Numbers matter. And in HR numbers are beginning to matter more and more.  The ability for HR professionals to easily access financial data has become a more pronounced need, recently. True analytics (not just "reporting") requires access to cost data such as that traditionally found only in the financial applications. The ERPS of the ‘90s provided both "personnel" and financial data, but as new SaaS HR solutions and talent management applications hit the market, often the financial data was left behind. (One exception is Workday, which added financial applications to its HRIS to answer just such questions). Without integration to financials, it is difficult for HR and staffing organizations to answer questions such as: Will it be a better financial decision to hire a salaried employee to fill a current skill gap or a shorter term contingent worker? Will it cost us more in the long term to hire a data scientist than to upskill our current HR staff on analytics and statistics? At what point will our external spend on recruiting be better spend on in-house efforts?   It is access - easy access—to financial data that can help HR answer these questions.  In this light, last week Cloud HR and talent provider Ultimate Software announced a strategic alliance with Cloud ERP provider NetSuite. Primarily targeted at companies looking for integrated ERP and HR/talent solutions, the partnership will provide NetSuite’s financials, supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM) and Ultimate Software’s payroll, HR, benefits, time and labor management, performance, compensation, and succession management. While this clearly goes beyond the need for access to financial data that HR professionals need for decision making, it can solve that requirement and help manage the entire business cycle.   Areas such as integration of point of sale information from NetSuite into HR or performance management data may be anticipated. The two vendors report dozens of joint deployments of Ultimate Software’s UltiPro and NetSuite today, integrated with solutions from Informatica.  While Informatica will continue to be marketed for integration, the two companies plan on creating and providing out-of-the-box packaged integration.   Neither company is a newcomer to Cloud  delivery of its solutions: 25 year old Ultimate Software made the move from on-premise to software-as-a-service and now has 19 million people "systems of record"  in the cloud.  NetSuite, a Cloud company since its inception in 1998 (as NetLedger) has to approximately 24,000 companies and subsidiaries using its business solutions such as  finance, sales, marketing, services, supply chain, fulfillment, ecommerce, inventory and order management, and more. NetSuite acquired TribeHR, a solution it positions for SMB companies; the Ultimate Software solution is targeted at middle market and larger organizations. Alliances are only as strong as the ongoing commitment of both partners in making them work; this alliance, however, provides both companies with solid solutions that they do not have today.  Adding the ERP - especially the financial -- component to UltiPro’s HCM solution will potentially allow HR professionals to make sounder business decisions. After all, numbers do matter.   This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.        

Infor hosted industry analysts last week at an Innovation Summit in its decidedly upscale digs in New York. Celebrating its most successful nine month period in the history of the company, President Duncan Angove reported a five percent year to date increase in license revenue growth, driven by sales of SaaS subscriptions and perpetual license growth that exceeded 30 percent. Its booming SaaS business grew nearly five times year to date, and Human Capital Management platform sales have nearly doubled, in part fueled by an uptake in health care companies of their HCM solution. Angove cited 3100 new customers in the last nine months—totally new to Infor, not upgrades from their legacy products.   It is their business proposition that is resonating in today’s ERP market: business solutions created for microverticals (See Figure 1), with the very explicit features needed in what might to other vendors be niche markets not worth dedicated development work. The horizontal solutions, such as HCM and customer relationship management (CRM), can run in concert with any of its ERPs, or sold separately. Interestingly in a day of increasing standardization in software, the company also provides solutions and services to vertical-specific customization, recognizing that one size indeed does not fit all. Figure 1. Infor’s Cloud Microverticals Source: Infor Inc., 2015. The bane of any newly fledged Cloud company is the extent of its installed base, on on-premise legacy systems. This is especially challenging for Infor, as it was originally a virtual hodge-podge of ERP, financial, and other software acquisitions (such as Baan, Lawson Software, Infinium, System 21, and many more).  Now, while dated, the legacy products are still supported by Infor, with migration paths available whenever the customer is ready.  One new program, called UpgradeX, is designed to ease - and perhaps hasten—that move in the customer base. With 2750 cloud customers globally, Infor serves 35 million users. The number of multi-tenant solutions they have will expand to 33 by the end of this year and the company reports that users in more than 90 countries are accessing Infor products in the Cloud.     Part of the value proposition for customers is the deep level of very specific vertical functionality - the kind that is often bolted on a more generic ERP. Examples are fund accounting for public sector, nurse scheduling and staffing for healthcare, catch weight for food industries, and kit generation by quantity size breakdown for the fashion industries. Let’s not forget innovation.  An innovative face on what might appear stodgy old manufacturing may seem a disconnect - but Infor has innovation labs  staffed with creative engineers in a culture where they can experiment; its Hook and Loop  designers also develop custom solutions for their customers.  The efforts of their creativity is apparent in their user interfaces, their mobile apps for NYPD, and other solutions. Last year the analysts told Infor execs that they may be the ERP market’s best kept secret—and they listened. Over the past year, the company has invested in marketing, print ads, airports posters, and begin making a name for themselves in sponsoring charitable events in the metropolitan area. While not the business equivalent of a household word yet, the company is likely a future force to be reckoned with.     This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.   As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.    

