I just left the HR Technology Conference and really had a good time. I love talking about the intersection of humans and technology. Learning how it can be used to improve (or even degrade) the quality of our life (which includes work) is fascinating to my nerdy side.
Here was my takeaway from the show: Having an effective HR function has very, very little to do with the technology you have.
Seems like a strange message to get from a conference focused on HR technology and that’s got to be a little scary to vendors out there that sell themselves as the end all be all to their current and potential clients. But let’s back this up a bit to get some perspective on it:
- Technology will not replace leadership – Of course, nobody explicitly sells their product this way but many vendors sell something that may replace parts of leadership or automate processes of leadership. Now if you have solid leadership, can automating processes improve reach and effectiveness? Sure. But you have to start with leadership.
- Don’t put the cart before the horse – Don’t build your programs and processes around software, select your software based on your programs and processes. The biggest mistake is people seeing a problem and throwing technology at it without thinking about their culture, history and current process issues.
- Execution is all that matters – We can talk about bells and whistles on products all day but the biggest thing most vendors sweat is implementation and execution. The software may be great but if employees and administrators don’t use it, you’ve already lost the audience.
And guess what? That last point is why HR has so much more impact on HR technology than the HR software providers. Not saying that there aren’t some bad products out there (there are, believe me) but that they aren’t the reason why HR is ineffective. Just like social networking isn’t the end of the world. Nor is HR process outsourcing.
I’ve got another post early next week but I wanted to thank Bill Kutik and the team over at HR Executive Magazine for allowing me to show up at the last minute.
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Thanks for the post about the HR Tech Conference, Lance. Much appreciated! I agree with you on all points. Good leadership trumps technology every time.
Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR
http://www.blogging4job.scom
@blogging4jobs
Well what do you know, I agree with @TheLance!
Eloquently put. Nice meeting you face to face. Can’t wait for your next post.
Full disclosure — I work for a vendor. And as a vendor that has done a ton of research on how people work and how to build solutions for those people, I would make a minor revision to your statements. I agree you shouldn’t buy software and then try to figure out your process. But nor should you cement your process before you understand what technology exists out there and seeing what is possible. It should be an iterative process, weighted much more heavily on process. If you’ve never considered using, for example, wikis and blogs and a way to help with internal development planning activities, its probably worth listening to the vendors that provide those solutions before you nail down an expensive eLearning strategy. Even vendors while trying to sell you stuff can share ideas you may not have considered.
Exactly right Lance, especially in the Talent area it really is not a technology problem. Technology can only ever be an enabler it is not a cure.
-Meg
Totally I agree with you. I do hope that HR and IT professionals attending the HR Technology conference understand that “having an effective HR function has very, very little to do with the technology you have” and are able to evaluate the vendors with their eye open. Was great to meet you at the conference. Hopefully we can meet closer to home next time.
Great article. I was actually at the same conference. There are a lot of good systems out there (and bad ones) but I believe that it’s the integration of the two (function and technology) that counts. There are ways to improve functions through both human interaction and HR technology.
I have been in HR before the computer age. We didn’t have ATSs CRMS or softeware like inparser.net or infogist.com and we still got the job done. It is a little easier to track metrcs, but if the computer technology went away we would all still get by.