I Love Taleo But...

The Motley Fool published an article earlier this week with the title, "I Love Taleo".  Although their were some glaring errors in the story (Taleo does not have performance or succession today), the article suggests Taleo is operating quite nicely under the radar. 

I would agree.  The company had a nice quarter and solid year.  Q4 included 23 new enterprise customers, 129 new business edition customers, 8 new customers over $250K and a nice HRO channel (approximately 15% of bookings for the year).  I am convinced in their product strategy, roadmap and focus on usability (usability is the game-changer). 

My only concerns with Taleo are 1) they are showing up late to the broader talent management party and 2) talent management "suite" buyers today are not "beach-heading" in recruitment.  Buying recruitment + performance simply isn't happening in the market right now.  They are buying performance and compensation and performance + learning + succession.  They are not buying recruitment and performance.  Maybe its because the silver bullet solution isn't available today (I don't think that is necessarily the case though).  The challenge is that recruiter users aren't, nor do they think of themsleves as HR.  They think they are sales people who's sole focus is to close the ideal candidate not identify and develop talent.  Taleo does have the mindshare with the senior executive in HR but these issues could pose a challenge to Taleo until recruitment becomes more entwined into the talent lifecycle.

Comments

[bkutik]

Disclaimer: This is a partially a commercial announcement -- While I agree companies are not buying "recruitment+performance...today" there are lots of good reasons they will in the future. Foremost is that after the candidate leaves the salesperson/recruiter's hands an enormous amount of assessment is done on his or her capabilities and competencies by hiring managers and HR. Presently, most of that information and insight is lost when the candidate is hired. With recruitment and performance integrated, that will no longer happen. So while we may be dangerously ahead of the curve, that's one reason the 10th Anniversary HR Technology Conference is hosting the "Industry's First Integrated Performance & Recruiting Shootout" this year in Chicago on Oct. 11. And you'd be amazed at how many vendors already have the integrated offering and are trying to get into it.

[Tom O'Brien]

I think there is a real disconnect here. Recruiting software and even compensation software are simply "plumbing" that help companies do a better job at things they will do anyway.

Talent management and performance management are HUGE cultural/OD initiatives that do not lend themselves easily to just installing the "plumbing". These are initiatives that require leadership from the very top and full organizational support. This is a problem because in behavioral terms, (as overheard at an HCI Conference recently) "culture eats strategy for lunch".

[Jason Corsello]

Bill,

Totally agreed. Recruitment+performance goes undersold today. What about using the performance data to identify competencies in a certain position or industry that can potentially predict future performance and leverage that data in the recruiting process? Talk about "quality of hire"....

I look forward to the shootout. Time to educate the market on the value!

[rbrenon]

I really appreciate your blog I discovered recently. Just want to take the opportunity to raise a point that some companies are actually both : recruitment + performance. For example, Thales, Numico, Dexia, Société Générale, Rabobank, are using Jobpartners Suite to attract Talents, manage Performance and Succession Planning... Some of them add a reward management module too from the same suite. Best regards

[Tom O'Brien]

Don't know if you saw the Dilbert cartoon yesterday - but it captured the essence of most Performance Management initiatives quite well:

http://tomob.wordpress.com/2007/03/11/performance-management-dilbert-style/

[Escalador]

Taleo may have added value once, but there is no value in what I'm seeing now.

http://poweredbytaleo.blogspot.com/