Executing Integrated Talent Management (ITM) – Step 2: Strategy

May 7, 2012

Two previous posts around this subject have given you an overview of our seven-step process for a successful approach to ITM and covered the first step – Philosophy. Now we move on to step #2.

Step 2 – Strategy

 

Fundamental question:  What are the high level focus areas and desired outcomes?

Once an organization’s leadership has made the commitment to ITM at the philosophical level, the next step is to develop a coherent strategy to get from the current state (often a disconnected result of a haphazard, reactive evolution of processes and technologies) to the desired state (a comprehensive, seamless flow of interconnected information, processes and technologies). HRchitect believes that there are four critical elements to an ITM strategy:

  • Business linkage – the strategy must link to business outcomes and organizational goals in order to be successful. The time has long since passed where HR can afford to have its ITM strategy disconnected from the organization. To do so risks the HR function in that firm becoming irrelevant to the business and its leaders. The best way to ensure linkage is for the project team to work collaboratively with a broad set of roles (“from the washroom to the boardroom”) to understand and document their critical issues, pain points, and “what if” dreams for the future. Once gathered, this information can be validated and prioritized to drive strategy development.
  • Demographic/cultural differences – organizations that operate across multiple geographies stand a good chance of having different (sometimes profoundly different) approaches to ITM, not to mention divergent processes and technologies. There may also be significant differences by location within geography if the business has grown via acquisition or merger. Understanding these variations will be critical to developing and refining the new ITM strategy, processes and downstream communication programs to best meet the needs of workers in all locations.
  • Key job categories – another critical component of developing a sound ITM strategy is to determine which job categories (aka “job families” or “key talent segments”) in the organization disproportionately affect business results. Not all jobs are created equal, and HR thought leaders are coming to the realization that the HR investment can no longer be spread equally like “peanut butter” across all job categories. Understanding the key jobs enables senior leaders to target the investment of HR dollars towards those jobs that most impact the business.

For example, a recent HRchitect in the oil & gas industry identified engineers, geophysicists, land surveyors, and land negotiators as their key job categories; due to a combination of aging current incumbents and a shrinking pool of entrants from college, competition was becoming fierce between this organization and rival firms. These jobs became a special area of focus and investment for HR – not only recruitment, but retention as well.

  • Characteristics of top performers – finally, a good ITM strategy must understand the characteristics (e.g., skills, competencies, abilities, knowledge, experience, motivation, preferences, aspirations) of the top performers in key jobs – this will enable the organization to ultimately target recruiting and performance management activities to find more employees that fit the mold of the top performers, and therefore drive improved business results.

Based on the organization’s ITM philosophy and these essential inputs, the project team now must develop an ITM strategy that articulates the programs that will be put in place, how the various HR functional areas will work together, and the timelines for implementing the supporting solutions. The Strategy phase should also include prioritization of software selection Decision Drivers.

We’ll address the next step in successful ITM execution, Science and Measurement, in the next blog and please let us know how HRchitect can assist you to get maximum benefit that comes from Integrated Talent Management.

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Executing Integrated Talent Management – Step 1

May 4, 2012

HRchitect has been involved in approximately 2000 HR technology related projects for hundreds of companies of all sizes and industries across the world. We have gained tremendous insight that we love to share with you so that you can benefit from the experience, and the lessons learned from others. With 15 years in business behind us in working with many of today’s leading companies, let us best position your company for a successful future with Talent Management Systems!

Successfully executing the ITM concept requires a holistic approach that includes embracing ITM as a philosophy, developing a strategy, applying science & measurement disciplines, breaking down process barriers, selecting and implementing enabling technology, and sustaining the new solution over time.

Step 1: Philosophy

 

Fundamental question to ask yourself:  What is our overall approach to managing talent?

Integrated Talent Management is first and foremost a philosophy that should permeate and connect the entire employee lifecycle. When people are in jobs that fit their knowledge, skills and attributes, and are given an opportunity to learn and develop their careers in an environment of accountability, they become the competitive factor that enables organizations to outperform their peers in the global marketplace. To make this a reality, potential adopters of ITM need to break down barriers between their disparate HR functions and the rest of the enterprise. This will likely require a good deal of change management for the HR function as well as the organization at large, because HR in most organizations today operates in functional silos, with limited sharing of information, disjointed processes, and separate technologies. Because the change to an ITM approach will require substantial effort across the enterprise, leaders must consciously embrace the change in philosophy and mindset – otherwise the effort will be doomed from the start.

