MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM| | January - March 20208By Brenna Child, Head of Talent Management & Employer Branding, The Washington PostIN MY OpinionHOW BUILDING YOUR OWN HR SYSTEMS CAN TRANSFORM COMPANY CULTUREWhen you think of the term, "human resources," technological innovation probably is not the first thing that comes to mind. However, as HR professionals, we must consider the tools that change human behavior and increase productivity, which contributes to the growth and transformation of the business. What mediums do your employees rely on? How many applications do your employees access to retrieve information? Does it increase productivity or slow it down? It is our responsibility to think bigger and find creative technological solutions for meeting business objectives, dismantling silos, and improving company culture. If you are looking for a place to start -- consider your company's intranet. Is it built to supply information or to move the organization forward? Does it have a sustainable and fluid infrastructure that can support the external platforms your employees use? Can it ebb and flow with the changes and speed of the business? If so, does it keep your employees engaged in your company's values? Too often, the intranet is only considered a tool for disseminating information or social collaboration. It is not often thought of as a tool for culture change and business success. As the main communication hub for your organization, your intranet should act as a strategic business enabler, serving as a vessel for cultural change.Across the organization, The Washington Post has adopted a build versus buy mentality, meaning the company builds its mission-critical systems in-house. This allows for greater customization and control to meet business needs. This approach guided The Post's HR team in its quest for an intranet solution that would give us the ability to move faster, become more adaptable, and create an innovative culture that would keep pace with the direction of our business. The project team's vision was to build an intranet that would enable HR to communicate with, and inspire,The Post's increasingly dispersed and diverse workforce around three focus areas ­ shape ideas, redefine speed, and take ownership. The success of this vision, and ultimately the ability to affect culture change, was based on the team's decision to focus on the following: Speed of development using an agile approachReplacing the top down "waterfall" method to design and development, with the popular agile approach, allowed the team
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