The Thrifty HRIM Director
Making Sound HR Technology Investments
Business is not standing still. Companies are making technology investments in their supply chain and customer facing systems. Human capital is the #1 expense of an organization, and making investments in managing information about that expense needs to happen too.
Where do you start?
Keeping your HR Systems current when budgets are tight.
The rapid evolution and adoption of on-demand computing came about because companies no longer have to plan and support costly application upgrades. In the SaaS delivery model, the provider of the software takes care of this for you. Yet, there are plenty of HR Systems in use out there that are on premise today. Given that budgets are tight, I was interested in learning about the upgrade strategies that people are deploying for their on premise HR Systems.
SOA and other options to save on HR data exchange
Probably the most time consuming operational item when managing systems is interface management. If you are like most, HR Data goes EVERYWHERE. Internal business systems, external vendors, Recruiting or other HR applications all interchange data with your core HRMS. We all know the value in having as few interfaces as possible and in having them as automated as possible, however getting there is always the challenge
The Value of Process Documentation
I was struck the other day by a Dilbert cartoon, were Dilbert had to take over a job from someone else, there was on documentation of the process and the person had left with no one really familiar with how the job is to be performed. All he knew was that if he pressed a certain button it would cause him to blow up, as that was the fate of his predecessor.
Once again, Scott Adams has turned a real problem, the lack of documentation on how people perform critical tasks of their jobs and made us laugh. However when this occurs, it is no laughing matter and can put your business at risk.
Earlier this year, I encouraged you to create your HR Process and Systems inventory in order for you to understand what processes are supported by which applications. The next step in the process is to understand how those processes work, what processes impact each other and which are dependant on each other
As your organizations reduce its workforce, understanding who your process owners, stakeholders and users are will enable you to make informed workforce decisions. Going one step further and documenting the key steps in your processes will give your employees who have to assume the additional job responsibilities a better understanding and avoid being in the position that Dilbert was in.
Your organization gets information about how it works and your employees get information about how to do thier jobs. This is a win-win for everyone.
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The Commuter Savings Account – a Thrifty Win-Win
The local paper has a WallStreet Journal insert each Sunday in the Business Section. This past Sunday there was an article that reminded me about a much underutilized benefit the commuter savings account.
For those not familiar with this, it is a plan where the employee can set aside money on a pre-tax basis to cover commuting expenses. Under Section 132 of the IRS Code, employees can contribute up to $120 a month for mass-transit passes (including van pools) this year and $230 a month for qualified parking. New this year, is the ability to contribute $20 a month to cover biking expenses.
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Untapped HRMS Assets – Add Value In A Thrifty Way
The contents of this post will assume that you have taken your process and systems inventory as described in my blog of Jan 5.
Today, businesses are looking for ways to use assets already on hand to drive out costs and become more efficient. If you are like most, you have underutilized assets in your HR Applications.
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Best resources for HR Technology Information
Being thrifty means finding the best value. Sometimes just because something is lower cost or even free, does not mean it will have value to you. That is the way I feel about getting information about HR and Technology, I want to get it from the sources that have the best information and at the best price possible.
Here are my personal favorites:
If you are an HRIM/HRIS/HRIT professional or an HR Professional who is responsible for HR Technology, your first resource should be IHRIM. This professional association is the only one that caters to the technology professional in HR. I have learned much from the association and its members throughout my career and visit it regularly to keep up on the industry. You will also save your self time and your company money as a member of IHRIM. With access to over 2000 other professionals, education , tools and templates many of the answers you seek to your HR Technology questions can be found within the IHRIM Membership and its member offerings. Annual membership costs less than $1 per day and the value you get for that investment is worth 10 times that much.
In order to be successful as an HR Technologist, you need to keep up with what is happening in the world of HR. Free information on legislation updates and general HR news can be found at http://www.hrhome.com/ You can subscribe for updates based on what you are interested in receiving and I have found this site and its service to be generally on top of legislative issues. A wealth of information is also available on http://www.hr.com/, but I am only an occasional user as I find that it is time consuming to navigate through its various sections in search of what I may be looking for.
I know some of you are members of SHRM and that organization is a tremendous resource for HR Generalists. If however you are not able to afford membership in 2 associations you are better off being a member if IHRIM so that you have access to the HR Technology community and getting your other HR Information from these other sources, or someone in your organization who is a SHRM member can pass information on to you.
Blogs are a wealth of information and opinion and you need to make sure that you understand what you are reading and who is the author of the content. It is my personal opinion that any person who pens a blog but does not put their name on the blog is subject to suspicion. I like to know the credentials of the person blogging.
Some of the blogs I find are a good use of my time and informative:
- The puzzling world of HR Technology written by Matt Lafata of HRchitect http://hrchitect.wordpress.com/
- Blog ERP Jim Holincheck’s HCM Software Blog http://blogerp.typepad.com/
- Human Race Horses written by Michael Vandervort http://humanracehorses.blogspot.com/
- J. William Tincup The Human Capital Vendor Space http://jpie.com/
From these blogs there are links to other blogs. In fact you can probably spend an entire week reading blogs from people in the HR Space. So in the interest of being Thrifty with your time, pick a few that seem to resonate with you to follow.
Social networking sites are another source of information. However according to a recent survey from the PEW Internet & American Life Project 35% of adults are using social networking sites. While this number is growing, users are still in the minority and thus you may not be able to find all of the resources you are looking for yet. In addition to Facebook and LinkedIn, you may also want to check out HRM Today www.hrmtoday.com , a relatively new and growing social networking site targeted to the HR Professional.
Publications are the last category of resource. Most now offer their information online as well as in paper form. The publications that I read regularly are Workforce Management http://www.workforce.com/, HR Management http://www.hrmreport.com/ and Human Resource Executive http://www.hreonline.com/.
There are many resources for information out there and you probably have a few of your favorites that I have not listed. Please post a comment and tell me your favorite sources for information.
Starting off the New Year Right
Welcome to my brand new blog for 2009. With the global economy being as challenging as it is, there is no better time to begin to talk about how to get the most of your HR Technology with a limited budget.
This weeks topic is about how to start your new year right. Just like every retail or manufacturing organization takes a beginning year inventory to understand exactly what they are working with, so must you. Even if you already have an inventory of every piece of technology that supports Human Resource processes, you must refresh it as I can assure you it has changed.
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