DayoneHR Tea Time Podcast Episode 7: Collaboration Between HR and IT Teams [Transcript]

Below is a transcript from Episode 6 of our Podcast. It has been generated using automated transcription technology, so please forgive any mistakes, including grammatical errors. Of course, if you’d rather listen to our Podcast, you can find this episode on Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon.

Lauren: Hey everyone and welcome back to DayoneHR Tea Time. I hope you enjoyed our previous episode. We had Elijah on talking about recruitment trends. It was a really fun conversation speaking with him. Yogina and I have worked with him previously and we love hearing from subject matter experts on what's happening in the market and what the trends are and also sharing some stories along the way.

So, in today's podcast we're actually gonna be talking about the collaboration piece between HR and IT teams. We have spoken about this a lot and if you want to hear more than what's on this podcast, we also talk about it a lot in our courses, which I'll leave the link to in the description. So in our DayoneHR courses, we talk a lot about the collaboration between HR and IT and working together to bring successful implementation but also transformation people projects to life.

And obviously today we wanna cover this topic in a bit more detail. Also share some stories. So myself and Yogina will take you through the story of collaboration between HR and IT and share some of our pieces along the way. Yogina, hi, how are you?

Yogina: Hi. I'm doing all good. Super excited for the topic today because as, you know, tech people, it's very important that you work a lot with the IT teams. In terms of making sure your HR stack is good. Yeah, so super excited. How about yourself, Lauren?

Lauren: Yes, doing good. And a very busy year. I'm loving 2023 so far. I think, you know, everyone had a wobbly start to this decade and I feel like this year is starting to really kind of get us back in the flow. Working with people on projects and just listening to the stories that businesses are experiencing and the transformation they wanna make happen this year. And, this is why this topic is key right now because the collaboration between HR and IT is crucial for these growth plans and projects. And also we've seen a lot from our system providers talking about this topic too. That made us realize, look, we need to talk about this in more detail and, you know, go through how important it is to have that relationship that works. I mean, should we just start off by, you know, given the obvious, which is, HR teams obviously have relationships with other departments.

We are not, you know, being mean to all the other departments and not explaining that they have relationships too: Finance, Operations, everyone plays a key role in making sure businesses work in harmony. But, I think there has to be some recognition between the relationship of HR and IT, especially in terms of HR systems and transformation. Because I have been a part of situations, I know you have been a part of situations, where sometimes the relationship isn't as good as you would like, and this then impacts projects. It impacts everything that the business wants to achieve in terms of automation and process improvement.

I think that, you know, we have organizations around the world that are all of different sizes. Some IT and HR teams are just one team. They're just one small team that do every kind of specialism within their department. But then you've got bigger teams where you've got IT teams that are broken into multiple teams, whether that's, you know, level one support, right up to project management or engineering. And then in HR you've got your separate teams that make one huge department. So, Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, all of the different ones. And obviously that relationship can be different in different ways, but traditionally there has to be a partnership, right? There has to be a partnership between IT and HR for anything to work.

Yogina: Yeah, that's definitely the case. Like, you know, it's not always about being - how would I like to say - like a service provider; where we are just trying to do things that other people say or just following your guidelines. But, a true partnership where, you know, you go in with the IT team to talk about, okay, we are trying to do this, or this is what we need, and they are able to put a solution on the table as well around the same thing and providing solutions. Rather than just being very rigid in terms of, oh, this is what our process is, this is the only thing that we do. We do not do things, or we do not improve things, and such. And sometimes that can be very frustrating to deal with. And those partnerships are very important so that, you know, whatever you do, you do it for the betterment of the business and also for the betterment of the team as well at the same time. So that level of collaboration is important.

I'll just share a short story of my experience without disclosing any names, where in the past, you know, like for working in the IT sector in an IT company, it's very important that things are synchronized and in place. And also like security is a huge matter when it comes to what you give to the teams and stuff. There has been like two different experiences for me, in one case where like, you know, you go and reach out to the folks in the IT about we have had a certain issue and we need to solve it so that we are maintaining the team members' experience while at the same time not compromising on the security aspect of things. But then, one team member not being responsive to it and saying, oh, this is what our process is and we are not trying to, we will not be bending it around to make sure the employees are having a good experience.

You know, that really feels bad because it's not just for your own benefit, right? You're trying to help the whole team to get things done, and at the same time where you then go to another person to seek, okay, this is the problem that I'm facing and how can I solve it? And then the person is like, okay, there are this many ways of you trying to negotiate it or manage it, you know, it might take time, but then this is the first step of how you do it. And then you feel supported.

