Jumping the GapMoving recruiting to the cloud from the grass roots

Introduction Joshua Ramey-Renk, MBA, SPHR

Director, Talent and HR Operations

Sierra Club National HQ

Implemented Taleo ATS in Summer/Fall 2011

Learned a LOT along the way Today will be a mish-mash of

lessons learned, cloud-implementation specific challenges, and amusing anecdotes about moving a 120-year old non-profit onto a 21st century technology platform

The situation on the ground 120 year old organization…

Anti-”system” and anti-authority biases

Practice accretion-lots and lots and lots of different ways to do…everything

Application “System” was…send your resume and cover letter in an email and hope it would end up in the right place

Lots of layers…and complicated

Key Challenges Resistance to change

Defining ownership

Clarity of goals

The “Can’t we just press a button?” mentality

Any implementation

Key Challenges

Don’t own the code

Internal IT role fuzzy

Working within constraints

Customization is limited and changes happen frequently

Cloud-specific

Breaking it down Who’s in charge here?

Expertise, transparency, and the end user

Vagueness in, Vagueness out

Development and testing

Process is as important as product

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Survey after launch

Developing training resources

Who’s in charge?

IT vs. HR

IT & HR (the unholy alliance)

Cloud-based systems make this mucky

Collaboration and boundaries are important

Expertise, transparency, and the end user

The “BEST” way isn’t always the right way

-Every organization is unique

Input should come from multiple levels

The big question: Replicate, or replace? UPDATE

Vagueness in, vagueness out

Have a clear grasp of the top things or reports you want to get from the system

In a cloud-based system, things can change rapidly-be sure to keep templates and custom content in a safe place

USE YOUR IMPLEMENTATION CONSULTANT. They can’t decide for you, but can offer suggestions. Once they’re gone, you’ll miss them

ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT WHEN MOVING TO THE CLOUD!!

Development and testing

Can be tough since in many cases there is no “sandbox”-once you’re live, you’re live.

Also-your IT team can’t just write a patch later-remember, this is all in the cloud…

So…how do you test?

Test small sets of steps with a very limited number of options while developing the next part of the process. But don’t get too far ahead. And be prepared to create fake people, requisitions, and applicants

You only THINK you know all the ways to break it.

Bribe internal testers, who should be end users not on the implementation team, with chocolate

Process is as important as Product

Especially true if putting in a system where no system has existed before

Think ahead to roll-out: training should be about the whole idea, not just the specific steps

Communicate, communicate, communicate

BEFORE: It’s coming!!

Launch It’s here

After What should it do in differently

than it does?

Humility is helpful: “We’re all in a learning mode…

so please let us know if you encounter an issue or something isn’t working as you expect. We look forward to working with you to improve the system

Pro-Tip: This message really should be delivered by somebody from HR-we can say with a straight face.

Survey after launch

By this time the in-house team has developed a better sense of how things work in the system and “explored” the subtle differences between what they thought the system would do and what it actually can do…and what they can modify on their own (templates, landing pages, text)

Be prepared to: Slaughter your own sacred cows

Find small tweaks for big impact

Stand your ground

1/3 neutral, 1/3 enthusiastic, 1/3 hate everything new

Develop “Goldilocks” training resources

Not too simple Or you wont actually avoid

getting questions

Not too complicated Or you’ll just have to redo them

when the cloud-based update happens

Juuuuust right Short, topical podcast-style

presentations that can be changed out by segment if something is altered for a piece, but not all, of a process

Good to have a people-person as the point person for these things, since you may be changing not just the technical piece but the whole mindset.

In Summary

Decide what you want the system to do

Figure out who’s in charge

Use your implementation consultant

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Develop short trainings that can be swapped out if the product changes