Over lunch, I trivialized the whole thing. It was not a big deal because I doubted that many HR professionals would watch the show. Once I began to think rationally about the whole thing, I determined that the only benefit was a boost for my ego, which is not needed. Even if I made an idiot of myself it was doubtful that anyone I knew would actually be watching the show.

I got back to the office and immediately made the return call. I spoke with the producer of the show who started to tell me a little about the program and then he asked for additional information about my background. He said one of his researchers had come across Clay’s Rants and found it interesting. How ironic considering that now they are featured in Clay’s Rants. At one point, he sort of snuck in that there would be money involved with the whole thing. I was honestly wondering how much they were going to pay me.

Finally, I stopped the guy and asked outright “Money; how much and to whom?”  I was told that for $4,900 for 90 seconds my website could be plugged on the show. I would not be interviewed and the script would have to be pre-approved. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That’s $54.44 per second. Look, I get it that when you watch a movie and someone is slurping a Diet Coke, Coke paid for that advertisement. When the winning QB after the Super Bowl says he’s going to Disney, I get that as well but does this really happen on ‘news’ programs? Sorry, but I think when news programs work in paid plugs, it destroys their credibility. Oops, what am I saying?  Very few of any of today’s news networks appear to have any credibility because of the blatant bias that is reflected.

So, you are probably wondering why I did not mention the network. Well, let me just say I’m a guy who learns from his mistakes. Earlier this year I was interviewed by HR Magazine about open source HRIS systems. The interviewer told me he was looking for an opposition view and I provided one. Then I was barely quoted in the article and when I was, they misspelled my name and mislabeled my profession. I wrote sort of a nasty Clay’s Rant on the whole matter and have never been asked for an interview since. I was not going to take that chance again so I decided to leave the news network’s name out of this rant. Just in case they might want to interview me some day for my knowledge insight and experience as opposed to $4,900.

Unfortunately, I have found sometimes rants have consequences.

I’m not a recruiter, a life coach or anything like that but I think everyone should be able to come up with a brief truthful answer to what they do for a living. This seemingly obvious skill seems to escape many but for business communications or looking for a job it’s extremely important. It might even be something you want to practice. What does it say to a recruiter if you are asked about a prior job and you either obviously embellish your duties or at the end of the questions they still have no clue what you do for a living. It’s amazing how often I run into this. I’ve had people approach me about various business arrangements and honestly, if they can’t provide me a brief explanation of what they do that any person of average intelligence can comprehend, it’s not worth my time.

The Embellished Answer

I asked a friend of a friend one time what they did for a living. They replied proudly that they sold optimized employee hydration equipment. I had to think about those four words for about five seconds before I rudely blurted out asking if he sold water bottles. My directness and clever deductive reasoning seemed to surprise him. He said yes but again said it was optimized employee hydration equipment. Then he proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes trying to convince me how important a job he had. People have to drink so I guess the job is important but the conversation was not necessary. I was not going to hire him and I really didn’t care but imagine if this was his answer in an interview or a reply with a possible business partner. In an interview ,maybe you need to add a little marketing but still be truthful as to your past or present job descriptions.

The Confusing Answer

I have a friend’s wife who told me that she was a project manager at a software company. I was generally interested because project management was a lot of what I did in the past as a human resources software reseller. I started to ask a few questions about her job. I don’t ask these questions because I like to be nosy. I usually find that people like talking about their work. Thirty minutes later I still had no idea what she did for a living. I eventually managed to find out that her job title was not project manager but something entirely different and unconnected. The scene was almost identical to the Office Space scene but I did not ask the question. I tried open questions, closed questions, and even summarizing and I still don’t know what this person does. It eventually became a puzzle I had no interest in solving. It just was not worth the effort to find out. If I was considering a business venture or hiring this person, how on earth could I do so?

I have a brother who’s a rocket scientist and another who is a tax attorney. You might not want me programming a rocket guidance system or doing your taxes but at least I can provide a brief description of what each one does. One makes rockets go straight and the other keeps people out of tax jail.

