Espionage? Intrigue?

Oracle sues SAP for “corporate theft on a grand scale”, according to Reuters.

Give the man a hand

Double Dubs reaches the 2-year mark with systematicHR! If you’re reading this you probably know about this leading HR blog. If not, do yourself a favor and go.

Underwhelming

I use Google’s personalized home page. This week Google enabled ‘themes’, an interesting break in their graphical standards. I find myself wondering why they went forward with this – notwithstanding a few playful tricks they’re little more than window dressing. The selections are limited and lean towards the cartoonish. I’m not critiquing the designs; my point is that if Google is going to allow us to tweak the UI I’d like to see more substantial controls like allowing modules to span multiple columns for better readability or changing font sizes, backgrounds or colors on a per-module basis.

Persona grata

Kathy Sierra creates personas for applications. Not only amusing as hell, but insightful as always.

On to the next round!

It appears I did well in my first interview with Google. While the NY recruiting committee hasn’t met yet, I’m assured that it’s a green light and the next round is likely to be be a trip to Mountain View to meet the home office people. Although their process can be pretty lengthy and I’m just at the beginning, that’s very exciting.

Unsafe at any speed

Two weeks ago I picked up Audi’s new Q7 SUV. It’s my third Audi, having had an A6 sedan for the last few years and the A6 Avant (wagon) prior to that, along with various euro-SUVs. I love Audis and the Q7 seems to be a great vehicle on all counts except for one glaring problem. German automakers like Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have adopted a master controller for many functions in the car. Audi has MMI, BMW has iDrive and Mercedes calls it COMAND. The thinking is to provide access to controls and settings while reducing the ‘confusing’ array of dashboard controls.

Changing a radio station or CD track requires multiple steps. At worst the driver needs to select a function via one of eight buttons surrounding a knob, turn the knob to select a menu item and press the knob to select the function. If you are already in that function, you eliminate the intial button push but still have the turn and click. I have to take my eyes off the road frequently to check my selections. No matter how close to my line of sight the display is I’m no longer aware of what’s happening around me.

I acknowledge that these systems are known to require either long or steep learning curves. I want to give it a chance, but I hate it. Controls for vehicles need to be direct and avoid visual diversion beyond feedback for aiming at a control. I acknowledge that these systems are known to require either long or steep learning curves. I want to give it a chance, but I hate it. A system that complicates simple actions and requires learning to perform the same functions I perform simply and directly in my other vehicles is flawed and is exposing me to risk. My wife is completely intimidated by it.

Welcome to the job market, Systematic

It’s interesting to be on the consumer side of an industry or service that one has experienced as a provider. I’ve had that experience in the medical/dental/veterinary space, I always end up talking shop with my doctors and now I can’t talk to recruiters without wanting to stick my nose into their process.

I heard today that I’ll be interviewing with Google. Their hiring practices are well documented, NDAs notwithstanding, so that should be an interesting process. I’m talking with a group in my current company (or is it former? I’m still on payroll so current is appropriate) about a strategic sector-level role involving our customer-facing online experience. I’m looking into something at SAP, and have a few other targets to follow up on. And I have no excuse to not paint my kid’s bedrooms now.

I've been hit

This morning I learned that my position is being eliminated and my team will be reorganized along with many others as part of a large effort sweeping our company to reduce operational expenses. Since my role had become 80% user experience/interface and 20% operational regarding the Portal, it was an easy target to hit.

I’m not certain how this will resolve. It looks like my package will carry me for a comfortable amount time, so it’s time to assess my future and plot a new course. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know at systematicviewpoints*at*gmail.com.

Department of Redundancy Department

TechCrunch reports on Useless Account, an amusing little bauble that gently spoofs the dubious value of account creation. It brings to mind a similar reality, that in our mixed environment we drive our users to create profiles out the wazoo. I take the unpopular opinion that we don’t have a real golden source for individual’s profile info. Of course, the HRMS is the main entry point for employee data, which then feeds the data warehouse which turns around and feed anything else that is interested. But who am I today?

• If I’m a candidate, I’ll create a profile in recruiting system
• If I land a position I’m asked to create an application
• If I’m an officer I’ll create a Talent profile
• If I want internal mobility I go to recruiting and create a profile
• I’m regularly asked if my directory info is correct and sent to update it as necessary
• If I use the LMS I have a learning profile

It goes on and on…is there a set of shared, core data? Of course. Could they be merged? As of now, it could get ugly. Each “view” has nuances that merging them would potentially destroy. Yet it’s reasonable to expect that I shouldn’t have to do that same data entry bit over and over again.

We’re thinking about creating a new environment – for current workers it pulls in the proper bits from the various systems and lets me use them like Lego to build new composite profiles. For new hires it’s the starting point, a core set of ‘About Me’ data in an interface full of webby ease of use that hides the complexity and provides a way to peel off a copy of my basic info and model it for the intended purpose. I could keep those versions so I can reuse them as needed. This would live in the intranet context and not project a message that says “I’m an HR application, run away!”. Right now it’s a whiteboard exercise, to be followed up with a few mockups and ROI exercises to see if it floats.

Reader survey – what would you do?

We’re going to propose scrapping and rebuilding our careers site for external candidates. A few salient points:

• Taleo is on the back end
• Presence in almost 100 countries
• Diverse business lines, languages and competencies

Some things are obvious – easy navigation to listings through multiple conceputal paths, minimal marketing text while maximizing the expression of our core values and unique opportunities, accessibility considerations…but what are the deeper insights that will make for a compelling site? I don’t have a lot of depth in recruiting but my fellow HR bloggers or readers do, so please let me know what are the must-haves and what traps we should avoid. Add a comment or email me at systematicviewpoints*at*gmail*dot*com

Thank you!