A visual of the booklet. You can download a PDF copy from www.presenceofit.com.au/insights-and-research/things-you-should-know-about-cloud-hr-solutions

1. Things you should
know about cloud HR
solutions:
Lessons from a
social experiment
Make the right choices
Copyright © 2012 Presence of IT. All rights reserved.
1

2. Preface
2012 has been a significant year for the HR Technology landscape. It will be recognised as
the year in which cloud HR vendors seriously began offering organisations alternatives to
their on-premises software: easier, quicker and cheaper solutions around talent and core
HR transaction management.
Major ERP players, SAP® and Oracle®, moved decisively to buy out established players in
response to the growing appreciation and positioning of Workday®, an HR solution built by
the previous owner of PeopleSoft®, Dave Duffield. Duffield was clearly and effectively
challenging the ERP players in their own backyard and winning over often frustrated
clients. Cloud HR vendors continue to offer pricing models that are enticing in a time that
capital outlay is being curtailed.
The end result? A significant shift in thinking: cloud-based HR solutions are inevitable!
While there is an abundance of skill around the approach and implementation of ERP on-
premises HR solutions, the same cannot be said for cloud-based products. The approach,
choices, decisions, technical requirements and timing are different and for many
organisations this is an area of concern and risk. Coupled with this risk, social media tools
and principles of gamification are adding layers of complexity to the cloud-based solutions.
It‟s not as easy as deciding not to use these new layers, especially when the tool is
fundamentally constructed around these new elements.
Presence of IT - Human Capital Services division (HCS) recognised these risks and
complexities and decided to run a social experiment with a cloud-based HR solution so we
can advise clients on implementing their own cloud HR products. We selected the
Salesforce.com product called Rypple® (now part of Work.com) primarily because it had all
the components we needed, was easy to purchase and would not be construed as a sales
pitch for our other products. Rypple however, was not the focus. We wanted to understand
and learn from the behaviours of people who were included in the experiment. It was a real
eye-opener and we have now transferred our learnings to our consulting staff.
This paper is a summary of our learning and observations. We hope you enjoy the read.
Dave Brookes Rob Scott
Managing Director Practice Lead: Human Capital Services
Presence of IT - Global Presence of IT - Global
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3. Content
Some background 4
1. Setting up the system 5
2. Social media aspects 7
3. Gamification principles 10
4. Setting objectives 13
5. Performance management process 16
6. Incorporating mobility 19
7. Administration of the system 21
8. Culture and participation 23
Closing 26
3

4. Some background
Frankly, we didn‟t want to produce another white- number of tools (as we referred to them) that are
paper based on a survey of leading companies and indicative of new cloud-based products. It‟s by no
experts. While these documents are useful in many means a complete HR solution, but it was perfect to
respects, we are a little bored with pie charts, emulate organisations embarking on a best-of-
histograms, probabilities and correlations. breed approach to cloud solutions - which in our
view is a likely scenario.
With the advent of many new cloud-based HR
tools, and an opinion that the move towards Our experiment ran over three months. Our
software as a service is a high possibility for many implementation team were hand-picked members of
HR functions over the next three years, we decided the Human Capital Services division (HCS) of
to emulate what clients might experience during the Presence of IT, and our users, the entire HCS team
implementation of a cloud-based product. spread across our Australian offices.
So, rather than trying to convince you with statistics, We pretty much bought the tool, configured it,
we opted to run a social experiment in the safety of notified users that it was available, provided some
our own organisation. basic guidance and reference material, and then
For our experiment we wanted to focus not on a
product, but on the issues, risks, observations, sat back and watched. Importantly, we didn‟t tell
expectations, reactions and learnings that came everyone that it was an experiment - we wanted the
from the team who set up the product and took it tool to be used for real work purposes and the
live, and from the users who engaged with it. outcomes to be genuine.
This is the story of our experience. We make no In the graphic above, we identify the areas of our
apologies for statistical and validity imperfections - review. These areas represent functionality,
there are no doubt many - and our learnings may configuration, administration, deployment methods
not be entirely relevant to your industry or work and people dynamics; a good representation of
practices. But, we believe our key observations and areas of risk for clients.
lessons learned will provide you with some critical
Our mission in life is to help our clients achieve their
questions you should be asking of your
goals, so we wanted to build real knowledge and
organisation, vendor or implementation partner.
experiences for the benefit of clients who engage
us. This document is a window to that learning. We
hope you enjoy the read as much as we enjoyed the
We used the Rypple product (now called Work.com)
experience.
from Salesforce.com for our experiment. It has a
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5. …Setting up the system
1 Ready..steady..go!
“A single step will not
make a pathway”
- Anonymous
One of the attractions to a cloud-based What needed to be set up?
product is the perceived ease of setting up Setting up a cloud-based tool is not only
the system. A simple and speedy set up about applying your HR rules and policies
means getting your staff on-board as soon into the system, you need to address areas
possible, with very little intervention. But such as marketing (branding, colour and
while first experiences were positive, there logo‟s), culture and communication (naming
are definite dangers lurking around. conventions, language style and appropriate
behaviours) and permissions/security.
Technical skill
We found that setting up the system was Who makes the decisions?
relatively easy from a logic and navigation Our team decided to go it alone on all
perspective, and could be done with little aspects of set-up decisions because they
technical skill. We had no plans to integrate could, but in hindsight greater and broader
or authenticate to other HR solutions for this consultation and agreement was needed to
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experiment, but if we had, we would have prevent issues we identified later. While it
required technical help to enable data was easy to change a setting, we were not
sharing between systems. at : entirely sure of the consequences for the
user or historic reporting.
