Can HR and IT survive together?

THE SCRIPT BEGAN AS FOLLOWS:
-------ON SCREEN-------

Star Trek video - Starship IS Enterprise flies across screen with the following voiceover.

KIRK
IS - the final frontier! These are the voyages of the Starship IS Enterprise. Its ongoing mission to explore new business process efficiencies, to seek out improved systems performance, to boldly go where no IS department has gone before!

-------QUEUE-------
Star Trek theme music. The action all takes place on the bridge of the IS Enterprise. There is a console where the characters sit and on both sides of the stage, a video screen.

From these humble outlines played out what was generally agreed was one of the most effective best practice strategic sessions the Smith's Snackfood Company had ever seen in Australia. The interaction between Captain Kirk (aka CIO Jackie Montado) and Princess Jane (aka HR director Jane Thomas) was so warmly received it has demonstrably begun transforming perceptions of IS in the real (as opposed to the fictional) HR department and wider enterprise.

The success of the performance helps illustrate how an effective relationship between the HR executive and the CIO, based on mutual respect and understanding, can boost perceptions of IT and play a crucial role in furthering business strategies.

PRINCESS JANE
CAPTAIN KIRK. This is PRINCESS JANE calling from the HR Kingdom! Are you receiving me?

KIRK
PRINCESS JANE. We are indeed honoured by your presence.

PRINCESS JANE
Just what is wrong with your ship Captain? I've had my Minions calling the support deck and they get no response!

RYDALMERIDIENS, TINGALPIANS, DANDENOIDS, PARK REGENTS and CANNING VALIANTS are all experiencing extremely poor response times on the inter-galactic Internet!

How are we to ensure we strengthen the bench and recruit aliens of the future when our online candidate selection system does not function properly?

As you know, we have extreme demands from the marketing galaxy. Every day ADMIRAL MCGINNES is on the phone asking me to recruit yet another high- calibre alien.
What will you do about it? Please report back to me.

-------ON SCREEN-------
The image of PRINCESS JANE fades with static.

SCOTTY
Captain, we have lost transmission with PRINCESS JANE. Shame too - a nice set of buns she has!

KIRK
SCOTTY, respect please! Continue to locate PRINCESS JANE. We must meet the needs of someone of her stature!

Thus, with a little bit of dress up, a lot of glitzy technology and even more humour, did a Star Trek cameo (with a sprinkling of Star Wars) fundamentally turn around an organization's - and especially HR's - views about IT.

With so much of an HR executive's success now intimately dependent on technology-enabled HR processes, the CIO is becoming a key business connection for the HR executive, to the extent that some CIOs now report to the HR director or work alongside him or her in the same department.

Consultants say both parties can benefit from a strong partnership, with communication and groundwork intended to promote mutual understanding being key.

"[The CIO and I] work fairly closely because we're in the same department here under a group called Business Support Group, which comprises a finance department, information management headed up by the CIO, IT and then HR," says Andrew Prestage, HR manager in the Auditor-General of Victoria's office.

"We relate with all three of those departments, particularly with the CIO in respect to information for areas like internal communication strategy for instance. So we will look at how we can strengthen that internal communication; the CIO would be looking more at the communications processes themselves. We have an internal newsletter and information sessions. We look at things like reward and recognition as well, so [we're] trying to link some motivators in there as well for participation."

Prestage says with new CIO David Kennedy just nine weeks into the job at the time of writing, both men were working on building strong social interactions, recognising the strength of the relationship comes down to a mutual understanding of the other's role, and the sharing of a similar vision.

"To some extent, whether I'm dealing with the CIO or the finance manager, if we both have a shared vision on what we're trying to achieve, I think that's where we get the greater rewards and the outcome," Prestage says. "When you're working with people that have different agendas, I think that's when things start to get strained and you start to have your own agendas, the competition starts to arise there, and the one-upmanship."

A Narrowing Gap
According to consultants, while the IT and HR executives were once worlds apart, the vast gulf has narrowed over the past 10 years. But when a CIO and HR director clash, the results can be hugely damaging to organizational goals.

"An effective relationship between the HR executive and the CIO is absolutely critical to the success of HR strategies," Naomi Bloom says. Bloom, speaking recently to HR magazine, is president of Bloom & Wallace, a Florida-based consulting firm that provides strategic HR consulting to Fortune 500 companies.

However, Bloom says the relationship can be fraught, particularly between CIOs promoted from the IT ranks and HR executives from the HR ranks without either having any chance to acquire a broad strategic vision or any more than purely domain-related knowledge. Bloom has worked with many organizations where HR executives and CIOs were simply not working together effectively.

