Module 2: Why the HR Systems/HRIS Function is Important in any Organization

Do you agree with where HR might be headed as articulated in Why Did We Ever Go Into HR?

Do you remember using software prior to the advent of web software? 

I do remember it, but not only that, I still use on premises software.  Unless I'm misunderstanding the concept, my Microsoft Office Suite is on premises as well as my Organization Chart software.  Examples of Saas that I currently use include our ATS, our survey software and our EHS content manager.

Can you think of other benefits of today’s software technology? 

Blog about why the HR systems/HRIS function is important in any organization. 

Given what you know about HR today, what problems can software technology solve, and how would it solve it? 

What did you learn from the reading assignments? What stood out as shocking or provocative?

Share the link to your blog response in a reply to the discussion below.

Workday vs SAP

We've learned in our HR Systems and Technology class that nearly all companies have the same struggle;  choosing between a "best of breed approach to operations, financial and HR software and the ERP approach or "best in suite.  SAP is an industry leader in the best in suite  class, whereas Workday is a one of the most well known HCMs and does not want to be thought of as an ERP.   Watching commercials, one for Workday and the other for SAP, each company does well to play up their advantages over the other.

Workday clearly alludes to the clunky, old school "patched" ERP, and it's true... try to find anyone who has used SAP or Oracle ERP and have them describe it as elegant, user friendly and a breeze to trouble shoot.  You probably won't be able to.  The message that I get from Workday marketing is that they don't necessarily want to replace any organizations ERP; ERPs have their strong points (tracking manufacturing resources for example) but in terms of HR and Finance Workday offers a much more targeted, powerful and analytical tool.  When Human Capitol is likely an organizations largest expense, why would their management trust anything other that the most effective and powerful tool in the box to manage their valuable workforce?

SAP, on the other hand, knows that organizations,  and especially the IS Teams, want and need simple to service, seamless integrations between systems.  The only way to guarantee this is to utilize an ERP and use the ERP to manage all departments, including HR and Talent Management.  The idea is that what you lose in terms of ability to drill deep down and in terms of functionality, you gain in ease of maintenance and overall cost savings.

I can truly appreciate that this is a tough call.  To be honest, I never realized the challenges that IS and Sr. Leaders face when deciding what systems and technology are best for the company both short and long term.  Personally, I love the idea that Workday is in the cloud and is subscription based rather than on premise.  I would hope this means they are a more nimble technology and the wait between upgrades is shorter and happens more frequently.  I've never used Workday but would be very interested in hearing feedback from those who have used it.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

The Machine is Us/ing Us

This video, while seven years old is still relevant and insightful on several levels.  Not to mention the fact that it is visually mesmerizing and gives the Wayback Machine a shout out! Was I the only one who got sidetracked by the compulsion to visit the Wayback Machine and surf through a decade or so of Yahoo, MySpace and You Tube?

I'm not too familiar with XML, so I'm not 100% sure how it separates form and function, but I did get the message that this was transformational in how information moved around and was linked on the internet.

The list of words at the end... the "few things we may need to rethink"... authorship, identity, governance, privacy, love, family. These are all thought provoking.
Seven years ago the web was even more of a wild west than it is today. So much promise, then it truly was by us and for us.  Net neutrality was still somewhat taken for granted.  Now it seems as if, while legally we do have net neutrality, there may be less of an equal playing field, depending on what browsers are used, etc.

That being said, we are all still free to produce write, develop and share on the web making us controlling IT.  At the same time, the internet has become such an integral part of or daily lives that we can no longer separate ourselves from it.  It controls US.

Good Stuff.

Module 2: Did You Know? Shift Happens 2016

If you haven't stumbled upon the video series Did You Know? Shift Happens you should definitely check it out. The five videos show interesting facts and the progression of information technology researched by Karl Fisch and updated by various other contributors.

This is the link to version 5, updated in  2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqZiIO0YI7Y

1.  What trends/facts surprised you?

While all the facts and figures were mesmerizing to me, my real takeaways were:

• The sheer size of china and India in terms of their population numbers. For every baby born in the US, four are born in China and nearly six in India
• We are currently preparing students for jobs that haven't been created yet.  This underscores the importance of teaching, and coaching for critical thinking skills and problem solving, over wrote memorization. 

2.  Given the trends/facts presented in the video, what can we do as HR professionals to adapt to the changing environment of our businesses?

Never ever let ourselves fall behind in technology.  As a profession, we have some catching up to do in this area already.  Technology training requirements for HR professionals need to be increased and continuous.  

HR as a "portal" may seem cold and impersonal, but youth today have a much higher tolerance for, and, a greater comfort level with, portals than prior generations.  Some may in fact prefer them over waiting for an actual human to respond to their questions and prefer the freedom of entering portals and completing tasks on their own time frames.

Embrace cultural diversity.  If the top 25% of China and the top 28% of India is greater than the entire North America population, then not recruiting this candidate pool would be a lost opportunity to fill knowledge gaps.

Module 1: 'Accenture - The Future of HR: A Radically Different Proposition'

 Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, shares its opinion on the future of HR in this brief, high level piece.

What are 5 developments in technology are going to affect HR?

1.  Social & gamification
2.  Cloud
3.  Mobile
4.  Big Data
5.  Consumer applications


Given what you know about HR, do you agree with the potential changes posited by Accenture in the article? 

Absolutely.  HR as a field must increase it's awareness of new technologies and increase it's comfort level with analytics to keep pace with the needs of it's client groups.  Other units in the business will be adopting these technologies, HR can't afford not to keep up.


Theorize how technology might change for a particular HR function.  Provide an example.

Business Partners will increasingly use the cloud to share and collaborate with management across the country and globally.  They will use social & gamification technologies to increase engagement, and Big Data to analyze turnover, performance, compensation, etc.

Module 1: ‘What Hollywood can teach us about the Future of Work’

‘What Hollywood can teach us about the Future of Work’

Based on this article, what future of work trends are going to affect the HR profession?  

Respond to this question by including it in your blog.

This article gives and overview of a shift in approach to business.  

Trend 1.  Short-­term, project-­based teams

While the approach over the last hundred years consisted of large companies and factories that offered long-term, open ended jobs, there is a recent shift toward the "Hollywood model".  Short-­term, project-­based teams that "can be assembled based on the specific needs of that moment and with a limited financial commitment".

This suggests that the use of contingent workers will increase.  

Trend 2.  Continuous information about which skills are valuable

Along with the major shift toward the Hollywood model, come others such as continual signaling of what skills are needed, on trend, and highly desirable.  The older, factory model uses the much slower cycle of feedback, occurring during mass layoffs, or when an employee asked for a raise.

Trend 3.  Unions?

The article notes Hollywood it's self is highly unionized -  while overall organized labor has declined over the last several decades - at least in the United States.  The article did not explore unions as a trend, but could the short term, ad hoc team trend mean that labor organizations will gain popularity again?

Trend 4.  Automation

Because of increased automation and globalization of trade with low-wage nations, companies can churn out low cost commodities with ease.  It is difficult to become competitive this way anymore.  Quoting the article "Profits need to come from that extra something that only your company can give, something for which customers are willing to pay a premium."

Filling talent gaps quickly and competing for knowledge workers will be critical for HR in the future.