To kick off the second day of Deloitte’s CHRO Academy event last week, Lisa Weber highlighted many of the challenges facing today's HR leaders. If you don’t know Lisa, she previously served as Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, and President of one of the largest operations at MetLife. We are lucky to have her as an advisor to Deloitte. A few of the key themes from Lisa’s presentation are as follows. The Bold, Business-savvy CHRO Lisa provided data showing that turnover among CHROs in F100 companies is high: 39% over the past two years, in fact. Many of these roles have been filled with leaders from outside of HR - executives from marketing, finance, operations, or lines of business.  The turnover isn't that surprising, given that only 5 percent of respondents in our global survey rated their organization’s HR performance as excellent (see Figure 1.)   Driven by the need to deliver greater business impact and drive innovation, the CHRO role is changing. The need for CHROs with strong business and financial acumen is more pressing than ever. CHROs need to understand where the business is going and how the business makes money. Most HR leaders have only a fleeting glimpse of what really drives the business. There is also tremendous pressure these days to be data-savvy. Data and analytics can help CHROs to see new directions and can bring better perspectives. But Lisa commented that the data alone is not enough. CHROs need to take those insights from the data and apply foresight - using their experience, wisdom, and judgment.   With this combination, great things can happen. So CHROs need to be business-savvy and data-savvy, but they also need to be bold. What does "bold’ look like? Bold is advocating a point of view on the company’s critical growth areas and how to get there. Bold is identifying where the company is weak and proposing solutions. If your company is thinking of opening a facility in a new location, for example, speak up on the talent implications: Can we find the right talent there? How long will it take us to recruit? What are the local labor laws and practices? Is this a wise move from a talent perspective? A bold CHRO is also proactive in identifying trouble spots and creating talent initiatives in response. During the keynote, an HR leader at a cosmetics company shared an initiative that originated from his CHRO. In response to flagging sales numbers, the organization built a sales capability COE within HR to help recruit and retain high performers. The CEO commented on how impressed he was that HR was proactively taking steps to increase sales - independently, without being asked or pressured. It reminded me of a conference I attended a few months ago where one business leader said in exasperation, "I don’t want my CHRO waiting for me to tell her what to do. I want her to tell me what we should be doing."   Know Your Strengths A recurring theme at the event was "play to your strengths." Each person on the leadership team has a role to play, and by capitalizing on everyone’s particular skill sets, the team can be more effective. So work closely with others with complementary skills, such as your CIO, CFO, and CMO.  Leverage their expertise and perspectives in combination with your talent management prowess. Too often we fixate on our (and our employees') weaknesses and spend countless hours trying to bolster these deficiencies. By focusing on what people do well, and understanding and leveraging the strengths of others, we have much greater potential to add value to the organization. Within my own workgroup we are using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder to discover our individual talents. As an example, one of my strengths is that of an "Activator," which Gallup describes as "someone who can make things happen by turning thoughts into action." Activators can bring energy and clarity to others’ ideas and bring concepts to market; these individuals should team up with people with complementary skills, such as "Futurists."  By learning our strengths and sharing them with each other, we hope to get greater productivity out of our team. Team members who understand each other’s abilities have greater trust and respect for each other. And they can selectively spend their time in certain areas, while leaving other areas to their teammates with other strengths. The team is therefore more efficient as well as effective.   Focus on What Matters CHROs have a never-ending to-do list. Many try to do too much and end up working on things that don’t bring much value to the organization. Lisa’s advice: Be decisive about how you spend your time. Look at your to-do list and prioritize the most important items, then leave the rest.  This advice reminded me of similar comments made by Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, who said in an interview that if you are completing everything on your to-do list, you’ve probably spent time on some relatively unimportant tasks. One priority for your to-do list: building relationships with business and functional leaders. In fact, Lisa recommended that 20% of your time should be spent networking. Oftentimes we let our calendars get filled up with meetings. Lisa’s advice: Don’t let your schedule manage you - you need to manage your schedule. Decide what meetings are critical and politely decline the rest. And if you’re in a new HR leadership role, it’s important to get focused early. It can be a lot easier to make changes when you are fairly new in your role. Get to know the business and landscape first and then make some bold changes in the first year. If you wait too long, the opportunity for change may pass you by.   