"Disrespect is at the core of a lot of these problems," she says. "IT people see HR people as fuzzy-minded, non-analytical people with bad work habits. HR people see IT people as lacking interpersonal skills, too machine-oriented and not valuing the people side of the business. These are the stereotypes that lead to inbred disrespect."

In fact consultants can cite plenty of horror stories about detrimental impacts rising from ill feeling between CIOs and HR executives, particularly where the HR executive spurns technology while the CIO berates HR's "touchy-feely" approach. When one or the other lacks managerial skills, even if they know their own domain inside out, such problems tend to be compounded.


Different Worlds
Of course, it is also hardly unusual to find CIOs and HR executives working in the same organization whose paths rarely if ever cross.

Kim Schofield, director Human Resources for WA's Department for Community Development, works under the executive director of Corporate Services, as does the director of Information Services, Neil Whiteley. Only the executive director of Corporate Services sits on the executive committee, but both Schofield and Whiteley attend the fortnightly executive meeting of business services.

"That is the only time really that we have any formal meetings," Schofield says. "We might talk on odd occasions but there are no regular meetings individually one to one between us. It's mainly done through that forum, so any issues related to business services are discussed at that forum."

As the HR department gets swept up in the WA public sector's moves towards corporate shared services, due to occur over the next two or three years, the IT function remains relatively unaffected. Schofield says that although Whiteley is sitting in on the discussions and helping HR prepare for the move from an IT perspective - for instance, by doing some preparatory data cleansing - he feels the gulf between the two departments remains fairly wide.

"That said, I think it works both ways really. We're both coming from different realities in terms of whether we actually know the things that we will be talking to each other about," Schofield says. "It sometimes forces a meeting of the minds, but sometimes in your day-to-day work you think: 'Hang on a minute, from my point of view can the other side assist me with this? Do I understand enough of their services to be able to talk to the IT director because I can see where he can help me with the problems I have got? Does the IT person know enough of my business to be able to interact and help?'

"For example I am developing an HR business plan, and from my point of view I might think: Should the IT director get involved in looking at it and tell me from an IT perspective what are the kind of things that could help support the HR business?"

Schofield says he simply does not have the time to keep abreast of IS issues because there are so many HR issues taking up his time. While he knows there are products out there that could help in his business, he does not know which ones would best suit.

As both CIOs and CEOs consistently report, having a strong relationship with other CXOs is the most effective ingredient for success as a CIO. But as Schofield's experience illustrates, in terms of their understanding, preoccupations and goals, CIO and HR can be worlds apart.
"There is a difference between CIOs and HR directors and that can create a communication difficulty," says Human Resource Development (HRD) and Performance consultant Derek Stockley.

"However I think there is a trend where [CIOs'] understanding of [HR's domain] is increasing. It is getting better. CIOs are becoming more adaptable and they've probably moved from a purely technical focus that they have had in the past to seeing themselves as people who are more in control of the information [and] information systems. So I probably see some closing of the gap but I would still see that there would be a difference between [the two executives] just in terms of priorities, I suppose. One would be a technical focus while one has a focus on direction."

Most HR departments are struggling to make the most of the internal resources available, and are particularly focused on the importance of providing intranets that work well and give people information that assists them in their tasks, Stockley says. E-learning and online training are also high priorities. CIOs should be putting priority on providing systems and support to help the HR function, particularly via the corporate intranet, Stockley believes.
"I think that's a primary example. If the intranet is one that supports online line management decision making across the organization, and it provides information that people can access quickly and easily and get the answers that they're looking for, then I think that that is the major assistance and major help," Stockley says. "If people have got access to the information that they need to support their day-to-day line management activities - and that is critical, with HR having a very important role in providing that - and are using the technology systems that are available, that would be helpful."

And forward-thinking organizations are implementing those technology-based changes, which are altering how employees get information about their benefits, performance and development.

Over the past two years, GlaxoSmithKline HR director Andrew Jarvis has been working closely with IT head Andrew MacKinnon on efforts to make HR service delivery more "e-based". Jarvis says he and MacKinnon, who both report to director of finance and IT Mark Chalmers, have been concentrating on creating value-add within the HR function by giving the organization greater access to information and online processes and providing much more self-service functionality.

"Over the last two years we have had a lot of interaction because we have introduced some front-end applications that have changed the shape of our business quite dramatically," he says. "People now can do things that they would have once had to fill forms out for or seek information via the HR department."

Jarvis, who considers himself reasonably systems literate if not especially IT literate, says the changes represent a significant improvement, and are now leading to a further phase of updating HR and IS functionality, with the head of IT "pretty critical" to the moves that will ensure the organization has both the right expertise and the best possible approach.

"There are a range of skills that you look for within your IT function. I think they include very good project management; and we expect [IT] to bring to the table a complete understanding of the organizational infrastructure and how you can best leverage that infrastructure," Jarvis says.

