As a part-time college instructor I have heard the ‘Is this going to be on the test?’ question many times.
I always give the same answer, we don’t have tests in this class.
I teach an HR Technology class in a HRD Master’s program. I typically have an interesting mix of students, some have not started their HR careers yet, some newer HR professionals with just a few years in HR, and even a few seasoned HR professionals and small business owners taking advanced HR classes to further their development and add more value to their organizations.
With such a wide range of backgrounds and experience you would think it difficult to ‘level-set’ the class, and keep the content interesting and challenging for all. I mean 20-year HR pros HAVE to be more tech savvy than recent grads with one or two years in the workforce, right?
Wrong. At least not when it comes to technology.
The Technology Gap in HR: Two Reasons
One characteristic I have consistently noted is a shocking lack of technology awareness and knowledge, really from students of all experience levels and backgrounds. And it is not just that students don’t understand what ERP is, or how SaaS is changing the nature of enterprise software ownership and deployment. Heck, barely anyone understands that, and that is why we have the Tech class in the first place.
But more basic, fundamental technologies that are really necessary to at least understand, if not effectively utilize, as a Human Resources professional today. Students in my classes almost never read HR blogs (I can’t even get them to read mine), understand RSS, or utilize social networking sites like Facebook for anything other than purely social interactions with their friends. In two years, I have had one student who was active on Twitter prior to my class.
Two primary drivers are at work here. The first is the ‘traditional’ notion of HR that views technology as the business of the IT department. ‘This is a job for IT.’ ‘I am in the people business, don’t bother me with the technology‘. So many students and HR professionals whom I meet happily admit to technology ignorance. And the mainstream HR professional organizations have largely ignored technology education – the closest to any ‘technology’ sessions that the last SHRM National Conference included were about corporate career sites and very few HR graduate programs weave technology throughout each course in their curriculum (the best approach) or offer dedicated courses (an acceptable substitute).
The second driver is a consistent ignorance, apathy and a serious underestimation of the impact of new technology on the businesses that HR supports (particularly social technologies). Technology moves so quickly and for HR leaders and professionals it can seem so easy (and sometimes necessary) to remain in their comfort zone of policy creation and enforcement, employee relations, or compliance reporting. Finding the time and resources to invest in new HR technology research and education, brainstorming, and experimental pilots of new tech can quickly fall to the bottom of the priority list. In the emerging social media space, HR leaders and HR Professors who blog, tweet, or otherwise are heavily engaged are seen as (still) almost revolutionary. I recently co-presented on innovation in the classroom to a large faculty group and only two out of about eighty professors in the audience admitted to using Twitter. But still, even being a Twitter person doesn’t make you a ‘tech’ person, although it does at least show an awareness and curiosity of this phenomenon.
Increasing the Tech Acumen of HR Students + HR Pros
So what do we do? Here are some quick steps to increase the technology acumen of both the HR professional and the HR student:
1. For current HR professionals – Don’t be content to cede the technology decisions to IT. IT, by necessity, has very different motivations and criteria for technology selection (data security, interoperability with existing systems, in-house tech skills). Partner with your IT colleagues to make sure that HR goals and requirements are considered up front and not as an afterthought. Additionally HR pros can leverage resources like IHRIM and events like the HR Technology Conference.
2. For HR academic programs – Incorporate technology content as a key component in your existing curriculum. Discuss the importance of Talent Management suites in your Competency Development class, best practices in recruiting tech and Social Recruiting in the Staffing and Selection class, or collaboration technologies in the Strategic Employee Development class.
3. For both groups – Tap into the vast array of webcasts, white papers, market research, and blogs that cover the HR Technology space. There are literally thousands of vendors, scores of consultancies, and a few decent blogs providing technology content for the HR pro and HR student. In particular, HR educators need to take a broader view of the full range of excellent content provided in the blogosphere and make sure both they and their students take advantage of this resource.
The ‘test’ for many HR pros in the future will be the ability to understand, assess, and apply the appropriate technologies to support HR initiatives. Will you be able to pass?
I teach the HR Cert prep course and a Fundamentals course and I get the same sort of reaction. Not many read them and not only that they write the policies to ban use of social media at work.
It is sad.
Great commentary – your notes regarding HR pro’s view of IT are very accurate and in desperate need of change.
This post definitely makes me think. It takes work for HR to learn and keep up with the new technologies. Many HR people are complacent and will not put in the extra work on their own time to learn it. What really struck me was when you talk about the second driver being “consistent ignorance, apathy, and a serious underestimation of the impact of new technology.” That is SO true in many HR departments. The leaders have no idea what they are missing out on, therefore, they don’t really care. Those of us who are on the bandwagon (or at least attempting to be) need to step up and spread the word. This is the “Innovative & Creative HR” of the future.
Super post, I may just print off and post in various places in my department just to see the reactions. We must absolutley make the leap and in my corner of the world (behind the firewall) I am intending to make it as painless as possible but I kid you not, technology is coming
@Michael – I hear you on that. It can be really frustrating to that more HR pros still have that ‘banning’ mindset.
@Erik – Thanks very much, HR can make it happen, but needs to get the tools to make it happen first.