Also, getting aligned with the similar vision of the business of like, where everyone understands people experience is important in trying to add up to that. So, you know, working with these two different individuals, the experience has been quite different of like, you know, someone really helping you out and making sure that even your individual experience as a team member is being valued at the same time. Yeah, just something that I've been in the past and seeing how important that partnership is.

Lauren: And it's really about going on that journey together, isn't it? Because whenever you are working on a project, or even if it's rolling out policy or something that's impactful for both HR and IT teams, is that you can have this danger of working in silos, which I've seen quite a few times, unfortunately, in different sized organizations. Whereby the HR team has found a new HRIS platform, they wanna implement it. They've gone way down the business case approval process internally, and, you know, IT find out on a global call that basically they didn't know about this project. And because they didn't know about this project, they are suddenly thinking, oh, well my opinion isn't valid. I obviously don't need to be a part of this, and that breeds distrust and miscommunication.

The best projects I have seen, even with smaller organizations whereby they're implementing a new product or a new system, is right from the beginning they set up stakeholder meetings and they bring someone in from IT or the tech side. To then say, look, this is the project that's happening, these are the requirements I have. What technical requirements do we need? What do we need from a compliance and security standpoint? And when you start that project together, it will flow naturally in terms of your communication and your frequency of meeting and collaborating.

The danger is getting a couple of stages through a project. And I witness, you know, the senior IT director coming in and saying, I don't know anything about this project. I need to know everything about the software provider. Have you done any due diligence? The lot. And that's usually where you or I come in to kind of rescue a project. Because it's usually at the point where things are having to backtrack, timelines are gonna be moved. Because the original project wasn't set up correctly in terms of collaborating with IT, and just that due diligence piece altogether.

I think that I've talked a little bit there about HR and IT collaboration. People don't really realize that HR and IT are not that dissimilar really, when they are working together on processes and policies. Because if you just think about the onboarding process for any organization, that person is not gonna have a great day one employee experience if HR and IT aren't working together to get them set up for their day one. And, I've been witness to day one setups where it's gone super, super well. Everyone's communicating with one another. Everything's set up, laptop, the lot. And I have also been a part of situations where it hasn't gone well. And you step into a room, and you find out that the person that was meant to speak to IT hasn't, or IT haven’t picked up their part of the responsibilities. And that collaboration has broken down.

Like you were saying, that just impacts the team member. That's not a great start to their day one. So, I mean, have you got any more examples where the HR/IT collaboration has worked really well or really bad?

Yogina: I think the next one is like things that have worked out really well. Where like, when it comes to security, everything that comes has access levels, right? And you need a lot of support from the IT team to make sure the rollout is super perfect when you are implementing a tool for the first time, or even if you're moving out from one to the other. So one of the similar cases for me would be when we were rolling out a HR platform, HRIS platform for the whole company. And, you know, everyone had to have proper email access through which they were going to log in. And also at the same time, having Google sign-in activated, so that people didn't have to add one additional password or to get into the system. So, that collaboration was pretty easy and smooth where people understood that, okay, this is necessary. And the IT team was like all set up, you know, even they went into the platform, tried to look for what could be other easy ways to make sure people could log into the platform easily, and at the same time the data is secured and stuff. Yeah, that is like one of the biggest winning games for me, as a successful collaboration between the IT team and HR. Where both are trying to make sure the platform is in the right shape and at the same time it's easier for people to log in and access that platform.

Lauren: Yeah, and again, just to add to that about integrations, because I can't tell you the amount of people that I speak to, and they're saying: we need help with integrating our HR tech stack. You know, we've got the recruitment platform here, we've got the HR platform here, and they're just not talking to each other. And the first thing I say to them is, have you spoken to your IT team? Because a lot of these systems have native integrations, or they can be integrated via a Zapier integration. And the first thing they need to do is talk to IT. And if IT can't provide that solution, then there needs to be a wider external conversation.

But the integration piece is huge, especially with chat bots, in terms of communication tools, things like that, whereby, you know, that can make employee experience easier and better. And I think that basically that's crucial in terms of getting those integrations right, and they’re such quick wins for employees, for sure.

And we've just talked about, you know, where collaborations have gone well and where they haven't gone well and, and also touched on the silos piece. But I just wanna move on to improving collaboration. So, in terms of top tips for improving a collaboration, I mentioned one earlier where I was speaking about if you are about to embark on a HR project, whether that's a systems project or employee impact project. When you get that group of stakeholders together, you should be bringing in someone from IT, the technical side, whatever you call that area within your business, to the table, to that conversation. To get them to contribute and also make them aware of what's happening in case they've got some things that perhaps you didn't think of that should be considered.

