As part of my work over the past few years I've spent a lot of time in project meetings relating to HR Systems implementations - first UK wide, now global. I'm not a systems guru, or an IT geek (in fact the thought of me tinkering around with tech would make my brother - our family's actual IT guru - cry with laughter) but I love a problem to solve and the utopia of reliable, accessible, agile data that drives all the transformational activity we as a business want to achieve is one I've been determined to reach. Consequently, solving that problem landed with me.
It's not glamourous. In fact if you want to send most HR and operational people into a mild coma, you could do worse than start talking about data fields and user profiles and interfaces. The challenge with HR and systems is that HR people LOVE the front end. They are crazy about shiny techy toys, about getting stuff online, about social and intuitive and all that jazz. But they don't want to lift the bonnet or get their hands on the engine grease. They are also crazy about getting the right data, about stuff being right and efficient and accurate. But they would rather think of HR Systems as 'just a big database'. The reality, the complexity, the rubix-cubing of it all is kind of like other people's bathroom habits. We know on some level that they happen, but we'd rather not think about it in too much detail and basically it grosses us out.
HRIS is not the only area of HR or the business where this happens. There are loads of departments that don't produce the shiny sexy stuff, that don't have cool hashtags or exciting things to shout about. I'm not going to start naming them - you know who you are.
One of my colleagues in one of these kinds of departments told me recently that on a project of this type their team had taken to calling themselves The Sloggers - because the job was at times A Slog. This didn't mean that they didn't love the job, that they weren't committed to the job but that their job was at times a slog, and this project was sloggy. I like 'Sloggers' because sometimes you can't roll that stuff in glitter. It is what it is. My own project team have relayed stories to me of the many, varied and frankly ingenious ways they have got themselves through The Slog. The person who told me about The Sloggers also told me that they had branded work merchandise printed up with that title - it became a joke, a way of reducing the slogginess of The Slogging. Made it smaller and less scary. Sort of like the songs about Hitler's genitals during the war.
We all know Sloggers. They don't always have a hoodie with 'Sloggers' on but they are easy to spot:
Being a Slogger ain't for wimps. In fact, it's a bit like joining MI5. It's risky, the hours suck, it's never as glamourous as the job ad made out and, even if you could tell people what you were doing, they wouldn't really understand it. But the world needs Sloggers. In HR, if we want the shiny, sexy, efficient stuff we need Sloggers. It isn't pretty, or headline grabbing, or award winning but unless someone has been out and Slogged we ain't going nowhere.
So, if you know a Slogger, show them some love. Wash their mug, buy them some more Haribo. (Don't hug them, you'll catch that team cold). But mainly say 'Thank you' because however frustrating, tiring or discombobulating your day may have been, and however little you really want to know about what they've been doing, they're quietly, tenaciously, holding up half your sky.
It's not glamourous. In fact if you want to send most HR and operational people into a mild coma, you could do worse than start talking about data fields and user profiles and interfaces. The challenge with HR and systems is that HR people LOVE the front end. They are crazy about shiny techy toys, about getting stuff online, about social and intuitive and all that jazz. But they don't want to lift the bonnet or get their hands on the engine grease. They are also crazy about getting the right data, about stuff being right and efficient and accurate. But they would rather think of HR Systems as 'just a big database'. The reality, the complexity, the rubix-cubing of it all is kind of like other people's bathroom habits. We know on some level that they happen, but we'd rather not think about it in too much detail and basically it grosses us out.
HRIS is not the only area of HR or the business where this happens. There are loads of departments that don't produce the shiny sexy stuff, that don't have cool hashtags or exciting things to shout about. I'm not going to start naming them - you know who you are.
One of my colleagues in one of these kinds of departments told me recently that on a project of this type their team had taken to calling themselves The Sloggers - because the job was at times A Slog. This didn't mean that they didn't love the job, that they weren't committed to the job but that their job was at times a slog, and this project was sloggy. I like 'Sloggers' because sometimes you can't roll that stuff in glitter. It is what it is. My own project team have relayed stories to me of the many, varied and frankly ingenious ways they have got themselves through The Slog. The person who told me about The Sloggers also told me that they had branded work merchandise printed up with that title - it became a joke, a way of reducing the slogginess of The Slogging. Made it smaller and less scary. Sort of like the songs about Hitler's genitals during the war.
We all know Sloggers. They don't always have a hoodie with 'Sloggers' on but they are easy to spot:
- They've taken over a meeting room and seem to have been living in there since the beginning of time.
- The meeting room also contains enough Haribo, cold-medicine, mugs with dubious bacterial-type content and chocolate to see them through a nuclear holocaust.
- They swear within the confines of that meeting room. A lot.
- They have in-jokes that you don't really get and when they laugh at them it's one of those 'are they finding this funny or are they about to gun down the entire office ' laughs
- When you ask them what they are doing, if they have the ability to stop mainlining Haribo long enough to answer, you won't really understand it. Or it will send you to sleep.
Being a Slogger ain't for wimps. In fact, it's a bit like joining MI5. It's risky, the hours suck, it's never as glamourous as the job ad made out and, even if you could tell people what you were doing, they wouldn't really understand it. But the world needs Sloggers. In HR, if we want the shiny, sexy, efficient stuff we need Sloggers. It isn't pretty, or headline grabbing, or award winning but unless someone has been out and Slogged we ain't going nowhere.
So, if you know a Slogger, show them some love. Wash their mug, buy them some more Haribo. (Don't hug them, you'll catch that team cold). But mainly say 'Thank you' because however frustrating, tiring or discombobulating your day may have been, and however little you really want to know about what they've been doing, they're quietly, tenaciously, holding up half your sky.
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