Fighting the robots

HR blogger Laurie Ruettiman recently blogged about the ‘automation of HR’ – of how software vendors are set to automate your jobs, basically.

‘Nobody needs the bullshit that comes with human resources.’

Well, yes. Phrases like that are harder to take when they come from someone on the inside. These last five years or so have seen streamlining become the norm. Where we can become lean, we have. Where we can find savings, we have. Where we can automate – you get the picture.

It’s a wonder that 99% of Human Resources hasn’t already been automated – perhaps there just hasn’t been the time?

The 1% that Ruettiman says are doing fantastic work are the ones providing the added value, but are they, as some commentators say, providing the ‘Tea and Sympathy’ that HR is known for? Is Tea & Sympathy all that HR is good for now?

Let’s look at HR automation, HR analytics and where we’re heading.

If a computer can do your job, find a new job

It doesn’t matter what profession you’re in – HR, marketing, flipping burgers – if a computer can do your job, start looking for a new one. Or start looking for new responsibilities that a computer cannot do. You don’t want to be automated out of a position.

And this is the problem with a lot of what used to be considered HR – i.e. form-filling, administrative tasks. One business I worked with employed two people to come up with ever more convoluted ways of adding to their own paperwork. Coloured forms (God forbid that you ever use the wrong colour), new processes, meetings about new processes and meetings about meetings about new processes – their jobs were entirely about self-survival.

I have no idea if they survived the cull of the last five years. I was long gone.

A lot of this has been workflowed into Employee Self Service portals. You don’t need a CIPD qualification to run these portals – you don’t even need to run them. They’re made by clever IT people who see you as a cost centre. Which is what you are if you’re just administrating.

The way it’s going, with Google buying up Artificial Intelligence companies, HR analytics providing real-time snapshots of the people in the business – it’s going to take a whole lotta value-add to prove your worth.

Computers will soon know when someone is about to quit – they’ll be able to model the lifecycle of an employee – their peaks, their troughs, their likelihood of quitting – and they’ll be able to pick their way through CVs – the lying, the exaggerating, the quality-checking – and they’ll be able to plot career paths for you. They’ll be able to show you how your organisation will look in five years.

You won’t have anything left to do.

A cup of tea and some sympathy

Ah yes, but you have people skills. And computers generally don’t (give it a few years). You can deal with conflict, grievances and upset employees, and computers can’t. The softly, softly side of HR still remains, but is it an investment that streamlined organisations want to make? Fluffiness is so pre-2007. Our businesses have a harder edge these days, and whether that’s a good thing or not is up to you.

The ultimate question is – are your people skills needed? You think so, you know so, but you’re being forced into a corner where half of your job has been outsourced to a black box and a building somewhere you’ve never been, and you’re providing the tea & sympathy.

Who’s to say that this can’t be outsourced to a HR organisation? Who’s to say that we can’t buy in the Tea & Sympathy from somewhere else – let’s call it Tea & Sympathy HR Services – a floating, outsourced organisation who provide lower-cost Tea & Sympathy for your people, with strict KPIs, highly qualified people (it could be you if you apply) and a flexible approach to HR meaning that streamlined businesses save up to 80% on their HR salary base.

We all know it’s not as good as having someone internally, who knows the business inside-out, but who can prove that with pound signs?

Laurie’s 1%

The many, many years of introspection and navel-gazing have produced some pearls of wisdom. I have a lot of time for Ulrich’s business partner model, and still think it’s applicable – but it still requires the change of mindset and skills base that many HR professionals lack. Those in Laurie’s 1% are the ones who can actually call themselves Business Partners. They’re the ones who can’t ever be outsourced or replaced by black boxes.

They’re the ones who demonstrate their value, time and time again. Bottom line value – exponentially.

Look at marketers, and how they’re constantly tested by their contribution to the bottom line. David Woodward correctly points out that HR can learn a lot from marketers and their application of technology. Look also at salespeople, who suffer the annual “night of the long knives” if sales targets are not met or exceeded. You may have fired a few of them yourself, and prepared the paperwork.

They’re always trying to prove their value and find new ways of demonstrating how they’re growing the business. A computer can’t sell.

Therefore, to access the 1%, look for ways of making yourself invaluable. It’s not Tea & Sympathy, despite what many think – people can do without the bullshit.

It’s not keeping a company legislatively compliant – people can do that without you. It’s not about keeping a company afloat through administration – there’s a hundred companies around the corner all touting for that service. It’s about growth, and how you fit into that picture is neither here nor there. Just be in it.

If you think HR analytics is your saviour – it’s not. Knowing how to implement data, and how to interpret data – that’s not HR. Knowing how to take advantage of people data and grow the business – that could be HR. The skills you’ve got + the data you can get your hands on – well that could be a deadly combination.

Get to know what’s going on in the world of automation and find a way of fitting into this new world. Do something the computers and the outsourcers can’t do – or get a new job.

About the author

Gareth Cartman