One of my managers in my department leads the HR business applications team. We currently have PeopleSoft (tons of custom functions), some .NET tools, Cornerstone LMS, iCIMS eRecruiting, and a few custom-built leave request systems.
Cultural Change Initiative for 2011
For 2011, our HR Department is deploying a new 'cultural change' to enable a more bottom-up / 2.0 mentality, including enhanced goal alignment, enhanced 360 performance feedback, and a new compensation management model. However, rather than focusing on solid employee mindset changes and communication, HR is focusing on deploying 'fancy (& complicated) apps' and hoping to use these apps to change employee mindsets and behaviors. Also, instead of adopting SaaS tools, they're insisting that IT builds custom / unique tools to support the cultural initiative (which is overwhelming my team). Moreover, no employee surveys have been conducted for the past 3 years, which makes the new culture change a bit groundless.
Seeking Opinions and Guidance
If anyone could provide some opinions on the following, I'd really appreciate it:
1. It doesn't feel right that HR is focusing on technical tools instead of fundamental people mindset change—what should be the guiding rules here?
2. Corporate HR is insisting on rolling out new tools within 3 to 4 months. Based on past case studies, how fast could a company of 5,000 adopt a new way of working? (frequent goal setting and alignment, rolling peer non-anonymous 360 performance rating, etc.)
3. HR is strongly driving the user interface designs and making the tools difficult to use. For example, the objective setting process would go from a few mouse clicks and fields to 4 to 5 times the clicks/fields in the new system. Are there best practices for keeping HR tools simple, straightforward, and focusing on HR-manager-employee interactions?
4. Do more fancy HR tools alone really help improve employee performance / increase productivity? (So far, I've only seen dramatic results in enterprise social media deployment cases, but our HR is ignoring that trend.)
Since we're a software company, the mentality to have lots of "custom-built" solutions could be natural, but I just want to find a good balance so everything is more digestible and sustainable for the long term.
Sorry for the long post—thanks in advance!
Regards,
Steve
From Taiwan, Taipei
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Cultural Change Initiative for 2011
For 2011, our HR Department is deploying a new 'cultural change' to enable a more bottom-up / 2.0 mentality, including enhanced goal alignment, enhanced 360 performance feedback, and a new compensation management model. However, rather than focusing on solid employee mindset changes and communication, HR is focusing on deploying 'fancy (& complicated) apps' and hoping to use these apps to change employee mindsets and behaviors. Also, instead of adopting SaaS tools, they're insisting that IT builds custom / unique tools to support the cultural initiative (which is overwhelming my team). Moreover, no employee surveys have been conducted for the past 3 years, which makes the new culture change a bit groundless.
Seeking Opinions and Guidance
If anyone could provide some opinions on the following, I'd really appreciate it:
1. It doesn't feel right that HR is focusing on technical tools instead of fundamental people mindset change—what should be the guiding rules here?
2. Corporate HR is insisting on rolling out new tools within 3 to 4 months. Based on past case studies, how fast could a company of 5,000 adopt a new way of working? (frequent goal setting and alignment, rolling peer non-anonymous 360 performance rating, etc.)
3. HR is strongly driving the user interface designs and making the tools difficult to use. For example, the objective setting process would go from a few mouse clicks and fields to 4 to 5 times the clicks/fields in the new system. Are there best practices for keeping HR tools simple, straightforward, and focusing on HR-manager-employee interactions?
4. Do more fancy HR tools alone really help improve employee performance / increase productivity? (So far, I've only seen dramatic results in enterprise social media deployment cases, but our HR is ignoring that trend.)
Since we're a software company, the mentality to have lots of "custom-built" solutions could be natural, but I just want to find a good balance so everything is more digestible and sustainable for the long term.
Sorry for the long post—thanks in advance!
Regards,
Steve
From Taiwan, Taipei
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Hi Japonica, Thanks. We’re already outsourcing all our payroll systems & operations. I’ll keep application outsourcing option in mind for future internal discussions. Thanks. Steve
From Taiwan, Taipei
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From Taiwan, Taipei
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Hello Steve,
Thank you very much for your reply! Since my original post, there have been some developments within our HR department on the topics I mentioned. Basically, beta test feedback from employees for HR's first 'new tool' has been extremely negative, with many mentioning the need to simplify the tool. Additionally, regional/country HR teams are complaining that they lack the capacity to manage both day-to-day operations and the new deployments. It's like experiencing real-time feedback from your comments. Perhaps all these issues will naturally resolve themselves.
I will definitely refer to your responses when I speak to HR to assist them in planning realistic time frames and scope changes.
Thanks again!
Steve
From Taiwan, Taipei
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Thank you very much for your reply! Since my original post, there have been some developments within our HR department on the topics I mentioned. Basically, beta test feedback from employees for HR's first 'new tool' has been extremely negative, with many mentioning the need to simplify the tool. Additionally, regional/country HR teams are complaining that they lack the capacity to manage both day-to-day operations and the new deployments. It's like experiencing real-time feedback from your comments. Perhaps all these issues will naturally resolve themselves.
I will definitely refer to your responses when I speak to HR to assist them in planning realistic time frames and scope changes.
Thanks again!
Steve
From Taiwan, Taipei
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