The 11th annual HR Technology Conference is underway in Chicago.
Sadly, as I am right in the middle of the Fall Academic Quarter I am not able to attend this year.
There are scores of product announcements made each year at HR Technology, but I thought I would point out two of the most interesting announcements from this year's conference:
Cornerstone OnDemand is adding a new social networking platform to its
integrated talent management suite of software and
services. Cornerstone Connect helps organizations reach both internal
and external audiences via Web 2.0 features ranging from communities of
practice, blogs, wikis and user profiles, to rating/sharing content,
knowledge management (including alumni), podcasts, RSS feeds and
more. Using Cornerstone Connect, organizations can improve employee
performance, foster connections, cultivate informal learning, and
engage customers and partners to drive innovation and lower support
costs.
Softscape will introduce the new science of Talent Management – Softscape TalentGenetics™. This latest innovation from Softscape provides a new level of talent visualization never seen before to capture and share employee knowledge. The platform also offers embedded social-networking and expanded functions for social knowledge sharing.
What I find interesting about these, is the emphasis on the integration of Web 2.0 features into 'classic' Talent Management platforms. These vendors are among the very early adopters of this approach, to try and merge these features like social networking, tagging, RSS etc. into traditional, typically dull applications.
This integration of Web 2.0 features into existing HRMS applications is a growing trend, and one that I think more vendors will try to get in on in the coming 12-18 months.
I am looking forward to seeing the results of these product launches, and hope to get to demo them in my HR Tech class very soon.