From the Beeb today.
www.bbc.com/news/business-56130187
I assumed he just farmed them out but the article implies otherwise.
But someone must manage HR policies and issue letters of appointment, and new laptops to users and maintain their network and databases.
Fake news maybe? :-)
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I don't think he's saying no one carries out those functions, just that there is no dept with just those functions.
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Just watched his vid. He sounds a decent guy.
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Bit strange really, there's 10 or so IT jobs on his web page at the moment applications for which should be submitted on line to HR.
Some of those jobs are to continue to develop their online offerings.
Not bad for a company without an IT group.
My a***.
They're backed/owned by Octopus Investments part of The Octopus Group which also doesn't have IT or HR. Strangely though they do have one group called "People" and another called "Technology".
Somebody is playing with words.
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I worked for a very big company. Over the years they automated, off-shored and outsourced lots of HR and other functions. It worked pretty well and the headline figures were great. I suspect HR reduced in headcount by well over 90% in twenty years.
Among the unintended consequences however was that I ended my career doing both my core job and lots of “stuff” that in previous years other experts would have done and done better.
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In the old days, "Personnel" were there to ensure you were treat fairly and squarely, it was a sad day when we became a "resource" and their roles changed.
I get a huge amount of evil satisfaction now when I read that HR is being outsourced to a telephone in Saigon, and I picture their CV
"Managed 300 people out of the company then made redundant when my role was outsourced"
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>> "Managed 300 people out of the company then made redundant when my role was outsourced"
A good friend, now retired, was board level HR for several international financial services companies and his top jobs, the highlights of his career, were about major reductions in employee numbers - not surprising, as that has been the story of the big established banks and insurers since I joined Nat West in the early 70's (I didn't stay long). He's actually a very smart and decent man, the sort you would want to be in charge of that sort of process and yes, he worked himself out of a job several times and did very well out of it.
Pretty much everywhere I have worked, I have not regarded the HR people as colleagues. The main opportunity to get something useful out of them is when you join. I never felt that the middle management were on the side of the "resources" and why should they be? Not a job I'd ever want. But I've never fitted in anywhere. I only once told my boss that I felt like a square peg in a round hole. He told me the hole was the wrong shape and I should carry on regardless.
"Personnel" as I remember it 50 years ago was mainly about payroll and is now the most outsourced function there is.
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"lots of "stuff" that in previous years other experts would have done and done better."
I was around and a bit instrumental in the very early days of office automation where I worked at the time.
Suddenly we had everyone up to and including senior managers one- or two-fingered typing their own documents and the typing pools (which were very pleasant places to visit, but we weren't allowed to socialise with the girls) were no longer required.
I bet there aren't many these days who can type as quickly as those ladies could!!
Somehow productivity was a selling point too!!
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>> I was around and a bit instrumental in the very early days of office automation where I worked at the time.
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Wang installed for free their early attempts at word processing.
They never left until "easily useable WP arrived" .
>> Suddenly we had everyone up to and including senior managers one- or two-fingered typing their own document
Not our lot. Wang did not have WYSIWYG so Wang still needed skilled typists.
>>... and the typing pools (which were very pleasant places to visit, but we weren't allowed to socialise with the girls)
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When I worked at the BBC we workshop folks were on one floor and never mixed with the office staff on another floor. Canteen hours were different too.
Decades later I discovered that a lass from our early teens group had worked there at the same time as me for five years and we had never seen each other at work.
More senior staff from the workshop would visit them. Never the reverse.
>> I bet there aren't many these days who can type as quickly as those ladies could!!
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I ensured that both by childred learned to type properly on the BBC we had.
That has served them well.
The complaint my daughter had when changing to a smart fone.
Yeh! But! I can no longer type text messages with the phone in my pocket.
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It was a very early Wang implementation of their mini computers that I worked on at the Coal Board, as part of a DTI pilot studying the impact of office automation on non computer staff. I was a clerk at the time and became the programmer and tech for the installation. I left the job in 86 after maybe nearly 2 years of it. Wang had had earlier WP products (OIS and 2200) which were, AFAIR, pretty much dedicated to WP - but we didn't have them in our project. The VS I worked on was WYSIWYG but the older products may not have been.
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>> Wang had had earlier WP products (OIS and 2200) which were, AFAIR, pretty much dedicated to WP
The first I was involved with was an OIS 130 back in 1979
It used floppy disks. They really were floppies - eight inch ones
I read
"Single Sided Single Density, these were the first ever floppy disks !
These single sided single density were the first commercially available computer consumable that came to change the world."
On a Memorex box - 128 Bytes.
On another advert
WHAT IS THE CAPACITY ? 980kb SINGLE SIDED DOUBLE DENSITY
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You pre-date my computer involvement by a few years then.
Yep I remember the 8" SSSD disks, then the 5.25" which came in a number of flavours. I think the biggest (DSDD) held 1.2mb but I could be wrong.
The first hard disks I worked with were these, with a 288mb capacity, and I think they cost 10s of thousands of pounds each and had to be operated in a clean environment www.tpsoft.com/museum_images/CDC%20Hard%20Disk%20Drive%202.JPG
Now a 1Tb microsd card which fits in your phone can be had for under £200.
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My first use of a computer was c1978 doing some 'work experience' at my Dad's place of work (he was one of the Directors). No idea what sort of kit it was but it lived in an air conditioned box in the corner of the office with two young women who were employed to meet it's every need. Somebody told me the company paid for them to have silk underwear to avoid static from nylon etc. Suspect it was a wind up.
It was used for stock records and various other stuff.
Some sort of word processor arrived in the Lands Tribunal c1983. The senior typist went on a week's course to learn to drive it. It was a godsend for Tribunal Decisions which previously required constant re-typing as they were amended by the Members.
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Takes me back. I joined a company in 1977 that covered the top half of Scotland, from Aberdeen northwards. Part of the induction was to see THE office computer. That was it.
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>>You pre-date my computer involvement by a few years then.
I was first directly involved in computers in 1965, so years before Wang.
I was on the wrong end of computers between 1960-65.
Small stores items were all given a part number. We never found out how the numbers were chosen. The whole system was rubbish. The place was unbelievably inefficient and the computer "system" made it worse. I have never seen so much money wasted.
When I left I suggested to the general manager that if given a free hand I would accept 10% of the savings I could make. My offer was not accepted :-(
I have had many great times in IT. I worked with some great guys and some useless ones.
Meanwhile I have just spent an hour or so helping a good IT person, remotely, trying to sort out problems with the latest trial kit in my house designed to monitor SWMBOs activities and health.
I cannot get away from IT.
The overall set up /design is UNI driven so once again a little lacking in understanding real people in real homes.
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A company without HR or IT depts - sooty123
