Class Reflections

This truly has been my most enjoyable class in the HR certificate program because I feel it has provided me with practical tools that I can actually put into place to increase efficiencies. I was skeptical about Twitter at first, but I actually do like it in the class setting to be able to communicate with others in an open forum. It would work well for project teams at work as well. Before this class, I was familar with some ATS and onboarding systems, but it was great to see the variety that is available. I will now be much better prepared to ask questions of a potential vendor for this kind of software. If I work at a smaller company in the future, I would definitely recommend Zoho Recruiter to them. The wiki google sites are also a great tool to use for onboarding if there is no budget for fancy software. I told my boss about this and she is interested in looking into creating one for new hires at our company. Jun- Would you be willing to share your site for my boss to preview? I enjoyed learning how to create Google forms. That will be a great easy way to quickly collect data if I need to. I am glad to have more HR technology knowledge since most people think HR workers are very non-technical. Thanks Jun for sharing all of this information!

Cloud Computing

The article on computerweekly.com, Top Five Cloud Computing Security Issues, is helpful to read before entering into business with cloud service providers. Per the article, it is important to ask the company where your data will be kept and find out data protection laws in that area. Countries have different data privacy laws so you should know where yours is located. You should also ask if the company deals with third parties who have access to your data. I would want to know everyone who could access my confidential data in this "cloud"! The article also recommends determining if the cloud provider will accommodate your own security policies. This may be important if your company has rigid security procedures that must be followed. Since cloud computing is young and doesn't have standardized data privacy, you need to research the service provider!

I wish HR was like happy hour

HR Happy Hour episode 59 features Professor Samuel from UCLA who wrote a book about the stupidity of performance reviews. I was pretty surprised to hear him say that there is not one positive thing connected to performance reviews and that it leads to poor management. Management by objectives in Professor Sam's opinion is silly because it tells managers to set objectives at the beginning of the review period and then sit back and wait for employees to perform. I agree that is not a good management practice, but if you use a performance review along with continuous conversations and feedback on performance, it can be useful. If you use software like Success Factors for performance reviews, it is a good way to track performance throughout the year. Performance reviews are not objective in his opinion, so they are a waste of time. He says objectives are the same for sales people and accountants, but they really aren't always. Companies often have different goals for different positions. He says that bosses give good reviews to employees who suck up to them, but he is not suggesting any good alternatives to performance reviews. Whether the manager is writing a review or giving constant feedback throughout the year in another way, the content will still be subject to their opinions. He suggests creating a setting where employees can talk openly and honestly with managers. I don't see why you can't create that environment and have performance reviews.

Success Factors

Success Factors has many useful tools to make HR and employees lives easier. I like that employees and managers can add notes on performance during the year in the system, so they will have the information at the end of the year to write self evaluations and reviews. The SMART goal tool will be useful for employees and managers who are unsure how to write proper, measurable goals. The tools/training on the performance management process would be helpful for employees. We have tools like this on our company intranet site, but it does require employees to go to another place to find the information. It would be nice if it was located in the system where they are actually completing goals and reviews. The calibration tool is useful for managers to see where employee pay is at compared to others based on performance and potential. Sometimes the manager just needs to be able to see the big picture laid out. The career worksheet is great for employees to be able to put a plan in place to get to the job they want. They can see who is currently in that role and set goals for themselves to gain skills for that position. The succession org chart is another great tool to see who may be high risk for leaving the company and who could replace them in what time frame. If there is no one in place to fill their position if they leave, a talent search can be run to see who is closest to being a successor for that role. The "badges" for recognition are awesome. I like how they show up on the employees profile for others to publicly view. At my company we currently have a "You Rock" recognition program where anyone can send any other employee an e-card and it cc's their manager. The Success Factors tool is better due to the public recognition aspect. The ATS helps manage interview feedback and provides behavioral questions to ask in the interview. Interviewers can rate candidates on the set benchmarks or give a thumbs up/down for the recruiter to access. I can see how this would save a lot of time for the recruiter having to contact everyone for feedback individually or set up a group meeting. I still like the look of Workday better, but I would probably choose Success Factors because they have everything you need in one place. Enterprise is a client and my boyfriend works for them, so I will have to ask him if he has used his employee profile.

The Work Number

We are in the process of implementing The Work Number (TWN) at my company for verifications of employment (VOE's). TALX is smart for creating an automated system for VOE's where the employer is not charged and they save time/money everyday by not having to respond to VOE requests. This will save us at least an hour of time per day. TWN charges the company, lender, mortgage broker, etc. who is trying to obtain the information. Our employees and former employees will have to direct verifiers to theworknumber.com, so we will need to provide communication on the new process. We are planning on communicating this to current employees through our company intranet site and if they inquire in the future we can just send them the link to our intranet site page with instructions. Former employees and verifiers who call us will have to be notified by the reception desk to access theworknumber.com. Employees will be directed to TWN customer service with specific questions on the process or technical difficulties with the website. If a verifier continues to contact us and does not want to access TWN, we can send their contact information to TWN for them to contact and explain the process. Before this is implemented in October, we will test the data to ensure the file is transferring from PeopleSoft to TWN correctly. Hopefully, the process flows smoothly once implemented. If anyone has used TWN before and has any good/bad feedback or process suggestions, please let me know.

Work Less, Do More

I loved the article on Julie's blog, "How to be Productive: Stop Working". Most overworked employees will have a harder time focusing on the tasks they need to accomplish. They may also resent the employer for not allowing them to have a good work life balance, which could increase turnover. From my own experience, I know that I work better with breaks to rest my mind. The use of technology can allow employees to be more productive within the hours they are working. Both employers and employees should look for ways to increase job task efficiency through technology and other means. Someone commented on this article that this is just an excuse for slackers to goof off. To him I say, humans were not built to sit in front of a computer for 60+ hours a week for the majority of their lives. The brain needs to re-charge. I agree with the article that employees should be encouraged to take a walk on their lunch break. My company offers yoga sessions during lunch once a week and encourages employees on our intranet site to be active during the work day such as walking at lunch or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Accurate HR Data

Many of the demos we have seen in the last few weeks highlight that managers can enter information in the system for their own employees. For example, the manager could enter a promotion into the system so HR wouldn't have to. I don't see how well that would work for my company because we have tried very hard over the years to maintain accurate data and it seems that it would be difficult to ensure accuracy if all managers could update the data on their own. One solution could be that managers update the data, but HR has to approve it before it is actually changed in the system. HR would still have to enter new hire data into the system because managers shouldn't have access to their employees' personal information (marital status, ssn, birth date, etc.). HR would also have to make sure that employees were termed in the system and the correct term reason was entered because some managers would leave all employees active forever. Many of our manager's need quite a bit of hand holding, so we would probably have to hold frequent training sessions on the system. We would likely end up walking them through step by step and might as well do it ourselves.