However, Stockley says only a relatively small number of organizations have achieved anything like this at the moment, and most organizations have failed to realize the true value of an intranet as a means of supporting HR decision making and corporate learning. And he points out such failures are all but bound to breed a level of discontent. "I think a lot of people are frustrated by knowing that the information is there somewhere in cyberspace but not being able to find it."

It was just such frustration that prompted Thomas, who organizes Smith's Snackfood's leadership conference in conjunction with the managing director, to offer CIO Montado a unique opportunity to share with the senior managers within the organization some critical insights into the IT function. Thomas says IT's image at Smith's had certainly been suffering, with a common response to the organizational health survey being: We do not have the right tools to do our job properly.

"I discussed with Jackie [Montado] and her direct reports that the leadership conference was a key opportunity to deliver the vision of the IT department. I said: 'Guys, you are going to have the top 180 as a captive audience. To actually impact the organization you need to say that you know that the service is not good enough, what you are doing about it and share your IS vision.' And I further emphasized the need to do in the Australian way: be funny about it, with music and humour. Enlist involvement and really make an impact.

"You should see what they did," Thomas says.

"They went out there, they dressed up, they utilized technology, they had interference . . . you know red alerts. They had me coming in dressed up as Princess Jane saying: 'It's no longer acceptable that I can't utilize SHL online testing in West Australia because the Internet is not functioning properly, your bandwidth is letting me down'.

"They actually came across as people, not as techno heads, because they used everyday common language."

"The feedback has been phenomenal. We heard comments like: 'So IT actually does know that we have issues with them and IT does realize that it is impacting our performance. IT does realize that they need to do something about it.'"


IT to the Rescue
While few HR directors have the savvy to encourage their CIOs to be up-front with staff in addressing IT issues, most HR directors are, by all accounts, drowning in paperwork, and are keen to enlist the help of IT. Human resource outsourcing (HRO) may be a multi-billion dollar industry with a strong projected growth rate, but for many organizations most HR professional work is still done in-house, and is often tied to paper, meaning CIOs who can provide trouble-free automated systems are a blessing.

Kerry Holling, IT country account manager for Hewlett-Packard, South Pacific, considers himself to be in a "privileged position", with HR director John Handley and himself having both had a spot on the executive team, first at Compaq and now at HP, for more than six years. Holling says after all that time the personal relationship between the two is as strong as the professional relationship, and that he considers this a prerequisite to working effectively together.

While the two are not working together on any specific projects at the moment, in the past the IT group has done a lot of good work that has helped HR streamline processes and automate activities. However, Holling says such work would have been unlikely to succeed unless he had first acquired a strong understanding of HR issues and priorities.

"I think because I'm a manager in the company I have a good appreciation of some of the things that we need to do as an organization anyway. Also, because I sit on the executive committee, HR matters are things that we discuss on a fairly regular basis. I get insights into those things that I wouldn't otherwise have if I wasn't in that position," Holling says.

"But in private conversations that I have had with the HR director, he shares with me some of the challenges, even to a point where something is coming forward to the executive committee, so I have a pretty good understanding of what their pressures and demands are."
Such understanding does not come overnight, Holling says. His appreciation of the needs of HR have grown over the course of time - when he was appointed CIO eight years ago such considerations were pretty new to him. As well as a close association with Handley, he says he has grown his knowledge of the HR function by attending company-run executive courses both in Australia and the US.

"HP the company in particular is very focused on [training], so I am very happy with the approach that we take," Holling says.

Also helpful in binding the CIO and HR director into an effective working unit is a shared sense of accountability, says Greg Bourke, director for human resources with Hutchison Telecommunications. Burke, who spent 14 years working for Digital Equipment Corporation, and hence considers himself reasonably technically literate - "I am certainly not any technological giant, but I can get myself around okay" - says he and director for technology infrastructure and services Michael Young are peers who talk daily and meet formally once a week.

"We have an interesting structure here, our technical organization and IT organization is basically merged together, so Michael Young is our director for technology infrastructure and services, and he has a technical officer and general manager that report to him. So Michael is my peer, and, yes, I do work closely with him."

Bourke and Young are currently focused on implementing Oracle's PeopleSoft across the company.

"I think the main thing with any sort of relationship - it really does not matter whether it's with an IT organization or HR or line management - the main thing is working in partnership," Bourke says. "I feel as accountable as he does on a lot of the issues that we are trying to drive through the company. I think I feel like I have got skin in the game with him. And he feels like I am there to support him."

Captain Kirk would know that the best run enterprises operate just so.

Human Interest by Sue Bushell, CIO 07/07/2005