HR Tech Conference Update #3

Winding up day 2 with the new technology showcase. Some of the highlights:
LinkedIn is talking every day about where they belong in the ATS
world. Expect something good first part of next year.
There are plenty of data companies here talking org charts and
analytics. Great movement in the space, but pay attention. There are
some bad interfaces, as well as good interfaces on bad systems. If you
are playing in the space, ask tough question and talk to their
customers.
Interactive, slick UIs are everywhere. But as Jason Averbook of
Knowledge Infusion pointed out this morning, remember that the users
of our systems have changes. Formerly just for HR, we now need to
build for all EEs. Keep it in mind.
If you blog, make sure you fed the full post. Short posts make people
mad. Apparently.
Twitter. Might be useful, at the very least can be entertaining.
Also, apparently, there are people actually reading this. I've heard
about the tight knit group, and how hard it can be to break in and get
accepted. I'll write more on this later, but the short version is this
community is full of smart, fun people awfully willing to welcome new
voices. So thanks.

HR Tech Conf - Update #2

Morning session gone, with a few good notes...

The opening keynote was good, but relied on some outdated sources for her presentation.  Instead of telling us what BestBuy did 2 years ago, why not tell us what they did then and how it has changed the company or evolved over time?  Seems like a missed opportunity to me.

Sat in on the CedarCrestone survey.  If you aren't helping get it filled in, you should.  The data is great.  Some interesting correlations between automation and use of HR Tech and org performance.  No true causation proven yet, but going in the right direction.  A lot of focus on statistics makes the data guy in me smile.  Some of the more interesting ones can be found on my Twitter stream from the session (http://twitter.com/#!/DwaneLay). 

More updates this afternoon, battery life willing...

Thought for the day

Everyone on your team is the perfect choice to fill someone else’s opening.  Including the opening on your team if they leave.  Are you giving them a reason to stay?  If not, should you be looking for a reason for them to leave?

HR Tech Conf - Update #1

Two hours of networking in the books.  Had initial conversation with some vendors around the impact of Fusion on the HR Tech arena.  

The response I've gotten so far is:

1. It's Oracle, so you aren't likely to get what you expect.  (Means nothing to me.  I'm not likely to see it implemented in the next year or two, so plenty of time to work out the bugs.)
2. It's more complicated on the back end then you think as a user.  (I don't care how the sausage is made, I just want sweet tasty sausage.)
3. We don't service companies that would spend that much money.  We're "mid-market", so we're fine, thanks.  (Sounds like a whole lot of denial.)
4. We want to help our customers experience less pain when it comes to integrations, but we aren't that good at it.  We're looking for a partner to help us with that.  (Pulls another party into the fray, but a better response than the first three.)

No good answers yet, but this was a culmination of conversation snippets.  The real discussions start tomorrow.

My free idea of the day for ATS vendors:  Instead of asking me to upload a word resume, which you've either already seen or will see soon, let me link you to my LinkedIn profile.  You'll get the same information, plus you can pull in my online referrals and see what those people are up to.  I gave this idea to a couple of vendors tonight, so only fair to share it here.  (One told me they were trying to work out a deal with LinkedIn to populate their database instead of trolling for matches.  Should be an interesting development to watch.)

Fear and Loathing in HR

From Monday's Lean Blog:

"Many workplaces are effectively crippled by fear, including hospitals (or some might say “especially hospitals”). Hospitals are notorious for having “name, blame, and shame” cultures. Dr. Deming wouldn’t have liked that."

I've been a big fan of Dr. Demming since I first read about him.  He and Peter Drucker shaped my management philosophy more than anyone else I never met.  One of his core beliefs around managing people is that performance reviews are waste, and we should allow those in our organization the freedom to experiment, fail, learn, and experiment some more.  Simple but brilliant.  I think that's how I define genius.

Anyway, this post, centered around the work environment at Facebook, talks about the importance of environment on success.  Taking it back to our world, what is the perception of HR in your organization?  Are you the person to whom others go for help, or are you the bouncer that escorts people out of the building?  Do you help build the business plans and talk about talent development, or do you force managers to fill out performance reviews once a year, just because they should?

HR is in position to impact not just who works in your organization, but how they work, what their support system looks like, and how their career is shaped.  This can't be done if you are wallowing in waste and bloated processes.  You have to lean out your work, eliminate bottlenecks and paperwork, and give people what they need to perform.  Then you can work on changing the environment, the culture, and the future.