My Advice

I have a simple short answer I provide for anyone asking what I do for a living. I own a HR Information Systems website business. Many times this answer is sufficient. If someone asks follow up questions, I’ll provide a few additional details. If I were asked the question in a business negotiation, I would be far more detailed and perhaps even provide some traffic statistics. But I would still start out with a very basic clear explanation and then expound on that original simple answer.

I was having a problem with one of our pay per click campaigns for CompareHRIS.com and attempted to get in touch with the provider for a solution. Now mind you, this is a vendor we pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to for advertising.

I started out by clicking on the help option. This took me to a knowledge base of possible solutions to my question. After searching around for close to 30 minutes, I could not find my solution. I needed to chat with someone. If I did, I knew it was likely I could get my question answered quickly. Or maybe if I could just send an email and hear back three or four days later, that would have been fine too. I clicked on a link for contacting someone and I was returned to the previous screen of help topics but still no ability to email or call anyone to get assistance with my issue. I looked around that site for an additional thirty minutes and could not find any email or phone number contact information.

How on earth do companies work like this? It’s absolutely maddening. If I had a choice, which I really don’t, I would refuse to pay this company another dime. I guess they know this and it’s why they choose to treat their customers this way.

Here’s my advice to the HRMS software industry. Don’t go down this road. Make it easy for your customers to contact you with support issues. Knowledge bases for tech support information are great features but don’t for a minute believe that this replaces the ability to email or call someone to get an answer to a problem. Besides, you never know if your customer is an angry blogger.

What I found in the HRIS buyer’s zone was a complete lack of detail or knowledge of the industry. I did not at that time think I was an expert but compared to what else I saw in the HRIS buyer’s zone, apparently I was. On one site, I filled out a ten question survey and at the end was told vendors would contact me and give me free quotes. Which ones? I was not sure. How many? Who knows? Would they meet my needs? Actually none did. It ended up that a couple contacted me but they did not have reseller programs of any kind setup. So on to the next site. On the next site, I found seven vendors listed under their HRIS vendors but in reality maybe three of these were actually HRIS systems. The others were talent management or applicant tracking systems. I found one additional site and they had more questions but most seem to be centered on my industry as opposed to the actual features and options I might have been looking for. I think I got a call from one of their customer service people but that was about it. 

Okay, now I got it. I had heard from my clients and prospects what a hassle it was to research HRIS and HR solutions in the HRIS buyer’s zone but until now I had no idea what they meant. Here I was apparently an industry expert and I was not able to accomplish anything after a number of exhaustive hours trying to compare the industry’s leading HRIS and HRMS systems. 

For the prior 15 years, I worked as a solution provider of HRIS and HRM Software. In my opinion, the other sites I reviewed created more problems than solutions. It was at that time I made the decision to create CompareHRIS.com. Best decision I ever made. 

My goal was to offer more detail than any other site or resource on HRIS and Employee Management Software. Today 20 of the industry’s leading HR management software (HRMS) and HRIS systems are listed on CompareHRIS.com. Visitors to our site can research and review a great deal of valuable information on these systems all on one site. Many of the vendors even offer pre-recorded demos where prospects can view on the fly the systems they might want to review in greater detail.

Today we list over 130 articles pertaining to researching, demoing, selecting, and implementing these systems. We offer our extremely popular free HRIS buyers guide. I’m personally very proud of this document. I created a ten step game plan for those planning on selecting a HR software application. Our HRIS selection tool is widely used and is considered by many as the best online tool available for those researching HRIS software systems. We recently added a free HRIS RFP template in a downloadable modifiable word format. All of these features are free to those who use our site. We are continuing to work on adding tools, content and improving the entire concept. I am as OCD today about CompareHRIS.com as I was when I started. One of my vendors observed that it’s my baby.

Remember, I entered the HRIS buyer’s zone because I could not find what I was looking for on any of the other sites. Maybe that’s the same reason you found my site.

Honestly, I have no clue as to how to answer any of these questions. I’m glad the pubs aren’t writing about HRIS and HRMS solutions. I think the lack of quality content on these subjects has assisted with the success of CompareHRIS.com and HR-softwareblog.com. Not to toot my own horn but I think before we came along, the HR community was starving for the type of content we have created. In just a year and half, I believe we have created perhaps the most comprehensive database of HR Management Software related articles on the web. I am sure this has assisted tremendously with our constantly growing traffic numbers.

