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Globo Technicalities Trending Now Nine hot-button issues in global HR technology. By Brent Skinner Mobile technology; integration of social media into HR-specific and talent management functions; unification of technologies under one best-in-class, single provider; emigration of systems to the cloud—they're the usual suspects when discussing the global trends in HR technology. But what's on the horizon for the tech sector? A wealth of research from the past year and educated speculation is shaping global trends in HR technology and the challenges driving them in human capital management. What do HR practitioners and vendors creating HR technology expect over the next 12 months? As for the past year, what does the research tell us? What were the challenges? What kind of developments are we seeing from the global movers and shakers in HR technology to meet the needs of their customers—many of whom, after all, are global, too? Trend 1: Expect investments in HR technology to resume. Organisations are investing their spend in technology. According to Findings in CedarCrestone's study show workforce planning to be a fast-growing area of need. Twenty-two percent of respondents cited an "inability to predict and plan future workforce needs" as a business challenge, a percentage that remained unchanged compared to the 2009-2010 survey. Notably, the adoption of applications associated with workforce optimisation (workforce planning, workforce analytics, and predictive analytics), is growing at a healthy clip. Thirty-three percent of organisations in 2010 expect to use a workforce optimisation–related application within the next three years, as opposed to 15 percent using one now—a greater than two-fold increase. , the number of organisations that continued investing in HR technology between 2009 and 2010 rose by 18 percent (60 percent in 2009 vs. 71 percent in 2010). A key to this increase? Executive buy-in. Midsized and large organisations made up the majority of survey participants, and their decision-makers demand a sound business case for investing in new initiatives related to HR systems. Trend 2: Look to CHROs. The is a report that delves into the challenges, opportunities, and goals of CHROs. (Data is gathered from more than 700 CHROs worldwide from late 2009 through mid-2010.) IBM's study finds that workforce allocation and optimisation are increasingly HR technology–related. Additionally, other studies point to mobile HR applications and employee assessment tools. Trend 3: The Influence of Growth Markets From a broader standpoint, growth markets—China and India— are driving the thinking of HR leaders. Global growth challenges CHROs to properly allocate talent, and here is where workforce planning technology comes into play. Among the top 10 initiatives identified by CedarCrestone, workforce management (time, attendance, and absence) and workforce planning (allocation and reallocation of talent companywide) are new to the list. Trend 4: Employee assessment is informing workforce optimisation. Employee assessment applications generate data that often informs workforce optimisation, and technology that supports this function is growing globally. "We see organisations putting more focus on candidate surveys," says Mark McMillan, co- founder of Talent Function Group. , a recent survey by Aberdeen Group of nearly 650 organisations, reveals that the employers assessing candidates both pre- and post-hire see an average of 18 percent more of their organisational goals achieved. Employee assessment along the entire employee lifecycle is apt to yield the kind of data that helps companies properly allocate talent for optimal organisation-wide results. Technologies that best facilitate the administration, collection, interpretation, and presentation of employment assessment data during the entirety of the employee lifecycle will continue to curry favor with organisations striving to know more about their workforce. The more companies know, the more effectively they can allocate talent. "We see an increased use in pre-hire assessment," says Katherine Jones, principal analyst for Bersin & Associates. "Even though we can say that the assessments themselves are the same or similar, it's the use of assessments that differs. Today, unfortunately, very few companies use a pre-hire assessment of a candidate to do anything meaningful with once the person has joined the organisation." Logic suggests that this will change. (Editor's Note: Look for an article on trends in employee assessment in the October issue of 's sister publication, .) [38] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SUMMER 2011 Assessments 2011: Selecting and Developing for the Future CedarCrestone 2010-2011: HR Systems Survey HRO T 2010 IBM Global Chief Human Resource Of ficer Study Global HRO T oday oday

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