Be Mindful Lisa talked about the importance of being mindful, or being present and fully aware. How many of us have this level of presence at work, or in our personal lives, for that matter? As Lisa pointed out, "It’s hard to be mindful when your mind is full." Most of us are running at hyper-speed. So take some time to reflect, to bring focus to your thoughts, and to be fully present in the moment. You will likely see your judgment, decision-making, and relationships with others radically improve. Oftentimes CHROs feel they have to have the answer to everything. "I don’t know" or " I would like to think about that" are perfectly acceptable answers. We are much more effective when we respond, rather than react. Mindfulness helps us to respond.   Success is Deliberate    Finally, one of the things I loved about Lisa’s talk was her quote, "Success is deliberate." You need to decide to succeed and go after it. Pick just a few things and over-deliver on those. Then prioritize the next set of deliverables. Many CHROs feel the need to say ‘yes’ to everything and then get caught up doing busywork all day. It’s easy to lose perspective when you are doing too much. The job of the CHRO requires hyper-prioritizing. But prioritizing often isn’t popular, and you will likely get pushback from other executives and business leaders, who are irritated that you’re not focusing on their requests. Be clear but firm about what you are working on and why. And by all means - deliver!

I’m excited to announce that the highly-anticipated Talent Acquisition Factbook 2015: Benchmarks and Trends in Spending, Staffing, and Key Recruiting Metrics was published today.[1] This research report is particularly timely for contemporary Talent Acquisition (TA) leaders. With the job market continuing its recovery, TA leaders are applying a laser-focus on how they attract and engage the talent they seek. Why, you might ask, is this different than any another time? It boils down to this—candidates are not simply coming along for the recruiting ride—they’re driving the car now that the Internet has revolutionized candidates’ ability to search for jobs and market their skills. Potential candidates can learn detailed information about an organization just by performing a quick Internet search. Candidates can find open positions located anywhere in the world, and those with critical skills in scarce supply can easily find organizations willing to pay them more money to switch employers. Further, with the advent of social media came the ubiquitous ability to passively look for jobs (even when happily employed) by posting one’s employment experience on a social or professional networking site Of course, this is not new news. We have spent the past several months researching ways for recruiters to become more effective—from focusing on improving the candidate experience, recruiting the long-term unemployed, to maximizing campus recruiting efforts, implementing veteran hiring initiatives (publishing in May), and developing stronger relationships with hiring managers (publishing in July). So, where does the TA leader begin today? The Talent Acquisition Factbook 2015 should help TA leaders determine where they need to focus and may help them build a credible business case for further investment. This research helps answer the big questions TA leaders have regarding cost per hire, sources of hire, time to fill, and new hire voluntary turnover, e.g., In 2014, U.S. companies increased their average talent acquisition costs 7% from 2013, driven in part by an increase to nearly $4,000 cost per hire in 2014. Professional networking sites went from 4% of the recruiting budget in 2011 to 12% on average in 2014. By contrast, agencies and third-party recruiters took a hit, claiming 18 percent of the recruiting budget in 2014, down from 38 percent in 2011. Despite the increased spending on professional networks, the research shows that company websites drive more hires than other sources, followed by job boards, and internal candidates. Overall, companies are finding it takes 52 days on average to fill open positions—up from 48 days in 2011. High-impact TA functions have 40 percent lower new-hire turnover and are able to fill vacancies 20 percent faster than companies with more tactical recruiting functions. Interested in learning more? Download the complimentary WhatWorks Brief and join Jennifer Krider and me for an online webinar, "Benchmarking Talent Acquisition: The Shift to Candidate-Driven Recruiting," on June 9th at 2 p.m. EDT/19:00 BST. As always, feel free to add a comment below, connect with me on Twitter @RAEricksonPhD, or by email at rerickson@deloitte.com P.S. Bersin’s annual conference, IMPACT, is being held next week in Miami. The conference is sold out but you can follow the hashtag #IMPACTHR on Wednesday and Thursday, April 29-30, to hear Bersin by Deloitte analysts present new research and in-depth case studies by practicing corporate leaders   [1] For more information, Talent Acquisition Factbook 2015, Bersin by Deloitte / Jennifer Krider, Karen O’Leonard, and Robin Erickson, Ph.D., April 2015. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library                 This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.  

