You may not have noticed but they make fun of HR people behind their backs. HR people think orthogonally to the rest of the business. The speak differently. Historically they focus on processes and not results. They worry about compliance and misunderstand performance. They use weird language. This year’s HR buzzword is Engagement. Savvy employees understand that engagement is a code word for “No raises this year.” That’s because an engaged workforce is less motivated by money and more motivated by the pure joy of work. Which accounts for the sky-rocketing level of executive comp. Engagement deserves clearer thought than it is currently getting. Here are five links to move the conversation forward.

I recently received a piece of email for a sourcing conference that teaches people how to find passive candidates. Tired of debunking this ridiculous notion, I went out to lunch at a local pub in search of a physical unit. After looking high and low, I realized that passive candidates probably all bring their lunch […]

The HR SaaS Consortium Free Thought Leader Webinar #2–All Attendees Get 75% Off HR Demo Show Tix. Free Webinar Sign Up Panelists include: David Parent, Deloitte Consulting Principal in Human Capital Management. Dr. Katherine Jones of ICS, HR SaaS Advisor and Author John Sumser of HR Examiner, Chair of the HR Demo Show and HRO […]

And, it hardly ever worked. It turns out that customization forces you to live withoutmoded processes until you can afford to fix them. You own the software but haveto feed an army of independent contractors. Enterprise software with lots of customization turned out to be a build your ownprison kit. You designed it, paid for it, and lived with the consequences. SaaS is usually presented as a low cost alternative to self-incarceration. With nocapital investment and a month to month lease, it’s easy to get in and out of. Thebest news, according to many sources, is that the software can be rapidly modified.All clients are always at the latest revision. That’s either a wonderful world or Alice’s Wonderland. All manner of HR software is now delivered as SaaS: Performance Management, Talent Acquisition, Recruiting, Training, Talent Management, Applicant Tracking Systems, Incentive MAnagement, Compensation Analysis, Payroll. The question is not whether you’ll have SaaS tools but when. It’s not a straightforward change. Here are the five most difficult realities:

In The Know v1.42 SaaS Tutorial If you are involved with HR Technology in any way, you need to understand the Software as a Service (SaaS) story. These five links will help you get a clearer picture and sort out some of the mumbo jumbo. Microsoft’s Definition According to the folks in Redmond, SaaS is […]

By now, you’ve heard my notion that software is really that thing that operates between you and the people at the vendor. Thick or thin, software is a kind of membrane that is supposed to be the place where all of the action takes place. Since it’s 80% the same, what matters? Company culture. What you really need to know when you buy technology is what is the vendor’s culture? Do they blame each other when something breaks? Do they get creative when there’s a problem? Do they quickly jump to tell you whether or not the problem is a scope issue? Are they more interested in your success or their own? Are promptness and accuracy the way they role? Or, are they quick to obfuscate and slither with spin?

While social recruiting operates as Jason describes it, the problem is really different if you are a 10 person shop, a 500 person company or a 100,000 person enterprise. For a lucky few (say the top 1500 companies), the existing brand is good enough to drive employment branding activities. For the other 97% of us, employment branding is a challenging battle rife with opportunities to throw good money after bad. The trick is that ‘defining your target audience’ isn’t so easy. There are no good templates and no proven methods for adequately identifying, sizing and attracting the people you want to reach. Whenever you hear someone tell you about the ‘viral power of the internets’, hold on to your wallet. For the vast majority of us, the internet is anything but viral.