In my opinion, HRIS and HRMS solutions still represent the “must have” component of HR technology. Given the state of the economy and shrinking budgets, talent management suite software systems may at this point be viewed as more of a luxury item than a necessity. Yet, the HR publications still focus the majority of their HR technology articles on these systems, which the majority of their readers can’t afford.

The vast majority of HR professionals who read these publications work for companies with less than a few hundred employees. The price of talent management software solutions is still high enough that it is not an option that can gain approval from many tight HR department budgets. Remember, I sold HRM Software solutions for fifteen years. I have seen firsthand how difficult it can be for a HR department to gain budget approval for a “must have” item like Employee tracking Software. The majority of the subscribers to the HR publications frankly can’t afford the technology the magazines are pushing. Do they not understand the industry? Are they that out of touch with the needs of their readers?

I’ve delayed creating our second site for applicant tracking, performance management, and talent management solutions because I have not been able to get my head above water to start working on a second site. I have just gotten internal assistance with our SEO and administrative duties for CompareHRIS.com so I am hoping to begin work on that project in the next month. Visitors to CompareHRIS.com and prospective talent management vendors have been hounding us to create a second site and selection tools for these products for months. I want to ensure we have the appropriate staff and time to create a site of the same quality for these other systems.

I’m going to the SHRM conference and sort of looking forward to it. I won’t have a booth but I will be walking the exhibition hall and chatting with our existing HRIS vendors and prospective HRMS software vendors. That being said, I truthfully don’t think SHRM could have picked a worse place, for the time of the year, to hold their annual conference. New Orleans in the fall, winter, or spring has a lot of character and can be a nice place to visit if you are careful; but IN THE SUMMER? No pun intended but the choice stinks. 

I am a native Floridian and now live in the Tampa area. I know what heat and humidity are. I actually like it. Florida’s state motto is the “Sunshine State.”  I think a more truthful motto would be “Florida, the Big Sweaty Hug.” 

Then, there is New Orleans in the summer. Again, I am a Floridian but let me tell you, you have not seen heat and humidity until you have been to New Orleans in the summer. I ended up there four of five years ago at the same time of year as SHRM’s upcoming show. I, a native Floridian, did not believe any place could be hotter and wetter than South Florida in August. Oh, was I wrong. Walking around the streets of New Orleans was sheer torture. There were busy road side booths selling drinking water, personal fans, and cooling neck tie things. It was all needed just to not pass out. I’m not kidding. There was one day my wife and I walked about two hundred yards across a treeless court yard and we were not sure we would make it without passing out. In my 44 years of a Floridian existence, I have never experienced heat and humidity that came anywhere close to comparing to New Orleans in the summer. 

Bring lots of light weight summer clothes. Leave the dark colored business suits at home and please bring lots of deodorant, maybe even a back up stick or two. Antiperspirants won’t work so leave them at home. If you booked a hotel room within a few blocks of the conference center and planned on walking to the show, skip the walk and take a taxi. Ignore my advice once maybe, but you won’t twice, trust me. Walk around the show and you will quickly be able to point out, or smell out, who walked and who took the air conditioned taxi. 

Here’s a link from Frommers regarding being safe in New Orleans.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/neworleans/0020020106.html 

I went on a few HR Information Systems demos with a representative from another company a number of years ago. He was frequently asked questions about features the software did not provide. Without a change in his speech pattern, or any tell at all, he would either tell the prospect he would get back to them with an answer and then never did, ignore the question and change the topic, or on a few occasions he would look the prospect directly in the eye and say “It will do it.” Had the clients looked at me they would have known this was a lie.

That particular vendor was sued several times by prospects which were lied to. They eventually let that “sales consultant” go. Hard to believe but that individual ended up as a sales trainer for one of the largest national payroll organizations. He recently contacted me through Linkedin.com but I did not reply. Not the type of contact I want to be associated with. 