How Google Can Change Recruiting

We’ve long been trained against asking personal questions in the process if interviewing candidates, even though we’ll accept it if offered.  At the same time, we move into a more open world with Facebook, Twitter, blogging and other types of social media.  For some reason, many managers, even in HR, don’t take the simple step of examining a candidate’s online presence during the interview process.

This is potentially the richest source of information on a candidate.  Are they insightful, presenting new ideas in their chosen discipline, investigating potential avenues of learning more about their work?  Or are they disruptive, combative, or even just rude?  People are more themselves when they think they are anonymous, even if put their name at the end of their post.  It’s a different world than just a few years ago, and indicators of a candidate’s personality are now available in the public space for your perusal.  So why aren’t we using it more?

Regardless of readership levels, I know that if I search on myself, I’ll find this blog, my LinkedIn profile and Lean For HR LinkedIn group (feel free to join!), and several online discussions I’ve held on work relevant topics.   But this rarely comes up in conversation with outside recruiters.   

To me, that work is more indicative of my thought process and outlook on key tenants of HR than anything on a CV.  Between your CV and your online presence, I can get a handle on not just what you’ve accomplished, but how you did it and how your personality is likely to fit in with someone else’s culture and team.  Why wouldn’t we use that to its full extent?

I suspect, or at least I hope, that we will dig into this at the HR Technology Conference.

Openworld Update #9: Fusion

More detail and some pics for you...

The demo on the HCM product was the highlight of the week for me.  It has all the right items included, and a nice package to boot.  Some images from the presentation...

Two views of org charts.  You can toggle between them, as well as pull more info by person and initiate transactions.

Drill down into an employee page, see their comp ratios, proficiencies, predictive performance, and other key data...

Want to move them into a new role?  You can see how their skills match the job profile and what kind of fit they would be.  Again, more predictive analysis built into the system...

 The on-boarding panel, which includes a progress bar that updates each time a piece is completed, including person info validation and emergency contacts...

Not to mention benefits enrollment, including pricing based on the pay rate and the bio data already provided...

 The design interface, which allows you to rework the process on the fly...

I spoke with one of the presenters, and he verified that the system starts the predictive work based on external data, but adapts over time to the specifics of the organization.  By far the best thing I saw over the week.

Openworld Update #8

Finally had the chance to see the Fusion HCM product yesterday. It
looks fantastic, and ther features that were shown were everything I
was hoping for. I have pictures from the demo that I will post later.
The interest part now will be the vendor discussions at the HR Tech
conference next week. Fusion looks like it cantake the place of a lot
of one-off systems. I'm interested to hear why they think they should
still be part of the total HRIS solution.

Openworld Update #7

This morning's keynote was presented by Michael Dell, with some help from Cadir Lee (Zynga) and Rob Carter (FedEx).  The takeaways:

They are all really busy, and business is great
They all really like working together
You should buy/use their product

Outside of that, not too much.  Dell did show off their tablet phone (available soon as Best Buy) and their upcoming 7" tablet.  And they like Android, apparently.

It strikes me that the keynotes have been more about how great each company is rather than offering solutions to complex issues or taking the opportunity to issue challenges to their user community.  I think this is a huge miss, not just for OpenWorld but for any conference that brings a user community together.  Maybe that's just the HR guy in me talking.

Openworld Update #6

Just one post today to wrap up the action...

Most of the good ideas are coming from the Expo areas, not from the sessions.  They are remarkably disappointing.  Today's sessions...


"20 Countries in 20 Weeks With No IT Support"
In fairness, I should have asked what they were doing in those 20 countries.  Traveling the countryside?  Cooking classes?  Book reports?  The answer is technically an HCM implementation, in that they were adding EEs from a recent acquisition.  Their time today was spent explaining how they built a template to enter the data, and a glorified macro to type it in.  That's it.  No integration, no testing, no full migration, no change management, no training.  Data entry.  And it took 20 weeks to enter 900 records.  The best thing I can say for this session is that it ended early.

"Building Your PeopleSoft Application Strategy"
You should upgrade now, because then the CEO will sign off on everything.  We have the skit to prove it.  Oh, and all HR people have to offer at the big table is an engagement survey ("Everyone is sad, but we treat them really well.  If only we knew more!"), turnover ("I wish we knew why people are leaving!") and a fear of the unknown ("What?  We have to upgrade our system again someday?").  But it's ok, as long as you upgrade, you'll be fine.