  Ninety percent of American adults have a cell phone and 58 percent have a smartphone,[1] generally defined as a cellular phone that performs many of the functions of a computer. A smartphone likely has a touchscreen interface, can access the Internet rather than just the cell network, and has an operating system capable of running downloaded applications.   In addition to the communication support (voice, email, and text) prevalent in mobile devices, and ignoring for the moment the camera and video technology generally included, smart phones provide users with a great many transactional or operational tools.  One can pay a bill or scan a check, book a car service, secure a boarding pass, monitor one’s home security system, and much more. What about at work—and those transactions relevant to talent and HR?    Increasingly many of applications are tied to human capital management solutions: 93 percent of the HCM solution providers in our recent study supported mobile applications. Significantly, many reported "developing for mobile first," meaning that their new product development targeted mobile devices, then were moved "backward" to laptops and PCs.   The vendors tell us that the functionality they offer is increasingly being enabled and used by their customers. These always-handy, "in-your-pocket" applications can provide immediacy and 24x7 accessibility to both managers and employees. For Kronos, as an example, 98 percent of client applications within talent acquisition have mobile apps enabled.[2] SuccessFactors’ monthly active users increased 95 percent year of over year.[3]  Workday reports that it has experienced a 400 percent increase in transaction volume coming from mobile devices.[4] Today’s vendors offer mobile solutions well-equipped to provide a positive experience for job applicants in seeking positions and applying for them with their mobile devices. These solutions can streamline the application process, potentially providing a positive experience for HR and the hiring managers as well. It is the ease of use, tabulation of relevant metrics, and efficiencies gained that can make a business impact through the use of smartphones. Onboarding is a critical ingredient in enculturation and new hire engagement. Tools that ease that early path to job productivity are also often viewed as instrumental in reducing unwanted attrition.  Not surprisingly, onboarding support was the area of greatest projected growth in smartphone app use in our recent study of end users and their plans for smartphone use in HR and talent in the year ahead.[5] HR professionals are likely to find increasingly more sophisticated apps in the future, covering many aspects of HR that are currently managed and used on "tethered" technology—such as desk-bound technology. Indeed, as the market is inundated with smaller, different devices such as smart-watches and other wearables, smartphone use for human capital management is likely to be just the first step into more portable, accessible, and lower cost workforce management. Join me on June 16, 2:00 p.m. ET / 19:00 BST for a web seminar entitled Getting Smart with Smartphones: Solutions for Human Capital Management for further discussion.   This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.   [1] http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/ - Pew Mobile Technology Fact Sheet. Pew Research Center.  January, 2014 [2] Source:  Kronos, 2015. [3] Source: SuccessFactors (SAP), 2015. [4] 3 Things to Expect from Workday’s New Mobile Experience November 4, 2014 by Joe Korngiebel http://blogs.workday.com/3_things_to_expect_from_workdays_new_mobile_experience.html?campid=ussm_tw_a_co_14.1431 [5] Smartphones for the Workforce: What HR Practitioners Tell Us About Planned Use. Katherine Jones, Bersin by Deloitte. In  Press.  

