Bridging Talent Management and Workforce Management with HRO

Linda Merritt, HRO Research Analyst, NelsonHall

One of the hottest topics in HR and HRO has been talent management (TM), including everything from recruiting and RPO to performance management and employee engagement. Major ERP vendors have snapped up TM software leaders to strengthen HR product lines, e.g., SAP and SuccessFactors; Oracle and Taleo. Very good moves and very on trend, but let’s not forget about the less flashy powerhouse: workforce management (WM).

TM and WM are both critical components of human capital management (HCM) and depending on definitions and models, there can be a lot of overlap. For my purpose here, TM is about the individual and the capabilities for a specific job position and WM is about groups of workers and managing multiple positions.

TM involves attracting, retaining, and developing people with the required capabilities according to requested volumes and performance management. WM involves workforce planning and forecasting the capabilities and volumes needed and day-to-day scheduling and time and attendance. It takes both processes to have the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right places, at the right time.

Let’s consider two more elements, HR analytics and ROI, that will also benefit from seamless HR systems and processes, which our dear HRO community can enable and deliver. Timely and accurate workforce data is a foundation block upon which HR is built. At least part of the drive for multi-country payroll has been to get better employee data, and there is an important feeder into payroll: time reporting. Today’s leading time and attendance systems offer great flexibility in capturing the detailed data needed for payroll plus analyses of productivity, labor costing, pricing, project billing, workforce planning, etc.

Everybody wants to tie HR and HRO to ROI. Lowering the cost of HR operations alone is not enough. We must show real impact in measurable business results. Simplifying a bit, TM supports improved business results through customer satisfaction and revenues generated; WM supports improved business results through optimizing SG&A via operations and reducing losses.

Many HRO offerings come in basic and advanced levels. HRO providers– ensure you offer both levels of time and attendance, scheduling, and attendance management services. Buyers – take the time to determine whether advanced workforce management services will not only provide better data, but will pay for itself through reductions in overtime and the impact of absences. Also, for many positions and industries, ensuring all customer-facing seats are filled at the right capacity, capability, and time has a direct link to productivity and revenues. Finally, don’t forget about compliance with wage, hour, and labor regulations where accurate records and proactive scheduling are a great defense against fines and losses.

HR and HRO in partnership can be the bridge to strengthen TM and WM across the entire human capital value chain.

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Top HR Issues by Geography: The Same, But Different

In blogs earlier this month I addressed: 1) increasing use of SaaS; and 2) cost reduction as a top HRO driver based on data from NelsonHall’s recently published HRO buyer report, “HR Issues and Outsourcing Intentions.” Now let’s talk about the top HR management issues by geography.

On a 1 – 5 scale, with 5 being most important:

Asia	Importance
Low consistency of HR processes across the organization	4.8
Difficulties in obtaining consistent single view of the employee	4.4
Need accurate and consolidated workforce information and reports	4.3
Continental Europe	Importance
Difficulties in obtaining consistent single view of the employee	4.4
Corporate requirement for reductions in costs of HR administration	4.3
Need accurate and consolidated workforce information and reports	4.1
U.K	Importance
Corporate requirement for reductions in costs of HR administration	4.2
Need accurate and consolidated workforce information and reports	4.1
Need to improve identification of high performers and succession management	4.0
U.S.	Importance
Corporate requirement for reductions in costs of HR administration	4.2
Need to improve identification of high performers and succession management	4.2
Need for improved talent management capability	4.1

While the relative rankings vary a bit from geo to geo, and although there are a couple of outlier line items, the cited HR management issues can pretty much all be addressed by outsourcing core HR technology. Not surprisingly, this was identified as the number one HR service to be outsourced in our HRO buyer study, and its validity is bearing itself out as evidenced by recently-signed HRO contacts that are either for technology or technology plus HRO services. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

•  In just the last two weeks, Netherlands-based Raet has been awarded five SaaS contracts for its HR portal, RaetOnline, to leverage one system for HR and payroll, standardize to achieve improved efficiency, data accuracy and cost savings from elimination of systems and/or what may have been manual processes, and gain self-service capabilities 

•  Infosys is implementing a platform-based HRIS and global payroll platform for a leading Australian insurer, using PeopleSoft 9.0 to enable the client to have one standard integrated platform, eliminate disparate technologies, drive up process consistency, increase data accuracy and reduce costs

Tangentially, I found it interesting that cost reduction didn’t even make it into the top three HR management issues in Asia, while the U.S. and U.K. cited it as the primary issue, and continental Europe ranked it second. This made me think about my prior background in quality, long before I started working in HRO, and the work of Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran who trained Asian workers and managers on the importance of quality for three decades following World War II. Their tenet was that if you first focus on process and quality (of data), reductions in cost will follow. Cost reduction is of course important in Asia, but there’s clearly a different mindset in how to achieve it. Rather than my views on the principles of management, let’s engage. Where do you think cost reduction should fall in the “fix HR issues” equation?

Gary Bragar, Senior HR Outsourcing Analyst, NelsonHall