Your HR Shop and the DMV - Can Anyone Tell the Difference?

For the all the hand-wringing about HR wanting to be strategic, the following snippet from Knowledge Infusion's Neil Jensen happens way too much:

"Please print, complete, sign and fax...  Heard these same words three times this week and all in very different settings. The words were clear as day and were inserted into the conversation like it wasn't a big deal. In all three cases, the person saying them simply put it out there like it didn't mean anything. They said, "To make a data change in the HRIS system, you need to find the job action form on the HR intranet, print it, complete all the required information, sign it, and fax it to HR."

In each case, this statement was followed by a lengthy description of all the things that were wrong with the HR data including incorrect or stale reporting relationships, incorrect organization structures, outdated personal demographic information, etc. When we got to the topic of reporting, the tale of woe continued with stories that described the inability to report even basic data and extreme efforts to piece together even basic metrics and analytics."

It's a digital world or at least strongly moving that way in most organizations.  If you run a HR shop that still requires managers to print a form, complete, sign and fax it in, you HAVE to get your digital game face on and find a way to prevent the manager from printing.  You're looking analog in a digital world.  Eliminating paper and bureaucracy is getting to first base in the "I'm strategic" game.  If you can't do that, you'll struggle to really be viewed as a strong player.

I know lots of you are in small shops and can't fully automate via a HRMS, even one of the affordable web-based ones.  I get that, but it's still no excuse not to take action.  Other alternatives include:

1.  Setting up some web forms to dump into your email box.

2.  Getting a propeller head on your team to help you set up a secure database that automates much of the process for you and generates email notifications, etc.

3.  You can just say "no paper", have managers email you all requests, and you make sure they are approved by whoever needs to do so, via email.

I hear the same thing Neil's referring to in talking to folks every week.  Want to do cool stuff?  Get rid of the paper first as an entry fee to the game.

Or you can be viewed as the disgruntled person behind the counter at the DMV.  Your choice...

Comments

[Ann Bares]

Wow. Unfortunately (for all of us) your comparison is right on the money in way too many instances. You're right - technology is a great place (maybe THE great place) for any HR person, small shop or not, to take a stand and make a difference. Great post.

[Lao]

Most of my managers prefer paper. They think it's impressive I can use the computer to do so much, but are not really interested in doing it themselves.

When you hunt-and-peck everything on the computer is more painful.