News & Notes from The HR Forum

For those that are unaware of The HR Forum, it is a mix of vendors and enterprises sequestered on a big cruise ship for 3 days of education, speed meetings and presentations.  Don't let the cruise ship part confuse you, the boat basically sits in the waters outside of NYC the whole time.  Nonetheless, it was a great experience.  I led some think tanks around HR technology and outsourcing.  A peer setting is a great environment to get the real truth of what and who they like and dislike in terms of technology products and vendor relationships.

I had some great conversations with HR leaders from companies such as Bank of America, Wachovia, Washington Trust, Dell, British Airways, Mellon Financial, and some large health care providers.  A couple of interesting observations...

1. Most companies love their benefits outsourcing providers.  Those same outsourcing vendors though do not fair very well when it comes to their HRO capabilities.
2. HR leaders are frustrated.  Most have adopted solutions they hate (and aren't afraid to share those names).  The result, though, is technology is not being used effectively and the vendors that are doing a poor job to support the adoption and use of the solution.  Many of those same executives are challenged to find and get the funds for "replacement" projects.
3. The concept of the talent management suite still does not appear on the radar screen of most enterprises.  In fact, most are still struggling with the use of the ATS system internally.  Having said that, many enterprises are in the market for performance management.  Its unclear though if they see the true value in performance management or simply want to automate a highly manual process.

Back to Orlando again tomorrow for the 2nd of what will be 3 trips in 2 weeks. 

Comments

[Luis]

I just like your comments.

The situation is rather similar here in France, although we are still behind in HR technology equipment.

One point we like to stress is, current technology is still much too oriented towards HR management, whereas HR managers are facing talent development issues.

And here, they should probably be thinking about limiting their investment in "Talent Management Suites" and think about social software.

Talent development might be better served by collaborative software than by transactional software.

[EscowsBon]

The `loner' may be respected, but he is always resented by his colleagues,
for he seems to be passing a critical judgment on them, when he may be
simply making a limiting statement about himself.
-- Sidney Harris

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