We’re well on our way to completing more than 120 briefings as a part of #hrwins. This Trend Report is focused on the innovation and focus we’re seeing in, what we’ll call, the broad HR Technology category of “matching”.
Human Resources spends a considerable amount of time attempting to make matches via a variety of data and/or analytics. Different forms of matching go on at every step of the Employee Lifecycle. Recruitment, Onboarding, career pathing, performance, succession planning, allocation of resources, employee relations, communications, Leadership, etc.
Let’s consider just a few of the Talent Management related matches we make. Classically HR has tried to match skills to jobs, personality to roles and performance, roles and performance to compensation, competencies to everything, and so on.
The next logical step would be to tie each employee to corporate performance in whatever areas are relevant like productivity, financial results, customer metrics, etc. Because HR is the Resource of HUMANS, it has continued to fall short of applying a standard science to this. Standardizing on the ROI, or value, of the talent asset will forever be more translated than defined. From Revenue Per Employee to Productivity on the shop floor, and everything in between.
The introduction of Corporate Culture and Individual Personality to the equation can make decision making via talent-related analytics feel a little more like playing the odds than investing in a sure thing.
Multiple challenges come together at the nexus of the complexity of defining corporate culture, trying to understand who best fits it, ensuring you can keep them engaged and performing at pique, and the resulting win-win for the individual and the corporation. Its exactly the challenges that some innovative HR Technology Vendors are applying new approaches to.
Struggling to match isn’t new. But there is a slate of new vendors, offering everything from job boards, to talent sourcing tools, to social collaboration platforms, to analytic platforms, to new approaches to assessments that are driving new and more simple ways to calibrate fit.
As I see it, the logic goes something like: If the rigid and cumbersome world of assessment is just getting you to a “playing the odds feeling” – a sort of no guarantees, and just another data point type result. Then, can’t we develop an easier to use approach that,while calibrating fit with the same level of risk, engages the employee, gives me more insight to operating my business, lets me deliver my internal or employer brand message more effectively?, etc. It’s really compelling.
Measuring for fit, engagement, and culture is also expensive. It usually comes attached to hefty consulting engagements and ongoing support of I/O Psychologists. Many vendors involved in the Talent Acquisition, Work Management, and Social HR spaces purport to drive engagement and culture fit without the need for complex ongoing ‘multi-dimensional” measurements.
These vendors don’t claim to replace the value of assessments, they just put them in their proper place.
Back to the Talent Management Example, if your Talent Management Process – from recruit to exit – is more engaging, captures more relevant data, is a pleasant experience for your employee, actually delivers something back to your employee, and reinforces your internal and employer brands… well, then the possibilities are endless for business outcomes that both the employee and employer can feel good about.
When the #hrwins report of HR Companies To Watch comes out in October. You’ll see several vendors that “fit” into this new category of simplified, easy to use, “matching” approaches.
If your HR Technology Product hasn’t been reviewed for the #hrwins reports yet. Let’s get it done.
I’ve been going deep on Social HR and Social Recruiting lately. That’s what the next trend report looks at….