HRevolution Sponsor Spotlight - Nobscot Corporation

There is significant energy and momentum in the Human Resources Technology marketplace towards integration. Traditional core HRIS and ERP vendors are trying to strengthen their offerings in areas like Talent Management and Business Intelligence.  Established talent management vendors are expanding their application footprints to encompass more and more functionality be it applicant tracking or learning management.

In many ways the trend towards integration can benefit customers, as it typically eliminates (or at least dramatically reduces) the need for complex, and often custom built integrations to pass HR information around the various systems.

But even as the big ERP providers get bigger, and the Talent Management vendors expand, there remain areas of the HR and talent landscape that neither will likely ever consume. Important technology supported functions like background checks, candidate assessments, or complex workforce scheduling.

These 'edge' products and the processes that they support are often vitally important to the success of an organization and can go a long way towards making the day-to-day lives of HR professionals much easier.

HRevolution sponsor Nobscot Corporation thrives on the edge. Their flagship product WebExit, that supports the process of Exit Interviews was created to address a gap and fulfill a need that the traditional HR Technology companies could not support.  Efficient capture, and subsequent analysis of exit interview data is to many organizations a key source of strategic information that can directly impact ongoing operations, planning, and overall profitability of the enterprise. If you really believe as an organization that human capital is the source of your competitive advantage, then understanding the flow of this capital from beginning (recruiting) to end (exit interview) is vital to your long term survival.

In addition to its market leading product for exit interviews, Nobscot also offers Mentor Scout, the only real enterprise solution for managing internal mentoring programs. Mentor Scout helps to manage all aspects of a corporate mentoring initiative, from matching mentors with mentees, to providing a secure environment for communication, to tracking the progress and success of the program.  For many employees in the organization making connections with experienced and respected colleagues is a necessary and even critical activity. Mentoring programs have been shown to be a powerful driver of increased engagement and forge important bonds in the make up of the company.

Being on the "edge," allows companies like Nobscot to respond quickly to HR's needs.  For example, based on feedback from clients Nobscot expanded its WebExit platform to handle new hire surveys and quality of hire metrics. The resulting program, called FirstDays helps organizations accurately measure the success of recruiting, onboarding, orientation and new hire socialization initiatives.  On the Mentor Scout side of the house, Nobscot expanded Mentor Scout with their Talent Networking Edition which adds peer-to-peer corporate social networking components to solve some common HR challenges such as knowledge sharing, breakdown of silos, recognition, and managing remote employees. 

 
I encourage you to check out Nobscot Corporation, they are a company committed to the long-term success of their customers, and passionate about improving organizational effectiveness and advancing the discipline of Human Resources.

Thanks very much to Nobscot, especially CEO Beth N. Carvin for their generous support of the HRevolution.

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Note : This post is part of the HRevolution Sponsor Spotlight series, the event organiizer's way of saying thanks to the fantastic sponsors of HRevolution, without their generous support the event would not be possible.

Facebook and Talent Management Technology

Recently Talent and Learning Management vendor SumTotal Systems announced a set of new integrations meant  to present information from the system, "where employees live most, applications like Microsoft Outlook and Facebook". In Facebook, for example, and employee could see updates and alerts from the SumTotal system, and connect with their internal colleagues without leaving the Facebook site.

While most would not argue that corporate workers spend ridiculous amounts of time in Outlook, the idea that enterprise Talent Management systems should be connected with Facebook and LinkedIn is certainly an interesting and new development.

Heck, pretty much every day I see a new article or study on organizations that block access to Facebook and LinkedIn. But that is not really the 'core' issue as I see it.

I think the important message is not really about social networks and their use in the workplace, but rather a signal that the 'enterprise' platform as a required destination for employees and managers will erode in importance. More and more the 'official' home page or portals are going to be supplanted by interactions with the 'enterprise' information and processes via external networks (LinkedIn, Facebook), other internal enterprise tools (Outlook, intranets), and mobile (iPhone, Blackberry). If employees and line managers only have to visit a tool or system to accomplish one specific task, and that task is not somehow incorporated into their 'normal' workflow, the likelihood of adoption and effective utilization is far lower. 

You may have a fantastic system, full of incredible content, but if no one goes there to leverage that content then it may as well be not there at all.

Additionally, as the definitions of work shift, and the relationships that talent maintains with organizations become more fluid, much more versatile and agile tools for talent management will be needed.  Certainly part of the versatility will derive from embedded integration with Facebook and LinkedIn, but the larger work that remains is to convince organizations and vendors that their fancy home pages and dashboards, while interesting and exciting to look at, might not matter one bit to the employee and manager that never wants to visit them. 

For some time it has been fashionable in marketing circles to declare that the corporate web site is 'dead' and that no one really cares what is on there, I wonder if one day enterprise systems home pages will 'die' as well and be replaced with a collection of widgets, add-ons, browser toolbars, and mobile applications.

HR Technology Conference - Choosing Technology

Wrapping up observations from the HR Technology Conference in Chicago with a question that I get all the time in one form or another:

What solution is the best for (insert among the following: ATS, Performance Management, Comp. Planning, LMS, collaboration, idea management, etc.?)

The answer, as always is: 'It depends'.

I know, classic consultant-speak cop-out. And while Salary.com did a great presentation in the HR Technology Shootout, easily out pacing SAP, Lawson, and Plateau in the minds of the conference attendees, does that mean that they offer the 'best' solution? Honestly, for large portions of the shootout, the solutions presented were fairly indistinguishable from each other.

It is not really possible for an observer, even a relatively informed one, to give a quick answer to the question. There are so many variables that have to be considered in determining what the 'best' solution is for a given organization's unique set of problems.

So while I can't tell you what technology is the 'best', I can offer a few suggestions to help evaluate from the literally thousands of HR Technology providers.