Talent analytics presents the second largest capability gap for organizations, trailing only the need to build better leadership. Three in four companies (75 percent) in a recent Deloitte study believe that using analytics in HR is "important," but just 8 percent believe their organization is "strong" in this area. So, despite a great deal of media attention and high-profile uses of analytics, our survey confirms that most HR organizations have been slow to get started. One of the top challenges to building an effective analytics capability is a lack of skills in HR for gathering, analyzing and interpreting data. HR teams need dedicated staff for these activities, and these roles require new and different skill sets. Data from Burning Glass shows that the demand for HR analytics roles is still strong, but the growth in job postings slowed in 2014. As shown in Figure 1, postings for HR analytics roles (which include a variety of data- and analytics-oriented job titles) grew substantially between 2010 and 2013. The number of job postings grew 63% between 2010 and 2011, and a robust 21% from 2012-2103. In 2014, the site listed 13,335 job postings for HR analytics roles, which is still strong, but just 3% higher than the prior year.   Source: Burning Glass    Part of the reason for the slowing growth in HR analytics job postings may be the difficulty in finding people to fill these roles. Due to high demand for analytics skill sets over the past few years, it is taking longer to fill these types of positions - and becoming more expensive. According to the latest BurtchWorks survey, salaries for entry-level data science roles rose 14% over the past year - to a median base salary of $91,000. Given the time and expense of recruiting external candidates, some organizations are starting to upskill their existing HR staff and/or borrow staff from other functions for their analytics work. So the difficulty in finding talent for these roles is one factor. But I believe the larger issue boils down to the fact that many HR organizations have not been able to develop a plan or get buy-in for their analytics initiatives. Many simply don’t know where to start. Recent data  from a survey by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and Visier shows that one-third of HR organizations are not investing anything in improving their analytics capabilities. (See Figure 2.) For the companies that are investing, some of the efforts are encouraging - such as hiring a CHRO with a strong analytics background, or hiring an HR leader with finance or business experience. But just 9% and 16% of organizations, respectively, say they have taken these steps to improve how data is used to make workforce decisions. In addition, one in five organizations said they approved new HR analytics positions. Given the lack of analytics skills in HR, I’m surprised the figure isn’t much higher. This number is lower than the data from our study  in 2013, when 31% of HR organizations said they had hired additional staff for their measurement and analytics efforts - hence more evidence of the slowdown in job growth for HR analytics roles. One other figure here is interesting: 9% of organizations said they have moved analytics out of HR. If HR leaders continue to drag their feet with analytics, this may be the fate of an increasing number of organizations over time: a centralized analytics function or COE that covers all disciplines - HR, Finance, Marketing, Operations, and other functions. This is what I talked about in my blog "Will HR Lose the Battle over Analytics?" A centralized, cross-functional team has many advantages. But for HR, this would mean losing control over the crown jewels. In this model, HR will need to compete with many other functions to get the data and analyses they need (and think about how well this works today with IT.) To avoid this fate, HR organizations should assess where they are today and what they need to move forward. Most analytics teams get their start with a few small wins. Identify a business leader who wants to partner with you on an analytics project to solve a problem in the organization. If you don’t have any analytics staff currently, pull together a few people to do the project - someone who understands the business problem, someone can pull together the data, and someone with strong statistical modeling skills. This doesn’t have to be a formal team - just find people who want to apply analytics to an important business problem. Or hire a consultant or contractor to help. Show how the results can add value to the organization, and you’ll be on your way. Eventually you will need to hire talent to grow your analytics capabilities, and our research and skills evaluation tools can help. Analytics is a journey, so why not start now.     Figure 2: Investments in HR Analytics    Source: Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and Visier, 2015.

