During 2008, Knowledge Infusion had the opportunity to work with over 100 enterprise organizations based in the US but most with operations in some other parts of the world as well. There are a number of observations that we have collected during 2007 that will continue to impact the nature of HR and Talent Management technology for years to come.
Talent Management as a practice is global in nature. Even organizations that only have US based employees are looking to recruit from outside the US and have to for that matter. A Chief HR Officer that is a client of Knowledge Infusion recently said "I will go anywhere in the world to find talent and bring it here, therefore I need technology that can support me in that effort."
HR continues to work on standardization and realizes that the only way to manage certain processes is to govern them on a global basis. This doesn't mean that all processes must be the same globally; but when looking to compare and use data, the standardization and streamlining of the process goes a long way.
All organizations should them of themselves as global today. Whether they do business globally, have employees that come to the US from other parts of the world (which is everywhere) or have growth as part of their business objectives; must think globally when creating their long term HR technology strategy.
Global deployments of software are occurring at a record pace. This requires whole new thought processes around business process transformation, change management and the software itself.
Organizations are looking for vendors that "get" global implications. Many vendors simply bypass this issue; but it is one that simply cannot be overlooked anymore.
Portals are great tools to make the workforce feel relevant even if they use different tools and processes. A role based, personalized portal drives specific content to the user based on where they are in the world. This will continue to be a growth area for HR solutions.
Data privacy concerns around things like Employee and Manager Direct Access are fading away slowly. These will always be issues, but organizations are doing more than ever to work their way through them.
HR is realizing that they cannot do all processes within HR, Payroll, Benefits and Talent Management in a single system. Their solutions include outsourcing pieces of Payroll and Benefits, using best of breed applications in country specific situations and struggling with data. This will continue to be a major issue and one that Workforce Intelligence solutions will have to assist with going forward.
More and more VP's of HR don't care how, but are demanding a single view of data globally. This is more than likely a request from their CEO who should be asking these questions. HR has been terrible at combining data on a global basis and we are starting to see that change.
The world is flat, small and getting faster each day. Succession Management is a global practice. Workforce Planning is a global practice. Knowing the skills of the workforce is a global practice. This list will continue to grow as the chasm between continents is filled in by continued innovation in the technology space.
What does this mean to you? Think globally. Bring together leaders from all countries and continents. Look at their business processes with yours and realize they are not that different and with a bit of compromise, they can work from the same platform. Finally, remember the world is getting smaller by the day and organizations depend on a global workforce more than ever. Are you ready for a HR technology standpoint?
This has been a major trend in 07 and will be even greater in 08!!
Another infusion of knowledge...