@Trish – More HR leaders like you that are aware and curious about new technologies and ways to leverage them will eventually be more common. For now, you are definitely swimming against the tide.
@Lisa – Thanks very much, you are right technology is coming, in fact it is already here. The best HR shops will learn, test, and eventually leverage the right tools to help the organization meet its objectives.
Thanks very much for reading and thanks FOT for the opportunity to post here.
Great post Steve. I’m really surprised you mentioned the majority of your students are uninterested in technology, HR blogs etc particularly given the course they’re taking. Out of interest – do you have assessments for the class? If so, what methods do you use?
Great post, I work with many HR leaders across multiple industries. If HR isn’t aware of these technologies, how will they know where great talent is located if they are not using these channels themselves?
I was recently at an Austin area HR conference where, no matter the topic, technology was the main theme. The ideas and information you provide here couldn’t be more true and important for HR professionals to embrace now.
I agree completely. HR pros as well as academic HR should really integrate technology into practice. As a recent graduate and someone who just began a career in HR, I wish that my college would’ve taught more about the impact and influence of social media regarding HR. It wasn’t until recently that I accidentally stumbled on the online HR community, and I’m so glad that I had. There are so many interesting, experienced HR Bloggers out there! I would have to say that for the last couple weeks, I’ve learned more from these blogs than from school. What’s even more amzaing is how open and inviting these HR bloggers really are. They’re willing to share their knowledge at no cost. Unlike webinars or seminars in whhich costs hundreds of dollars, you pretty much can find out the same info online. Overall, I’m glad I have found out about this movement and I hope that more and more people will also!
@Sarah – Yes, we do an ‘official’ course assessment via the school, and I also typically conduct interim surveys or polls to take stock of how the students are feeling. The results have been good, and I think most HR Students do appreciate the focus on technology in my course.
@Patty – That is a great point, it does seem likely that for HR leaders, we are quickly arriving at the ‘ignore at your peril’ stage
@novice-hr – Your experience is very typical in HR education. I did a ‘guest blogger’ assignment in my class this term and assisted several of my students in guest publishing a post one of the popular HR blogs, and the honestly none of the students had previously spent time reading and commenting on blogs. It is truly a rich resource for HR student and professionals alike.
One of the reasons most of us all know each other, if even just in passing tweets or browsing each others’ blogs, is because our numbers are still relatively small. It makes us a tight knit little online community. I love to see how the “HR/Recruiters on Social Networking” lists grow each time someone takes the initiative to publish one. Steve’s post brings us back down to the “real world”. The one where our colleagues are largely on the other side of the digital divide professionally.
Bravo for that class. They’re lucky to have Steve teaching it.
great post and in agreement 90+%. the only wildcard I am struggling with is Twitter. I have found that it is more difficult to sift through the clutter than some of the other tools. Sodexho, Accenture, and some others have started embracing it for job postings, i struggle to find other practical applications.
Steve – this is a great post and highlights a real problem in organizations and in HR. For HR to deliver future goals it will need to take a lead on the technology opportunities out there. IT often take a lead because there are too few “technology champions” in HR and they fill the gap. I really like your suggestions for bridging the gap in tech knowledge in HR. In the future this will help to reduce complaints about the new $5 million ERP system that doesn’t deliver HR goals. For info, see my article on “Five Trends in HR Operating Models” http://bit.ly/19BFwF
@Karla- Thanks very much for the nice words. I am reminded of those facts each time I start a new class and none of my students have ever read an HR blog.
@Ira – I do think finding specific Twitter use cases for HR (beyond recruiting that is) can be somewhat challenging. For me, it has been a great tool to facilitate relationship building with many great minds in HR, Technology, and education. But I agree it is not for everyone just yet.
@Andy – To me, IT are really just the infrastructure providers in this and HR really needs to be the designers and architects. I agree there are too few HR Tech champions.
Steve your observations are so very relevant particularly in the current scenario where HR managers are required to offer a bigger bang for the buck and CEOs are looking to cut costs every possible way. One possible reason for this is that most students opting for HR electives are those who with low scores in tech subjects or those who have opted to miss out on them altogether. Perhaps if the selection process included a requirement of a min grade in tech subjects we would have HR people who would be more amenable to the idea of adopting technology opportunities.
I have a very close friend who is an IT person and I can attest to the fact that it is extremely important for HR to partner with the IT department. When he started this job, they were working as a team toward a common vision. As time has passed, things have changed dramatically and now it is almost to the point of the HR dept. versus the IT dept. Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t mean in terms of drama- there is relatively no drama involved. It’s just that HR wants certain things done and the IT dept. wants things done a certain way or a different way and it’s caused a great slowing of the tech growth in that particular orgazation. The tech dept. is slow to respond because of lack of motivation and the management has scaled back their vision for technology. They’ve taken more of a “we’re good enough” mentality. Over time, the progress that has been made with quickly fade when compared to the progress the tech industry is constantly making and before long, this organization will be way behind again.
Some time ago, I needed to buy a car for my business but I did not earn enough cash and could not buy something. Thank God my dude adviced to get the mortgage loans at trustworthy bank. Therefore, I did so and was satisfied with my financial loan.