Talent analytics presents the second largest capability gap for organizations, trailing only the need to build better leadership. Three in four companies (75 percent) in a recent Deloitte study believe that using analytics in HR is "important," but just 8 percent believe their organization is "strong" in this area. So, despite a great deal of media attention and high-profile uses of analytics, our survey confirms that most HR organizations have been slow to get started. One of the top challenges to building an effective analytics capability is a lack of skills in HR for gathering, analyzing and interpreting data. HR teams need dedicated staff for these activities, and these roles require new and different skill sets. Data from Burning Glass shows that the demand for HR analytics roles is still strong, but the growth in job postings slowed in 2014. As shown in Figure 1, postings for HR analytics roles (which include a variety of data- and analytics-oriented job titles) grew substantially between 2010 and 2013. The number of job postings grew 63% between 2010 and 2011, and a robust 21% from 2012-2103. In 2014, the site listed 13,335 job postings for HR analytics roles, which is still strong, but just 3% higher than the prior year.   Source: Burning Glass    Part of the reason for the slowing growth in HR analytics job postings may be the difficulty in finding people to fill these roles. Due to high demand for analytics skill sets over the past few years, it is taking longer to fill these types of positions - and becoming more expensive. According to the latest BurtchWorks survey, salaries for entry-level data science roles rose 14% over the past year - to a median base salary of $91,000. Given the time and expense of recruiting external candidates, some organizations are starting to upskill their existing HR staff and/or borrow staff from other functions for their analytics work. So the difficulty in finding talent for these roles is one factor. But I believe the larger issue boils down to the fact that many HR organizations have not been able to develop a plan or get buy-in for their analytics initiatives. Many simply don’t know where to start. Recent data  from a survey by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and Visier shows that one-third of HR organizations are not investing anything in improving their analytics capabilities. (See Figure 2.) For the companies that are investing, some of the efforts are encouraging - such as hiring a CHRO with a strong analytics background, or hiring an HR leader with finance or business experience. But just 9% and 16% of organizations, respectively, say they have taken these steps to improve how data is used to make workforce decisions. In addition, one in five organizations said they approved new HR analytics positions. Given the lack of analytics skills in HR, I’m surprised the figure isn’t much higher. This number is lower than the data from our study  in 2013, when 31% of HR organizations said they had hired additional staff for their measurement and analytics efforts - hence more evidence of the slowdown in job growth for HR analytics roles. One other figure here is interesting: 9% of organizations said they have moved analytics out of HR. If HR leaders continue to drag their feet with analytics, this may be the fate of an increasing number of organizations over time: a centralized analytics function or COE that covers all disciplines - HR, Finance, Marketing, Operations, and other functions. This is what I talked about in my blog "Will HR Lose the Battle over Analytics?" A centralized, cross-functional team has many advantages. But for HR, this would mean losing control over the crown jewels. In this model, HR will need to compete with many other functions to get the data and analyses they need (and think about how well this works today with IT.) To avoid this fate, HR organizations should assess where they are today and what they need to move forward. Most analytics teams get their start with a few small wins. Identify a business leader who wants to partner with you on an analytics project to solve a problem in the organization. If you don’t have any analytics staff currently, pull together a few people to do the project - someone who understands the business problem, someone can pull together the data, and someone with strong statistical modeling skills. This doesn’t have to be a formal team - just find people who want to apply analytics to an important business problem. Or hire a consultant or contractor to help. Show how the results can add value to the organization, and you’ll be on your way. Eventually you will need to hire talent to grow your analytics capabilities, and our research and skills evaluation tools can help. Analytics is a journey, so why not start now.     Figure 2: Investments in HR Analytics    Source: Harvard Business Review Analytics Services and Visier, 2015.

Next Monday, May 25th, is Memorial Day. Many of us, myself included, are looking forward to long weekends with family to launch the start of the summer. But Memorial Day has a deeper meaning—it’s a national holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in our armed forces. Many families and volunteers will spend time this weekend decorating the graves of soldiers with flags and flowers. Life in the military can be hard on soldiers and their families, both when actively serving and when returning home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. veteran population was more than 21 million strong as of 2014.[1] Given the advanced technical training, effective leadership skills, and strong work ethic that soldiers develop while in the military, one would likely think that veterans would be highly sought after in today’s competitive job market. However, the data says otherwise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the unemployment rate for Gulf War II veterans was 9 percent as of November 2014—25 percent higher than that for nonveterans at 7.2 percent.[2] Further, the unemployment rate for veterans has been higher than the nonveteran unemployment rate since the start of the recession.