Galina Nemirovsky left a comment in yesterday’s post about Social Media and HR.
I’ve been working in HR/Marketing for the last 13 years but I am a writer. To me, writing is my sanity. Twitter and my blog are therapeutic to me; I can foster my anger, frustration, sadness in keystrokes and clicks. However, I went too far with my last job and I think that was what got me fired.
However, I ascertain that it is our current social communication genre and if you want to play the game, you need to get your gear. I do think, however, that technology has had an adverse reaction on the field of human resources … technology has taken the human out of Human Resources.
I love comments like these because they spark a new conversation. Here’s what I think.
- When misused — such as in the recruiting process — technology removes the human aspect out of everything including Human Resources.
- When implemented in a thoughtful way, I think technology can reduce the inefficient aspects of Human Resources. It forces a company to streamline bureaucratic practices. Employee interactions become more meaningful when you’re talking about important things and not just dealing with paperwork.
I also believe that technology shines a light on crappy HR departments, too. It’s much harder to hide when you are held accountable and your performance is measured.
What do you think? Has technology has had an adverse reaction on the field of Human Resources? Has technology taken the human out of Human Resources?
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Technology has improved HR’s ability to deliver on its increasing reporting and ministerial demands. However, Laurie, I agree with you that the recruiting function has suffered adverse impact
. The increasing demand for talent has paralleled development of the automation available to address it, but only in its administrative aspect. The skill — the art, if you will, of recruiting, acquired only with rigorous and thoughtful experience — has been supplanted, not complemented, by those whose sole recruiting skill is manipulating a database.
with respect to adding technology. Sometimes, technology leads to ever more complex forms and processes, because it’s easy to change the process or add to the form. Eventually, as Drucker warns, successfully completing the procedure or filling out the form becomes more important than what the procedure was designed to accomplish.
It’s the, “as long as we have this nifty tool, let’s add a few questions for this other mandate”.. and pretty soon, getting staples for your stapler requires writing “War and Peace”.
If there were a paper form, or a human interaction, the form fillers would balk, and someone would bear the brunt of their displeasure. With online forms, etc., the pain is hidden.
Only human’s have the ability to take the “human” out…Technology is only a tool. People use tools (or not)…A means to an end…you know all the analogies.
I think that the world has become a very cynical and stressful place and HR has gotten caught up in it as well, being short and abrupt, not answering the phone, or even emails…avoidance, lack of caring about people just because their people…but I don’t think technology is the catalyst shedding light on this probelm. If there is an 800 lb. gorilla in the room do you see it or ignore it? Alot of HR folks need corrective lenses…but the glass is half full as there are still good people in HR doing the right thing, caring for others because its the right thing (not because they get a raise, praise, or stroked for doing so).
my 2 cents!
M
I appreciate Mark’s comments, and I agree that too many of us get caught up in the hustle and flow of work and forget to be personable and helpful. I believe the transparency that is coming with new technologies will shed light on recurring themes of companies that act without those human decencies.
Galina’s comments, however, also lead me to another thought. HR professionals are becoming increasingly data-driven (or so they keep proclaiming, along with cries of being more “strategic” and a “business partner”)…as someone who handles a lot of data and interacts with HR around the data for their business, I wonder if the urge to be data-driven also contributes to “taking the human out of human resources.” Of course my hope is that the data pinpoints where a dose of humanity is most needed in organizations.
I think this is an interesting topic, and I do feel that technology, which all though it can help leverage human contact, tends to do the opposite and become a replacement for human contact. The functions that were first automated, tended to be high volume, and technological solutions rode into the picture like the Cavalry at the end of a Western to save the day. They were perceived as win/win applications. The employees would be able to access and manage information easily, without waiting for return calls or getting lost in a system, and the HR team would no longer spend long hours returning calls or answering the same question to perhaps hundreds of different individuals.
I don’t blame the technology for limiting the human aspect (Mark F. nailed it on the head above), I believe it is the will of our society. We tout the ability to stay connected and communicate more effectively thanks to technology (yes, that is true, I’m not challanging that), but do we use it instead as an excuse to avoid face to face or even voice to voice interaction? With personal interaction there is a great chance for conflict (hey it’s not always a bad thing), and you can just about reduce the potential of conflict to 0 through technology, and I believe (note: The opinions expressed herein are Puf’s and Puf’s alone, I have no scientific backing. Let’s just call it a hunch) that ability to isolate ourselves from conflict has become the adult version of the womb: safe and comfortable.
I am with Mark F – technology is just a tool – the people and processes are what count.
If an HR staff member can’t be bothered digging deeper into a candidates background manually – then any tool that helps make it faster does not matter – they still will do the same thing – just faster
I am a newbie to the HR world and thus far feel technology has been a great tool with respect to the daily tasks issues I am facing. I am trying not to view it as a “force field” between myself and our existing and potential employees (they would find a way through anyway, a la Darth Vader).
