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.

Steve's First HR Technology Interview - Beth Carvin

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For my next HR Technology class, I thought arranging and recording some interviews with leaders and experts in the HR Technology space would be an excellent addition to the course content, and give the class a chance to learn directly from the source, which is always a great opportunity.

My first guest and interviewee is Beth N Carvin.  Beth is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nobscot Corporation, the pioneer in exit interview management software, was founded in April 2000. Nobscot released it's flagship product, WebExit, in January of 2001. In December of that year, WebExit was crowned one of the Top 10 HR Products of the Year by HR Executive Magazine.  Nobscot also markets Mentor Scout, an application to help support company mentoring programs, and Mentor Scout Talent Networking Edition, a platform for internal corporate social networking.

Beth has over twenty years of experience in business management, strategy, human resources, sales and marketing. Ms. Carvin was previously an HR and Business Development Officer with BancWest Corporation and the managing partner of Excel Employment. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Recently, Beth has delivered a number of talks and webcasts on the subject of 'What Every HR Professional Needs to Know About Social Networking', and is recognized as a thought leader on the subject of both external and internal social networking and the implications and issues to the HR Professional.

Beth and I discussed Social Networking in the organization, and talked on a wide range of issues, from policy, to whether organizations should 'block' access to these sites, and if today's employee has a right to expect access and the ability to use social networking in the workplace.

The interview can be heard here:

This interview, done on April 30, 2009 and future interviews can also be found on my Blog Talk Radio page.

It was a fantastic discussion, and I want to thank Beth for taking the time to share her insights on the subject, and I am sure my upcoming class will enjoy her perspectives.

Thanks again Beth!