Understand the problem - What are the business problems you are trying to solve? 'We need Talent Management technology' is not good enough.  Try to focus on the most pressing current issues that need attention, while also considering the state of the organization three years out.

Know your capabilities - How proficient are your end users with technology? If you are deploying a new system for employee performance management, the primary users of the system will be first-line managers.  Make sure you understand their ability, motivations, and what is in it for them before making the final decision on a vendor.  Better still, include some of these end users on the selection team. Do you have internal IT support? Are there company rules on data privacy that make implementing solutions hosted on the vendor's servers unappealing?

Learn the market - Not easy, but necessary.  You have to avail yourself of all available resources to learn about the vendors in the market space. Obviously attending the big HR Technology Conference is a quick way to get in front of representatives from all the major vendors in the space. Most vendors typically offer periodic webinars and/or recorded demonstrations of their solutions, and many even offer free trials of their solutions. But beyond assessing capability and features, and assessing gaps in functionality, take a long hard look at the market position of the vendor.  Are they financially stable?
Are they on some larger firm's takeover radar? Do they have a commitment to continuously innovate, and are those innovations easily applied to all customers?Flickr -8 Skeins

Trust, but verify - Obviously many if not most vendors will tell you what (they think) you want to hear. If a needed feature is not currently in the solution offered, many vendors will promise that it is coming soon, or if you enter into contract with them, that they will add the feature for the customer. Historically, one method of 'verification' of vendor claims or promises has been the customer reference. The vendor provides a hand-picked list of their current customers that the prospect is encouraged to contact to learn more about the customer's experience with the vendor. But of course since all the customer references are vendor-supplied, how do you know how much to trust the information you get from these references?

Leverage your networks - An advantage of cultivating and maintaining an active network of HR and HR Technology professionals is the ability to connect with current and future users of a given technology solution. Posting questions on LinkedIn groups, or in LinkedIn Q&A, or on Twitter can almost certainly yield relevant information and additional connections that are not necessarily filtered through the vendor's prism. Just like you read the reviews on Amazon.com before you plunk down for that new plasma TV, take the time to uncover some independent insights on the technologies you are considering.

Investing in new HR Technology solutions can be one of the most important decisions that you organization makes, effecting employee productivity, engagement, and ultimately business performance.

Better choose wisely.

HR Technology Conference - Silos

Two of the consistent themes that I picked up on at the HR Technology Conference were:

One - Most, (if not all) of the Talent Management vendors (SuccessFactors, Taleo, Halogen, Salary.com, etc.), are working diligently to expand the breadth of their offerings. Some are introducing new modules to their suites (SuccessFactors now offers ATS capability for example), entering into partnerships with other vendors (Taleo with Learn.com) or building more functionality to 'compete' with or at least offer an alternative to traditional HRIS vendors for the coveted 'System of Record' position.Flickr - Zoom Zoom

Two - One of the most significant barriers to success in the implementation of these so-called Integrated Talent Management suites are internal organizational silos.  Said differently, in large organizations the Talent Acquisition, Compensation Planning, core HR, and Training and Development groups are separated in the company, are many times working at cross-purposes.  The needs of these different groups often have to be reconciled, and sometimes compromised to 'fit' into an integrated solution.

I heard this 'silo' issue at least three different times at the conference, and after being initially surprised it began to make perfect sense. The larger a system footprint gets, the more internal process and functions it impacts, the more people have to be involved, and the greater the need for increased coordination and collaboration.

The larger systems get, the more complicated they are to implement, and the more likely that some area of the organization will not get what they want.  This is almost unavoidable, and the reason why most of these Talent Management vendors have risen up in the first place is this phenomenon in the ERP market.

I think the challenge going forward for the vendors themselves, and for the customers looking to implement these ever expanding systems is to avoid the issues faced by the large ERP systems.  There is a fundamental difference as some of them transition from their position as 'Best-of-Breed' to something much larger.

Developing, selling, and implementing large systems that cross so many processes and organizational functions is a much more complex undertaking that slapping in a new stand-alone ATS or online Performance Management tool.  Customers will have to be smarter, vendors will need to get better at supporting these implementations, and HR and business leaders had better be prepared to deconstruct their silos.

HR Technology Conference - Take Your Chances

Finally made it home from the HR Technology Conference in Chicago and still trying to process all the information from meeting vendors, attending sessions, and talking to old and new friends.

And recovering from Thursday night's Epic HR Happy Hour show.

One thing I noticed as I walked the massive Expo hall that in the Taleo booth (and I suspect a few others), there was a giant prize wheel that prospects, customers, or random passers-by could spin for the chance to win items like Subway gift cards, Amazon.com credits, or free stays at a popular resort.

You did have to get your badge scanned and listen to the 10 minute overview of Taleo 10 for the chance to spin the  wheel. It did seem a bit too 'time share presentation-ish' for me, but I get the need for vendors to capture prospect information at the show.

After the demo I attended was completed, and one lucky attendee spun the prize wheel, (I think he won a free Quiznos Sub), I thought a more fun 'prize wheel' would have all the possible outcomes of a major talent management implementation project.

Maybe the wheel would look something like this:

Technology projects, especially large complex ones, are tricky undertakings.  So many things are needed to hit the sweet spot on the wheel, and achieve enduring organizational transformation.  Correct understanding of the important business issues, selection of the correct tool to address these problems, effective project management, executive support, a vendor not only committed to customer success, but also one with a sound and perhaps even visionary product strategy, and managers and users that see the value the real 'What is in this for me' of the solution.

Missing any one of these key factors might be enough to scupper the project.  But without them, your chance for success are dicey at best, and indeed you are just spinning the wheel of technology fortune and you may not even realize it.