Balancing Technology and the Human Touch: How One Job-Seeking HR Executive Found the Human Side Lacking

May 21st, 2014
Written by: Elizabeth Richards

Someone forwarded me a link to this article recently, titled, “Where did the ‘Human’ in Human Resources go?” This isn’t a new thought, but what caught my attention was that the article featured an interview with a senior HR executive who was downsized and is now looking for her next job—on the outside looking in. She describes her frustrations interfacing with prospective employers’ online or automated job submission processes—and is quite turned off by what she sees as the increasingly inhuman side of HR. And the spread of automation threatens to make the situation even worse.

I agree wholeheartedly. Case in point is the employee onboarding process, which is notoriously scant and can tend to focus on who checked what box rather than what the new employee and hiring manager expect of each other. No software or web-based system along can address that.

This is why, for example, TPO’s onboarding approach combines a heavy dose of human interaction at specific intervals during a new employee’s first 90 – 120 days, plus quantifiable measurements to indicate how quickly he or she is reaching full productivity. The measurements alone would not be enough. There has to be a human component that assesses the key criteria that were set out on day one—from both the employee’s and manager’s perspectives. Then the metrics enable the employer to determine whether the new employee is on the right path to productivity or, in some cases, is not a fit.

So as we go down the inevitable path of systematizing and automating various aspects of our businesses, let’s make sure we invest at least as much time making sure there is always a human element.