Some important issues facing CEOs, HR and IT directors in the United Kingdom.

By Roy Lecky-Thompson and Ed Lecky-Thompson

 

The benefits of the rapid spread of technological innovations to help company Human Resource practitioners are well known and widely welcomed.  Developing from the dedicated use of a large mainframe running a payroll thirty years ago to the varied and major desktop and remote applications today, the productivity gains that computers have brought are substantial.

 

One current example of how IT is being put to good use is the growing interest in a self-service approach to benefits within a flexible rewards policy. There are many others.

 

Yet though the sophisticated hardware and software available are increasingly taken for granted, there are risks that need to be considered at a time when continuous IT innovation is the norm. Sometimes, the overhasty application of a new system or process without consultation with other interests, or the absence of responsibility to maintain it, can lead to costly inefficiencies or, at worst, litigation.

 

This article considers a sample selection of people-related IT applications that could operate with reduce effectiveness unless due care is exercised. It also considers some developing trends and considers how directors can manage the risks.

 

1- Graduate Recruitment

 

Companies vie with each other to hire the best talent. They now depend more on their websites rather than brochures to market their branding as employers of choice, and rely on paperless employment applications. In the UK, the leading accountancy firms compete with each other to become the leader of the pack, while recognising some of the risks of fraud in the recruitment process. So remote completion of tests are, for instance, nowadays supplemented by supervised paper based tests in their offices.

 

However, some simple maintenance is not carried out. One website, for instance, has a series of monthly blogs posted by a cross-section of multi-ethnic hires. Starting enthusiastically in early 2007, no doubt encouraged by the Graduate Recruitment Manager, they decrease in frequency during the year, and by mid-2008 are rare.

 

And there are still instances in similar sites of links that don’t work, information that is out of date, and no easy means of identifying how to make contact if there are questions.

 

Does it matter? Well, to the bright and sometimes cynical applicant who has a choice of employers and checks all the other competitor sites, there may be some filtering in the early decision process in favour of those organisations that are better presented.

 

So, what does an employer do about it?  Firstly, task one member of the recruitment team once a month to audit the site and update it. Every six months at least, check competitor sites, especially in advance of any revamp. Secondly, every three months, ask a non HR executive to take a cold look at the site and see what works and what doesn’t. A fresh view is no bad thing. And finally, consider the external independent check: if you don’t use consultants, ask your vacation students for honest feedback not just about this site but on how it links with the company’s main website.

 

2 - Training and Development

 

It is tempting to set up e-learning as the best way of delivering training. It can be user friendly, essentially free to deliver after set-up costs, and available on demand. But a recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development survey suggested that only 7% of respondents found this the most effective way of delivering training.

 

E-learning can of course work. One progressive law firm that delivers a complete legal service to a client company, including providing their in-house lawyers, identified some HR needs and now produces regular on-demand videos of the latest employment issues. No doubt the availability of employment law specialists to answer questions reinforces the learning.  Another example is the use GDR Consulting makes of e-learning when managing complex SAP implementations.

 

However, enthusiasm for technology needs to be tempered by reality in many cases. There is no substitute for a full needs or gap analysis for individual executives linked back into the company’s own business intentions, with joint consideration on the best means of delivering the training. After the learning, there is also no substitute for discussions with the manager on what has been learned and what can be applied. In fact, even though some companies may not yet want to adopt the formal Investors in People quality accreditation process, the checklist of indicators of best practice provides invaluable guidelines.

 

As far as career development is concerned, company attitude surveys often show that employees are concerned about the lack of information and advice on career development opportunities.  The production and use of online tools to help individual self-assessment and selection of options can be fun; but this is only the first step. This has to be followed up by effective career counselling with experienced HR professionals and action if needed. It is unlikely that this always happens. National UK surveys continue to indicate a surprising level of employee dissatisfaction. For example, the absence of effective career development planning is a major contributory factor in the 48% of staff wanting to quit their employer (April 2008).

