I was lucky enough today to meet with two Executive Vice-Presidents of Human Resources.
- One was from an organization of 500 employees, profitable, growing and in a good position even in hard economic times
- One was from an organization 100x larger than the previous, profitable, looking forward to recovery and ready to take advantage of its strength in global markets
What I found fascinating about these two meetings today was the following:
- Both EVP's of HR were concerned about both cost savings "efficiency" and value creation "effectiveness"
- Both EVP's of HR were looking at ways to structure HR now to be in the best position for the future
- Both EVP's of HR felt that they have taken a "backseat" to how the organization spends money on technology and say they cannot afford not to invest any longer
- Both EVP's of HR question their ability to truly deliver what their "boards" are looking for based on infrastructure today
- Both EVP's of HR are looking to change their processes drastically from traditional HR processes to truly business embedded "value add" processes
On the airplane tonight, it got me thinking. Each of these organizations is looking to do the same thing, but there are also some variances.
- US only vs. Global
- Easy decision making vs. Large "political" infrastructure
- Not much legacy investments vs. huge legacy investments in HR technology
- Not many failed deployments vs. some failed deployments
So, "does size matter in HR technology?"
One of the most interesting things on my mind after today is that when looking at HR technology and its ability to impact organizational change, where the "key" differences are truly lie in the cultural aspects of change and the complexity around governing processes, not the actual technology itself. Each of the organizations mentioned could work with a common core HR solution, a common payroll solution and some common talent management solution if:
- They were willing to make their processes "common"
- They were willing to fight legacy philosophies and push changes
- They were willing to brand and deploy HR technology in a new, sexy manner
It is a Friday night, sitting on the airplane drinking a beer, looking forward to seeing the family - and at the same time, cannot get out of my mind how amazingly different these two companies are and at the same time, how similar their needs truly COULD be.
What are your thoughts? Does size matter?
Another infusion of knowledge...