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We observed that there was general
agreement among the set-up team (who Users could make decisions as well – such
were all non-technical people) to wherever as to modify personal data and notification
possible sidestep any perceived technical settings and to add or remove a profile
aspects in the desire to get the system up photo/avatar. They could also include links
and running as quickly as possible. There to private social media tools to encourage
was definitely a sense of “we don‟t need the others to follow them. Photo loading was the
IT guys help to get this going” – an most used end-user setting.
unfortunate result of too much marketing
Don’t worry about some parts
hype about how easy and quick it is to set
The system reports were standard, with the
up cloud tools.
option to filter results when running the
We ultimately did need some assistance report. We didn't spend time exploring
from our technical department to make sure reporting options during set-up because
that system-generated emails were not there was no ability to develop our own
blocked by our company firewall and filter reports – we had to live with the standard
system. stuff.
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6. …Setting up the system
Is there anything challenging? to set objectives, use a social media product
There are areas of complexity around to share knowledge and to award
translating current HR rules or policy into recognition badges to other users. We
the limited choices provided by a cloud alerted users that there was a mobile tool
system. For example, in setting up the that they could use on their smart phones.
Rypple „Loops‟ (appraisal/performance We also pointed them to the Rypple video
management templates) we had to clip to assist with training.
essentially convert our current model into
the Rypple way. This was actually a In the first go-live email we did not discuss
fundamental shift in approach that should „Loops‟ given that this would be part of a
not be done without involving the right secondary go-live. Our thinking was to
people. initially get people used to sharing, setting
goals and giving recognition to others. In
Going live
hindsight, this was a critical error and it is
As this was a social experiment, we opted
discussed later in the document.
to notify the users of the new system
via a simple email. The email included the
available functionality and noted the ability
Key learnings
Critical observations There‟s significantly more to know about the
• Trial and error was the order of the day
1 product than first meets the eye. Spend time
understanding the key design principles
• The speed at which we configured the Segment your users and understand that
system created a false expectation that
users would be as excited as the config
2 groups may use the software functions
differently and for different purposes
team
Get the set up the system in lessof this booklet onusers‟ you can‟tmore in cloud
• We full version than two
There are things that
solutions - test our website
change
3 aggressively and formulate responses
reaction
days. We wanted to get users on board
at :
straight away - our rationale was that Just because a tool is easy to use does not
www.presenceofit.com/insights-and-research
the system was really easy and intuitive
to use
4 mean you can reducefor more flexibility
change. Be prepared
effort around behaviour
• When a piece of functionality seemed
complex or we couldn‟t figure it out, we
“parked “ it for later release - not What principles does the
realising the impacts How do the various social media tool drive?
software components
• Different age groups and seniority affect one another ?
levels reacted differently. Some dived in
and got it straight away, others
questioned the approach and wanted a Qs
framework and context question‟s
• The „out of the box‟ language did not sit What technical
well with everyone. Getting a “Ninja” skills will I require? What areas do I need
badge sometimes had a negative effect subject matter
expertise input?
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7. …Social media aspects
Social is(n‟t)
2 the driver
“Don’t say anything online
that you wouldn’t want
plastered on a billboard
with your face on it.”
- Erin Bury
The introduction of social media-type tools generally reactive to someone else‟s
into HR products is becoming mainstream messages. In some cases there were
and is strongly driven by the desire of many people who were happy to observe the
organisations to create networks of like- discussions, but not participate, or only
minded people who can collaborate for respond if the message was specifically
individual and organisational benefit. directed at them. This made it difficult to
assess the impact of the tool.
Functionally rich
Rypple provides a social media layer that How social media layers can influence
offers users the ability to post comments, One of the most important findings was the
reply to other users‟ comments, “Like” understanding of how the social media layer
comments, see who is in another user‟s was integrated into the solution and how this
group, add people to their own group, send influenced people to use the other features.
private notes or even offer or request
Get the full version of this booklet and individual objectives,
on our website
Visually it was wrapped around the
feedback from anyone, publically or
organisational
anonymous. There is also a mechanism to
at : recognition features, feedback and Loops
notify people of messages through a
(performance assessments). So, for
standard email interface - which was handy
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example, if a user committed to support
for people not always logged in to Rypple.
someone else‟s objective, or if a user
Users could also post comments on a social
media message directly from their email. created a new objective, this would
generate a post for others to see.
Positioning of social media tools
The social media layer is prominent - when To some extent the availability of the social
you logged into Rypple, you saw the social media tool created awareness around the
media tool first. It was also the part of the rest of the product and provided a reason to
system that was most often used. Whether log-on - so long as the user was using other
it was to share knowledge, post a question features. For those users who were only
or simply update people of general activities observing and not actively managing their
or happenings, this was a cleverly designed objectives, coaching notes and agenda for
feature to get users to return. 1:1 discussions, or offering feedback to
team members, the social media layer
Naturals vs reactive became obsolete in terms of it being a
What we noticed was the emergence of a collaborative experience and became just
group of people who „naturally‟ posted and another channel that needed to be
shared to the groups, and others who were considered for communication.
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8. …Social media aspects
In most of these cases users reverted to Maturity requirement
standard email for sharing of information. In There is a level of maturity required among
some cases it became a competitive the users (particularly those supported by or
channel. integrated with social media tools) to ensure
the HR product is appropriately used.
Channel competition
Some users who were avid Facebook, The difficulty is that the principles of social
Google+ and Twitter fans, found media don‟t support typical top-down
themselves communicating the same management controls, but are better
message more than once (within company managed though group regulation. In our
guidelines) as there were no easy options to experience, the determination of the user
share information to other social media tools community maturity level is paramount, and
from Rypple or to add an external feed into creating the right culture for using these
the Rypple social media layer. tools is a critical success factor.
More complex than you think
The social media layer proved to be far While in-house social media tools have
more complex than we originally thought. been born from their leisure social media
While it was a simple tool, we significantly cousins, we need to ensure these new
underestimated how best to use it to ensure social media tools are not positioned to
it became an integrated part of work life. replicate the likes of Facebook - that‟s a
recipe for disaster.
