Once a month on Twitter, anyone can very easily participate in coordinated chats to learn from each other and share their opinions and experiences. One such chat will occur September 2nd at 12:00 Noon Central Time. This chat will be about elements of technology used to support and improve human resources.

How does it work? Anyone with a Twitter account may participate by reading the live chat and chiming in (tweeting) to the discussion. Tweets are text messages limited to 140 characters at a time. Using a code called a hashtag, you can track a conversation between anyone on Twitter around the world. The hashtag, #hr_tech, follows each message to be included in the real time chat.

So, a question may be asked, What is the worst part of making a software purchase? #hr_tech.

Answers may be posted by several people, for example, The fight between HR and IT is the worst part #hr_tech, or The creation of RFPs is the worst part #hr_tech.

The #HR_tech discussion occurs once a month, usually in the evening. But the coordinators decided to have one in September during office hours to see how that impacts the number of participants and the discussions. Bryon Abramowitz @bryonabramowitz, from Knowledge Infusion, and Steve Boese @SteveBoese, an instructor of HR in Rochester New York and a blogger, are the coordinators of all the #HR_Tech sessions in which I have participated. They do a wonderful job of keeping the conversations on topic, as well as letting them flow.

I hope you join us for this discussion. I always learn something and often find new friends to connect with on Twitter.

Cheers,
Lois

Being in the human resource software industry for over 15 years, I like to really pay attention to one of the most important issues of doing business with a company, or when people do business with Aquire.

As software options grow from “integrated” solutions to “best of breed” solutions, so many considerations must be taken into account. The cost of an integrated talent management suite may or may not be worth the one-stop shopping and support. The succession planning feature in the last version of the HRMS really has to be worth the longer implementation cycle it requires. All of this, and so much more, requires a great deal of thought and due diligence.

Some members of the human resource technology market use organizations like IHRIM to seek advice from their peers online or at their conference. Some organizations attend tradeshows by vendors or the Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology Conference to do their shopping. Everybody asks a multitude of questions of their vendors and perspective vendors to support their decisions. I have created a list of the top 8 items I think companies should add to their consideration when evaluating a software company. I think these points are all powerful components of the customer experience you will have once you make a software selection.

1. What is the tenure of the developers on the development team, and has there been a lot of turn over?

The experience on the team should foster a depth of understanding of the code and the customer issues involved. This also speaks of the respect the company gives to their important assets and how hard they work to keep their people.

2. What is the tenure of the support team?

Depth of knowledge of the product can be taught more rapidly than some can imagine. The reason this is a good question is that it demonstrates the respect the company gives to their support people, to make them feel it is worth staying in a mentally stimulating but exhausting job. When you are handling support calls, you are always “on.” You are on the “stage” even if the stage you’re performing on is only through the phone.

3. What percentage of technical support calls are due to people wanting to know how to do something and what percentage is for bugs and software that will perform as advertised?

This gives an indication whether or not customers are always finding bugs and problems in the software.

4. How are features and products designed and enhancements considered, and how involved are the executives?

It’s imperative to find evidence of customer participation in this process. There should also be a mechanism for sales people to bring requests and ideas into the development team and have them taken seriously. Enhancements and features are often specifics gathered from many sources, and the better plugged into the market the employees are, the more ideas can be gathered for consideration. Sometimes products or new features need to be designed before the customers realize they need them. The visionaries within the company decide how that occurs.

5. Who has owned the software code; how many times has the executive leadership changed for a product or a company?

It’s important that at least some of the developers on the team now also wrote the product for earlier versions. Let me put it this way, have you ever heard of a Monet being finished by another painter? Other than a relay, can anybody else finish a race for you? It is not always possible, but I like some consistency on the teams, somewhere along the line.

6. Have there been any litigation issues with customers?

That can happen even within the best companies. But something must have changed to prevent it from happening again.

7. Is the company actively involved in their industry?

Companies should give back to the community that buys from them. Organizations have to learn from their market place by participating in conferences, committees, associations, etc. This shows a willingness to learn and a respect for the market place.

8. Can you try out the software before you buy it to test for usability and stability?

Maybe some software is functional within a pilot program, maybe some might need a lab environment for testing. Be creative to verify that things are not just smoke and mirrors. You can seldom expect to work with a fully functional implementation without an investment, but the company must ensure your comfort level with the tools you will be investing your time and money on.

There are so MANY additional elements of a software evaluation. These are just a few that I think need to be added to the mix.

Cheers,
Lois

Are we giving enough to those who need us? Do we make it easy for our employees to give? And I’m not referring to money. What if we all gave just TWO days a year of our time and or expertise to a source in need?

I read an amazing statistic on the web. “If everyone of the 126,685,145 people who voted in the presidential election, regardless of party affiliation, devoted just one day of service to their community, it would equal over a billion man hours in a highly concentrated timeframe. The scope of this kind of participation is unprecedented and could bring solutions to thousands of communities in need.”

What an incredible way to think about giving. I believe we can all contribute in many ways. Typically, I give time to my community in smaller increments of dedicated time. I like to contribute where I know I am actually using my expertise, as opposed to throwing brute force or hours at a problem. Would I have more impact if I put all of the hours together?

I have great inspirations in the area of donating, such as Dave Stone of First Rate Investment Systems, one of the most giving people I have ever met in this world. The evidence of his giving spirit can be read in one of his earlier First Rate newsletters. He not only gives himself but inspires his employees to give and congratulates their efforts.

Need help deciding what method best suits your company or you as an individual? The Volunteer Family site provides a framework to select what best fits your interests and capabilities. The SERVE.GOV site enables you to search for a volunteer opportunity, shares additional source links, as well as provides toolkits to get started with your volunteer program.

I applaud my friends, employees, family members, interns, and all who dedicate time to their community to help make it a better place. I challenge all of us to extend our hands just a little further to help wherever our hearts tells us we can. We should all give in the ways that are best suited to us. Giving of yourself can only lead to living a richer life. I will pledge to do more with my blessed life to help others do more with theirs.

Cheers,
Lois

The information provided in this recent article, Plan For CIO Succession, in this week’s issue of Processor® , is very valid for many positions.

As is so often demonstrated, the talents of the executives must be a blend of many competencies. Identify the skills you want to see in your organization’s leadership and then track them for each possible candidate, better yet, for all employees. Ideally, executives must be able to balance their strengths at:

• leadership
• coaching/teamwork
• functional experience
• cross-functional awareness
• innovation
• strategy
• global understanding
• customer focus

A great technician does not necessarily make a great CIO. As the article points out, there is often more strategy involved in the job than technical work. However, in my experience, in order to build strategy about technology, practical experience with technology is also needed. A CIO with little or no “in the trenches” technology experience will find it much harder to do their job and nearly impossible to gain a following as a leader of technology resources.

So how do you get a CIO (or a head of sales, or marketing, or finance)? The simple answer: You must mentor and develop them.

The concept is the same for all positions, the execution of the development may vary. After you identify possible executive candidates, they need to be involved in strategic discussions and decisions, as well as budgeting and relations with other business units as a portion of their jobs. To develop a cohesive succession plan, you must analyze and groom many people then test their abilities to assist in many capacities of the business at hand. This is how you will know who is ready to succeed a leader.

Cheers,
Lois