The fundamental question above has multiple sub-questions and branches that should all be considered in testing and refining your organization’s ITM philosophy:

  • Does our general approach to managing people vary by worker level (e.g., hourly, salaried, manager, executive), worker type (e.g., regular, part-time, contingent), or any other major variable?
  • What needs to change to make an ITM approach feasible (e.g., breaking down HR functional silos, better change management processes, HR restructuring, organizational restructuring, new leadership)
  • Is our organization willing to sign up to make the needing changes, and is there executive sponsorship for this endeavor? Note that the real challenge is maintaining the same level of executive sponsorship throughout the entire ITM program – this requires ongoing education / communication with senior leadership, keeping them up to date with progress and reinforcing the need for continued support, even in the face of complaints from the “resistance.”

We’ll address the next step in successful ITM execution, Strategy, in the next blog and please let us know how HRchitect can assist you to get maximum benefit that comes from Integrated Talent Management.

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The Evolution of Integrated Talent Management (ITM) – More Leverage Points

April 10, 2012

We went through some of the leverage points that come out of the recruiting/onboarding process in the last post. Now you have some talent onboard and it is time to look at what’s next with linkages in other parts of ITM. Again, when all of this is working together, the positive impact is greater than can ever be achieved on their own.

Learning Management – Information on both available, required and completed learning events can be linked to multiple functions, including:

Performance Management—tying the learning event catalog into the appraisal process can help managers select learning events that can help the worker address performance gaps.

Compensation—completion of learning events can automatically feed skill-based pay (where utilized).

Succession Management—weaving learning information into this process will enable the firm to identify what learning events are available to help prepare successors for their most likely assignments.

Career Planning—as workers compare themselves to potential positions, knowing which learning events are needed to improve talent profile gaps adds value. A key trend that has emerged over the past three years is the growing awareness of the need to capture and codify informal learning events in addition to the formal instructor led (classroom and virtual), and on-line events in the traditional learning catalog. Informal learning consists of many potential types, including on-the-job training, job shadowing, mentoring, and reading assignments; each of these can become part of the organization’s learning catalog, and linked to competency, skill or other profile elements to drive improvement recommendations.

Performance Management – This function contributes to ITM with the following leverage points:

Learning Management—performance gaps highlighted in the appraisal process can be tied to specific learning events, thus improving the effectiveness of manager feedback.

Compensation—as firms move toward increased use of pay for performance (including multiple types of variable compensation), appraisal results should drive payouts commensurate with actual performance.

Succession Management—performance ratings should be linked to this process to help identify consistently high performers that otherwise might be missed.

Two important trends have emerged over the past several years in the performance management arena. The first is an increased interest in the concept of calibration—how best to normalize performance ratings across the enterprise to take into account inevitable variances in rating by different supervisors. The second is a continuing drive towards pay for performance by tightening the linkage between performance appraisal results, goals achievement, and compensation. Vendors have responded by delivering product enhancements to address both of these trends

Workforce Planning & Metrics – Even though unemployment in the U.S. remains high, many firms still find it difficult to fill certain skilled positions (this is particularly true in the high tech, healthcare, and oil & gas industry segments). This has driven substantially increased interest in workforce planning solutions. While this discipline is still in its infancy in most organizations (this has not changed much over the past three years), it holds a central role in ITM. Done right, workforce planning must include the external view of labor availability as well as the internal analysis of the workforce and projected needs. The results of workforce planning should both feed and be fed by the other ITM functions in a sort of ‘closed loop’ feedback/response system. For example, the workforce plan should drive which positions will be recruited over the next year, and results of the recruiting process (e.g., longer hire cycles for certain positions) will impact the next iteration of the workforce plan. Poor performance results for some needed competencies may cause adjustments to the workforce plan, such as expanding or reducing the number of planned staff with those competencies. And none of this will work properly without a strong foundation of metrics and workforce information management, as the right ratios and indicators must be tracked through all of the ITM functions.

Offboarding – This function has received much less attention (and consequently, usage) than onboarding, even though the same tools and processes (in reverse) can and should be used to facilitate the proper exit of workers from the organization. Regulatory compliance (e.g., Sarbanes Oxley in the U.S.), has driven the need to ensure appropriate cessation of system access privileges upon termination, while other regulations such as COBRA mandate timely notification and processing of benefits continuation. Some analysts have coined the term “Enterprise Transition Management (ETM)” to describe onboarding and offboarding (and even the use of these tools to process workforce mass changes due to internal restructuring/downsizing/M&A), but this term has not yet entered into common usage.

