Implementation
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Applying the Cheat Code
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I’m pretty hopeless in most games. There are always levels, other people to compete against, and too many tasks to get done. Inevitably, I run out of patience before I reach the top state, or I realize I’m not very good at the game and I just give up due to incompetence. The wonderful thing…
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Change Management, Collaboration, Communications, Governance, HR Service Delivery, HR Strategy, HR Technology, Implementation, Service DeliveryThe Evolution of Standardization
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So my wife has been on a homemade donut kick lately. That’s right, every weekend I get to sample another dozen donuts. Those of you who read often know that my constant struggle to stay fit must work really well when there is a new batch of donuts sitting around the house every Saturday morning.…
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Branding, Change Management, Communications, HR Service Delivery, HR Strategy, HR Technology, Implementation, Portal, Service Delivery
Dysfunctional Self Service
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So I’ve been away for a year and I’ve let this website go a little bit. (I just started back up in September) I mean, if you click on any number of links, you’ll find error pages, pages that don’t load, or just pages that don’t display correctly. Basically, letting go for a year while…
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Engaging Testers
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Testing is one of those things that I would not only be bad at, but I would rather loath to do it. The infinite detail of what the task entails along with the endless permutations that are possible makes testing seem like an impossible task to me. I really just can’t focus for as long…
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Switching Gears
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A long time ago, I used to work for ADP doing pre-sales. We had great relationships internally with services and implementation, but nonetheless it always seemed to come up that we didn’t always sell with the full lens of reality. On the other hand, I’d say that we came up with some pretty cool solutions…
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Rules of the Road
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Every time I go to another country, I’m amazed at how tame driving in the US actually is. People here obey lane laws, there is a fairly strict code of right of way (even if half the drivers don’t truly understand it), and for the most part people are patient. For those of you unbelievers,…
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The Pain Threshold
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Lance Armstrong was a US National Champion and a World Champion long before he ever won seven (eight?) Tours de France. The man was always known in cycling circles as the next big gun in US cycling. In one race (San Diego I think), we were riding a horrifically fast pace, many of us in…
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Change Management, Enterprise Solutions, HR Service Delivery, HR Strategy, HR Technology, ImplementationMissing Steps
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I started my day on Monday at 4am when my cab picked me up to head to the airport. As he missed the airport exit (how does that even happen?) I thought to myself that missing my plane would cause me to miss a series of 4 conference calls in the afternoon. Given that it…
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Nucleating agents for change
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Interesting thing about water. You can pretty significantly influence the temperature at which water freezes simply by introducing an agent to it. But there are other times when water actually should freeze, when it is pure and below the freezing temperature, but that water can be held in a liquid state at just below the…
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Back to Basics
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It seems to me that there has been a renewed focus on core HR. Now I need to tell the truth, I really thought core HR was dead. I mean, it will always be around, but with the whole industry moving on to cooler things like analytics and talent management, who cares about core HR…
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HR Technology Deployments
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I love it when consultants come in and talk to you about all the things you need to do around an implementation. Obviously your implementer is going to do all the normal things around table configuration and testing, but they often miss some of the bigger items. When consultants come in to talk about the…
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Which Version of Reality?
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I’m an advocate of reality. It’s nice when you can look at something and immediately recognize it. In most cases, a reflection of reality is quite obvious. When I say the word “chair” each and every reader automatically has a concept generate in their heads – some with an armchair, some with an office chair,…
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Balance
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My road bike is a custom titanium racing frame. It was made by a guy in Montana who is probably the cleanest welder of titanium bike frames in the world, the guy’s work is just impeccable. I don’t really need a custom bike – it’s not like my body proportions are weird or anything. I’m…
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Understanding HR Data Governance
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We bought my wife a new bike this weekend. She is not usually a bike rider, and the last time I took her out riding with me, she swore never to go riding with me ever again. I suppose that one does not necessarily realize this if one does not have sufficient self awareness or…
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Time to Upgrade
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Today I got the following message on my browser: Unfortunately your web-browser is from 2001, which is really, really old in web years. If you would take a moment to upgrade you will find the web has a lot more to offer. First of all, let me point out that this was not actually my…
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Implementing Smart Codes
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So you’re going to implement new job codes, or department codes, or whatever. Someone in the organization has a great idea: “let’s make the codes smart!” I mean, what better idea to manage the information within the code than to implant attributes within the code itself. So you go down the road: Job category will…
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Explaining Facts and Dimensions
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Fact: A turnover rate based on a calculation Dimension: Historical time trend of turnover Fact: The number of heads in your HR database Dimension: The breakdown of headcount by organization Fact: The number of FTE’s in any given job code Dimension: The demographic analysis of FTE’s in job code I honestly have no idea how…
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Pretty is not Useful
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Not all of us have fancy business intelligence tools and cool dashboards with great graphs prepared for us in our business environments yet. If we’re lucky, we belong to organizations that have spent millions of dollars figuring out how to get us analytics when we log into self service environments. Or perhaps we have bought…
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Up In The Air – Packing Theory
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Many of the people I know have watched a film called “Up in the Air.” Indeed, I suppose it was a popular file garnering several Oscar nominations. (I have no idea if it won anything as I don’t watch the Oscars.) Several people have told me how personal the film was, and other than the…
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Burnt to a Crisp
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I have a friend who happens to have a particular way of ordering steaks. This is interesting for a number of reasons. First, I’m not sure how many Indian guys order steaks. Perhaps Gautam can shed some light on this for me. (I think my friend lives in Goa if that makes a difference). Second…