[3] And, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Research and Public Policy, the most serious concerns among veterans upon returning home include the applicability of military training to education / jobs (at 84 percent), job placement (at 82 percent), and career counseling (at 79 percent).[4] Many organizations today are already committing resources and implementing programs to help veterans find work. In some cases, organizations consider supporting veteran hiring initiatives an integral part of their employment brand. To help those employers go further and for the 55 percent of employers surveyed that do not yet participate in veteran-specific recruiting initiatives,[5] I have written a complimentary research report to provide inspiration and help in the development of a business case for veteran hiring initiatives. From the Armed Forces to the Workforce: Why Veteran Hiring is Both the Right thing to Do and a Smart Move to Make includes detailed information about what select companies are doing in terms of five types of veteran initiatives: Implementing significant veteran hiring targets Providing business skills training Developing military-friendly hiring websites Attending military job fairs Offering internships and scholarships. The report also includes detailed lists of resources for both organizations and veterans: Organizations that educate companies on how to build veteran-friendly hiring practices Veteran job boards Services and publications to prepare veterans for employment Both of my grandfathers served in the Army in World War II and my father served in the Army Medical Corps, so writing this report has been a labor of love. With the volume of veterans entering the workforce continuing to increase (240,000 to 360,000 veterans each year[6]), it is my hope that the information shared in this report about what makes veterans such valuable employees—as well as what other companies are doing and the many resources available—will inspire more organizations to embark on their own veteran hiring initiatives. It is, after all, not just the right thing to do but also a smart move to make. Download the report here and please share with your networks on social media: http://bit.ly/1ee9WBz As always, feel free to add a comment below, connect with me on Twitter @RAEricksonPhD, or by email at rerickson@deloitte.com P.S. Please join me and my colleagues at two upcoming Bersin Talent Acquisition webinars in the next three weeks: Partners in Process: Recruiters and Hiring Managers Align for Improved Talent Acquisition Performance on May 28, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. ET / 15:00 BST with Denise Moulton, Senior Research Analyst, Deloitte Consulting LLP Benchmarking Talent Acquisition: The Shift to Candidate-Driven Recruiting on June 9, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. ET / 19:00 BST with Jennifer Krider, Senior Research Analyst, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP; and Mike Walsh, Senior Product, Marketing Manager, Glassdoor         This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.     [1] Source: "Employment Situation of Veterans Summary," United States Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 20, 2014, www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.nr0.htm.   [2] Source: "Employment and unemployment among all veterans, Gulf-War era II veterans, and nonveterans," United States Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 10, 2014, www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20141110.htm. [3] Source: "Why is joblessness for veterans so high?" MoneyWatch / Constantine von Hoffman, May 23, 2014, www.cbsnews.com/news/why-is-joblessness-for-veterans-so-high/.   [4] Source: "Veteran Unemployment," Forbes.com / John Ebersole, November, 15, 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/johnebersole/2013/11/15/veteran-unemployment/.   [5] Source: "Veterans Talent Index," Monster.com, 2014, www.monster.com/about/ veterans-talent-index.   [6] Source: The Fast Track to Civilian Employment: Streamlining Credentialing and Licensing for Service Members, Veterans, and Their Spouses, Executive Office of the President / National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, February 2013, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/military_credentialing_and_ licensing_report_2-24-2013_final.pdf.

Next Monday, May 25th, is Memorial Day. Many of us, myself included, are looking forward to long weekends with family to launch the start of the summer. But Memorial Day has a deeper meaning—it’s a national holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in our armed forces. Many families and volunteers will spend time this weekend decorating the graves of soldiers with flags and flowers. Life in the military can be hard on soldiers and their families, both when actively serving and when returning home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. veteran population was more than 21 million strong as of 2014.[1] Given the advanced technical training, effective leadership skills, and strong work ethic that soldiers develop while in the military, one would likely think that veterans would be highly sought after in today’s competitive job market. However, the data says otherwise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that the unemployment rate for Gulf War II veterans was 9 percent as of November 2014—25 percent higher than that for nonveterans at 7.2 percent.[2] Further, the unemployment rate for veterans has been higher than the nonveteran unemployment rate since the start of the recession.[3] And, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Research and Public Policy, the most serious concerns among veterans upon returning home include the applicability of military training to education / jobs (at 84 percent), job placement (at 82 percent), and career counseling (at 79 percent).