Here’s an article from AMR research on Oracle’s plan for Fusion – their next generation of just about everything. There is a quote in here about their attempt at “No Disruptions” – the relalization that companies don’t want to have to upend their entire businesses to upgrade their software. Another goal is to release the applications component of the behemoth in 2-5 years.

I am so tired of hearing these grandiose plans from big software companies presented at sexy, highly produced conferences like OpenWorld taking place in San Francisco this week. Everytime Microsoft does this, for example, it’s years before the over-hyped product comes out, and when it does, it’s evolutionary for the most part – not revolutionary.

SHOW ME SOMETHING! I believe what I see, not what Oracle, Microsoft, SAP or anybody else tells me. And not on PowerPoint slides, either. Show me real, muti-dimensional, working software and update it often, not once every 5 years.

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Via Be Excellent comes this post on creating an engaged workforce. Studies, including the Accenture article on which this post is based, have shown a fairly direct link between the level of employee engagement and organizational performance. Engagement is just another word for motivation, isn’t it? And that makes good sense – the more motivated your employees are to do good work and get things done, the better your business will do.

From the article, here are the 10 “key human capital processes” that can influence employee engagement according to Accenture:

1. Rewards and Recognition
2. Human Capital Infrastructure
3. Learning Management
4. Knowledge Management
5. Performance Appraisal
6. Workplace Design
7. Employee Relations
8. Career Development
9. Human capital strategy
10. Recruiting

human resources

I was just alerted to this gem over at Red Herring. As you may know, SuccessFactors was one of a small group of companies presenting at the DEMOfall show in San Francisco (more on this, including video hopefully, later on). While it’s great that RedHerring noticed we were there, it’s unfortunate that they were not paying all that much attention.

From the article: “A couple of Big Brother-esque startups, SuccessFactors and Workshare, presented their plans for employee surveillance and controlling confidential information, respectively.”

Now, setting aside Workshare, categorizing what we do as “employee surveillance” is a gargantuan stretch. While some detractors might feel that performance management can be a somewhat impersonal process – there’s a huge diffrence between paying employees for their performance and big brother-like surveillance. Like the difference between an elephant and a mouse, for instance. Or between someone focused on getting it right, and someone who’s not paying that much attention.

I love Red Herring. It’s one of my favorite publications. But this time, they got it wrong. And I want them to say they’re sorry.

UPDATE: Red Herring has updated the article to reflect that what we do is “Workforce Performance Management.” Kudos to them for being big enough to make the change

Also from CFO Magazine (part of the cover story) comes a list of Human Capital Management technology vendors.

Categories covered: Recruitment Management, Learning Management, Performance and Compensation Systems and Workforce Management Systems.

There is an absolutely fantastic article (which is also the cover story) over on CFO.com about workforce performance management / human capital management / talent management or whatever you want to call it (more on this topic of naming in a future post (also see this post)). It has some interesting points including how WPM falls neatly in the domain of CFOs who are responsible for both people and information – the core assets owned by that function. Another key point: that the intagible called employee engagement can be harnessed and driven through WPM solutions.

Disclaimer: our client Kimberly-Clark is featured prominently in this article and we’re mentioned as part of their effort.

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A study has just been published by Bersin & Associates (The Convergence of Learning and Performance: Has Talent Management Arrived?) that brings up some interesting points, and a few debates, around this market. According to this report, Talent Management brings together learning management and employee performance management processes. Naturally following is the coming together of the applications associated with these processes. As a consultancy primarily focused on enterprise learning, this study positions learning management as the center—or core—of a Talent Management solution.
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We’re talking about Succession Planning and so is Gautam Ghosh: The Art of Performance Management

He thinks that “organizational systems capture performance goals that are related to today’s role, and not tomorrow’s,” but he’s wrong. Workforce Performance Management, when done right, can in fact not only identify and promote the skills or, as we call them, competencies that companies need for the future – but can also capture their manager’s perspectives to directly affect the succession process. We’re seeing that done every day with our solution, and if he’s interested, we can show him how, too.

Just finished reviewing the webinar with Liviu Dedes from Pep Boys and Kathy Green from Advo about Succession Planning. It’s really amazing how it can completely transform the flexibility and adaptability of an organization.

Both Pep Boys and Advo shared their experiences from start to finish on implementing Succession Planning and making it work in their organizations. I’m not going to summarize the whole thing, but I encourage everyone to watch (it’s reasonably short and to the point – and the Interwise system lets you skip to specific slides with their accompanying audio – COOL!). Or, you can just download the slides for a quick perusal.

Some things I learned:
– Most companies already have the data they need to start planning for succession
– 75% of the 320 attendees said they would NOT be able to grow their leadership team by 50% in 45 days (could you?) They actually had to do this at Pep Boys.
– Succession Planning brings HR to the strategy table – when an executive leaves, HR can be there with hard data showing who’s ready now, and who’s the best fit to assume the role

Here are the Slides. Here is the Webinar.

Just came across this post at the FastCompany blog. Rob Medich thinks that Kevin Rollins at Dell getting feedback from his direct reports is a fascinating new phenomenon and wishes all companies did this. He thinks “It’s a concept that could revolutionize workplace effectiveness.” And he’s right, IT ALREADY IS.

When you’re involved with this stuff every day, you forget that not everyone is on the Performance Management train yet. Everyone intuitively knows that it’s important, and when they hear about aspects of it, they understand immediately. There is often a WOW factor – “You mean I can do THAT!”

360 Feedback is here and now and happening all over the place. At places like Marriott, Macromedia, MasterCard, T. Rowe Price, Kimberly-Clark and Wachovia (which happen to be customers) – “360″ feedback is an important part of their review process.

All Aboard!

From the management guide at about.com comes a piece on using Performance Management to avoid layoffs and find the right spots for employees when they’ve been over-promoted. The author, F. John Reh, mentions casually that performance reviews are a waste of time, and I’m inclined to agree with him.

In many cases, performance reviews ARE a waste of time because the processes are too cumbersome, the feedback too non-specific, and the goals unclear. That said, performance reviews can be one of the most potent arrows in the HR quiver if they’re done correctly with the support of a rock-solid process and plain, clear goals.

Those who think performance reviews are worthless are the ones who either can’t handle the feedback, or have never been part of a constructive process.