We observed what many other companies Assess everything
who have implemented third party social While our social experiment was to take
media platforms have experienced: there is somewhat of a „cowboy‟ approach to rolling
fantastic initial hype and usage around out the system, many of the users were
communicating with a new tool, but it unaware of this (so that the experience was
quickly loses its appeal, and objectives such real).
as “creating knowledge networks” or
“centres of expertise” are rarely completely
Get the full version of this booklet onhad a userwebsite
realised.
In one situation we
our make use of
the anonymous feedback tool. During a
These tools often become platforms for :
at group get was talking about Rypple the
together, the recipient of
people trying to impress others with lots of feedback and
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“look at me” posts and links to largely mentioned that she had received
anonymous feedback and was unsure how
irrelevant material. This behaviour needs to
be anticipated and managed effectively as it to react - she experienced the mechanism
is detrimental to the survival of the tool. as “weird and a bit creepy”. We managed
the situation by explaining the experiment.
Don’t lead with social
Our experience has taught us something What this illustrates is that organisations
very valuable: the social media layer should need to assess every tool and its potential
not be the reason people log onto your impacts. In many cases the option to turn off
cloud HR product. While vendors may not features (at all or selectively) is not
intentionally lead with the social media, the available.
way that the social media tool is integrated
into the solution should be carefully
assessed to ensure that this risk is
adequately mitigated.
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9. …Social media aspects
Critical observations Key learnings
• Users who are natural content There must be a clear reason for introducing
generators emerge quickly and initiate 1 social media tools with an HR application
many discussions and activities - these
key users are critical Don‟t assume that everyone wants to
• Initial groups and discussions tend to 2 communicate via a social media platform. It
may not be practical in all cases either
be between those people who are also
close (physically or project related) in You need to create a culture that supports
the real world 3 social media. Leadership and opinion leaders
need to show public support
• Discussions tend to be platonic or
expressions of thanks / recognition Be sure to position the social media layer as a
• Some users would only participate in a
4 support for the real HR objectives. Don‟t make
the social media tool the „reason for return‟
discussion if the message was linked to
Collaboration and knowledge sharing through
an email (i.e. no habitual log-in to
check/follow discussions) 5 social media may not be the right mechanism
for your organisation
• Giving recognition through badges to Social media is only sustainable if you are
other users (discussed fully in later
section) was the first thing many users
6 willing to change the way you lead and
manage. Hierarchical styles need to change
did through the social media tool
Don‟t create „communication channel
• The broader user base needed 7 confusion‟ - users need to be clear on the role
reminders to use the system and social of each communication tool
media tools - engagement didn‟t
You need to monitor and subtly direct users
happen naturally for everyone
8 towards acceptable social media behaviour -
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• Role /project / physical location made a it‟s not fully self-regulating
difference to system usage
• Private messaging through the system
at :
www.presenceofit.com/insights-and-research I
was not well used - users reverted back
to phone, texting or email On what basis should
Can I use my cloud HR segment my users?
• Feedback requests and feedback offers product without the
(anonymous or named) were minimal - social media layer?
those that did receive anonymous How mature are
feedback were unsure how to react
Qs the users?
• The social media tool was highly used
initially, but tapered off dramatically Is the organisation
after three months Do you have a leadership prepared to
collaborative change their style to
• Users who posted questions and got no culture? support social media?
responses felt despondent and
reluctant to do further posts
Do I understand how to
leverage the social
media layer?
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10. …Gamification principles
It‟s a game, but
3 not as you know it
“Gamification is like
mayonnaise: it improves
everything, including your
weight”
- Anonymous
The concept of gamification is a relatively them, but also generated some dismissive
new phenomenon in the HR technology behaviour from users who were not
space. It is not new to HR where it has been receiving badges and who described them
successfully used, predominantly in the as “silly” and “worthless”.
learning and development space. The
What's in a name?
Rypple product has included the gaming
We also noted that not everyone
concept of „badging‟ that is strongly
appreciated the naming of the badges.
integrated into the social media layer.
While we created some of our own badges,
the out-of-the-box badges were made
The system comes with a set of standard
available and these were the most widely
badges and allows administrators to create
used. However, comments were received
additional, organisational specific badges to
that suggested being designated an
the set. Some basic rules can be set against
“Awesome Ninja” or a „Wise Owl‟ was not
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a badge such as who can issue the badge
always appropriate and could even be
and the number of times a user can issue it
construed as demeaning.
at :
in a week. The badge is also linked to a set
of skills, that are added to the recipient‟s
Age counts
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profile page together with a tally of badges
There was generally a greater use and
and skills received. acceptance of badging by the younger
users, who commented that they enjoyed
A great way to start
receiving and collecting the badges. The
We found that the badging tool was often
younger groups also tended to focus on the
the first activity of a new user. It provided a
number of badges being received.
way to say something positive to someone
Communicating thanks and appreciation to
else and to give them a token to represent
this group via a badge seemed quite
your appreciation or recognition. We also
acceptable. However, older user groups
found that users who received badges, in
were worried about the loss of personal
most cases would reciprocate with a badge.
contact and lack of face-to-face shows of
Building camaraderie appreciation. For many, hearing a “thank
Initially we observed that the badging you” would be more significant and feel
generated some fun corridor discussions, more genuine.
and was often related to the name of the
badge (e.g. “You Rock” or “Ninja”). The
badging created a sense of belonging and
camaraderie for those who were receiving
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11. …Gamification principles
It’s not really a game A key learning from this product was the
The introduction of a gaming technique such need to fully assess how the combination of
as badging does run the risk of users tools could influence recognition positively
wrongly perceiving the tool as a game. We and to what extent it could be abused.
noted how a few users were keen to
The need to segment
become the top “Ninja” or the greatest
While we were aware that not everyone
“Problem Solver” and would actively badge
would want to use badging as a mechanism
others in the hope of receiving something in
of recognition, there were definite groups of
return.
users that did appreciated it. It was mostly
Losing the appeal used in an appropriate way, but there were
One of the key elements in gaming theory is also groups that it didn‟t sit well with. The
the need for sufficient „players‟ and a desire need to segment users around gamification
to come back to the system regularly. mechanisms and to provide flexibility
Initially we saw this happen and users were around using the tool was something we
keen to see who had received badges. didn‟t fully appreciate at the outset.
