of the virtual line via Twitter updates, (see townofpenfield on Twitter). 

What a great idea, and so simple.  I was able to pop the Town into my 'Friends' tweetdeck column and easily follow the 'line' and return to the site of the clinic (about a 15 minute drive) at just about exactly the right time.  Maybe this isn't really revolutionary, but it was convenient, smart, and at least for me a fantastic example of a municipality 'getting it' and providing value on Twitter.

Lastly, I want to apologize to the numerous folks that I let down, that I owe a response e-mail, guest post, or follow-up phone call.  I am digging out slowly from this illness, and I ask your patience for a few more days while I get back to 'normal'.

Get your shots!

HR Technology as a Training Ground

Last week on the HR Happy Hour show in between some bombs being dropped (certain HR types being described as 'secretaries' or 'blue-hairs') one really interesting technology related point was made. 

Specifically, experience working in one of the leading HR Technology vendors, perhaps one that focuses on Talent Management technology like a Halogen or SuccessFactors, provides an excellent knowledge base for future success in an HR organization, and that an HR leader in search of talent should consider HR Technology companies as a great source. 

Traditionally software companies have looked to recruit from customer organizations (I was recruited by Oracle many years ago in this way). It was an interesting, and I think correct observation. The best technology implementers possess the following attributes, all of which would benefit the internal HR organization.

Problem Solving

No two HR technology projects are ever the same.  Even if the consultant has spent a few years implementing the same solution, each project haFlickr- raptortheangels a unique set of requirements, demands, personalities, and pressures to make each one unique.  Solving new problems is a critical component for success, and one that the best consultants can master. In particular, being adaptable to varying levels of support from clients, and knowing when to take decisions and when to get help are skills that come easier to experiences tech consultants than to some others.

Results focus

Lots of technology vendors hold their consultants to extremely challenging target for utilization, revenue and profitability.  It can be, at some companies, a high-stress, high-reward type environment. To be a successful technology implementer you have to be able to deliver under pressure, managing multiple and sometimes conflicting demands and expectation.  A good, experienced tech consultant will be cool under pressure and probably be able to teach the rest of the HR staff a thing or two about successful project delivery.

Customer driven

Delivering successful technology projects requires relentless customer focus.  Tech consultants certainly operate under parameters and constraints, but the best ones know how to navigate these and maintain focus on the best possible customer outcomes.  During an engagement, a good consultant learns the customer's motivations, concerns, and weaknesses and incorporates this knowledge into the overall solution delivery. A mindset that continually places customer success first will benefit any internal or traditional 'support' organization.

Breadth of experience

Most technology consultants will have worked on a wide range of projects, across different industries, regions, and market sizes.  The number and variety of these experiences typically affords a good consultant a great range of direct experiences as well as a large network of contacts from which to draw from.  It may have been competency modeling for an accounting firm, performance management at a University, or compensation planning at a professional services firm, a good consultant carries all the learning from these engagements to your HR department.

Technology skills

Certainly if you recruit a new resource from a technology company you'd expect a high level of technical knowledge.  But this knowledge is exactly the kind most HR departments lack, specific ability to assess technology and apply it to help solve HR and business issues.  This is the hardest tech skill for most HR groups to acquire, and it will become more and more important in the future.  If you think your HR shop has enough tech skills today, you are probably wrong, since technology moves so fast, and has become so critical, beefing up your strength in this area is a necessity.

What do you think? Should you source your next key spot in the HR department from one of the HR Technology vendors?  Or am I way too biased as to the importance of Tech in HR?

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.

The Carnival gets all Revolutionary

Today at Trish McFarlane's HR Ringleader blog a special edition of the Carnival of HR is up, this one is a collection of all the posts written about the first ever HRevolution 'Unconference' held earlier this month.

Check out the great collection of summaries, reflections, and calls to action from the event, Trish did a great job assembling all the posts.

My post with my observations as well as the guest post that ran here by Wendy Tandon from Salary.com are there, as well as great pieces from Mark Stelzner, Lance Haun, and Trish herself.

All told,  a fantastic event, and a very cool special Carnival to try and bring it all together.

One final note, I have a little piece up over at the Fistful of Talent today, a story of what can happen when a leader takes 'transparency' a little too far.

Enjoy!

Second Life Enterprise

Recently, the folks at Second Life announced the availability of the beta release of Second Life Enterprise, a fully-functional 'behind the corporate firewall' version of the popular virtual world.

In the past many large organizations such as IBM, Intel, and Northrop Grumman have established and grown a presence in the 'main' Second Life environment for corporate virtual meetings, training, and collaborative projects.  What Second Life Enterprise allows these organizations, and perhaps others that were reluctant to embrace the virtual world,  the ability to install and maintain a private virtual world for the enterprise, but one with all the features and capabilities of the public Second Life environment.

With Second Life Enterprise, the organization installs the solution in its own data center and gets some essential enterprise capabilities; backup and recovery, LDAP integration, and bulk account creation. So instead of users having to use 'fake' names like 'JoJo Stardancer' you can use their real names sourced from the corporate directory.

The enterprise environment also allows the transfer of objects and buildings the organization may have created in the 'main' Second Life into the private enterprise world. 

Second Life has long had some very compelling use cases for large distributed organizations.  Holding virtual meetings supplemented with rich multi-media content, conducting formal training sessions, global project team work sessions, and new employee onboarding are just a few of the many potential opportunities to leverage virtual worlds in the enterprise.

Early in 2010, the Second Life Enterprise solution will be supported by the Second Life Work Marketplace, an application and pre-built solution market that will allow content creators and providers to licence solutions for meetings, training sessions, seminars etc. to the Second Life Enterprise customer community.

This offering though, is clearly targeted at the large enterprise with strong IT resources and more than likely a widely distributed workforce.  Pricing for the solution starts at $55,000 USD.  But for a large organization, that typically brings together large numbers of people from around the world for meetings or annual planning sessions, the price for obtaining, preparing, and utilizing a virtual world for some of these events may well be a cost savings.

Looked at more broadly, this announcement seems to continue a trend of the 'enterprization' of popular public, or consumer social applications. Solutions that started out as pure 'social' tools, (Twitter, Facebook, Second Life) seem to grow and eventually find use cases for the enterprise. For me, if the initial barriers to Second Life use (heavy client, high learning curve) can be overcome by Second Life Enterprise, this may be the most impactful use of a 'social' tool inside large enterprises yet.