We hope you found this useful in regards to the benefits of Integrated Talent Management. We’d love to help your firm realize these benefits so let’s talk!

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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The Evolution of Integrated Talent Management (ITM) – Leverage Points

April 9, 2012

We recently talked about the Talent Profile as being the linchpin of successful ITM and everything revolving around it. We also talked about some of the important “leverage points” or linkages. Let’s branch out a little bit and talk about some of the other important linkages in ITM that, when working together, multiply each functions’ impact.

Assessments – Over the past three years there has been an increase in the general market realization that assessments can add value to each ITM function. This has led to an expansion of the use of assessments beyond their historical niche in recruiting and leadership development. Of particular importance is the need for assessments to be validated as defensible instruments for recruiting, measuring talent profile “gaps,” and measuring progress against profile gaps as well as achievement of objectives.

Recruiting – A significant amount of information is collected during this process; in traditional talent management this data just sits in the applicant tracking system (ATS), never to be used again. ITM strategies try to leverage recruiting data within multiple other functions, including:

Learning Management—profile gaps identified during recruiting assessment can drive a learning program designed to move the worker towards full proficiency.

Performance Management—recruiting assessments can form a base record for monitoring potential performance gaps.

Succession Management—job and experience information gathered during the recruiting process can become part of the ‘internal resume’.

Career Planning—job requirements (e.g., competencies, education, experience) used for recruiting can be leveraged by employees and contingent workers to determine potential fit for other positions in the organization.

The past three years has seen a significant growth of interest in the twin concepts of candidate relationship management (CRM) and managing external talent pools. Organizations want to cultivate longer term relationships with potential candidates by establishing communication channels (e.g., e-mail, text, social networks, collaborative websites) to let them know about job openings of interest and to communicate the firm’s employment brand. The goal is to maintain a connection with high performing workers of interest as their careers develop, so that they can potentially fill a role with the organization in the future. Vendors have responded to market interest by building tools to facilitate CRM (some more than others); they have also moved aggressively to delivery better integration with social networking tools as an aid to recruiting—another strong growth trend for this function.

Onboarding – Once a candidate has been selected, the role of onboarding is to ensure as quick and effective a transition to fully competent performance as possible. Much of onboarding is administrative (e.g., facilitating secure access to buildings and IT networks /applications, ordering space and equipment, completing new hire paperwork and benefits enrollment, maintaining contact with new hires prior to their start date); however, it can significantly impact ITM by facilitating the transfer of competency and assessment information from recruiting to other ITM components. While some organizations (and vendors) consider onboarding to be a part of recruiting, others (including HRchitect) believe it has achieved a level of importance that merits consideration as a separate component. It is important to note that multiple vendors have rolled out onboarding applications, either as niche solutions or as part of their ITM suite.

Now that we have somebody “on-boarded”, we’ll tackle additional aspects of Talent Management and their linkages in a future blog.

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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The War for Talent and the Talent Profile

April 6, 2012

In a recent blog, we talked about four “talent” areas that we feel companies must focus on today in the ongoing “war on talent” – understanding your talent, reviewing your talent, reaching talent and assimilating talent. We touched on the subject of the “talent profile” and thought we would expand on that a little.

First, our definition of the Talent Profile (and Competency Management) is that it basically functions to track employee skills, competencies, preferences, and other characteristics in one place for use by other Integrated Talent Management (ITM) functions. This also includes competency development/modeling and integration to 3rd party competency providers.

As an aside, and for some background before getting into the Talent Profile, HRchitect believes that the addition of the word Integrated to “Talent Management” continues to be a critical differentiator for many organizations. Although just about every firm has developed processes and systems for these functions, to this point they have tended to operate in silos, with very little connection of either process or technology. Even though many of these functions leverage significant common data and attempt to have the same outcomes (e.g., improved retention, increased productivity), oftentimes haphazard and uncoordinated implementations have caused results to be much less than optimal. The situation has often been exacerbated by focusing on technology enablement as a ‘quick fix’ to perceived issues, leading to a hodge-podge array of non-integrated technologies and processes. The bottom line for many organizations is a reduced return on their talent management investments.

