Taking a trip to San Francisco last week reinforced the chasm that exists between the frantic, anarchic pace of innovation that drives Silicon Valley and the stifling conservatism that holds back IT adoption in much of HR in the UK. Somewhere in the middle is a compromise that could transform the way we work, but who’s looking for it?

Having spent the best part of this decade in San Francisco before recently moving away, my judgment on these things is bound to be a little prejudiced. But when HR talks about the emergence of software as a service today, Silicon Valley diehards snigger and recall how application service providers (ASPs) were trying out the same IT outsourcing models in the late 1990s. While HR managers muse on how Web 2.0 tools are starting to move from the consumer world of MySpace and Facebook into the business world, Silicon Valley thinks of people such as Ismael Ghalimi, who organised the first Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco back in 2006.

Of course, there are good reasons for HR not to be at the vanguard of technology adoption. For one thing, the first releases of software products often have problems – in fact, it’s common in the Valley for start-ups to release half-finished products under the guise of a “Beta” program, so they can gain a foothold in the market and get free feedback from early adopters. You’re usually better off waiting for later releases and a few real-life proven business benefits before parting with your cash. And yes, there are significant barriers to adopting technology in HR, including tight budgets, time constraints, lack of resources and the fact that HR doesn’t exactly leap to the front of the queue when it comes to IT priorities. But that doesn’t explain why so many HR functions lag behind their peers on the adoption curve.

Take established technologies such as HR self-service. Why, when half the western world is comfortable doing its banking online, do some HR managers still worry whether self-service access to pay and personnel details can be managed securely? Why are fundamental HR disciplines still run by shifting pieces of paper around and keying in data, when basic automation would cut costs, reduce data duplication and minimise errors? And why do HR and payroll departments put up with a steady stream of employee enquiries that could be resolved with a couple of days’ work writing a frequently-asked questions section for their HR intranet?

Prudence is one thing, but sometimes the biggest problem in HR IT adoption is a lack of drive. Technology is never the panacea for HR’s challenges but there are plenty of examples where HR functions have invested wisely in software and services and got decent business returns. If HR laggards aren’t curious enough to analyse the business case for investing, and passionate enough to sell the argument internally, they’re never going to cross that divide.