Strategic HRM

In my MBA course of study, a required class covered the strategic aspects of Human Resources Management. This course was extremely compelling to me; I came away believing that HR can and should be a proactive, essential, and core part of any organization.

The course argues that HRM practices ultimately determine much of a company's ultimate success or failure. Hiring practices, employee reviews, ratings and compensation schemes, and other elements of HRM have the power to shape the behavior of individual employees as well as the firm's culture. Successful companies retain the best employees and facilitate their professional growth, leading to high productivity.  

For those who accept this argument, it quickly becomes clear that it is a very large and complex undertaking to manage all of these things well.  An entirely new category of enterprise software is emerging to manage this complexity and make it easier to keep strategic perspective.

The two key firms in this new SHRM segment are Taleo, based in Dublin, CA and SuccessFactors, on the other side of the Bay in Burlingame. I'll write more about these two companies in my next entry.

In the meantime, here's something of interest:

press release: SuccessFactors Wins Deployment at Siemens AG With 420,000 Users

commentary by: Xactly's Christopher Cabrera