After at least five years of intensive marketing of the ITM concept, we are starting to see an impact. Today even mainstream firms are trying to take a more strategic, comprehensive, and integrated approach to their talent-related functions. The goal is to structure programs, processes and technology in a cohesive manner that multiplies each function’s impact.

One reason firms are moving to holistic ITM strategies is the concept of ‘leverage points’ or ‘linkage’; that is, ways in which processes can be engineered to share information between functions and increase the overall impact of ITM investments. We’ll address some of the other major leverage points and trends for each ITM function in another blog, but let’s focus on the Talent Profile and Competency Management for now.

Over the past three years or so, firms have moved beyond basic skills & competency tracking to the concept of the employee “talent profile,” which captures additional important elements such as preferences (career, geographic, mobility), education, external work history, motivation, and other characteristics in one place. Robust competency management has become the linchpin of successful ITM, in that competencies are the best-fit basis of measurement for many processes. Competencies and other talent profile information needed by the firm are used to develop workforce plans, assess potential fit of candidates to open requisitions, determine knowledge/skill gaps that can be addressed by learning events, highlight performance gaps, drive skill-based pay programs, and identify candidates for succession management and career planning processes.

If you have been following HRchitect over the years, you know that we identified several years ago that competencies should be the primary “glue” that unites ITM functions (e.g., used in recruiting to assess fit with job requirements, in performance management to measure ongoing improvements, in learning to identify learning events that impact competencies, in succession management to identify ‘best-fit’ candidates for leadership positions, and in career development/planning to provide a way for employees to measure their potential fit for other positions).

Despite the emergence of less intensive approaches, firms have long struggled with a way to effectively keep competencies current and relevant in the face of continued business change. The concept of the Talent Profile has emerged as a more comprehensive, lighter-weight alternative to a full-blown competency management process—by tracking education, motivation, preferences, work experience, and education along with critical skills and competencies, organizations are able to engage the worker in keeping this information up to date. The results are improved accuracy and applicability of the information and less administrative burden.

We expect that the vast majority of ITM implementations over the next three years or so will include a Talent Profile, and that most current installations will complete one or more enhancement projects that expand the number and type of characteristics being tracked by the profile. It is also highly likely that profile search capabilities will continue to improve.

It is our hope that we helped you solve another piece of the puzzling world of HR technology and continued good luck as you better prepare for the ongoing war for talent!

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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The War for Talent Continues to Take Shape…and it’s Real

April 3, 2012

At a recent Human Capital Management (HCM) vendor conference (Saba Summit in March 2012), I served on a panel and was asked what I thought were some of the top areas in Talent Management that companies are focusing on right now, given our current economic and business conditions.

While I think there are many areas that companies should focus their efforts on, namely around figuring out their long-term HR technology strategy and how Integrated Talent Management (ITM) plays a central role, I decided to focus the answer around the so-called “war on talent”.

Today, the unemployment rate in the U.S. is anywhere between approximately 9%-16% depending on many factors – what expert you talk with, politics, geography, race, and a host of other ways to measure. However, when you focus specifically on “skilled labor”, that number hovers around 4% and since many economists believe that anything under 5% basically amounts to full employment, you can quickly see the problem, and it is likely only going to get worse.

Three or four years ago, we published a groundbreaking report entitled “The Suite Life of Integrated Talent Management”, and in that report we stated:

“Organizations across the globe are concerned with finding enough skilled labor to accomplish their business objectives, given the potential of continuing talent shortages in critical skilled positions. Upcoming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, changing demographics, and skills gaps due to education shortfalls all have the potential to dramatically impact an organization’s ability to attract, develop, and retain the right talent.

Over the past three to four years the world has gone through a significant period of economic turmoil that again, depending on who you talk with, is either continuing, getting worse, or getting better. So what is an organization to do? Arm your company with know-how and face the war on talent head-on!

Here are four “talent” areas to think about, in no particular order…

1)       Understanding your talent. Seems simple enough but many organizations simple don’t know what they currently have, and where those “rock stars” are within their own organization. Start by getting all data in one place (the talent profile), before any analysis can take place. Information such as internal & external work experience, aspirations, goals, motivations, preferences, assessment results, etc. Think about a person’s LinkedIn profile and a Facebook profile brought together in a talent record that is available to you. The Talent Profile is a major trend of HCM vendors today and something that needs critical attention paid to it (we’ll take more about it in future blogs).