However, this tapered off very quickly and
You need a strategy
while we still saw badging being used quite
The bottom line was that users did not
consistently throughout the experiment, it
universally accept the badging mechanism
lost its appeal as a reason to come back to
and it did not fully align to the organisation‟s
the tool.
culture. Introducing a gamification layer
Skills were lost in the game requires a definite strategy and risk
The association of the badge with pre- assessment. It is likely to require adaptation
defined skills was given very little to existing management practices, HR and
consideration during the process of issuing business processes as well as a significant
the badge. Users couldn‟t change the skills, education component in order to fully
but were more inclined to hand out a badge leverage its value offering. Critical
based on the name rather than the components of a gaming strategy would
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associated skills. include:
at : • Build a gaming strategy
For managers, the skills earned by their
team members did not always align with
• Conducts a readiness assessment
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their own experiences of that employee. The
inherent risk that surfaced was that the
• Conduct a process analysis
employee would potentially develop an
inflated opinion of their skill level that could • Design the gaming
be disputed during the performance
• Configure the tool
assessment. Managers felt that the tool
could undermine their authority and ability to • Monitor and evaluate
effectively manage expectations.
A potential distraction
Some users also felt that the gaming aspect
had a negative influence on the value of the
product. They thought it was a little
gimmicky and that it distracted from the real
intention of effectively managing
performance.
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12. …Gamification principles
Critical observations Key learnings
• Users are drawn to the fun aspects that If you don‟t have a gamification strategy and
gamification can provide 1 plan, you need to create one prior to deploying
gaming features
• Giving a badge to someone promotes
positive group dynamics and engenders Don‟t expect universal acceptance of badging
a culture of giving 2 as an appropriate method of giving recognition
- alternatives will be required
• Users are attracted to the names of
Don‟t refer to the term „gamification‟ - once a
badges more than the underlying
intention of the badge 3 perception is created that it‟s a game, it‟s hard
to break the misconception
• Some users turned the form of Stratify your user groups by age, hierarchical
recognition into a game and became
focussed on collecting the most badges
4 level and relationship to users - there will be
distinct differences you need to deal with
and points
Make sure there is a real world benefit
• Users questioned whether the 5 associated with users receiving badges -
virtual recognition has limits
recognition from a badge would result in
any tangible benefit Limit the amount of badges a user can issue -
• Not receiving a badge created some 6 if receiving recognition becomes too easy, the
value of the tool is diluted
awkward moments
• Users did not always think through the Outcomes associated with awarding a
implications of giving someone a badge 7 recognition badge (e.g. skill) must feature
strongly
e.g. the impact on the views of peers
and managers Make sure language and naming of
• A fun element like badging can be 8 recognition objects aligns with users, culture
Get the full to a more seriousof this booklet on our website
detrimental
version and the formality it deserves
performance management process at :
• Badge naming and intent must align to
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organisational culture and norms
Should your recognition Will your organisational
culture support gaming
• Badging as a gaming concept motivates reward link to formal
concepts?
achiever type personalities, but does performance reviews?
not necessarily address other types
such as collaborators, supporters and
discoverers
• Be prepared for concerns to be raised
Qs
from managers in hierarchical based What is an acceptable
Which processes progress measure for
roles are impacted by your gamified product?
recognition and
• Too much badging leads to a loss of badging?
integrity and seriousness
What are the impacts if I
turn off this feature?
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13. …Setting objectives
4
Who moved
my objective?
“Management by
objectives works if you
first think through your
objectives. 90% of the time
you haven't.”
- Peter Drucker
Creating social goals Control is limited
Managing an employee‟s performance Once an objective had been created, a
requires a baseline to measure how well the person with administrative rights could „lift‟
individual or team has progressed towards a the objective to a corporate goal. However,
set of outcomes. In the Rypple product, we also learnt that controlling the goals, and
users are able to create objectives and the users that opted to participate in the
define key results. In the process of setting execution of the goals, was difficult. There
up objectives, the creator can invite people was no central control mechanism to
to participate in the achievement of the manage this easily.
objectives. Invitees can choose the extent of
There are traps
their involvement or decide not to
What we had done was fall into the trap of
participate. This is known as „social goal
thinking that software could manage a non-
setting‟.
logical or linear process for us. This was not
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Think beyond traditional true. A key learning that emerged was the
In our experiment, we found setting up the need to ensure that line managers and team
goals and objectives confusing. As weat :noted leads were clear about their roles with
earlier, we dumped it into the “to do later” respect to objective setting and making sure
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box so that we could get users onto the that users were only creating objectives and
system as soon as possible. In hindsight, actions after agreement at a one-on-one or
we did not understand the principles of team meeting. Using software to control
creating social goals. management decision making was a
fundamental error and led to a state of
With our proverbial HR best practice hats chaos.
on, we were trying to figure out how to
create a more traditional top-down MBO Questions and assumptions
approach to objective setting. In other We realised we did not ask the right
words, we wanted to set organisational questions at the time of selecting Rypple.
goals first, then let managers and team For example, when their reference material
leads create sub-objectives and link these to said we could create objectives, we
the pre-defined organisations objectives. assumed this was traditional goal setting.
To be fair to Rypple, once we had learnt
Be willing to explore other ways from our errors, we could see they were
We figured out that this was possible, but explaining the functionality correctly - we
had doubts that it was the right approach for were just not seeing the wood for the trees.
these new cloud HR tools.
