_____ RESOURCES: Where did the HUMAN go?

We are doing it again! Our office is going through another exhaustive implementation of yet another computer system. On board this year we have several computer system projects in our que lined up for implementation. By the end of 2012 we will be more streamlined, more efficient, and more effective.

I am all for technology making our processes and procedures better so don't think that I am knocking the usage of technology. What I am saying is that in the process of becoming 'MORE' we have diminished what it means to be in Human Resources. Now a person can go from an applicant to an employee without stepping foot into the Human Resources Office. In our effort to make processes more open we have literally in many cases closed off the Human Resources office from view. The only reason many see for coming in Human Resources is negative in nature. They need to file a claim of some sort or they have some documentation that must be hand delivered for an action to occur.

I am a huge proponent to making procedures more fluid and easier for employees to access but I think somewhere in the process we have left out the idea that we are eliminating the HUMAN side of the process. Part of offsetting this limitation has been the big push for training... but not actual HUMAN training..... no folks we are going to automate this as well with webinars, online tutorials, conference calls, or self-guided trainings whereby each employee can go at their own pace or follow along with the host.

I don't know how many of you have been on these types of trainings but it is very easy to check your email or simply 'check-out' throughout the training and although you can check off the training as complete competency in the area is certainly not attained. So where do we go from here?

I honestly don't have an answer. For me I get dismayed when I spend a majority of my day answering emails, correcting errors in a HRIS system, working on an implementation of another system and spend a relatively short amount of time conversing with an actual employee about an issue. Somewhere in creating all of these new HR IT systems we have lost our ability to maintain rapport with the employee and many of us have become de facto systems or IT employees rather than the highly qualified HR specialists.

How do we change the paradigm? Another cautionary tale in my view is the fact that now that much of HR has been automated and we are saving FTE's and are able to do the more advanced, higher level, thought provoking, employee relations tasks many of us are finding that our departmental budgets are being slashed and these high level individuals are dismissed since their former primary duties are being handled by a new highly effective, efficient system. Has technology helped HR or has it actually made us expendable?

jamie