2)       Reviewing your talent.  This can take many forms but start with the traditional and formal talent reviews. Many firms still do this once a year but organizations are increasingly looking at this differently. Start rating the performance of your employees, including the potential for flight risk and what that impact would have on the organization. Develop clear action lists for those employees you want to keep and manage out those you don’t.

3)       Reaching talent. This applies to both inside and outside your organization, and goes back to the Talent Profile in number 1 above. If you don’t know who and what you have, you will have a difficult time reaching that internal talent. In addition, leverage alumni networks as an example and cultivate talent ‘gardens’, i.e. tracking college & even pre-college potential talent. Remember, it’s a war out there so you need to cast a wide net and prepare to capture more than your competitors do!

4)       Assimilating talent. So you’ve found the “rock stars” you have been searching for. Now what. You need to ensure that your onboarding programs don’t wreck your carefully cultivated employment brand, but instead ‘lock in’ the new talent you have found. It’s vitally important to remember that the recruitment process is just the beginning of a new employee’s experience with your company. The initial excitement that new hires experience over starting a new job can quickly develop into frustration as they run into challenges in their desire to become acclimated with a new company and their desire to be productive in their new job and environment (something I would expect you want as well!) A very common frustration includes a lack of connection to their new company and its culture. Another challenge is in completing paperwork with poor instructions and yet another is simply the fact that most companies prepare poorly for a new employee’s first day. The list actually goes on and on…

Good luck and we hope this helps you better prepare for the ongoing war for talent!

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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Don’t Miss Thursday’s HRchitect WebMingle with Lynne Mealy and Nov Omana of IHRIM

January 4, 2012

The HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

The WebMingle has truly redefined how people get information about vendors, trends and really anything related to HR technology and we are very proud of that.

This week’s guests, the first of 2012, are Lynne Mealy, President and CEO of IHRIM, and Nov Omana, Chairman of the IHRIM Board of Directors.

Formed in 1980 from informal gatherings when HR and IT professionals found themselves needing mediators, IHRIM has become the world’s leading clearinghouse for the HRIM (Human Resource Information Management) industry. Today, IHRIM is a community of experts – a dynamic group of practitioners, vendors, consultants, students, and faculty that continues to grow, not just in numbers, but in its scope of knowledge and information.

Lynne Mealy currently serves as the President and CEO of IHRIM, inc., a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to education and inform its members on the use of HR information technology. Lynne holds an MBA from Suffolk University and achieved her Human Resource Information Professional (HRIP) Certification from IHRIM in 2010. With more than 28 years’ experience in human resources, with a focus on HR information systems and strategic management, Lynne is a published author and presenter.

Nov has been in the HR Technology arena for over 35 years.  He is known for his thought leadership, his understanding of combining and leveraging technology in new ways, and his strong knowledge of the vendor community surrounding HR technology.  His reputation is “connecting the dots” between technologies to create new solutions and solve business problems. Nov is currently on the International Human Resources Information Management (IHRIM) Board of Directors (Chairman), IHRIM Educational Foundation Board (Vice Chair), an advisor to the Oracle HR User Group Board (OHUG), ClearView Management Advisory Board, and EpicHR’s Advisory Board. Nov also is a certified Human Resources Information Professional, HRIP, since 2010 and winner of the prestigious IHRIM Summit award in 2007.

Visit http://blogtalkradio.com/mattlafata to listen live this Thursday, January 5 at 2pm CST. If you missed any of our previous 90 or so WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

We look forward to welcoming Lynne Mealy and Nov Omana with IHRIM to the HRchitect WebMingle and hope to have you join us as well.

If you would like to be considered as a guest on an upcoming WebMingle, please contact Tiffany Appleby at tappleby@HRchitect.com

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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Don’t Miss Thursday’s HRchitect WebMingle with Charles Coy of Cornerstone OnDemand

December 3, 2011

The HRchitect WebMingle is designed to give you some insight into the puzzling world of HR technology, talk about upcoming events in our industry, and provide insightful interviews with people of our industry – who they are, what they do and why you should care. The WebMingle has become the most popular live weekly Internet show in the HR technology industry!

The WebMingle has truly redefined how people get information about vendors, trends and really anything related to HR technology and we are very proud of that.

This week’s guest is Charles Coy, Senior Director of Analyst and Community Relations. Charles previously appeared on HRchitect’s WebMingle in early 2009.