Page | 13

14. …Setting objectives
Don’t miss the opportunity Can of worms
Once we got to understand the notion of We also learnt that even though people
social goal setting, it got us thinking about gave a commitment to help achieve an
the value of such an approach. As an objective, it didn‟t mean they became the
organisation that focusses on HR, we are driver of the goal; the onus lay with the
well aware that there are very few shining objective creator to „manage‟ the people
examples of performance management who had opted in. This opened another can
success. Of course there are a myriad of of worms in terms of hierarchical
reasons for this, ranging from a lack of management of staff versus a team
executive sponsorship to poorly constructed approach to success.
solutions, to HR departments forcing it in
Different form of collaboration
under the umbrella of a „best practice‟.
Overall, the users who created objectives
Snowball effect and activities found them useful for tracking,
Once a few users started creating but it also facilitated a type of collaboration
objectives, it snowballed. Other users that social media did not always offer - a
started setting up their own objectives and common focus!
goals and returning to the system to update
their progress. The interesting part was the The visual integration of the objectives with
visibility it created amongst the users. the social media tool did spur on comments
Although there was a private option, most and suggestions from non-participants of
uses created objectives visible to all users. that objective. They could hover their mouse
over the icon to get a quick snap-shot of the
Visibility changes dynamics progress.
Others could see who had and had not
decided to participate in the objective. This Synergy in the tool
created an interesting dynamic across What we learnt is that using the various
teams, not only in terms of individual components of the software together did
behaviours towards goal management, but show positive signs of creating a
sustainable new work environment.
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also the views of a wider community
towards the value of a goal. However, we realised by not understanding
this prior to the roll-out, we lost the
at :
The ability to set dates for goals were used opportunity to get better employee buy-in
in some cases. We noted that those who and engagement.
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used dates for their own activities were
more inclined to complete on or before the
date. However, when a date was set for
someone else, it was often missed.
True power of social environments
When users didn‟t opt to help achieve an
objective, the creator was forced to consider
why their teammates weren‟t supportive and
rethink their objective and its value. This is
where we saw the true value of social team
engagement. The social media tool also
provided the users with the ability to post
views and thoughts around the objectives
and to offer badges of recognition for work
completed.
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15. …Setting objectives
Critical observations Key learnings
• Users will create many test Social objectives and goals require changes to
objectives/goals to understand how the 1 management philosophy and role definitions at
all levels
system works. They are not always
deleted, which affects reporting and Team maturity and dynamics should be clearly
system integrity 2 understood and appropriate interventions
implemented prior to roll-out
• Most people don‟t understand the
concept of „social goals‟ and think in The ability to switch off functionality for certain
traditional terms around setting up an 3 users or groups may not be possible given the
fundamental design of cloud solutions
objective
• Not being clear on roles, accountability The concept of control is challenged
for objective setting and who is entitled 4 significantly in cloud tools with a social media
layer
to help others achieve their goals
causes confusion Objective setting and goal management may
• Social goal setting challenges 5 not suit all work environments e.g. Project-
based environments
traditional management styles
• Some users used objectives as a to-do Significantly more responsibility is placed on
list
6 the individual user to become self-managed
• Individual users can become The objective and goal functionality is the
despondent when team members don‟t 7 underlying value of a cloud performance
accept requests to support their management tool - you need to get this right
objectives
Lack of management involvement can quickly
• Can lead to user fatigue if related 8 sink individual pro-activeness
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information is captured in other tools
e.g. Project plan
• Objective creators can find themselves
at : 9 If you „force fit‟ an approach that differs from
the product‟s design, you will find you‟re not
leveraging its true capability
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in a leadership role without the right
level of experience to manage the
outcomes
Will you allow staff to
• Time spent managing objectives and choose what objectives
Are you prepared to
goals can become non-value adding change your they want to be part of?
• Users manipulate goals and dates to management approach?
show success against an objective
• If managers are not fully involved, the
user may feel they have put in a lot of Qs
effort without timely recognition Does your work
Is goal management environment suit
• Users were not always accurate on the basis of your social goal
defining dates of objectives which then performance thinking?
affects what is used during performance management?
evaluations
How stable and
mature are teams?
Page | 15

16. …Performance management process
You‟re a
5 (disa)STAR!
“Performance stands out
like a ton of diamonds.
Non performance can
always be explained away.”
- Harold S. Geneen
You need continuity In our view this was a good thing. Users
At the heart of any good performance who had a stake in other users‟
management and evaluation system is the performance were interacting at a number
ability for a manager to consider all activities of levels on a continuous basis.
over the period of assessment and evaluate
Drives a different behaviour
how these outputs contributed towards
The availability of a smartphone app to
agreed goals. Performance management
support the process was a definite
and assessment has for many years been
advantage. We do discuss the mobile tool in
fraught with issues relating to how to do this
more detail later, but suffice to say at this
successfully and fairly, with many
point that it provided a fantastic opportunity
organisations being unable to put their
for mobile users to keep notes and manage
hands on their heart and honestly say they
actions directly in the tool for later
are doing this well.
discussion. Having this ability to keep track
Get the full version of this booklet on our website of something directly in a tool, and for the
Over the years however, a clear learning
note /action to be immediately seen by the
has emerged that is driving how HR at :
impacted user, drives a different behaviour
solutions and products such as Rypple are
and culture towards people development
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tackling this issue . Performance
and transparency.
management and evaluation is not a static
event, it‟s a continuous discussion between Users have feedback preferences
an employee and a manager, mentor, peers A number of users in our experiment made
and other involved parties. use of the formal feedback tool. This
provided an opportunity to ask anything of
All the previous pieces are important
anyone. In most cases the tool was used to
In our social experiment, we didn‟t
ask about personal performance around a
immediately realise the value of the Rypple
specific goal or action, general feedback on
tools in relation to performance
overall performance or deal with an issue.
management and evaluation. Although we
were aware that communication,
Even though the user could have called a
discussions, social goal setting and
meeting to discuss this face-to-face, it was
feedback were ultimately important to any
apparent that some users preferred to use a
formal evaluation, it wasn‟t obvious or didn‟t
tool to solicit feedback.
engender any feelings of doing anything
artificial.
