Screaming at my technology

This week I have been fighting a regular battle with my HRIS. For those not in the know, HRIS stands for Human Resource Information System. If an uninterested observer were watching this battle unfold, I believe they would unequivocally state that the HRIS was winning this battle.

I think this Stone Belt art piece captures my feelings today!

The current system, one that has been in use by my organization for just over a year, is quite robust. While this robustness serves us well in some areas, it also provides challenges when trying to extract certain information. The integration with other systems also means that getting items A, B, and C also requires us to look for M, X, and T too. Unfortunately, the mechanism for getting M is different than the one needed to get X and T. So, a report that someone thinks is a quick 5 minute process actually takes the better part of two hours. After two hours, I believe I have A, B, and C only to discover that A and C are present for everyone but B has not populated for one group of people.  It’s back to the report generator for another attempt. Maybe I need to include variable F too?!?

Now, a consolation in this battle is that I am not alone. All of us on the new system have experienced at various times these same frustrations. While some call for us the change (again) I am experienced enough to know that learning any new system can present these frustrations. I will scream, curse, and complain, but ultimately I know that the information will be provided in a manner that can be used.

Does anyone out there relate? I’m guessing there are many who do!

There are many people with much better knowledge on HR technology than I and during my time in HR I’ve been fortunate to learn from them, have learned to ask better questions in our selection process, and have become quite savvy building my queries. However, I’ve yet to encounter a system that can truly “do it all” and do so for every organization. I supposed I’ve also reached the revelation that perfect in the world of HRIS does not exist and that we cannot allow the pursuit of perfect jeopardize the good that we have created.

That being said, I’m still screaming!