Hopeful for more tomorrow, with some promising sessions lined up.  But the feeling from the IT team is the same.  And I've heard it was similar last year.  It's unfortunate, given the cost of the conference.  I am trying not to get my hopes up for the HR Tech conference in Chicago, but I think having a host of vendors on hand will provide more insight into processes and specifics than we are seeing here.

Openworld Update #5

Final session of the day was the Oracle HCM Roadmap, promising a look into the future of the application.  And the future looks a whole lot like the present.  Or even the past.

The items they shared were very basic, including online applicant portal and manager self service.  The feature set looks very standard, and at no point did the presenters give us something along the lines of "I know this looks like what everyone else has been doing already, but here's why ours will be great!"

On a side note, if you are presenting for your company, no matter how big the crowd, be sure you know how the microphone works and what you are going to cover.  The presenters looked ill-prepared at the last session, their demo did not work correctly, and one of them insisted on holding the lapel mic (while waving her arms around, gesturing during her parts).  Hard to watch, little value gained.  We can all do better.

Openworld Update #4

Just finished with Pfizer's session on implementing Self Service.  They put in a global (!) system in just about a year, starting in February of 2009.  They built around user needs, VOC, simplicity, and standardizing data and processes globally (with regional adaptation to meet regulatory needs).  Interestingly, they didn't start discussing the technology platform until September.  It was launched a few months after that.

Their story is a great one when it comes to planning your transformation.  It was all about the people, then the processes and then, late in the game, the technology.  As it should be.

Openworld Update #3

Finished up a review of PS Tools 8.5 implementation by Oxfam, a service organization.  They deal with some interesting situations, dealing with a lot of human rights and disaster relief situations.

The presentation boiled down to:

• Identify business drivers (for them, collaborative applications, interface features)
• Install test systems
• Let the technical team and functional team play with it (in an unstructured way)
• Schedule feedback and discussion sessions with them
• Prepare demo sessions of new features
• Give one-on-one demo sessions for key business leaders (not just your stakeholders)
• Be upfront about cost, risk and timeframes

There was also discussion on the implementation approach, but I won't review it here.  The lesson I would take from this, though, is that their successful implementation (or expected success, I suppose, as they don't go live until this weekend) is built around creating pull.  Pull from the technical team, pull from the business needs, pull from leadership.  A lesson that can be applied to almost every project you touch.

Openworld Update #2

Made it through the opening keynote with all sense intact.  As expected, a 2 hour commercial for Oracle and their partners, mostly focused on hardware and infrastructure.  (Nothing much for us HCM folks.)  A couple of thoughts...

Fujitsu spent a lot of money and time to create some slick videos that said nothing at all.  And I think their CEO might be a robot.

The exhibition hall is packed, a lot of golf and video games.  Good times.  Won some golf balls (not that I play).

First session:  Review of a well managed PS Tools upgrade project.  More to come...

Openworld Update #1

Completed check-in (after starting via mobile last night).  Took under 5 min to get my badge and swag pack (a backpack, notepad, and water bottle).

Four Iron Man suits are set up outside the keynote room.  It's clearly a big theme for them.  Mark Hurd did his best to steal Tony Stark's entrance, and there is a lot of red light and heavy drums.

Pics and more to come...

Blogging From Openworld

In San Francisco, waiting for the morning keynote. I'll share anything
interesting I come across?
Anyone else make the trip out?
--
Sent from my mobile device

Regards,
Dwane
314.610.6937
dwane.lay@gmail.com

HR Metrics 101

Metrics are critical to running your HR practice, but far too many HR practitioners haven’t been taught what they really need to know about them.  Here’s a few tips that might be helpful:

• No one really cares about headcount.  How can you tell?  Ask a simple question.  If the headcount next week is ten fewer than last week, what will you do about it?  The answer is usually “it depends.”  And that’s the right one.  Headcount is an indicator, an important denominator for some metrics that are truly indicative of what is happening.  But alone, it’s almost meaningless.
• No one really cares about straight turnover.  What they care about is the cause of turnover, and what can be done about it.  To deal with it, you have to understand what kind of turnover  you are dealing with (Voluntary?  Involuntary?  Regrettable?  Retirees?  Internal movement?) and then you can start to find the root cause.
• Business leaders watch trends more than numbers.  Don’t’ get hung up in the minutia of reporting.  Look for trends that are playing out over weeks, or even better months, instead of day to day.  Businesses are run that way.  Your practice should be too.
• But know the numbers, too.  Nothing will sap your credibility faster than presenting a set of trends and not being able to talk about the details.  Present the important part and tell the story that needs to be told.  But be ready when they ask for more, and be able to discuss not only the details, but what they mean to the business.  That will bring your credibility up, and help you guide your partners in making better decisions for your population.
• Learn to distinguish between correlation and causation.  Sure there are more drownings when ice cream sales are at their peak.  But few people drown in ice cream, right?  Knowing the difference can help you guide a business leader to hire lifeguards, not bad butter pecan.

How the STEM Program Can Impact You

Yesterday, President Obama announced an expansion to the STEM program, designed to engage the private sector in proving public education.  No matter which side of the aisle you consider home, this is an important issue and a positive direction.

No one, outside of our children of course, stand to gain more from a strong education system than private industry.  Preparing tomorrow's workforce is critical, and asking industry to help shoulder the load makes perfect sense.  But there is more that can and should be done than participation in STEM.

Public schools everywhere are struggling.  Private too, in some cases.  It's not hard to find stories of children showing up to class without so much as a pencil with which to write.  Be it the fault of parents who cede their role of educator to the school, an economy that has hit some families so hard they struggle to provide the basics (let alone the luxury of a backpack), or ingrained cynicism of a society that assumes if a teacher is asking us to send our children to school on day one with tissues, shaving cream and wet wipes, they must somehow be profiting from the deal.  The truth is teachers have been doing more than their part for less than they deserve for years, and we can all do more to support them.

If you have school age children, you owe it to them (and each other) to be engaged.  Not just in getting them to school, but being active when it comes to their education.  Be interested in their homework, in getting them to read on the weekends, in their relationship with their teachers and friends, in how they spend their free time.  Commit your personal time to being involved.

This can also be applied in the workplace.  Too many kids leave school having no idea what the "real world" holds for them.  There are ample opportunities out there to mentor high school students, let them intern over the summer, work on projects with them for their own education.  Just call your local schools and ask how you can help.  Even just providing the aforementioned tissues and supplies can be a big help, but we should be able to make sure they have the necessities in the school and still have more to offer.  If you aren't sure how you can get involved, follow the old Dr. Demming advise to "go and see."  Draw your own observation circle in the hallway and spend an hour.  You'll get the message.  And they'll get the chance to make fun of the adult standing in the circle.  Everybody wins.

None of these are revolutionary ideas, of course.  But how many of us are doing them?

Shuffle

I'm a victim of shuffle mentality. And since few bands put out "albums" anymore (as opposed to a collection of singles), its not a real problem. Except we lose sight of how brilliant an album can be.

I just listened to "Abbey Road" front to back for the first time in years. Amazing. Needs to be done at least once a year, I think.

So, what did you take for granted today?

What “Top Chef” Teaches Us About Teamwork

I admit, I am a huge kitchen geek, so I love Top Chef.  I look forward to each season, especially to the Restaurant Wars episode.  I do this with no small sense of irony, given how much I despise reality TV in general.  I can justify my love because I learn a ton from the competitors, gaining from their culinary school experience without having to go myself.

We can all gain from the experience, though, outside of the realm of the kitchen.  In the Restaurant Wars episodes, competitors are split into two teams, each of which must create a restaurant them and menu, then work together to execute.  One member of the winning team usually gets a nice prize, one member of the losing team usually goes home.  

Even if you don’t care about kiwi foam, braised guacamole or deep fried bits of formerly living things, there are lessons we can take away about teamwork in a heated environment.