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17. …Performance management process
You need choice objectives from the system (although it does
Other users indicated they wouldn't want to indicate what is relevant to consider).
use the feedback tool to solicit comments,
but would prefer to talk to other users face- Depending on the questions, a respondent
to-face. We are of the opinion that there is a would have to review their data in the tool in
need for flexibility and choice for users to order to make a valid response. (This of
ensure they are comfortable. The forced use course is a “halo effect” risk.)
of a product for performance management
purposes defeats the very purpose. In hindsight, if the process is working well,
and users are constantly interacting, then
Who said that? the formal process should not be an
A number of users offered unsolicited arduous task.
anonymous feedback to users. In general
we found users were uncomfortable with Make it easy else it won’t get done
this type of communication even when the We found direct managers and subordinates
information provided was positive. Our completed their evaluation tasks on time,
organisation has a very open and but peer reviews generally required a
transparent culture, and when a user said reminder. With some of the peers, time
something clandestinely it was counter pressure was a factor and users felt that it
cultural. In one case a user received was okay to not respond as a peer. Peers
anonymous feedback to share some news also found that responding to full text
about herself and her project. There was no questions was part of the reason for late or
reply or any news posted. non-responses. Asking multiple choice
questions was preferred.
Culture consequences
What‟s interesting is that some tools, such Blank sheet vs. pre-formatted
as anonymous feedback, cannot be Compiling a formal review was in essence a
disabled – something to consider when clean sheet approach with managers being
buying into shared software. While culturally able to extract components of selected user
responses and adding them to a self-
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it may not be used extensively, the
availability of the feature to new people, formatted review document. A standard
performance rating could also be added. We
at :
users who don‟t support the culture or to
disgruntled users, has the power to impact saw the value of the blank sheet approach
as one that prevented performance
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the organisation‟s cultural objectives and
create disruption in the organisation. evaluation becoming a “cookie cutter”
exercise. However, the risk of such an
Need for formality approach became apparent when line
As with most HR products Rypple has a managers were under time pressure and
formal performance assessment the likelihood of poorly written assessments
mechanism called Loops. Loops are time was raised.
bound, event specific and relationship
focussed. The basic idea is to set up a set It’s a continuous team effort
of questions relevant to the type of event Our conclusion on performance assessment
(e.g. a new hire assessment, quarterly using a cloud HR products is that the need
evaluation) that could be text-based or for ongoing, face-to-face communication
multiple choice questions. The creator cannot be replaced by a system. The tools
decides who can provide feedback, are great for retaining joint records, but it
including self- and peer-assessments. requires discipline by all users to make it a
relevant source of performance assessment
The system doesn’t do it for you data.
We realised that when you run a loop, there
is limited gathering of data around goals and
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18. …Performance management process
Critical observations Key learnings
• If you haven‟t consistently used the Set aside more time than you think to develop
other parts of the product, then 1 your question sets in order to balance getting
the right information with available time
completing a reliable, formal
performance evaluation is difficult Managers and other support roles (e.g.
• The product provides a mechanism to 2 mentors) still need training in effective
performance management techniques
record activities over time but it doesn‟t
replace the role of managing a person Feedback tools (anonymous or named) are
• Users didn‟t automatically accept a peer 3 powerful instruments which users may not fully
appreciate
reviewer role. It may not be seen as
important input Don‟t undermine system information put
• It takes longer than you think to do a
4 forward by a user in defence of an issue(e.g.
badges received) - this undermines the tool
formal review. The tool does not create
Managing the process is administratively
any auto-summary of activities
5 heavy. The onus is on a manager or
• Offering anonymous feedback to a user administrator to ensure completion
creates a level of anxiety and suspicion Use formal feedback Loops liberally to assess
• Users have tools such as badging to 6 performance around activities such as
achieving an objective
apply in defence of issues raised during
a review. These will be used if required
Get all users engaged in all the product parts
• Users don‟t just respond to request to 7 to ensure a better formal review outcome
provide input to a review. They need
proper context and understanding of
what the requestor will do with the
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information
How will you balance a
• Objectives and goals can be edited by :
at support continuous user mangers view with those
How will your tool
the creator to influence the performance of a broader social
engagement?
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discussion - line managers may not be
aware of the edits
community?
• A lot of time was spent setting up the
evaluation and questions, and Qs
managing the process
If performance
Do peers feel their
• Not enough time was spend defining management is
contribution to currently not
the right questions to ask, or testing the performance working, why will
format of the questions with evaluation this be different?
respondents questions is time
well spent?
• Coordination between administrators is
important to prevent separate Loops
Are your users mature
being created for the same focus area
enough to receive
unsolicited feedback?
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19. …Incorporating mobility
6
Anytime &
anywhere
“You can't just put PC
parts into a cell phone,
following the trend of
convergence, because
mobility has some unique
challenges.” - Bob Lannucci
It’s a must have resistance to using the product because of
One of the advantages of buying into a this. On the odd occasion users did cite the
cloud-based HR product is the supporting lack of functionality as a reason for not
mobility layer. Having the ability to interact doing something on time, but this soon
with your HR product from anywhere on dissipated. In our experience, the mobile
your smartphone or tablet significantly application became the preferred interaction
improves the engagement of users and method for most users with the tool used
generally results in much quicker responses extensively to share news and give badges
and attention to decisions. via the social media layer.
