From the category archives:

HR Technology

Is HR Technology Conference Co-Chair Bill Kutik The Old Spice Guy?

by Michael Krupa on July 19, 2010

Laurie Ruettimann thinks HR Technology Conference co-chair Bill Kutik is no Old Spice guy.  Or is he?

“Hello HR Professionals, look at your HR Technology, now back at me, now back at your HR Technology, now back at me. Sadly, your HR Technology isn’t state of the art like me, but if you stopped using legacy ERP software and switched to true SaaS HR software they could be state of the art like me.  Look down, back up, where are you?  You’re in Chicago with the state of the art technology your software could be like.  What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s a Promotion Code for 30% off the HR Technology conference registration.  Look again, the promotion code is INFOBOX10.  Anything is possible when you attend the HR Technology Conference.  I’m on a horse.”

If I have not sold you on attending the HR Technology Conference & Expo by my witty Old Spice satire then you should know that the HR Technology Conference & Expo is THE HR Technology conference to attend.  Each year the conference has a shootout session where multiple vendors demo their live software to a scripted scenario.  The shootout has been so successful that this year there will be four separate shootout sessions with only 2 vendors per session.  I’ll be hosting one of the shoot out sessions this year so how better to spend your money except to come see me live and in person as sheriff making sure the shootout vendors stick to the rules.

But wait, there’s more.  Last year we had a highly successful impromptu Tweetup during Friday morning’s breakfast (and garnered interesting looks from those conference attendees who were not in the know).  We are stepping it up this year and for my loyal twitter followers we will be having another Tweetup Friday Morning with more, more, more.  I can’t discuss all the details yet but I know you won’t be disappointed.

I know I am forgetting something…think, think, think.  Oh yeah, don’t forgot my promo code of INFOBOX10 gets you $500 off the onsite price of $1,695 – just $1,195.

Need more convincing? You will be surrounded by 2,000 HR practitioners, vendors, consultants, analysts and bloggers from 24 countries (over 18,000 attendees in the last 12 years).  The conference will also feature free Wi-Fi in the conference center and giant Tweetstreams outside the expo floor and the general session room.

Still not convinced?  Laurie Ruettimann will be teaching a class called Twitterversity.  There will be a debate between guru Naomi Lee Bloom and Gartner’s Jim Holincheck, Oracle revealing more of Fusion HCM,  the Blogger Insight Panel (members not yet chosen), and “Awesome New Technologies for HR” from bleeding edge start-ups (chosen at the last possible second).

If you still need more information, head on over the conference website, download the PDF of the full conference brochure or check out my recap of last year’s conference. Finally, don’t forget my promo code of INFOBOX10 to get $500 off the onsite price of $1,695.  Go register now, while I go buy some Old Spice Body Wash.

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HR Business Intelligence Apps-Don’t do the kitchen sink method

by Michael Krupa on July 11, 2010

I have read a number of articles and blog posts recently that implore HR leaders to forgo traditional HR Metrics reporting and jump right into providing HR metrics data that tie directly into the metrics and dashboards of the business itself and not just HR.  This is a great recommendation for companies who have already mastered HR metrics reporting but what about HR departments just starting out with metrics reporting?  These companies need to get their reporting feet wet before jumping into the water.  For example, if you decided to implement a new HCM system you would not t implement Core HR, Benefits Admin, Payroll, Recruiting, Salary Planning, Bonus, Performance Management, Succession Planning and Learning Management all at the same time. Right?  So when it comes to implementing HR Metrics and HR Business Intelligence applications don’t go the kitchen sink route as well.

Where do I start…

I recommend starting with basic HR metrics reports.  Does your current Core HR system have any built-in metrics reports or dashboards? If so, start with that and gain experience and confidence in your Metrics reporting.

Beyond basic metrics reporting….

My guess is that you probably have separate systems for Core HR, Talent Management and Learning Management.  So once you master creating your core HR metrics reports, I suggest looking for an HR Business Intelligence tool that will allow you to integrate all your disparate HR systems.  As you start combining and reporting on data from all your different systems you move from HR Metrics reporting to Business Intelligence reporting.  Again don’t try to do it all at the same time.  Start by extracting and loading data into your Business Intelligence tool from your core HR system.  Build your reports and dashboards and roll them out to your senior leaders.  Then start loading data from another one of your HR systems depending on your biggest reporting needs. If you get a lot of requests for recruiting metrics and not training metrics then load recruiting data into your BI application next.

Stay tuned for future blog posts on HR Business Intelligence reports and dashboards.

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HRevolution 2010 – What happened to the Tech Talk?

by Michael Krupa on June 21, 2010

Yes I know I am very late in blogging about my thoughts on HR Technology at HRevolution 2010.  I have been staring at this blog post for weeks trying to figure out what to say.  The problem is that I am trying to write about something that well…didn’t happen so I’m giving up and finally finishing this post.

In case you missed it, Ben Eubanks hosted the HRevolution Carnival of HR over at his fantastic upstartHR blog.  Ben’s Carnival seems to be the most thorough roundup of thoughts regarding HRevolution.  By my count there were 45 blog posts mentioned in this Carnival.  I read every single post and guess what? If you set aside social media and mobile technology, only 2 people mentioned technology in their blog post.  At the conference, Bill Kutik, Bryon Abramowitz and I were co-session leaders of the HR Technology session.  We did the usual introductions, made a couple of comments about HR technology and then opened it up to the crowd of about 25 people for questions.   The session mostly centered around Abra HRMS, some questions about Taleo and a request for information about recruiting technology vendors for small companies. Questions were asked and answers were given so I hopefully some people walked away with new technology information.  However, I sensed that many of the session attendees did not even know where to begin to ask HR technology questions.

