Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: 6 Human Resources Technology Issues

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Cynical Girl: 6 Human Resources Technology Issues

Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:45 AM PST

I'm not an expert but someone asked me for insight into the burning technological issues that HR people face in the marketplace.

I actually have no idea.

I don’t work in HR but this is what I’ve heard from my HR friends just in the past two weeks….

…hope I captured this properly and did it justice.

"I can't change a reporting relationship because the person who approves the reporting relationship change is no longer with the company and we can't seem to get an answer on why the new person in that job can't approve this request. I have a ticket in with the help desk."
"I just used a pen to fill out a payroll change authorization form. Then I faxed that form to the payroll provider. Yes, it's 2012."
"Chat. Email. Voicemail. Texting. I don't even have time to answer my phone when my kids call. If someone has a problem, I tell 'em to come and find me. Priority status. Right here."
"My HR team is responsible for sending out a monthly company directory. It’s a PDF document because our intranet is always wrong. And of course we had to write a process document on how the company directory is written and distributed. I needed a Masters Degree for this job, Laurie."
"Our annual performance review process is starting. We are writing goals in Microsoft Word. When we rate our employees, we capture all that data in Excel and roll it into even bigger spreadsheets. We have to make sure it adds up and everything — from the goals to the ratings — gets approved before we send the documents and spreadsheets back to our managers and employees and ask them to manually enter the data into the online system."
"My company blocks Huffington Post but not Fox News. Some of the employees are complaining to me like I own the Internet. You want Huffington Post? Get it on your iPhone."

That last one had me rolling. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mobile. Cloud computing. Saas. Social networking. STEM workforce challenges. I am sure there is some awesome, HR whippersnapper who is thinking about big data and really important issues related to strategic workforce planning.

But I know a strategic Human Resources Director with a Masters degree who is approving a company directory that is maintained by an HR assistant.

Those are the burning HR technology issues.

What are yours?