News Analysis: The HCM battle begins – Will HRDs finally get technology they like using?

The human capital management software market was always going to be a turbulent place in 2012. The battle lines were to be drawn by Oracle rolling out its next generation Fusion applications, while Software-as-a-Service specialist Workday continued its attempts to steal away customers with ageing PeopleSoft systems from under Oracle’s nose.   But last week, […]

Talent Spot: Andrew Powell, COO of Colt Technology Services

Andrew Powell landed a six-week consultancy contract at Colt Technology Services in 2006 and has been there ever since. Despite falling into employment with the telecoms and IT services firm “completely by accident”, he is now chief operating officer after having held five other senior positions at the company within five years – which includes […]

Police officers left “directionless” during riots due to equipment failure

Equipment shortages together with failings in the Airwave digital radio network led to police officers being left "directionless" during this summer’s riots, a highly-critical leaked report has said. The Police Federation review, which was leaked to the Observer, revealed that the Police National Information Co-ordination Centre, the body set up to co-ordinate the response to […]

Business Cloud Summit: Cloud = the end of tech talk for HR

A key advantage of cloud computing in an HR context is that it removes the need to talk about technology with professionals that have to date shown little interest in it. Teresa Farrell, IT and projects manager for Irish Life and Permanent Plc’s group HR service centre development, said during a panel discussion at the […]

SAP’s $3.4bn SuccessFactors’ takeover to change HCM cloud market forever

Two years ago electronics giant Siemens surprised the world by electing to replace fellow German firm SAP as its HCM and talent management software provider with Cloud HCM firm SuccessFactors. It was a massive propaganda victory for the Cloud firm and resulted in what remains the largest Cloud Computing applications deployment in the world – […]

Live blog: Business Cloud Summit 2011 #BCS11

Replay live coverage from the Business Cloud Summit, the UK’s most established Cloud Computing event, from 9am on Monday 5 December. See below for a live blog of the business stream. The Twitter hashtag is #BCS11. Business stream:   cover://v/fdcb4f2a88

What role does HR play in social media usage?

Sift Media’s analyst and research arm, K2 Advisory, has unveiled a significant new survey in order to understand the role that HR plays in shaping the use of social networking tools in today’s workplace. The world of work is changing at a very rapid pace and many of the drivers of this change are technology-based: […]

Update: UK worker loses race discrimination claim against Chinese telco

A UK worker has lost his case against a Chinese telecoms company that he sued for race discrimination after claiming that 49 workers in Basingstoke were axed and replaced with Chinese nationals. Judeson Peter, a customer support engineer who was paid £48,000 per annum by Huawei Technologies, accused the firm of making him redundant because […]

CIPD Conference: Creating a culture of innovation

Innovation does not simply happen of its own accord. It is instead born out of a corporate culture that allows individuals to challenge what is possible, but also to make mistakes without being afraid of the possible repercussions.   These were the key findings of a keynote panel discussion entitled ‘Creating a Culture of Innovation […]

Case Study: Lancaster Landmark Hotels focuses on attitude to boost retention

 The Lancaster Landmark Hotel Group has boosted both staff retention and customer service levels by focusing on recruiting and developing personnel who it believes have the right attitude and behaviour. The organisation operates three high-end London hotels, each of which is managed independently and caters to different types of customers, which made it difficult to […]

The changing face of the European HR technology market

Over the last few years, the delivery of HR services in Europe has evolved significantly, driven largely by a need to balance increased demand with the ability to manage costs – and improve quality. European economies are more diverse than in any other region of the world and businesses are under tremendous pressure to be […]

Video Interview: HR, execution and the cloud

Doug Dennerline, president of SuccessFactors, talks about how to bridge the gap between cloud strategy and execution. Watch this video to find out where he thinks cloud computing is headed in 2012.

Blog: High-performance HR – it’s about technology AND social media

“I only have 90 connections, I know but I was only connected to LinkedIn about a year ago.” “Yes, I did look her up on LinkedIn and I thought: ‘how you could be the head of HR and only have 32 connections?’”   These statements came from people I spoke with last week concerning the […]

Cloud HCM market set for a big shake-up next year

 “Marriages don’t last that long!” So said Dave Duffield, joint founder of HR Software-as-a-Service provider Workday and former PeopleSoft chief executive, of the time he’s worked with his co-CEO Aneel Bhusri this week.   Duffield’s comment came on the opening day of the supplier’s ‘Rising’ user event in Las Vegas, a gathering that took place […]

Video Interview: How Oracle is creating a socially-connected workplace

In the video below, Jon Ingham, HR consultant, author and co-founder of the Connecting HR social community, interviews David Christopher, Oracle‘s social business and collaboration leader in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The two discuss how Oracle is attempting to create a socially-connected environment in order to enable the software giant’s 22,000 employees in […]

SAP appoints new head of HR for UK and Ireland

SAP UK and Ireland has appointed a new HR director in order to help the application software provider achieve its global aim of doubling the size of its business. Laura Burton replaces former head of HR, Terri Ellison, and has been brought in to manage a team that looks after recruitment, contracts, training, rewards and […]

Leadership development is top L&D priority over next 12 months

Leadership development will be the top priority for workplace learning professionals over the next 12 months.  A survey conducted among 417 learning and development specialists by Video Arts revealed that 61% intended to provide leadership development training over the year ahead. Other priorities were people management, coaching, teamwork, customer service, time and change management.   […]

Software Satisfaction Awards 2011: The winners revealed

More than 300 people gathered at the Marriott in London’s Grosvenor Square on Tuesday to celebrate the Software Satisfaction Awards.  Sift Media, our publisher, partnered with technology association Intellect to host the awards, which were presented by former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.   Entertaining the audience with his sentiments on the recent RIM/Blackberry crisis […]

Technical skills seen as key barrier in move to HR shared services

Technology and the skills required to implement and use it are key concerns when migrating to HR and payroll shared services. A survey of more than 100 public sector organisations undertaken by software supplier MidlandHR revealed that many of them were currently looking on the black side, overestimating the challenges associated with implementing shared services, […]

HCM technology heads for the clouds in generation refresh

HCM systems are moving into the Cloud as a new generation of technology refreshes gets underway – that’s the unmistakable conclusion from a new global survey from HR consulting firm Tower Watson.  The study – which polled 444 HR managers in Canada, the US, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific – cited the recessionary pressures of budget […]