Let me be clear that this blog post is in no way a criticism of the HRevolution conference, the conference organizers or the conference participants. The focus of the conference was not on technology and I had a great time, learned lots and was able to connect and re-connect with wonderful people.   But what my experience at the conference does tell me is that we still have a long way to go to get HR Practitioners to think about technology.  Unfortunately I do not have any earth shattering ideas right now on how to approach this.   I do think I will reach out to my session co-hosts Bill and Bryon to brainstorm ideas for getting more discussions going with HR Practitioners. Then I will reach out to some of the HRevolution attendees for their thoughts as well.

If you attended HRevolution, did you have the same experience as I did regarding HR Technology discussions or something different?  Do you have any ideas for me on how to engage HR Practitioners in technology discussions?  Come on, help a guy out here.

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HRevolution 2010 – Dirty Martinis and iPads

by Michael Krupa on June 2, 2010

I’m currently sitting on a plane heading from Portland to Denver. The person in front of me has reclined their seat leaving me no room to use my laptop.  Being a good tech guy, I pulled out the iPad I won at HRevolution and am typing this out using the iPad WordPress App. Okay, Okay, I might have finished up this blog post back on the ground but rest assured that the majority of the blog post was indeed written on the plane using my iPad.  Now would probably be a good time to thank all the good people at Monster.com (especially my new best friend Eric Winegardner) for sponsoring the opening night party and for the iPad raffle that somehow I miraculously won.

A couple of weeks ago was the HRevolution 2010 conference in Chicago. I was not able to attend HRevolution last year as it was darn near impossible to get from Portland Oregon to Louisville Kentucky in a reasonable amount of time. Unlike many people who attended this year, I did not go to specifically pickup nuggets of HR knowledge. In some of my previous posts I lamented HR department’s lack of interest in technology so I didn’t go to HRevolution with the hope of a tech breakthrough. It’s a good thing since for the most part I witnessed the status quo. But more on that in a future blog post.  I did not go to HRevolution to pick up HR technology information; I went for the opportunity to spend time with my HR thought leaders outside of the sessions.

I arrived on Friday afternoon and with casual meetups over snacks, the parties, the sessions and impromptu hallway discussions  I managed to have great conversations. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions. Of course one session I didn’t miss was the HR Technology Q&A session since I was co-facilitating with Bryon Abramowitz and Bill Kutik.  Again, stay tuned for a future blog post on my observations on HR Technology conversations at the conference.

I could write about what worked and did not work for HRevolution but as it turns out many of my fellow conference attendees have already blogged about it better than I could. One of the HRevolution planners, Ben Eubanks, has already rounded up the HRevolution blog posts into the wonderful Carnival of HR-HRevolution Style. Go ahead, click that link to open up the HRevolution Carnival in a new window and read all the wonderful blog posts.  I’ll wait right here until to you return.  As incentive for returning, there is still a matter of the blog title to resolve.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to my partner in crime and an amazing blogger Paul Smith who kept me highly entertained from morning until late at night and to the HRevolution organizing committee.  Finally as I end this blog post, some of you are thinking, what’s the deal with the Dirty Martinis in the Blog Title?  Well…I ended the conference on Saturday night at the rooftop bar at theWit Hotel by sipping a Blue Cheese Olive Dirty Martini along with Shennee Rutt and many many others.  Good times were had by all.

Stay tuned for my next blog post when I beat you all silly for not having a proper backup strategy for your personal computers.

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Still Living In A Flat File Interface World

April 20, 2010

Guess what?  The rumor on the street is that HR leads the industry in using the Software As A Service (SaaS) delivery model.  Surveys say that customers still prefer best-of-breed solutions over integrated solutions so that means more HR applications instead of less.  Guess what also is true about many of these SaaS applications?  They [...]

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Psst Customers – Some Software Demo Tips For You

April 7, 2010

In a previous post I gave out some software demo tips for vendors. Since then I have participated in another round of software demos and this time I have some tips for all you customers out there.  Yes, you read that correctly. Customers also needs some tips to get the most out of software demos.

Create [...]

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SaaS does not require just as much IT support

March 17, 2010

On episode 45 of the Bill Kutik Radio show, Bill Kutik interviewed Jason Averbook and Jason Corsello regarding the HR year past and coming up.  During the show the topic turned technical and Bill Kutik brought up the topic of whether SaaS will become the dominant delivery method for HR applications.  In answering the question, [...]

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Carnival of HR Mardi Gras Edition

February 16, 2010

The Carnival of HR has landed right on the tail of Mardi Gras  so grab a Sazerac or Hurricane and some Jambalaya, pull up a chair and settle down for some fantastic blog posts.
As you know, Mardi Gras is a downright fun celebration but sometimes people imbibe a few too many hurricanes and need their [...]

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To Change or Not to Change?

February 1, 2010

One of our top notch HR Bloggers and HR Technology instructor at RIT, Steve Boese, asked the HR blogosphere if we would host some guest blogs for his students.  I raised my virtual hand as fast as I could and I sure am glad as one of Steve’s students sent me a fabulous guest post.
Today [...]

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My 2010 Predictions

December 31, 2009

Since @williamtincup over at Starr Tincup did not ask for my predictions for 2010, I guess I will have to blog about them right here on my shiny new WordPress Blog.  Since it is New Years Eve and my brain is now official mush for 2009, I could only come up with 5 (really lame) [...]

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