 

3 - Intranet and Communication

 

An external audit on HR practices in a medium size progressive manufacturer revealed a lack of information flow and communication from the Board about company progress – good or bad. This was a source of staff demotivation and a factor in staff attrition. The consultant’s recommendation was for a simple form of information cascade after the monthly management committee meetings. The aim was that by the end of the working week all employees would have the same level of knowledge after briefing by their bosses.

 

Instead, the Management Committee felt that the directors would rather make use of their new Intranet to tell everyone about their deliberations within one working day. The HR Manager was told to implement this, though she expressed her concerns. The result?  There are even more demotivated shop floor employees who, when asking their immediate managers for clarification on particular published points regarding financial performance, were told in no uncertain terms that the managers were as much in the dark as they were.

 

The Intranet, frequently updated, is an invaluable tool for communication and information flow, but not at the expense of working relationships and the proper briefing of managers. In this particular instance, briefings could have been supplemented by additional information on the intranet.

 

4 - Links with the IT function to control risks

 

It is surprising how HR managers - who should know better about influence - can still sometimes operate in isolation from their IT colleagues. There are examples of HR directors determined to make their mark by reviewing and procuring their own HR systems from briefing through to selection, and then telling their IT colleagues to “make it work”. This not only alienates IT and makes them less likely to be co-operative, but also leads to the all too common situation where HR has specified a system that is technically incompatible with the organisation’s root IT infrastructure.

 

The professional and experienced IT team is ultimately charged with making sure that company systems are compatible and that, as a simple example, users avoid having to enter the same data twice.

 

The co-operation between HR and IT is also essential in key risk areas such as data security and its enforcement.  Both the public and private sectors still have serious examples of unencrypted data on stolen laptops where there is no clear responsibility for employee training and enforcement of procedures, including using disciplinary action if needed.  And if companies are determining how to monitor access to social networking sites, the early involvement of IT will pay dividends.

 

5 - Some future trends

 

According to the Cranfield School of Management, 90% of recruiters have yet to consider Web 2.0 technologies and the implications of marketing through, for instance, Facebook. This provides an ideal opportunity for an in-company cross-functional project group to consider the implications without rushing ahead. (For what it’s worth, a straw poll of students suggests they want to keep Facebook purely social).

 

However, there are already examples of companies jumping rapidly on the bandwagon of Second Life, establishing a presence as an innovative means - they hope - of attracting employees. But the processing requirements are huge, and the risks are unquantified. Lawyers are just beginning to get to grips with some discrimination risks, for example, when a real life candidate claims unlawful treatment in his other existence! Professionals are sceptical that this is likely to be a sensible way forward that would in any way supplement information on a company website or would be available in normal day to day recruitment interaction – especially in discussions.  So unless you are really able to evaluate all the risks, there will be commercial advantages in not being at the cutting edge.

 

There is a trend that deserves attention by directors and will require more co-operation across functions. It seems possible that those who actually procure IT systems will go entirely “thin-client” – that is web based. The reason is that desktop terminals are becoming ‘dumb’, largely driven by the massive drop in the cost of hardware. Given that a new business-class PC is now only about £300 - and even less in the USA - they are practically disposable. This coincides with more hot-desking and the decreasing likelihood of an employee keeping one machine throughout his tenure in the company. This is a good thing generally, but it creates an administrative and security headache to ensure individual machines have the right software installed and data present: it would, for example, be disastrous for somebody in HR with a laptop containing sensitive personnel data to hand on the machine to somebody working as a freelancer. The best cure is prevention; by using just thin-client approaches you never have any software (other than a web browser) or any data on the individual’s machine, which improves security and speeds up administration.

 

So, if you are a CEO, and you don’t see co-operation happening, it’s time you got the HR and IT chiefs to talk about the implications.

 

Conclusion

 

The one key point that emerges is that even with the most user friendly and productive IT applications, there is no substitute for one to one interaction at a personal level – whether it is the recruitment team answering questions; the experienced boss guiding and motivating employees; individual staff initiatives with others to follow best practice; and executives taking the wider, co-operative view when considering the company’s future.

 

Roy Lecky-Thompson is a Senior Partner of Personnel Advisers RLT Associates (www.rltassociates.com); Ed Lecky-Thompson is the Head of Digital at Hicklin Slade and Partners.Both based in London, UK.