Second-place winner Human resources Steve Hansen, Matrix Absence Management

The right tools make human resources departments more effective

With Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, this HR professional provides better service, more efficiently

In many companies, the human resources organization is an information crossroads, with the HR staff managing mountains of sensitive documents such as employee records, employment information, and benefits administration. According to Steve Hansen, it's also a company's service organization, where responsiveness is important.

Responsiveness counts

"Whether it is a job applicant, head hunter, or internal client, everyone expects an HR office to provide an immediate response to their phone call or e-mail," says Hansen. "Customer service is an important part of what we do, and I pride myself on replying to inquiries promptly and effectively."

Hansen works as manager of HR projects for Matrix Absence Management, a nationwide company that works with employers to provide customized management of disability, workers' compensation, and family leave programs. As a third-party administrator of employee programs and benefits for some of the nation's leading companies— such as Abbott Labs, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Robert Mondavi, Tiffany, and Honda— Matrix Absence Management receives and generates a lot of communications, primarily in the form of e-mail messages.

To stay on top of his contact, calendar, and e-mail flow, Hansen relies on Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003. "Outlook is my primary application, where I spend the greatest part of my day," says Hansen. "Outlook allows me to be better organized and manage my time more effectively, with the result that I have time to offer better service and to take on a wider variety of tasks."

Hansen's e-mail load is even heavier than many others in the company. "I'm responsible for Matrix's staffing nationwide," says Hansen. "So I'm not only dealing with a lot of client e-mail, I'm also dealing with the company's internal hiring processes, which means scheduling interviews, keeping track of job offers, and responding to e-mail messages coming all day and all night in response to job postings."

Cutting down on phone tag

E-mail has clearly superseded the telephone as a communications tool in the HR office, says Hansen, whether it's a candidate applying for a position or a hiring manager requesting information on the status of a benefit program. "With e-mail, you can immediately come to the point and be concise— and you can also send attachments, which is not a possibility when you're playing phone tag," says Hansen. "Ironically, Outlook helps me be better organized and manage my time better, so I can actually return the important phone calls."

Hansen uses the preview pane in Outlook 2003 to quickly sort through and evaluate accumulated e-mail messages. He has also enabled the New Mail Desktop Alert available in Outlook 2003, which floats new messages on the corner of whatever Windows application is currently running. This allows him to immediately respond to important messages without switching to an Outlook 2003 screen. "My teammates have told me that they appreciate how quickly I get back to them," says Hansen. He can just as quickly delete junk e-mail messages as they appear in the New Mail Desktop Alert so he doesn't have to deal with them in his Inbox later.

A quick response to applicants is courteous

Outlook also helps him be more courteous and responsive. "I think that job applicants who apply for positions advertised online often have the feeling that their resumes go into the void, because they never hear a word back from the employer," says Hansen. "They don't know what their status is. But I have set up Outlook so I can respond quickly and efficiently to applicants, because it's important to me to be responsive."

Hansen has created over 30 different e-mail signatures in Outlook 2003 that he uses to respond to e-mail messages. These allow him to send preformatted, pre-written responses to applicants. Because he can add these responses almost instantly, Hansen then can choose to individualize his response if he wants to make it seem more personal. "It's surprising how many compliments I get from applicants when they simply get a response from me," says Hansen. "I think it's important to let applicants know that they are acknowledged and appreciated, and with Outlook, that process is quick and easy."

Keeping spam out of the Inbox

A potential hazard for Hansen's efficient use of e-mail is the heavy dose of spam that he receives each day. Because his recruiting address is available to the general public, it exposes him to a full blast of professional spamming activity. However, Hansen uses a number of Outlook 2003 tools to minimize the impact of spam. He uses the Outlook 2003 tunable spam filter to remove the majority of junk e-mail messages.

The junk e-mail filter

"On my computer, the junk e-mail filter is on by default, so it catches all the messages about sex aids and home finance. However, I have adjusted the filters and set up different rules so I can even more aggressively manage the incoming spam and be certain to catch the legitimate messages coming through. Recently, I was out of the office for a week, and when I returned, I had over 1,000 e-mail messages. Nearly three-quarters of them were in my junk folder. It was a tremendous time savings that I didn't have to go through all that spam."

The automatic tunable filter saves time in more than one way. Previously, Hansen had to write individual rules to filter out junk e-mail messages by keyword, but spammers are so savvy that they would intentionally misspell words to bypass rule-driven filters. Managing a constantly changing set of filtering rules required almost as much time as deleting the spam itself.

"It takes a lot of time to continually write new rules, but now the tunable filter catches most junk e-mail automatically and directs it to the junk e-mail folder," says Hansen.

Outlook 2003 Search Folders

Keeping track of all the information contained in e-mail messages can be a challenge, and Hansen uses the Outlook Search Folders function to help retrieve and sort information stored in e-mail. "I tend to file away a lot of information in personal folders, but retrieving this information can be a challenge because I might have stored it in a number of similar files." For instance, an applicant living in Phoenix may have applied for a position in San Jose, so Hansen may have initially stored the applicant's message in his file for Phoenix— or is it in the San Jose file?

"With the Search Folders function, I can search all my e-mail files by keyword," says Hansen. "It can be awfully difficult to manage all the information stored in e-mail, but with the Search Folders function, it's really easy because I can find all the related messages without worrying where I stored them."

Easy note-taking and secure communications

Hansen uses a number of other features of the Microsoft Office System, especially Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003. Instead of taking notes on paper, Hansen types notes directly into a OneNote 2003 screen, which makes it possible to save and search notations as if they were documents. "Human resources work usually requires piles of papers, which are easily misplaced and difficult to store," says Hansen. "With OneNote, I can retrieve the information stored in notes with an easy keyword search, without having to dig through piles of paper. In fact, when I now have to take paper notes I usually type them into OneNote later so they will be available to me in the future."

The Microsoft Office System also helps Hansen comply with Internet security and regulatory requirements. The Information Rights Management tool in Office allows Hansen to create confidential content by establishing rules about how information can be viewed, printed, copied, and edited. This allows him to control who has the rights to view specific documents, which helps keep confidential documents from going astray.

Adding value to the company

Using Outlook 2003 and other Microsoft Office System tools has made Hansen much more effective at his job. In fact, he has been able to take on a new set of responsibilities for his company— overseeing facilities and equipment management— because of his time savings in his regular responsibilities. "Because I've been able to better manage my own work schedule, I can take on additional responsibilities. That adds value to the company and makes my job more challenging," says Hansen.