Research Papers

SuccessFactors Research Data Brief: International Pay for Performance (399 KB)
SuccessFactors Research finds many interesting data points that may not warrant a full study, but are insightful nonetheless. Our data briefs provide a glance at these unique insights derived from our research data.

SuccessFactors Research Data Brief: Mergers & Acquisitions (1051 KB)
In uncertain economic times, many companies will be acquired by those on the offense looking for deals in the troubled market, or will be forced to make defensive mergers in order to remain solvent. In this chaos companies often lose track of their most important asset – people. A downturn is a time to invest in people, not only a time to cut costs. Companies that invest in their people and people-processes to help manage mergers and acquisitions, as we will show, win.

SuccessFactors Research Data Brief: Now More Than Ever (195 KB)
Can you afford to lose $132 per person, per quarter? In uncertain economic times, companies cannot afford to give up any advantage to their competitors. We have shown through our research that great human capital management drives great performance. In this data brief, we look at the dollar cost of not investing in human capital management, and what benefits companies stand to give up to their competition.

How Smart HCM Drives Financial Performance (612 KB)
Written by Dr. Jac Fitz-Enz, CEO Workforce Intelligence Institute and Erik Breggren, Director of SuccessFactors Research.

Strategic Talent Management Solutions and Superior Top Line Growth (696.05 KB)

Drive Top and Bottom Line Results With People Performance (317 KB)
Engage and Retain People to Satisfy Customers and Increase Productivity

Common Sense Talent Management (323 KB)
Twelve fundamental principles for increasing workforce productivity

Talent Management 2017 (4.58 MB)
Erik and Jason discuss possible scenarios for talent management and its implication on HR based on demographics shift, a global economy and shifted consumer behaviors. That is right, consumers. Everybody is a consumer and this will have dramatic impact on corporate support functions including HR. They draw upon the latest research from SuccessFactors Research and Knowledge Infusions Center of Excellence.

Winning Through Talent in Uncertain Times (424 KB)
If your business is experiencing decreasing revenues, shrinking budgets and increasing uncertainty … you cannot afford to focus on talent. Right? Actually, wrong. This is the time when new market leaders emerge and fortunes are made. Everyone in your industry shares in the pain. This is your organization’s opportunity to think strategically and invest in order to make relative gains against your competition and avoid knee-jerk or ineffective responses to external pressures that destroy value.

Building a Competitive Workforce (380 KB)
SuccessFactors Research and the IBM Institute for Business Value explore what it takes to thrive in a competitive world. As companies grapple with changing economic conditions, the emergence of global competitors, and new technologies, there is a great recognition that their long-term viability is closely tied to the effectiveness of their workforce.

Organizational transparency drives company performance (60 KB)
This article focuses on the execution of strategy in organizations and the transparency of those strategies within organizational structures. Business strategy is distinct from the process of breaking down the strategy into definitive and meaningful components upon which individual employees can act. Employee understanding of those components is critical to the successful execution of the organization’s strategy. We illustrate this point with what we call “strategy transparency”.

Appreciating People: An Asset Perspective of Human Capital Return on Investment (575 KB)
There is growing agreement among the ranks of Human Capital strategists that the value of an organization is largely determined by talent and effectiveness of its people. There is considerably less agreement on how the value of people is predicted, measured, and optimized. This paper offers a perspective on human capital investment that draws parallels with tangible capital investments, and suggests some financial implications of making various investment decisions to maximize return. Three human capital performance metrics are suggested as valuable tools in managing and measuring return on investment in human capital.

Beyond Simple TCO (290 KB)
Beyond Simple Total Cost of Ownership
In the Information Technology space, the traditional question has always been “Build vs. Buy.” However, in the new IT landscape, the evaluation centers around the differences between On-Premise software and Software delivered as a Service or SaaS. Because of this shift, the new question is “Buy vs. Rent.”
SuccessFactors Research not only explores a cost-driven approach to evaluating On-Premise Software vs. SaaS, but also goes “Beyond Simple TCO” in order to take the more strategic view as to why a SaaS solution makes sense. Some points of interest:
-Depending on Infrastructure Costs, SaaS solutions can cost 30-60% less than traditional, on-premise software
-The vast majority (85%) of 200 ERP customers surveyed said that they find “little to know value” in their annual ERP maintenance contracts
-The custom nature of On-Premise implementations makes it difficult and expensive for Customers to take advantage of innovations due to the unique nature of their implementation. Contrast that with a SaaS solution where all customers share a common code base which allows the millions of users on the system to constantly innovate and each individual customer can opt-in/out of upgrades based on their needs.

Workforce Mobility Drives Productivity and More Agile Cost Structures (3659 KB)
A Study Conducted for SuccessFactors by the Human Capital Institute

In global business, a flexible approach to workforce mobility isn't isolated to a single country or region: When an organization in one country lowers its labor costs through effective management of workforce mobility, it will have a competitive advantage in its own and other countries.

SuccessFactors and HCI recently collaborated on a comprehensive study of workforce mobility in three key regions: North America, Western Europe and Asia/Pacific. In this whitepaper, leadership from SuccessFactors and HCI reveal key research findings and introduce two brand-new metrics, the Workforce Mobility Index, and the Contingent Worker Index.

Moving Mountains (669 KB)
A Prescriptive Approach to increasing revenues and decreasing costs by "shifting the performance curve" of your organization. This Whitepaper shows the results of a survey conducted with over 500 SuccessFactors customers. See how they increased productivity and drove significant financial impact to their respective organizations.

How Talent Management Drives Financial Performance (1484 KB)
SuccessFactors Research has analyzed competency usage in various industries at an aggregate level. Our analysis has proven the hypothesis that the competencies you use to manage your workforce impact bottom-line results.

Return on Execution: Pulling the Levers that Drive Execution (257 KB)
Business Execution is how companies get things done. Learn how to bridge the gap between strategy and execution by arming your people with the tools they need to ensure success.

Leaders Drive Productivity - Are you building a High Performance Environment? (1076 KB)
Transparency is a key ingredient to drive execution. After all if people working for you on or off the payroll don’t really know what the strategy is what is the likelihood that detailed decisions are being done in the right context. It’s also a fact that if an individual see the linkage between her direct contribution and how that relates to the bigger picture the motivation to do a good job is increased. A motivated or engaged employee are generating a higher contribution than a disengaged worker.