Beware of expectations Even users who were predominantly office-
In our experiment we introduced the mobile based and mostly used a PC or laptop
tool to users at the same time as the found the mobile application a handy
general PC browser release. This wasn‟t a
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bad idea, particularly since most of our
response mechanism while travelling home
on the train or bus.
workforce are highly mobile, and many are
at : What are the boundaries?
of the age that would generally expect to
Resistance using the mobile application
have mobility enablement on tools with a
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social media layer. outside of working hours was noted in a few
cases. Just as email has become an
What we didn‟t fully appreciate was the high intrusion into non-work hours for many
level of functional expectation users would employees, the HR product mobile
have of the mobile application. Users application is likely to have similar issues
wanted to be able to perform all the same raised against it. Modern mobile
functions on the mobile application as they applications have push and notification
could on the PC browser tool. For example, capabilities which alert a smartphone owner
you could set up an action against an when a message or action is received.
objective from the mobile application but
you couldn‟t create a new objective. Tablet In hindsight, we would manage after-hour
users were also disappointed that a tablet- expectations proactively to reduce negative
specific tool was not available. impacts on work-life balance and the
perception that the reaction time to
Some noise, but it soon died down messages could somehow be used against
While there was some unhappiness with the an employee during performance evaluation
lack of certain functionality on the mobile activities.
application, we didn‟t experience significant
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20. …Incorporating mobility
Who pays for mobile access? experiment, we never had to seriously deal
Some users didn't have smartphones and with this matter, but in reality it is a
weren‟t able to use the mobile functionality. legitimate issue, particularly if some users
Others had personal smartphones which feel disadvantaged or discriminated against.
they regarded as private. These users did This is definitely one to throw into the
question whether the organisation would “impacted policy” brewing pot along with
provide them a smartphone or data plan to data security, ethical behaviour and privacy
compensate for personal costs incurred. of organisational information.
Policy impacts
As our senior users knew this was a social
Critical observations Key learnings
• Users expect easy mobile access and Have a clear messaging strategy around the
flexibility when engaging with business
software
1 use of the mobile applications and ensure any
restrictions are highlighted
• Users want to perform the same Don‟t assume all mobile applications are
functions on a mobile device as they 2 intuitive - you may need to offer training on the
„not-so-obvious‟ features
can on a PC browser version
• Mobile tools encourage greater user Identify all policies and processes that are
engagement and increase response 3 impacted by a mobile HR layer, but use the
opportunity to be innovative
times significantly
• Some users don‟t worry about work If you have other HR portals such as self
hour boundaries and expect others to 4 service, ensure you understand the impacts
and expectations created by new tools
Get the full version of this bookleta mechanism for users to feed back
engage outside of work
Set up
on our website
• Office-based users make use of mobile
applications in the office because at : 5 issues buffsideasfindtech savvy and social
media
and
will
-
lots of faults
mobile applications offer a different user
www.presenceofit.com/insights-and-researchmobile
experience Don‟t assume what can be done on the
6 layer
• Users without access to a smartphone
felt left out
• Over time, users developed What can and can‟t be
preferences and did certain tasks on done on your product‟s Is it necessary to profile my
the mobile application and other tasks mobile application? users for mobile usage?
on the PC browser version
• News and general sharing on the social
media layer was the predominant
activity on the mobile platform
Qs
Are there risks and What cultural
safety issues that mobile impacts are created
usage create? by using mobile
applications?
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21. …Administration of the system
7
Keeping it all
together
“Build a system that even
a fool can use, and only a
fool will want to use it.”
- George Bernard Shaw
It’s a low risk role assigned to a badge.
As expected, there is a lot less • Lifting an individual objective to the
administration for a cloud-based HR tool status of an organisational objective.
than for an equivalent on-premises solution. This was not as straightforward as we
Quite simply, there are fewer things that can initially thought. It required a higher level
go wrong and fixing them is generally a of authority to decide if a particular
simple task which doesn‟t take long to objective was indeed an overall
resolve. organisational goal. In our view, when a
tool has this type of functionality, there
Typical tasks
would need to be a procedure developed
Besides the initial set-up work we discussed
to manage this.
in an earlier chapter, our typical
administration tasks were: • Running and distributing standard
• Having the right people on the system reports. The report outputs were very
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with their correct data (manager, basic and in a raw format which didn‟t
department, title, etc). As our system add any value. A key learning for us was
at :
was not integrated to our core HR ERP the principal design around users having
system, we had to revise the on- access to data through their relationships
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boarding, transfer and off-boarding with other users and not really requiring
processes to ensure alignment. We had reporting capabilities. In most cases we
a small group to work with so this was found it unnecessary to run any reports
not an issue but for large organisations except to perhaps provide the typical
that do not have their cloud tools statistical report to the HR department or
integrated, this could be a risk area. a manager. In these cases the
While some analyst companies downplay administrator would have to rework the
integration, in our view it is something raw data into a different format using
that should be sought from the outset. something like MS Excel.
• Creating new badges and assigning • Setting up and triggering Loops. The
skills. This was typically accomplished by administrator needed to take guidance
following someone‟s instructions and from the owner of performance
then making sure the badge was set up management regarding the questions
correctly and making the users aware of that needed to be set up and who was
it. The administrator was key in ensuring included for reviews. This was a manual
the badge creator knew how the system task which would be very time
operated and what rules could be consuming for a large number of people.
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22. …Administration of the system
The job will evolve However, it was important that the
Of course there are other activities that we administrator kept an eye on these
did not simulate in our social experiment discussions to ensure the correct advice
such as vendor management, issue log was given.
management, maintaining integration
All in moderation
components and training of new users. We
While our users were typically self-
also noted that those users who were
regulating in terms of discussions and
assigned the administrator role, naturally
objective setting, we did see the need for a
became the tool subject matter experts and
moderator in some of the discussions. We
did well as the first line of support for
didn‟t believe that this was an administrator
queries raised.
role because of the need to make business
Part time educator related suggestions and decisions, and to
The admin role was also instrumental in deal will all levels of users. The moderator
providing informal education to the users as role needed to be filled by a senior and
and when new features were discovered. respected person. The administrator could
The nature of the social media layer in the however raise any issues identified for
tool also provided a great platform for users appropriate attention by the moderator.
to ask “How to” questions of other users.
