Class Ended!

So, our HRST class at UC Berkeley class finally ended. It was a great experience to learn all the web 2.0 technologies and how we in Human Resources can leverage that in our own little departments.
We always talk about HR catering to people needs, caring for people, and human capital being the most valuable of all...
But just to say that HR is changing in few intriguing words doesn't change HR.
We have to take action and not just say it.
The easiest and so far the best way to make Human Resources a "brand" is to embrace Web 2.0 technology.
Web 2.0 technology allows us to be the part of the Strategic table -- something that HR has never been :(.
And although it may sound that this has to deal with IT guys or learn Computer technologies, but that is not the case.
Web 2.0 is as easy as playing a video game.
Everything is there -- you just need the attitude to be there.
Coming back to the HRST class... So we had 10 meeting each for 3 hours.
In fact, the class virtually started much before that.
Jun Cruzat, our HRST instructor (HR Systems manager at PIXAR) reached us before the class started through our class wiki https://sites.google.com/site/hrsystemsandtechnology/team-members/Home.
In fact that reminds...we came up with our own wikis.
He posted his own video and welcomed us to the class. That has never happened before..We learned about Technology, especially Web 2.0, the role of social networking sites in HR -- Twitter, Flickr, Podcast, Webinar.
The whole Project Management concept, demos from best of the breed Web Technologies like Workday, Avature, Peoplesoft, Success Factors etc.
And of course, not to forget "Blogs".
That's one of the reasons I am writing about my experience.
Apart from all of this, we also read a lot about people who are involved in HR and also have the knowledge of Human Resource Systems and Technology, like Jason Averbook...

Through his site "Knowledge Infusion", and their podcasts.


I will edit this and continue writing later Dont get bogged down by grammatical errors :)

Project Presentations on Decemeber 10th...

A learning experience for me listening and understanding the problems faced during aspects of HR. I thought everyone did a very good job, and everyone had a very detailed idea of their problems and the proposed solutions. Clearly technology provides intersting alternatives/solutions for some of the problems we face today at work (and even at home :))

RS.

Six Steps to company-wide adoption...

An interesting piece talking about how technology provides for integrated solutions today, and how they need to be tested and adopted by the whole company rather than a few select individuals/groups. In particular, it talks about integrated social software suites like SocialText 3.0 (what were 1.0 and 2.0?) and how it can be adopted across the company using a 6-point formula of sorts... 

I find the points relevant but lacking depth. No one would disagree that such softwares need to targetted in an intelligent fashion within the organization, but doesn't talk about how to motivate people to adopt them and change the way they work, interact, contribute... But overall, I think it does make you think, and I'm sure people in charge have them hands full...

RS.

Podcast #12 with David Ludlow...

This podcast was pretty much i(n)tune with some of the other podcasts I've heard on this website. The focus was again on how the HR systems have broadened their impact from being used by a few HR personnel's to pretty much the whole organization (managers (for hiring, etc.), employees (for reviews, etc.). I guess this is one of the most fundamental (if not the most!) change in how HR is viewed and used by organizations today.

There was another discussion on how social networking (Facebook/Linkden) will have a major role to play in the next semi-decade... I was kind of interested in the profile authentication discussion, but not sure if there will be this one unified profile, with different fields being viewable by different people. When it comes to professional information, why would I want to do that? And again, who owns this data? Facebook? No way... Will there be one trusted source with which we can share information? How trustworthy is that? Well...

The discussion then goes to the SAP talent management softwares. SAP is lacking this module right now. It has historically covered performance management and recruiting. However, it seems they are in the process of including TMS, and also embracing the new Web 2.0 technology. Let's hope they do it...

RS.

Midterm...

Interestinne  questions and related to what we've learnt over the past month.