The vast majority of sales people within the HRIS HRMS software industries you will encounter are going to be sales consultants. The difference between a sales person and a sales consultant is that a sales consultant will assist you with determining your needs and assist you with determining if their product is the best match for your needs. A sales consultant would rather walk away from the deal than misrepresent the software they sell. But how do you tell the difference? How can you protect yourself and your organization from this type of dishonest unethical sales person?

·         Take Control of the Demo – If the HRMS software sales person tells you their system provides a particular capability have them show it to you. Let’s say, for example, that you need a turnover report run for a particular time frame and a certain employee type. Don’t take their word for it; have the consultant show you exactly how the software meets this need.

·         Checking References – I wrote an earlier article on this exact subject which is pretty comprehensive. Note – Check references of the person who will be implementing your system. If they don’t have at least ten implementations of the system you will purchase, use someone else. Everyone has to perform their first HR Management System implementation, just don’t let it be for you.

Checking References

·         Make sure scope is well defined in Implementation contract – If you need exact reports or interfaces to other systems make certain that all of this is well defined in the contract.

·         Watch out of Slick Sales Lines – If you receive any slick sales lines that should be a red flag. You know, “What’s it going to take to put you in this car” type of thing. I think I have heard enough hokey sales lines that now when I hear one, the hairs on the back of my neck raise. Listen to your hairs.

·         Remember what your momma said – If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I hope that you never encounter an unethical sales representative. But if you do, I hope these few tips assist you with spotting them.  If nothing else, if they slither through the door, that might be a good indication of a dishonest sales rep. 

If you don’t spot the dishonest sales rep and end up buying HR software things become a far more complicated. The software is important but being able to trust your vendor is just as important if not more so.

In my search I found a technology by Phillips called Lumalive. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd99gyE4jCk 

This is exactly what I was looking for. This is a shirt that would certainly gather attention and get the name CompareHRIS.com in front of all the HR pros at SHRM. I’m the President of a technology company so I should where a technology shirt, right? 

For the past week, I’ve been trying to find out the price for these shirts. I finally succeeded today and let me say OUCH! I spoke with a sales rep for one of the companies last week who told me the shirt rented for $400 a week. I would have paid it. Then the manager called me back later that day to tell me the rental fee was $350 per day per shirt. Okay, that’s a little expensive but might still be worth it. I was that impressed by the shirt. 

Then I got the details today. They only rent the shirts out with a minimal of five rentals. They strongly recommend or require that you hire models to wear the shirts. I’m just apparently not good looking enough to wear the shirts. You have to pay for someone to program the message and pay a consultant’s time and travel costs to accompany you at all times that you or the models are wearing the shirts. There’s even training involved for those wearing the shirts. I can’t begin to imagine what that would cover or what the cost is. The consultant is probably there to pull out a sidearm if anyone gets anywhere close to the shirts with a chili dog. “Put the dog down and step away from the shirt sir.” This is not the message I was counting on. 

I could, however, buy a single cool technology shirt for $5,000 if I elected to do so. I’m sure there are extensive training and support costs added on as well. You know lessons on how to put on a shirt or change batteries and that type of stuff. Sorry, but not going to happen. I was hoping to make a splash at the show but now I’ll just be the guy walking around with a logo on his shirt. Good luck finding me and so much for the high tech shirt. I’m so bummed. See if you can find the CompareHRIS.com logo at the show.

There are a handful of additional HRIS vendors, however, that we are looking at actively adding to the site. These additional vendors represent well known names in the HR software industries. Our visitors are eager to compare these systems with the other products on the market. In fact I’m frequently asked by our visitors why these vendors aren’t on CompareHRIS.com. Their users access our site looking to replace their products and representatives from their companies surf our site as well yet their products are still not listed on CompareHRIS.com.

So, if these vendors are so important, why are they not on the site? The truth is they just won’t return my phone call. Seriously, I wish I could tell you something more exciting but that’s it. Being a creative guy I have tried other approaches. I have tried to contact them using Linkedin.com, I’ve talked to sales reps for those companies and I’ve sent emails. I traveled all the way to Chicago from Tampa last year for the HR Tech Show to meet these guys face to face. I got cards but no returned calls when I got back. Pretty disappointing considering the $40 a night parking fee I was hit with by my hotel while I was there. I will be following those guys to New Orleans for the SHRM show next. Now I’m calling them out with the blog. ADP and Workday call me.

