As organizations grapple with a very different economy from this time last year, we are seeing a growing interest in addressing cost issues associated with core HR processes such as time recording, leave management, shift and schedule optimization. Many organizations haven’t given these processes much attention, yet they are important.

I’m planning more research on workforce planning and time management systems, and I’ve already published a note on absence management. (Gartner clients Managing Employee Absence: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, and Time Is Money (G00165198), 09-FEB-2009)

There is more to HCM than talent management.

Speaking of time and absence management, I’m off on vacation, so this blog will be quiet for a while.

Many of us work from home, and several have multi-monitor set ups. This is Mark’s set up.

Here is mine. I’m feeling a tad inadequate. A mere 22"wide screen monitor and my T61 notebook screen.

Depending on what I’m doing I often split the display across the two monitors. For instance, I may have Powerpoint on one and mail on the other.

If you head over to the developer blogs it is clear that dual monitors and bigger monitors are much loved , as Jeff Attwood noted back in 2004.  And Joel Spolsky says,

Debugging GUI code with a single monitor system is painful if not impossible. If you’re writing GUI code, two monitors will make things much easier.

and

Top notch development teams don’t torture their programmers. Even minor frustrations caused by using underpowered tools add up, making programmers grumpy and unhappy. And a grumpy programmer is an unproductive programmer.

To add to all this… programmers are easily bribed by giving them the coolest, latest stuff. This is a far cheaper way to get them to work for you than actually paying competitive salaries!

Joel’s post on office layout and developer workspace is well worth reading. I’m not an expert in this stuff, but buying people that sit in chairs and stare at screens all day the best screens and chairs instinctively makes sense, but I’ll leave the more detailed assessment of the ROI thereof to my colleagues in the high performance workplace research group. Joel notes.

Desks designed for programming. Long, straight desks include a motorized height-adjustable work surface for maximal ergonomics and comfort, and so you can stand up for part of the day if you want. Standard 30” monitors. Desks are straight instead of L-shaped to make pair programming and code reviews more comfortable. There are 20 electrical outlets behind every desk and most developers have small hubs for extra computers. Our standard-issue chair is the Herman Miller Aeron. Those guest chairs are the famous Series 7 by Arne Jacobson. The pedestal storage is on wheels and incorporates a cushion-top for additional guest seating.

It certainly looks great. (photo and quote from the Joel on Software blog.

My request

I have one caveat for developers and designers with big screens and ergonomic chairs that I’d like to raise here though.

When designing UIs for enterprise application users, don’t just do that on your fancy 360 degree swivel megacool gigahertzoid multipixel frequency self modulating flat screen 30” flicker-glare free hydromatic systematic automatic greased lightning monitor.

Get out that 7 year old 15" monitor, and a 13" laptop. See how your design works there.

All of you that have inputted travel expenses or leave forms on a laptop are nodding now.

Hands up if constantly scrolling down to find the currency field and the save button is user centric design.

Just because you, lucky developer have 30 inches of screen real estate, doesn’t mean those that use your application do.

(from the cc flickr pics of Robyn, thanks!)

(photo from English Cut, one day, I hope to have a suit made there)

There is a lot of excellent cost optimization research going on here at Gartner, and as you would expect it was a key theme at the recent symposium.

My small contribution to the research collection is a note called Workforce Analytics Skills Are Vital for Effective Cost Optimization (you will need to a Gartner client to get full access.) I stressed that few organizations have the workforce analytics systems and skills in place measure where to cut  properly. Without the right analysis first, cuts can damage the organization. One of my favourite HR blogs is The Evil HR lady. She had this to say about cuts and the need for HR  get analytical

We need to not sit by quietly while the "big boys" make the decisions and then carry them out. Are we conducting layoffs? Why? Before we sign on the dotted line we better be showing that his layoff will truly help the company financially. What is the cost of turnover? How come we don’t know this off the top of our heads? (Or at least how to calculate it?) Are we increasing the employee portion of medical expenses? What will be the result of this in terms of turnover? We better be able to build models.
What are models? Crud people, hire yourself some statisticians.

Picking up on this theme, I had a vendor briefing last night from Human Concepts. they have just announced they have acquired Optimize, software used to manage workforce separations, from Taleo Corporation.

I think this is a smart move for both companies, the fit with Human Concepts core organization modelling product is good, and means that Taleo can focus on building  new product on the Taleo Platform, rather than supporting a product they acquired as part of the Vurv takeover. It will be good for the Optimize customers, as the product will receive more attention.

Software alone will not ensure that you do the right thing when cutting, but it is better than simply guessing.

Workforce analytics will be a key part of my and Jim’s  research over the coming months.