What shaped 2009 in HR Technology?

As part of their year-end special report, Mary Ellen Slayter at SmartBrief on Workforce asked some of the members of their Advisory Board to write a post about a workforce trend that shaped 2009.

Since I believe I am the only 'Technology' person on the Board, I think it makes sense for me to look at the request from that angle, and try to uncover the primary trend or trends that impacted workforce technology in 2009.

I think the primary trend that affected HR and workplace technology in 2009 is the growing importance of so-called 'social' technologies in the workplace, and in enterprise systems. This trend has manifested itself in several ways in 2009.

Recruiting has gone social

In 2009, we saw the emergence in a major way of the idea of 'social recruiting', a relationship-based, high-touch, and heavily technology dependent approach to recruiting.  Social recruiting, which some argue is really no different that traditional and successful recruiting, has substantion technology components, and for HR folks, a basic understanding of these tools is really necessary to effect a successful social recruiting strategy.

The Applicant Tracking Systems (and related recruiting technologies) that got the most buzz in 2009 were JobVite and Jobs2Web, two solutions that at the center of their value proposition is there embedded integration with external social networks, and the ability of organizations to leverage the personal networks of employees and candidates to support the organizational recruiting process. And towards the end of the year, we have seen several posts advocating empowering the entire organization to support social recruiting, largely via the careful leveraging of technology and networks.

Employees are Networking

Growth for the 'big three' social networking sites, (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) continued relentlessly in 2009.  Most organizations and HR departments finally realized in 2009 that social networking was a significant societal and workplace trend, and began to confront and address the appropriate relationship between the organization and the employee use of these networks.

Whether the response was defining a corporate social media policy, upping your efforts to actively block employee use of social networks, or actively seeking ways to leverage these networks and employee connections on them the topic was on the radar of most all HR departments in 2009. HR's response to this trend has varied of course, but it has become almost impossible to ignore.

Enterprise Systems getting more social

Later in 2009,  a fairly steady stream of announcements from classic HR Technology enterprise vendors touted either integration with external social networks and services, or the inclusion of Facebook or Twitter-like 'feed' functionality inside their systems.  Learning Management Systems integrating with Facebook, performance systems linking with Google, or core HRIS connecting to LinkedIn, there were examples of all of these in 2009, and I think it is just the start of an emerging aspect of the overall 'social' trend in HR Technology.

Other vendors moved to incorporate concepts from the popular external 'status feeds' to help illuminate HR processes, a great example is the Activity Tracker from Talent Management systems vendor Halogen Software. The merging/blending/mashup of process with social interaction and communication inside of traditional enterprise technologies is one of the most important developments in 2009.

Innovation, collaboration, connection

In 2009 a slew of tools and technologies that support employee collaboration, information discovery, and internal expertise location were either released or enhanced.  From wikis like Socialtext and PBWorks, activity stream platforms like Socialcast, or more robust internal networking technologies like Cubetree or Jive Social Business Software, it seemed that almost every week in 2009 saw a new product or some new capability added to an existing product. This week, Salesforce.com, the leading provider of enterprise SaaS solutions for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) announced the upcoming 2010 release of Chatter, an internal employee networking application that will allow employees make status updates similar to Facebook and Twitter.

HR professionals that really want to have input and impact into the future design and implementation of collaborative computing and the continuing 'socialization' of work need to start spending more time understanding how collaboration is and needs to work in their business, and then must be able to intelligently assess and recommend the appropriate technology to support those objectives.

A look ahead

I think in 2010, we will certainly see more of this trend, and it will likely manifest itself in new and perhaps surprising ways.  Before the end of the year, I will take a shot at some more detailed projections.

What do you think, what was the big news in HR Tech in 2009? Notice I did not even mention Oracle Fusion, as I decided an announcement and a short demo in 2009 really does not count as a 'trend'.

Hit me up in the comments.

HR Tech in 2009

Wow, what a crazy year.  Banking industry collapse, stock market plummets, US auto industry teeteringFlickr - ViaMoi on the brink, every day another round of corporate layoffs.  Lots of great people out on the job market, or soon to be, as I have not seen any prediction that 2009 will be any better than 2008. What does it all me for the world of HR and HR Technology specifically?

Since in the 'Big Book of Internet' I read that every blog must post an obligatory 'predictions' post for the New Year, I will go ahead and take a shot at some predictions in the HR Tech space for the coming year:

1. Large organizations will drastically reduce, or postpone major initiatives (massive ERP upgrades, major deployments of new global systems to support talent management).  I think that the projects that will continue will be smaller in scope and application.  Perhaps individual country or division pilot projects, ones that try to limit initial investment and overall risk.

2. Small and medium sized businesses that are healthy (there must be some right?), will be under pressure to improves their e-recruiting and applicant tracking systems.  When the large organizations are letting droves of workers go, the small and medium size businesses are going to be swamped with not only an increased volume of applications, but a real increase in talented, qualified applicants.  It may be that in 2009, selecting the right talent from a large talent pool will be one of the most important challenges facing the SMB segment.

3. More organizations will look to experiment with Web 2.0 technologies for internal collaboration, networking, and knowledge management. Many organizations have already stepped into this market, notable examples include Best Buy, Deloitte, and Pfizer, and many who have not will wade in in 2009.  Why now?  These technologies are typically easy to deploy (many pilot deployments will not either involve or require internal IT resources), cost significantly less than 'traditional' enterprise systems, and present a low-risk, high-reward potential for the HR leader.  Deployment of a company-wide platform for networking and collaboration could be one of the most impactful positive contributions and HR department can champion in 2009.

4. Not really an original thought, but iin 2009 I would expect more vendor consolidation.  Some vendors in the Talent and collaboration space will not survive, and the vetting process that HR must undertake before launching any new initiatives is of the utmost importance. The HR pro may also need to re-evaluate some of their current tech vendors just to be prepared for any suddent and potentially harmful disruptions in service.

5. I don't really have a number 5, but I will close with this: employees may be uneasy, concerned, and fearful about your company's and their own future.  Do whatever you can to be open, honest, and timely with your communication.  Technology can help in these endeavors, but it will never be the solution to the most basic rule, 'Do the right thing by your employees'.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting on this blog in 2008. 

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