I might start a David Letterman and Oprah thing where each month with each newsletter and the blog I could show a running total of the days without a returned call. The total is around 200 days for each of the companies right now. I try to call them at least once a month just in case they miss the sound of my voice. Maybe I should try a singing voice mail. I have a horrible voice so perhaps they would return my call just so they don’t have to listen to anymore messages. Maybe I could try Michael Scott’s (The Office) idea and send a gift basket but then go take it back if they don’t call me. I love that show. Anyone got any better ideas?

ADP and Workday at least return my call and hear what I have to say. If you don’t like what we offer, me or the sound of my voice, I won’t mention your name again on the blog, leave another email or voice mail. I don’t need any additional vendors to survive but at this point I see getting a return call from you guys as a challenge. Until now you have had no idea what persistent is. Wouldn’t it be easier to just pick up the phone and call me? It’s not like I’m selling time shares or shoes or something. My visitors and I would like to see you guys on the site. For me, for them and for all of humanity call me.

My number is 727-596-6088 or you can email me at C.Scroggin@compareHRIS.com

In the last couple of issues of HR Magazine, there have been articles or statements that have led me to the opinion that HR Magazine needs to stop writing about HR technology or they need to find writers with experience with these systems and the profession as opposed to a career journalist. 

My opinion on open source hr systems, based on what I have seen and heard from others, was not favorable. In time, these systems may be a viable alternative but that is not the case today. The exact comments which I forwarded to the author of “Open-Source Solutions for HR,” are contained in this earlier post, Open Source “Free” HR Software. 

Here’s what was written in the article.

There are many issues with this article:  First, my name is Clay Scroggin not Clay Scroggins. If there are two or more of us, then I guess it’s correct. I am not an HRIS analyst. I am the President/Owner of CompareHRIS.com. Truthfully, I have no idea where the author got this one because I have never been an HRIS analyst or labeled myself as such. We don’t have three dozen HRIS vendors on the site, we have 15. Maybe these glaring mistakes would bug others but truthfully, they don’t bother me. I am going to write a letter asking for a retraction but if they don’t, it’s no big deal. 

What bothered me most was that I presented the author of the article with two pages of notes on mostly cons I had regarding Open Source HRIS solutions. Basically, what I said was that these systems, as of today, do not present a viable option to the large number of extremely well written HRIS systems on the market. About a week after the interview I spoke with someone who had used CompareHRIS.com and decided to go with an open source application. They came back to the site because he realized that the open source application did not offer any government compliance capabilities which are standard with most, if not all, HRIS systems on the market. He asked the open source software company about adding that functionality for government compliance and the programming cost exceeded the price to actually buy a system that already contained those features. He also indicated to me a number of additional issues pertaining to support of the product and documentation. These were all issues I presented to HR magazine. He dumped the open source system and went with HRnetSource for his HRIS needs. He dumped the open source application for many of the same reasons I presented in my prior post and which I presented to the writer of HR Magazine. However, all of my concerns, which I presented for the article, were ignored. 

I think this a question of media bias. I am not talking about right or left political party bias. Open source seems to be the darling of journalists. You know, the small company beating corporate America type of thing. This is all well and good.  But take a look under the hood and you will see what I have seen.  These systems are not yet ready for prime time. I believe the author of the article approached the article in favor of open source applications and did not listen to, or present accurate arguments from, the industry expert he contacted for help with the article.  That is what bothers me. 

I have worked as an HR software consultant for 15 years. When I presented my comments to HR magazine, I presented them as a consultant. I presented the very real and glaring items that are currently missing from open source HRIS systems. If a company had hired me as a consultant and asked about open source, my answer would have been the same. In time, open source may be a viable alternative but in my honest opinion, I think that is at least several years away. 

All of this is unfortunate because HR magazine is seen as an expert source of information pertaining to the HRIS software industry.  In my opinion, this article damaged the trusted information reputation with anyone who has HRIS industry experience. I truthfully believe this article is a disservice to their subscribers.