Cornerstone OnDemand is a leading global provider of a comprehensive learning and talent management solution. We enable organizations to meet the challenges they face in empowering their people and maximizing the productivity of their human capital. Our integrated software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution consists of the Cornerstone Recruiting Cloud (early 2012), the Cornerstone Performance Cloud, the Cornerstone Learning Cloud and the Cornerstone Extended Enterprise Cloud. Our clients use our solution to develop employees throughout their careers, engage all employees effectively, improve business execution, cultivate future leaders, and integrate with their external networks of customers, vendors and distributors. We currently empower over 7.1 million users across 179 countries and in 29 languages.

As Senior Director of Analyst & Community Relations, Charles serves as the “voice” of Cornerstone, discussing company vision and momentum with analysts and evangelizing the company through social channels and speaking opportunities. He has worked in a variety of positions at Cornerstone since the early days of the company more than a decade ago.

Visit www.HRchitect.com/Knowledge/WebMingle to listen live this Thursday, December 8 at 2pm CST. If you missed any of our previous 85 or so WebMingles, you can also access them from that page.

We look forward to welcoming Charles Coy with Cornerstone OnDemand to the HRchitect WebMingle and hope to have you join us as well.

If you would like to be considered as a guest on an upcoming WebMingle, please contact Tiffany Appleby at tappleby@HRchitect.com

Matt Lafata, HRchitect

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HRchitect’s Influence in the HR technology World Is Far Reaching

December 3, 2011

I take a lot of pride in what we do at HRchitect. Day in and day out we make a difference in the lives of many leading organizations and the people that are at those organizations today and those who will be there in the future. We do this through the HR technology services we offer around strategy, software selection and implementation.

After 14 years, and well over 800 clients, including many of today’s most successful companies, many who keep coming back for additional services, we have developed a leadership position. This position comes from trust and a definition of trust that I like is “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.”

Something I absolutely love about what we do, and the companies we serve, is that I see reminders everywhere I go, and with everything I do. It is almost impossible to go anywhere or do anything, without using a service or a product from one of our customers.

I wrote about this last December, as we were in the midst of the holiday season where you just can’t go anywhere without being subjected to holiday commercials on TV and holiday music every time you enter a store. I thought this would be a good opportunity to expand on that because it really is something we are extremely proud of.

Think about some of the constant reminders about the tremendous influence that HRchitect has in the HR technology world…

Chances are you are going to do some shopping for friends and loved ones this holiday season. You will likely visit a company in person or online that HRchitect has performed HR related technology services for – Best Buy, Target, OfficeMax, L.L. Bean, RadioShack, Nordstrom, JCPenney, Lowe’s, GAP, Wal-Mart, Dell, Totes, Fossil, Barnes and Noble, Blockbuster, Kodak, Dollar General, Sony Playstation, Sur La Table, Crate and Barrel, Family Dollar, Finish Line, Levin Furniture, Orchard Supply Hardware, or numerous others. Yes, chances are very high you will shop at a store that is an HRchitect client.

Don’t you need some money to visit these stores? Chances are good you will get money from an HRchitect client – Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Bank of Oklahoma, U.S. Bank, Capital Bank, Capital One, TD Bank, First Citizens Banc, OMNI Bank, or many others. Then of course it’s time to use a credit card that might come from Citigroup, First USA, American Express, or Visa.

Maybe you will need to check with your credit union such as Texans Credit Union, BMI Federal Credit Union, Boeing Employee Credit Union, First Community Federal Credit Union, Space Coast Credit Union, or Mountain America Credit Union. Or maybe before that you need to talk with your financial advisor at Northwestern Mutual, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or Barclays Global Investors before you spend any money.

Naturally all this running around will make you hungry or thirsty so why not visit one of HRchitect’s clients. Grab a Dr Pepper Snapple product to quench your thirst, or maybe Pepsi is your thing. Or chow down on a Burrito at Chipotle. Maybe something from Panera Bread or Yum! Brands? How about having Domino’s Pizza or Papa John’s deliver to you? Or how about something from Nestle, maybe some hot chocolate to stay warm? Chances are pretty good you will eat or drink something from one of HRchitect’s clients.

Are you traveling to visit relatives this holiday season? What if you don’t want to stay with them, because they don’t have room or they drive you crazy? Not a problem. You can stay at Hyatt hotels, or a Starwood Property, Marriott, Wyndham, Choice Hotels, Sea Pines Resort, Hooters Casino Hotel, Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa, or one of many other fine locations.

