By Jay-Ann Fordy
President, BC HRMA

Technology has intrinsically changed. While it has shrunk in size, it has expanded in every other dimension imaginable. Everyday it seems another innovation emerges, another upgrade offered and another 100 new Facebook groups are formed. Given the innate functionality of the iPod and quantum speed at which the average teen punches out a text message, it may very well be in our blood by now.

In our personal lives, many of us have become relative technological savants: googling, tweeting and connecting with the wider world. In our work lives, we have a ways to go – especially in HR where tech-knowledge has been a traditional weak zone. That said, as the HR profession continues to strategically evolve, the potential of the technologies available is being recognized and put to innovative application.

The truth is well known. Many of us are longing for the technologies to solve our problems. What we want in HR are functional, cost-effective tools to foster culture, develop potential and inspire innovation while generating positive ROI. We are looking for systems to keep us from drowning in manual processes: stopping the flow of paper resumes, simplifying performance management tools and making the most of the online technologies.

BC HRMA’s Metrics Dashboard is a tech tool that works for me. Now HR has access to the numbers that speak the universal language and access to data and analysis to both build and assess its strategic initiatives.

There is a dialogue emerging out of those numbers and one that is casting HR in a dynamic new light. ‘New World…New Ideas’ was a tremendous conference and a real-time, real-world chance to connect with one another. It opened our minds to just how much HR has and will continue to change.

As the CHRP designation continues to anchor the professional standards of HR, we need to become more adaptive and adept with the technologies and networks at our disposal.

What this necessitates is further conversation within the HR community to realize our full potential and newfound responsibility. With the recent launch of the BC HRMA Online Community (www.bchrma.org/onlinecommunity) that forum now exists in a members-only format. In a very real sense, this is OUR online community and what it offers in terms of open source learning and networking is up to us. Let’s make the most of it and keep the conversation going.

As with the stories within the pages of this issue of PeopleTalk, the success of any solution, technological or otherwise, is in the sharing.

(PeopleTalk, Summer 2010)