All of us sit on both sides of the Great Divide. It just depends on the task. The Divide is Knowledge, the loss; productivity, self-esteem, morale, opportunity, profitability. Narrowing the HR IT Divide should be a top HR mission.
Doesn't know how, hasn't been taught, can't get it done. We've all been there. Wasn't fun, was it? Next time, the task at hand may be avoided, turned over to an in house expert or outsourced to a consultant. Worse, "Let's just skip it. Employee benefit statements are a good idea, but way too difficult."
The Duty, IT Expert.This person doesn't need to read the manual. Probably wrote the thing. Usually very busy & in demand by others, so needs to prioritize requests. If your needs are less critical for your organization then you wait ... and wait. The IT Expert is nearly irreplaceable. Lose this person to vacation, illness or attrition and critical knowledge evaporates.
The Great Divide is the knowledge gap that separates IT experts from 'normal folk'. Experts can create slick programs in Php, Postgresql or Java, but what about the rest of us? Experts are tough to find, difficult to understand and justifiably expensive.
Create an application so that HR can create necessary Employee Communications internally, but - if help is needed, 'watch' a programmer from IT, learning from the IT expert along the way. Next time, HR will be able to DIY, without help.
We began to evaluate the IT related roadblocks to effective Employee Communications in 1998. We determined that the existing methods and available applications were inadequate - or - expensive - or both. We identified 4 Major Roadblocks. The First is the Great Divide.