Chaos is a Choice
The beauty of being stuck in an airplane for over 20 hours is that you have a lot of time for reflection (and maybe a newfound appreciation for solid ground and real food once you’ve landed).
On my flight to Bangalore this week, I had ample time to reflect on the numerous conversations I had over the past two weeks, both at HR Tech and DisruptHR Toronto. And the one word that keeps coming back over and over again is “choice”.
Here’s the realization I’ve come to: part of the reason why we feel so chaotic in the age of AI is because the technology has turned previously fixed factors into variable factors (e.g., going from “we need people to execute this process” to “do we need people to execute this process?”), and created abundance in areas that used to be scarce (e.g., “there are only three vendors that do this” to “three new vendors came to market last month and they can all do this”). When all of this happens in a matter of months instead of years, the feelings of chaos we have all been experiencing in HR start to make a lot more sense.
The immediate analogy that came to mind is AI has basically turned an HR tech solutions landscape that used to look like the Cheesecake Factory menu (which is A LOT) into a Las Vegas sized all you can eat buffet. While in theory we all love the abundance of choice, in reality, most of us are also recognizing the potential for absolute chaos if we make the wrong choices when it comes to our HR tech stacks.
To me, the journey to curating the best AI-enabled HR tech stack for your organization begins much before you ask: How do I get the best AI solution? You need to make some tough choices before selecting the technology, because, just like an AYCE buffet, while prime rib and tiramisu are both great choices, putting both of them on the same plate may not be the best idea.
First Choice: Who are you?
Not in the existential sense, but more like, who are you as an HR organization? And realistically, who do you want to be as an HR organization?
As an industry, HR practitioners have slapped a lot of labels on ourselves, including compliance-driven, transactional, strategic, data-driven, and high-performance. In that process, we’ve also not-so-subtly signaled to the market that Compliance HR is not ideal, and everyone should strive to be part of a Strategic HR organization. While that sentiment is fair in a utopian world, in reality, we need to recognize that HR teams exist in the context of the business and organizations they support. Not all businesses require a strategic HR function; in some cases, good enough is good enough. Businesses need a capable HR function, but not always a high-performing one.
So, stop letting the industry labels determine what you should be or what you need to do. Coming to terms with who you are as an HR organization (and ideally making sure there is alignment on that across your stakeholders) is the first step in curating your HR tech stack, because the sooner you drop the idea that you need to be best-in-class on everything, the easier it is to focus your efforts on what you truly need.
Second Choice: What do you want in the next 180 days?
Time horizons are important when it comes to making choices. Given how rapidly things are changing economically and organizationally, what you want in the next 6 months will surely be different than what you want in the next 3 years.
This choice is timeboxed to 180 days because it forces you to focus on just one thing. 180 days doesn’t give you the luxury to solve the world’s problems, but it does give you the time to identify a high-priority challenge, rally support around it, determine a solution, create a proof of concept, put it into pilot, and show some initial results. Also, it’s just enough time for that problem to still be relevant to the organization by the time you test out a solution for it.
So, if you can pick just one KPI or challenge to solve for in the next 180 days, what would that be?
Third Choice: What are you willing to put into it?
I don’t think we ask ourselves this question nearly frequently enough when we are looking at technology and transformation programs.
No, this is not a different way to ask “how much are you willing to spend on this?”
While financial resources are a factor to consider here, it’s also essential to take stock of:
How much time are you and your team willing to spend on solving this problem? What, if anything, are you willing to deprioritize to make room for the new effort?
Who is actually going to be available in the next 180 days to help you solve this challenge? Is that sufficient from a resourcing perspective?
How much mental energy do you have / can you spare in the next 180 days to dedicate towards this effort?
How much of your internal political capital needs to be exercised to achieve the ideal solution?
The answers to some of these questions are personal, while others depend on the business context. When you take stock of what you are willing to invest in the solution, try not to judge the answers. Treat them as they are because some things are outside of your control, and they are just what they are.
Once you’ve taken stock of what you are willing to put into it, ask yourself the question: Is this challenge worth pursuing?
Fourth Choice: What do you need and what do you want?
Assuming you still want to proceed after the last round of choices, now we start to get into the fun (nerdy?) bits of tech evaluation, which is looking at what you actually need vs. what you want.
This section can probably be a whole guide on its own, but a few things to consider here:
Is the cause of the problem you’re trying to solve actually a technology problem? A lot of times, people and process issues can be masked as technology issues
What needs are not being met in the current state?
Can your existing solution providers offer a solution to your challenge either now or within the 180-day time frame?
If you are looking for a new solution provider, what do you need from them, and what are the nice-to-haves?
The goal here is not to jump from problem straight into technology purchase, but rather to spend some time thinking about the purchase you’d like to make and what you are looking to get out of it.
Fifth Choice: Who do you want to work with?
The good news about having an abundance of solution providers in the HR tech market today is that you can find a solution that is the perfect fit, without making any compromises. You just need to be very specific about what you want (see above) and spend the time searching for it.
I’ve written quite a bit previously about finding the right solution provider fit for business problems, so I’ll spare you the details here. However, one thing I will emphasize is that the vibe check is real. If you are considering working with a solution provider, take the time to meet as many people from that organization as possible and get a sense of whether you see them working with you and your organization in the long run.
It may sound a bit out there, but the gut feeling you get during initial meet-and-greets usually manifests itself (for better or worse) during the implementation, go-live, and ongoing support cycles. So, proceed with caution.
And one more thing for you to noodle on: maybe your job isn’t about picking the right technology, but rather deciding what not to pick. In the Age of AI, strategic patience is a thing. Instead of picking a ‘just-ok’ solution today, you could be better off waiting for a few months for a better-fitted solution to come to market. To the wise words of Sharna Wiblen, “It's OK not to pick an option rather than picking a less crappy option.”