What if you get sick with all the stress and germs that are in the air this time of year? No problem. HRchitect clients can help you such as Mayo Clinic, Kindred Healthcare, BJC Healthcare, Tenet, Texas Health Resources, Legacy Health System, Moses Cone Health System, California Pacific Medical Center, Austin Regional Clinic, Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and dozens more. No matter where you are, we are sure you can find a healthcare system that has relied on HRchitect.

You might also utilize an HRchitect client to get your oil, gas, electric or some other form of energy (either directly or indirectly) to keep you warm or get you where you need to go. Companies such as Aera Energy, Cenovus, Conoco Phillips, Baker Hughes, Oklahoma Gas and Energy, Peabody Energy, Regency Energy, Westar Energy, Pride International, or many others.

Let us not forget how you will communicate with loved ones this year. I can almost guarantee you will do that through a product or service from Sprint, AT&T, Motorola, Verizon, Virgin Mobile, Qwest Communications, T-Mobile, L3 Communications, or use that shiny new iPhone or iPad. You got it, all clients of HRchitect.

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture. HRchitect clients are everywhere, every industry, and of every size. You can see some of them here.

If you are reading this and are one of our clients, we’d like to give thanks to you for making us the leading HR technology consulting firm. If you are not yet one of our clients, let’s talk as we would love to add you to the list and share our wonderful experiences with companies just like yours. Join our growing list of over well over 800 clients who made the decision to get the best risk insurance policy and peace of mind that any organization can buy.

HRchitect will help to ensure you select the right HR technology product (talent acquisition, talent management, workforce management, HR/payroll, etc.) for your unique needs and when you do get that right HR software product, we will make sure you get the most out of your investment by ensuring a sound implementation.

This leadership position you have helped us achieve is not to be taken lightly, and simply makes us strive to do more. Watch for some exciting blogs, reports, webinars, and WebMingles (our radio show) in the coming weeks and months.

2012 is going to be another very exciting year in this industry, and no doubt another very puzzling year in the world of HR technology. Don’t go it alone. Seriously. HR technology decisions are not to be taken lightly. In one way or another, they have an impact on your most important asset – your people! Utilize HRchitect’s services today and you will have the peace of mind you, your employees, and your company deserve.

To learn more about how HRchitect’s HR systems strategy, selection and implementation expertise visit www.HRchitect.com.

Happy Holidays!
Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Leave a Comment » | HCM, HR technology, Human Capital Management, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Workforce Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mattlafata

Don’t Miss The Annual HCM Technology 2011 Recap/2012 Predictions From the Experts at HRchitect

December 2, 2011

The world of HR technology continues to puzzle many people. Fortunately, HRchitect, the industry’s leader in HCM technology consulting, is on its continuing and never-ending mission, to go where no one has gone before, and help make sense of it all.

If you do nothing else this December as it relates to the HR technology world, attend the annual special edition of the HR technology WebMingle with HRchitect on December 14 at 1pm Central Time. It is THE live event of the year that looks back on all the big events of 2011 AND looks forward to 2012 and the Integrated Talent Management (ITM) trends that matter to you.

While we certainly don’t have a crystal ball, we have been doing this long enough to know we have the pulse on the HCM community. This helps us to weed through all the hype to talk about what is really happening while keeping YOUR best interests at heart. Our leadership position and tenure in this industry brings with it an obligation to share our knowledge and thoughts with the community at large and we hope you can join us at this special event.

Listen as members of HRchitect, including Matt Lafata, President; Ron Hanscome, VP of HCM Systems Strategic Consulting, John Hinojos, VP of Consulting Services; Alex Tellez, VP of Implementation Services, and Rick Fletcher, VP and Founder, give their thoughts on a number of items facing us today. These include:

  • Recap of merger, acquisition and funding activity that took place throughout 2011
  • Market Dynamics
  • Evolution of ITM
  • Executing ITM
  • Assessing the Vendor Landscape
  • 2012 Predictions
  • …and more

Clear your schedule and don’t miss this event! Seriously, do it now. It’s THAT important! The registration link is below.

We’ll even have a great holiday gift for you – a fresh off the presses copy of our latest edition of our report, “Integrated Talent Management Technology Trends”.

To add this exciting FREE event to your calendar, please visit http://gurl.im/3ad12eG

To learn more about how HRchitect’s HR systems strategy, selection and implementation expertise visit www.HRchitect.com.
Matt Lafata, HRchitect

Leave a Comment » | HCM, HR technology, Human Capital Management, Talent Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mattlafata

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