• It is possible to be teammates with your rivals.  On TC, it is required for the day.  In real life, it’s just as forced, but usually lasts longer.  The successful competitors realize they depend on their teammates to be successful if they want to remain.  We sometimes must do the same to be successful at work.  It is rare to have a team fail and still have a member or two look like a star.
• Someone has to take the tough job, and can suffer for it.  Many of the losing teams see their “executive chef” go home, even if they were not the weakest performed that week.  Sometimes when you are in charge, you take the blame.  It might not be your fault, but that’s part of the job.
• Taking the tough job doesn’t always mean reaping the rewards.  As often as the team leader goes home, it is rare that the team leader is declared the winner.  That honor goes to the individual contributor who really shines, more often than not.  It’s just another lesson that leadership isn’t the easy path some believe it to be.
• When the heat is on, alliances can fall apart quickly.  Many teammates have turned on each other in tough times.  Issues that were thought to be minor or resolved spring up, seemingly to blame for the failure of the team.  Always be aware of those who declare a problem resolved, only to continue to simmer over some injustice, real or imagined.
• Each win is simply a step in the process.  Restaurant wars is fun to watch, but is never the ending of the season.  The next week, those teammates will be back to individual challenges.  Just like we work side by side with our teams, but are eventually judged on our own merits.  Take those team tasks as a chance to learn from each other and better ourselves, but never forget that we must improve our own skills in the process if we want to be successful long term.

IBM's Smarter Planet

Not a new campaign anymore, of course, but it caught my eye this morning.  The spots implore us to redesign the way we fulfill power needs, transmission, etc.  The problem, of course, is that you don't just need to put in a new system, but you also have to tear down the established one.  This is a problem that predates even the Edison - Tesla battles at the beginning of the last century, and it still hangs around today.

How does that apply to HR?  We can all imagine a different way of doing things, ways that are better, smarter, faster.  We create game changing ideas that are revolutionary at times.  But the established system, including the budgets, infrastructure, culture and organization setup, makes it hard to implement, if not impossible.  So what do we do with these great ideas?

Simply put, we document them and call them our future state.  And we start chasing the future down one step at a time.

Of Engagement Surveys

My organization recently released the results of our annual survey.  Good participation rates, decent scores, though down in some areas.  Given the last year included a lot of internal shuffling, not to mention some position cutting, it shouldn't be a surprise.  The results include a slight dip in overall morale and engagement.  Slight, but nothing drastic.

Survey results are reported out at the highest level, but then drilled down by business leader to create action plans and hold discussion on how to improve scores.  These things are planned regardless of the results.  Overall, I applaud the intent behind this work.

What the survey doesn't reflect is the trauma that people go through in a year of this nature.  I've seen hushed conversations in corners when the leader met. I've seen teammates fighting back tears at their desk after someone else is let go.  I've seen rifts between employees and management that quietly fester, but are never vocalized.  How do we address something like that?  Dr. Demming would point to the respect for people that was at the center of his work, and tell us that must be the center of our work.  Easier said than done in the economic turmoil through which we've come.  Hopefully we've learned from it, and can begin working our way back.

Celebrate the Right Way

Seen this?



 Let this be a lesson in knowing what "success" means before we start a project.  Celebrate to soon, turn your back for a second, take your eye off the critical change management work to pat yourself on the back just once, and it can all fall apart.

Remembering

Pushing the Spectrum (from Seth Godin) makes a subtle but important statement today.  He references how parts of our society has tried to turn fear into hatred.  (He kindly refers to the people as "marketers," which I suppose is technically accurate.  I'd call them something far different.)


There are a lot of blogs, news items and Facebook posts today about what happened nine years ago.  My most vivid memory, aside from the news, was checking my email.  Earlier in the year, we had taken a trip to Germany, and had stayed in small B and Bs the entire time.  That afternoon, I received an email from all five of them, letting us know they were thinking of us and that they hoped we were safe.  These were not long stays, mind you.  Two of them were just overnight.  But it was that outreach and support that I remember most.


In contrast, I still receive mass emails from time to time about boycotting "Arab businesses," about how much everyone in the Middle East wants to destroy us, about how horrific it would be for a religious/community center to be built near ground zero.  Rarely are these well thought out, logical missives about our world.  Instead they propagate hate and fear toward a race of people who, for the most part, want little more than to live in peace, celebrate their faith, raise their children and enjoy each other's company.  


There are extremists in all corners.  Just as most of us, I hope, would not want to be judged based on a "preacher" who slings hate and burns religious books that are different from his own, I hope we have moved past a time when we judge all members of a religion based on the actions of a few extremists.  

HR Tech Conference iPhone App

If you are planning to attend (and by all accounts, you should), and if you have a iProduct of some sort (and statistically, you probably do), you might find this of interest. 

http://www.filecluster.com/iPhone/HR-Technology-2010-31274.html

"This is the version of HR Technology 2010 for iPhone / iPod Touch. This is the official mobile guide app for the 13th Annual HR Technology® Conference & Expo being held at Chicago's McCormick Place, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 2010.
The HR Technology® Conference & Expo is the world's leading business conference and expo on every aspect of technology for HR.
This app will enable you to view the full agenda, look up details such as speakers, sessions, and search for exhibitors, sponsors and Expo information. Utilized onsite, this will be a great tool to help you easily get around the conference."




