Looking at more than 120 technology vendors in a short time frame provides an interesting perspective. There are a lot of vendors working with their blinders on, developing solutions across several categories, that they compartmentalized into the classic HR Tech segments (talent acquisition, learning, performance, etc.). What these vendors seemingly don’t realize is that they are all chipping around the idea of an emerging segment, Work Management.
Work Management is a fairly new trend. I first blogged about it this time last year. Work Management solutions promise to Engage non-HR users across the Enterprise to manage their work, connect with their peers and managers, gain internal and external knowledge, etc. Input and output from these systems would encompass collaboration, performance, project management, talent management, HR Analytics, compensation, and more.
Implemented properly, the enterprise (all staff) would engage with these systems because the system actually helps you get work done and do your job better. The data harnessed from these systems would be more powerful than anything we’ve seen in HR Tech before. Making direct ties to business performance and giving businesses something they struggle with constantly: predictability of results.
There is a HUGE opportunity for Human Resources to be the leader of this change in the enterprise. It would be huge for this space to start to deliver on the decades-old vision of empowering the workforce. If HR doesn’t do it, some other function will and HR will be left integrating into it, instead of driving the change.
Several of the #hrwins 2012 HR Companies To Watch provide solutions that drive value in their own right while contributing to the concept of Work Management. We’ll be sure to highlight that as we announce the winners in the coming weeks.
What do you think? Is this HR’s big opportunity? Can HR drive a change like this?