I think that it's difficult in organizations that are remote to bring those conversations together, unless you have amazing communication tools and the culture that can cultivate that. But I think that the pandemic did ultimately bring a lot of support function departments together, in terms of reacting very quickly to scenarios where we had to move people to remote situations. We had to pause projects and then restart them in a different way than perhaps we had planned before the pandemic. And I think that's quite important to remember.

I think the second thing is that, you know, if you have a champion or a point person from the HR team and the IT team that are frequently meeting and collaborating together and communicating on say a weekly or fortnightly basis. Then that is really helpful for each department as a whole. I've had that with a client where I have been close with one person working in the IT team in the Middle East, and I would speak to her on a weekly basis to see, you know, what kind of things we needed to progress further on, any issues, any questions; and having that champion mechanism really works. And, you know, the third thing, which encompasses all those things really, is communicating openly and regularly. So I've just said about meeting once a week, your champions meeting once a week with someone from the IT team. That's a really great way to make sure that the communication is open, it's regular, and that things don't pop up that you don't seek coming. You've got a communication to preempt any kind of challenges or any projects that are coming down the line. And if, and that's the fourth thing, if you guys between HR and IT can have fun together, then that's amazing!

I can't tell you the amount of IT things, social events, I have been invited to. I'm actually on an IT WhatsApp group with one of my clients, which is just crazy. But it's great because I get to hear everything that's happening in the organization from an IT standpoint. And if anything comes up that is people related, they just tag me in the WhatsApp group and say can you come on email or can we speak to you about this, we've got some things happening today and tomorrow.

So if you can have social events where HR and IT can go out after work and go bowling or go for a meal or something like that, it really helps morale and builds that relationship between the two. And it just means you can have fun in the workplace when HR and IT are collaborating together.

So yeah, I think they're my kind of four top tips on how to improve collaboration. I don’t know, Yogina, in terms of collaboration tips, is there anything, any stories or anything you can think of that could be helpful to people?

Yogina: One thing Lauren, as you shared, just like having that informal conversation with them as well. Where you are just trying to build that relationship, getting to know one another, is very important. Like others, you know, because if you just focus on work and work, it might just be like, you don't have that rapport. And people do not come from a point of view of understanding you. It just might be like, okay, they need to get the task done, that's why they're reaching out to us. And I know that's difficult. So I think that building up that relationship where, as like you do with any other teams, you know, going out for coffee or playing some games with them or just having casual conversation helps.

And a lot of times, you know, one thing that I've faced when I work with IT teams is like their huge concern for security, right? And how to balance between the experience and security. So a lot of times it’s important for them to even understand what needs to be done. So giving them an overview of what needs to happen and things, that's quite interesting. And that's something that helps a lot.

Lauren: Yeah, definitely. The informal conversations, the social piece, I definitely recommend it. And if I could set anyone a mission after listening to this podcast, I would say reach out to someone in IT within your organization and ask them if they would like to have a coffee to discuss a topic.

And it can be any topic that you want, or it could be about a project that's coming up. And have that coffee with them and reach out to them and ask, because when people see you going for coffee or nipping out and having these conversations with other teams, it kind of creates a domino effect. And suddenly everyone decides, oh, that's a really good idea. I think I'll go for a coffee with, you know, this person and get familiar with some of the projects they're doing, the projects we are doing, to see how we can collaborate more. 

Yogina: Can't agree more on that, Lauren.

Lauren: Yeah, absolutely. And it works globally, people. I've seen it happen all over the world. It definitely works.

So in terms of our topic today, we've covered a lot. And again, if you wanna hear more on this topic, we have a number of courses that we offer through DayoneHR, and we'll leave the link below. If you are new to HRIS, HR Systems, HR, start with our Introduction course, and in there we talk about collaborations with other departments, especially IT, in more detail as well.

But I think we'll leave it there today because I think we could just talk for ages, couldn’t we? We'd just go on a tangent onto another topic. So, we have to call it quits and end it there today. But there will be more episodes coming soon. So it's a goodbye from me.

Yogina: And me as well. Take care guys!

Lauren: Yeah, take care. And we'll speak to you soon. Bye!

Yogina: Goodbye!

If you’d like to talk to us about any of the subjects discussed in the Podcast, or have any questions you’d like us to answer in the next episode, please reach out to us here.