**Disclaimer:  Not my software, haven't yet tested it, can't vouch for performance.  Will update as warranted.**

Lean is Inclusive, not Intrusive.

Recently read an article talking about how HR and Lean can "join forces" to change the world.  The article is good, but I think it propagates a fundamental flaw in our thinking about Lean and anything.  Lean isn't something you do on top of your "day job," it's how you do that job.  The problem with sustaining improvement programs is when comments like "I can't run a project, I'm too busy with my regular work" are encountered without immediately coaching that person on using those Lean tools to accomplish their work in a more efficient way. 

We don't have to "join" Lean and anything.  Lean is a toolbox to help us accomplish our goals.  If it's seen as anything else, it's a failure.

5 Ways to Reduce Waste in Your Recruiting Processes

Talent acquisition is rewarding, but can be a painful process for both the recruiter and the applicant(s).  Here are some suggested methods for cutting waste and improving the overall recruiting process...

1)  Online applications.  Most companies are either in this game or going there, but many that use an application tracking system also have paper applications.  In some cases, they require both.  Not to mention the redundancies of having a CV or resume, then the online application, then the paper application.  Don't waste you applicant's time with rework, and don't waste your own in dealing with reams of unnecessary paper.

2)  Incentives your externals the right way.  The best system I've seen offers their external recruiters a bonus payment if the first candidate they present is hired.  This gives them incentive to really learn the culture and position to give you a great candidate the first time.  If you think of the wasted time and money in looking at multiple candidates, it's a small price to pay.

3) Cut your interview to offer time.  Sometimes the bottlenecks are simple ones to reduce, once you realize that time is not a free resource.  One team I worked with waited until the end of the process (meaning post-acceptance) to perform the background check and drug screening.  It added 5-10 days to the end of the process.  The cost for each round of checks was about $50.  Once I asked them if the position added more than $10 per day of value, it became an easy decision to move it.  Now they perform those checks on the final three candidates just before the last round of interviews.  Results don't come back until after the interviews and (generally) the decision is made, but the delay in getting the offer and acceptance in greatly reduced.

4) Create a pull process in staffing.  Recruiters will tell you there is a limit to how many searches that can do at once before you start to lose quality.  Ten seems to be the average.  If you are using an online talent system, hold the requisitions back until one of the ten they are currently working is closed out.  This also allows you to track your staffing levels and know if you have the right number on the team, too many, or not enough.  Speaking of which...

5)  Centralize your staffing team.  Just like a call center, shared staffing resources allow you to handle the peaks and valleys of demand across your business without over- or under-worked people (as well as often needed fewer recruiters overall).  Rather than have a staffing person for each location/department/business leader, build a central team that can take requests from across the business and triage them for best responses.  Within that team you can still have specialists as needed, but you reduce your risk of losing an expert recruiter because their knowledge can be more easily shared. 

And the unnumbered bonus tip is, of course, get really good at talent retention and development.  It will help keep the recruiting needs to a minimum, which is the best way to reduce the waste in the first place.

Who do you work for?

Working this week on building an employee self service function, we
review how we support someone with no computer or no desire to us one.
The solutions are designed to drive employees to the new site and help
them get to know the interface. As a technology guy, I look forward to
it. But for whom is this solution built?
Our HR leaders will enjoy the lighter transactional burden on their team.
Our finance leaders will appreciate the expected reduction in the
cost of HR overall.
Our IT partners get to build the slick interface and get their data
scrubbed, not to mention some server and software upgrades.
Nowhere in this, though, has the overall employee experience been a
discussion point, beyond some vague chatter around "engagement" and
"empowerment."
This isn't new. Service organizations have been cutting costs for
years now, and the customer experience has taken a back seat. Rather
than following the basic tenants of LSS, such as letting the strategy
pull the projects, or doing real VOC work to see what customers want,
we charge ahead into a world where we are pleased to get through a
transaction on the first try.
HR desperately needs to stay in touch with our only real customer, our
employee population. Keep them happy, and make their lives simple.
It's all they really want. Just ask them.