AYO, I'm Tired of Using Technology…

I admit it – I like a little 50 – especially when I am working out.  There is something about his songs that make me feel like I can run a little longer,  lift a little harder and feel a little gangsta.  I also admit that it is also only because of 50 I have any Justin Timberlake on my Iphone (which I recently learned is odd not to have via twitter).   Anyway, beyond the soooo NSFW lyrics of the song – Ayo, Technology is “I’m Tired of Using Technology” and I  think a lot of us can relate.  Personally, it feels like I am never disconnected – between my 4 email accounts, im, 3 twitter profiles, linkedin, the blog, facebook, text messaging, voice mail and phone calls – I am rarely just experiencing down time anymore.

And truth be told, I do feel like the work never ends.  The IM sessions until midnight, the email’s at 3 am because I thought of a great idea in my sleep – I bring it on myself.  I am not really tired of using Technology – just bad technology that makes things harder than they need to be.

This past month I have been working on marketing strategy for new product lines, reviewing partnership requests (and doing demo’s) of a number of other peoples solutions, all while working on new product development and improvement with our own technology team.  Needless to say, technology has been on my mind.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that for so many new HR Technology vendors that I am seeing demos for – they have forgot about the users behind the product.   Demo after demo I have done had a great user interface for 1 of the key stakeholders – but horrible ones for the others.  It is no wonder that twitter is crazy with people complaining about their ATS’s (umm..big guys – you should really be paying better attention to your clients and what is going on via twitter….btw) and how unfriendly the user interface is or the complaints from the managers, etc.  I had to sit through a complaintfest (A nice term for what it really was) during a late night poker game after the UFC fight Saturday night from a number of managers and end users of a certain performance management company.  The ‘solution’ had been forced down the throats of users at 3 different companies in the Chicago area over the last 12 months and all of them had the same opinion –  there “has to be something in it for HR, because we don’t see the value – it’s just making life more difficult”   I sat slightly smugly and quiet glad it wasn’t my product they were talking about.  :-)

So – I’m not really tired of using technology – just crappy stuff that makes my life harder.   (Umm…iPhone that won’t send mail from all of my email addresses half the time) Vendors listen up – remember that behind all of the technology are people that acutally use the solution and need the solution to work for them.  You should be designing for the Candidate, the Recruiter, the Hiring Manager, the employee, the retiree and who ever else may need into the solution – not just the person making the sales decision.

As for me – I am going to take a vacation next week without my laptop (ok, I will still have my iphone which is really just a mini office, but still)  and just appreciate the joys of (almost) technology free downtown on the beach.

Tags: 50 cent, Applicant Tracking, ATS, atsvendors, development, hr technology, justin timberlake, performance management, user interface, vendors