Love your site btw. I will note that I have never been in a profession that self-analyzes so much!
@Kirsten We are a bunch of navel-gazers in HR. It’s annoying, isn’t it?
@Elliot I don’t want to dig into a candidate’s background. I want to use reliable tools and technology to clear the candidate against fair and measured requirements. Then I want hiring managers to make an informed hiring decision based on a decent and substantial conversation with a candidate. From an HR standpoint, I want to get the hell out of the way of that process. Am I crazy?
@HRPuf You know, technology brings out my inner introvert. Don’t call me — text me. Don’t whine in my office — send me an email.
@TP I agree that metrics can reduce an important & human interaction into a disconnected piece of data.
@Mark Only human’s have the ability to take the “human” out…Technology is only a tool. Well said, my friend!
@Jim That’s a good observation. What if we just stopped and asked ourselves WHY before every technological process or human interaction? WHY AM I DOING THIS? That’s my favorite question.
@Ken The people who succeed in the world are those who master the arts.
@Kirsten- ugh…god. Do we ever self-analyze! Not to mention- over inflate our egos ….
And I agree completely with Mark.
@HR Chick DON’T YOU KNOW HOW IMPORTANT I AM TO THIS COMPANY???
I have been enjoying your perspectives on HR. There have many great points made in your comments section, so I will just leave my personal favorite pet peeve: online application processes, what a technological wall we have built in the name of progress. I get it, I understand it, but who might we have hired that never made it over that wall!
I’m in the ‘technology as tool’ camp. I was once involved in a large scale staffing process, and we worked closely with the state employment office. They did not have the technology to allow us to easily do basic database work with the applicant pool, and we hired a third party just for that. Once we outlined the basic strategy for the process, some people started to think about what else we could do, and de-personalization tarted to creep in. Keep the purpose in mind – keep the “human” in resources.
@Carrie That wall is too steep, sometimes.
@TimG Or keep the human in your company. Embed it in every department!
Thanks for this.
This post really caught my eye as I’m into a way of working I call “Human Business”. By this I mean business involving body, heart and soul. Technology isn’t the opposite of this and it is my experience that technology can isolate us as it creates one kind of connection but not another. See this post:
http://integrationtraining.blogspot.com/2008/11/death-and-how-technology-does-and.html
All the best,
Mark
(Brighton, UK)
@Carrie – well said – here is one that may not have made it over that wall – or as Isaid in a comment was it through HR or in Spite of HR;-)
http://www.omghub.com/therainmakermaker/tabid/85463/bid/9305/Leaders-that-Walk-the-Talk.aspx
“technology shines a light on crappy HR departments” – ha! I smiled on that one because it is just so true. I’m an HR technology consultant – we put in big, modern HR software systems for companies. It’s tough to get people focused on cleaning up and improving their processes *first*, before doing anything to automate them. Most of the time, they think that implementing software from some company is going to make their work processes better; most often it just shines a bright light on how bad they really are….
@Steve Hey great minds think alike.
@Stress Mark OMG, when I hear ‘human business’, it makes me think of poop. (Sorry.)
@Elliot Thx for the link.
I HATE applicant tracking systems that request that you upload your resume, then force you to spend an inordinate amount of time retyping everything on your resume into a database format that doesn’t let you proceed until you have provided every date, address, phone number they are looking for. I worked for Company A from 1994 through 2004. Okay, it was from July, 1994 through August, 2004. Why do you need the exact date I started and left. Why do you need the exact address of the high school I went to, much less that date of graduation? That type of information (dates which can age a person) used to be forboden for applications and are still discouraged from resumes. I also don’t think we need to provide references’ names AND contact information until we have decided there is mutual interest in the position. As a recruiter, I can collect that list when I interview someone in person, in case I am sufficiently impressed with the interview. As a candidate, I am happy to provide that information once I know that the company is interested, and I can give the people on my list a head’s up that someone may be calling. That’s my vent on technology, at least from the recruiting/hiring piece.
Now for the good part: With LinkedIn, Twitter, sites like JobAngels, etc., we can use technology to recruit in unique and more personal ways. I can search linkedin profiles and find candidates with good backgrounds and then request a more direct communication. They don’t need to have answered a job posting, and they can tell me they are not interested. We can use these sites to help each other out, critique each other’s resumes, pass leads and introductions back and forth. Yes, we used to do all this face to face at job fairs, but I have plenty of horror stories about those. They can be very impersonal, too. The internet has the power to connect us from far and wide and still retain a little anonymity, if we desire.
My point is, it’s not the technology that hurts, it’s the way we use it. People have been afraid of machines taking over the world since the invention of the automobile and the industrialization of our society, yet we still have a society and we still have our humanity. It’s all a matter of keeping our perspective.