Key learnings
Take a careful look at what a manager can do
Critical observations 1 without being assigned an admin role.
Managers may be disappointed
• The administrator role is fairly
straightforward in terms of typical tasks, Administrators are different from moderators
and could be spread between a number 2 who need to be generally respected senior
people
of individuals
Get the social media layer requires a this booklet on ourHR products and tools,
• The full version of If you are running other website
different sort of administration; it‟s more 3 make the administrators the same people to
of a moderator role. This is probablyat :
reduce risk
not
the same person as the system
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administrator 4 Choose therequires carefully. A lot of approach
interaction
person
a customer care
the
• We gave the admin role to managers so
they could do things they were used to
doing What admin risks do I Will HR system
create if I don‟t integrate administration increase
• There were small but useful features my HR tool? or decrease with this
that the administrators found while tool?
carrying out their role
• Processes need to change to include
the administrator role Qs
What processes need to What duties are
change to suit the HR included under vendor
tool administration? management?
Page | 22

23. …Culture & participation
That‟s who we
8 are…it‟s our DNA
“The building is a special
place because of its
architecture, but it's people
who make it special by
participating in it.”
- Charlie Chaplin
Culture can break your HR tool more stretching than anticipated.
Every organisation is unique in terms of how
The role of hierarchy
it operates, deals with its clients and treats
In our social experiment with Rypple, we
its employees. These are the rules in every
were interested to understand these cultural
company that guide what are acceptable
impacts on the immediate users as well as
behaviours and that are sometimes
non-users, particularly because we are not
supported by policy, procedure and value
a typical hierarchically operated
statements. In many cases the rules are not
organisation. We have roles,
documented, but transferred between staff
accountabilities and people who lead
through actions and storytelling.
business areas, but we are very reliant on
Executive behaviour is telling strong interpersonal relationships to
While there are many elements that create manage the business rather than relying on
a work environment culture, the views of the positional power. Would different issues
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executives and senior management are emerge from a hierarchically operated
instrumental - particularly in organisations company?
at :
that are structured around a hierarchy
The big influencers
where top levels influence the behaviour of
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The social media layer and objective setting
people in lower levels. Of course, there are
were two areas that provided us an insight
other non-hierarchical structures that
into the type of impacts organisations could
organisations operate under that have
expect. Firstly, the social media layer offers
different causal effects, but generally
a platform for people to express their views
speaking, these are in the minority.
and share relevant information. This is all
Your ecosystem is impacted good until a manager feels a user has
When a cloud-based HR tool like Rypple is overstepped the mark and tries to intervene
introduced into part of an organisation, it on the platform through rebuttal or applying
causes an imbalance in the ecosystem. We a policy to deal with the issue. The
know that when anything new is added to an hierarchical approach in dealing with issue
organisation, there will be impacts across goes against the grain of a social media
areas such as strategy, style, systems, layer: if you are encouraging users to share,
skills, culture, roles and goals. In particular, speak up and give opinions in the hope of
when the tool you are introducing has a improving knowledge, generating innovation
social media layer included in the offering, and building transparency then users need
the impacts are potentially far greater and to feel confident that their views will not
the organisational adaptation may be far used against them.
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24. …Culture & participation
Mind the leadership style gap formal and informal management and team
From our experience, we could see why it boundaries as well as exposing the maturity
would be important to first address the of users and managers to working in a
general management and leadership styles culture of controlled chaos.
prevalent in the organisation and
Buyers beware
understand the gap between current
From our perspective, the buyer of future
practices and a new framework that would
HR products must be fully aware of the
achieve the enterprise social goals. Of
principles behind its design. We were able
course this doesn‟t mean you need to be
to force Rypple to emulate an MBO
totally radical and replace your existing
approach, but it was obvious that it was not
hierarchical models with a mass movement
really designed with that in mind and future
mentality. On the contrary, in our
development of the tool was likely to make
experience you do still need a purposeful
our forced changes more challenging.
and clearly identified leadership, but the
notion of “who speaks”, “who decides” and
At the heart of everything, the Rypple
“who acts” must be dealt with to prevent
product is about better engagement and
your social layer from becoming a “white
development of people - not dissimilar to
elephant”.
many other products. Its strong focus on
It’s more difficult with hierarchy continuous and relevant engagement with
In our opinion, a strict hierarchical structure people you work with, mentor, manage or
will require greater adaptation of the share knowledge with, does require a new
leadership role including the notion of power type of commitment from users - if you are
inherent is the position to effectively an organisation with low employee
introduce a social layer. Even in our own flat participation levels, have technophobic
structured company; we experienced tendencies or staff can‟t have regular
negative behaviours across natural teams, access to the tools, you are likely to
groups and users in different geographical experience cultural challenges that can stall
locations. this initiative.
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Time to think differently
If employees are currently using other tools
Where the social media layer provided a
at : such as an enterprise social platform, you
platform and tool to share, the objective
will get low participation on the HR social
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setting tool allowed users to create their
own objectives in line with their team, group,
layer or the HR tool will disrupt the
intentions of the other tool. Either way it‟s
project or divisional goals and solicit help
bad for business and users are likely to
from other users to manage and achieve the
show signs of confusion and frustration and
outcomes. Organisations who are still
effectively show their displeasure with non-
thinking in terms of MBO and cascading
participation.
business objectives will find this approach
disconcerting, but while our experiment was
Culture and user participation are a delicate
not about Rypple per se, the philosophy
balancing act and just as we have seen
around social goal development (also
public social tools disappear through lack of
referred to as democratic organisations) is
participation the greater risk for new age HR
inspiring and worthy of assessment where
tools is how the social layer is so entwined
traditional top-down objective setting is
into the other services. If one dies, the other
failing.
will definitely suffer.
Needless to say the social goal tool puts the
cat amongst the pigeons. It crosses all the
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