Category: Talent Management

We are Greater than Me: Building an Agile Organization

We are Greater than Me: Building an Agile Organization

Late last year I attended two major talent and leadership conferences in Stockholm. At these events I had the opportunity to meet with various HR leaders at Electrolux, Ericsson, Logica, BT, Maersk, Grundfos, Unicredit, Bertelsman, and others. What I learned is something important that we are building into a broad research framework I plan to ... Read more»

Talent Management Software Vendors get a C+ in Customer Satisfaction

Talent Management Software Vendors get a C+ in Customer Satisfaction

We just completed a year-long research study on the customer experience with talent management software. Despite the sky-high market valuations for these companies and the growth rate of the market, these products are not fully meeting customer needs. In fact, among the 1,146 companies we surveyed, their average overall satisfaction is 3.65 on a scale ... Read more»

Salesforce.com to Acquire Rypple:  Major New Entrant to Cloud-Based Talent Management Market

Salesforce.com to Acquire Rypple: Major New Entrant to Cloud-Based Talent Management Market

Today Salesforce.com announced plans to acquire Rypple, a small but growing provider of social performance management software. In addition, the company announced plans to build out a set of human capital management products called SuccessForce (quite a stab in the eye to SuccessFactors), built on the “social enterprise” which Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce.com) has ... Read more»

My Conversation with Paul Sparta:  Update on Plateau, SAP, and SuccessFactors

My Conversation with Paul Sparta: Update on Plateau, SAP, and SuccessFactors

Today I had a chat with Paul Sparta, the founder of Plateau and one of the key product leaders at SuccessFactors and now SAP.  Paul, who’s current title is Chief Integration Officer, shared some important thoughts with me which I felt were worth publishing.

1.  As a result of the acquisition, the SuccessFactors ... Read more»

BersinBasics Pioneers a New Way to Learn the Fundamentals of Talent Management

BersinBasics Pioneers a New Way to Learn the Fundamentals of Talent Management

We all know that talent management is a hot topic in business today.  SAP’s acquisition of SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion demonstrates how important this market is to businesses around the world.

But ultimately it isn’t software that drives business results: it’s the practices of talent management that matters.  Our research shows that companies which ... Read more»

SAP to buy SuccessFactors:  Major Shift in Talent Management Market (updated)

SAP to buy SuccessFactors: Major Shift in Talent Management Market (updated)

This weekend SAP announced plans to acquire SuccessFactors for approximately $3.4 billion (almost 10X 2011 revenues).

Just last week we delivered a webinar on trends in the Talent Management Systems market, and discussed the fact that this market is rapidly becoming commoditized and that the big vendors were starting to make a major impact.  Listen ... Read more»

Talent Acquisition in Turmoil: The Facts and Figures

Talent Acquisition in Turmoil: The Facts and Figures

Today we released our first ever Talent Acquisition Factbook®, a comprehensive study of trends, benchmarks, and spending data in the US (and UK) recruiting market.  It points out the tectonic shifts taking place in recruiting right now, as the staffing industry shifts steadily toward the use of social networking, employment branding, and a variety ... Read more»

Succession Management at IBM, Contrasted with Apple and HP

Succession Management at IBM, Contrasted with Apple and HP

Today Ginni Rometty was announced as the new CEO of IBM, marking a significant transition at IBM and celebrating the company’s first female top executive.   This transition shows an example of world-class succession management.  It was predictable (IBM CEO’s leave their jobs at the age of 60) and shows the results of years of development ... Read more»

Moneyball comes to Human Resources:  Data Science Matters

Moneyball comes to Human Resources: Data Science Matters

While you may not be a baseball fan, you have to admit that this movie (and book) is really all about Human Resources. Billy Beane learned that by using data shrewdly he could build a high-performing team at a fraction the cost of his competitors. Isn’t this what strategic HR is all about?

I’ve had ... Read more»

The Agile Model comes to Management, Learning, and Human Resources

The Agile Model comes to Management, Learning, and Human Resources

Over the last five years the business of software development has been totally transformed by the concepts of agile development.  So is the business of Management and Human Resources.

What is  the Agile model of software development? Instead of using the traditional “waterfall” approach to building software (which involves a step-by-step process of requirements ... Read more»

Update from TaleoWorld 2011:  Talent Intelligence, Mobile, and LinkedIn Partnership

Update from TaleoWorld 2011: Talent Intelligence, Mobile, and LinkedIn Partnership

This week Taleo held their annual user conference and attracted more than 1,600 customers. As part of the event Taleo introduced two new product enhancements – one called Taleo Radar and the other a major announcement with LinkedIn.  In this blog I will discuss Taleo’s strategy and talent intelligence story, and overview the Radar and ... Read more»

The Real Succession Plan for Steve Jobs:  Apple Thinks Different with Apple University

The Real Succession Plan for Steve Jobs: Apple Thinks Different with Apple University

This week’s announcement of Steve Jobs’ succession to Chairman puts the topic of success management back on the front page.  When such a strong leader steps aside, how does Apple maintain its admired culture of innovation, execution, and business growth?  There is more here than turning over the reigns to Tim Cook:  Apple has a ... Read more»

SuccessFactors Q2 2011 Financials – Plateau Moves to SaaS Focus

SuccessFactors Q2 2011 Financials – Plateau Moves to SaaS Focus

SuccessFactors just announced another stellar quarter (48% YTY growth in revenues, 42% YTY growth in billings), and the CEO Lars Dalgaard talked extensively about the company’s progress with the acquisitions of Infohrm, Cubetree, Jambok, and Plateau.

First, from a financial standpoint SuccessFactors continues to grow at an amazing rate.  The talent management software market is ... Read more»

Yes, HR Really Does Make a Difference – HR Factbook Research Proves Business Value

Yes, HR Really Does Make a Difference – HR Factbook Research Proves Business Value

This week we published the first ever HR Factbook®, a comprehensive benchmarking study which summarizes almost two years of research into the spending, resource allocation, and staffing levels of corporate Human Resources.  I am particularly proud of this research, because not only does it provide valuable benchmarking information for any HR manager, it also ... Read more»

The War between LinkedIn, Monster’s BeKnown, and BranchOut

The War between LinkedIn, Monster’s BeKnown, and BranchOut

The war for professional networking has just escalated. This week LinkedIn shut off it’s API (programming interface) to the hot new Facebook-enabled professional networks BranchOut and Monster’s BeKnown.  (TechCrunch broke this news.) What they’re essentially saying is “if you want to build a professional network and monetize all that we’ve built, you have ... Read more»