[4] Many organizations today are already committing resources and implementing programs to help veterans find work. In some cases, organizations consider supporting veteran hiring initiatives an integral part of their employment brand. To help those employers go further and for the 55 percent of employers surveyed that do not yet participate in veteran-specific recruiting initiatives,[5] I have written a complimentary research report to provide inspiration and help in the development of a business case for veteran hiring initiatives. From the Armed Forces to the Workforce: Why Veteran Hiring is Both the Right thing to Do and a Smart Move to Make includes detailed information about what select companies are doing in terms of five types of veteran initiatives: Implementing significant veteran hiring targets Providing business skills training Developing military-friendly hiring websites Attending military job fairs Offering internships and scholarships. The report also includes detailed lists of resources for both organizations and veterans: Organizations that educate companies on how to build veteran-friendly hiring practices Veteran job boards Services and publications to prepare veterans for employment Both of my grandfathers served in the Army in World War II and my father served in the Army Medical Corps, so writing this report has been a labor of love. With the volume of veterans entering the workforce continuing to increase (240,000 to 360,000 veterans each year[6]), it is my hope that the information shared in this report about what makes veterans such valuable employees—as well as what other companies are doing and the many resources available—will inspire more organizations to embark on their own veteran hiring initiatives. It is, after all, not just the right thing to do but also a smart move to make. Download the report here and please share with your networks on social media: http://bit.ly/1ee9WBz As always, feel free to add a comment below, connect with me on Twitter @RAEricksonPhD, or by email at rerickson@deloitte.com P.S. Please join me and my colleagues at two upcoming Bersin Talent Acquisition webinars in the next three weeks: Partners in Process: Recruiters and Hiring Managers Align for Improved Talent Acquisition Performance on May 28, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. ET / 15:00 BST with Denise Moulton, Senior Research Analyst, Deloitte Consulting LLP Benchmarking Talent Acquisition: The Shift to Candidate-Driven Recruiting on June 9, 2015 at 2:00 p.m. ET / 19:00 BST with Jennifer Krider, Senior Research Analyst, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP; and Mike Walsh, Senior Product, Marketing Manager, Glassdoor         This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.     [1] Source: "Employment Situation of Veterans Summary," United States Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 20, 2014, www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.nr0.htm.   [2] Source: "Employment and unemployment among all veterans, Gulf-War era II veterans, and nonveterans," United States Department of Labor / Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 10, 2014, www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20141110.htm. [3] Source: "Why is joblessness for veterans so high?" MoneyWatch / Constantine von Hoffman, May 23, 2014, www.cbsnews.com/news/why-is-joblessness-for-veterans-so-high/.   [4] Source: "Veteran Unemployment," Forbes.com / John Ebersole, November, 15, 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/johnebersole/2013/11/15/veteran-unemployment/.   [5] Source: "Veterans Talent Index," Monster.com, 2014, www.monster.com/about/ veterans-talent-index.   [6] Source: The Fast Track to Civilian Employment: Streamlining Credentialing and Licensing for Service Members, Veterans, and Their Spouses, Executive Office of the President / National Economic Council and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, February 2013, www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/military_credentialing_and_ licensing_report_2-24-2013_final.pdf.

Application integration is essential. It is not just a technical issue, but also a business issue. Companies require one source of the truth about their people and processes in order to manage, monitor, and measure progress and success. Yet understanding how software solutions that are used in business actually connect with each other remains elusive. There are many reasons why companies want their HR software platforms to be integrated, including the following. Data and Analytics—In order to run meaningful reports, understand the state of the business, and implement talent analytics[1], companies need the equivalent of a "single system of record". Well-architected systems integration helps to make sure that all data is coordinated, easy to find, and accurate. User Experience—People don’t want to log into multiple HR systems to get their work done. If systems are not integrated, employees and managers often have multiple systems with multiple user interfaces to use, making HR systems difficult to learn and potentially, not well-adopted. Accuracy and Compliance—Most HR programs have some legal and regulatory requirements. Did a certain employee complete the mandatory compliance training, for example? If systems are not well integrated, then these processes may not be easy to track, and it may be impossible to verify or report on compliance issues. IT Cost—When systems are not integrated by vendors, IT may have to pick up the bill "Integration projects" may be put on the back burner, further complicating HR’s ability to provide services to its stakeholders. Integration is clearly an essential consideration in deploying an HRIS system. Beyond the compliance requirements of a core HR system, HR professionals may want to integrate data from background checks; competency, skill, or behavioral assessments; benefits administration; payroll and tax services; or, workforce management functions, such as clock-ins/-outs. Making the Incompatible Compatible Application integration between unlike products is not trivial. Products created at different times or by different vendors use different data models—basically, they store information in what can be vastly different ways. Consider naming conventions as an example. One application may ask for first name, last name, while another may do the reverse; but it could be that neither has consistency in dealing with hyphenated names. One application may refer to the company name by a three letter acronym, while another uses the words written out; as the data is passed between applications, will it appear as two distinct companies? Therein lies the difficulty with integration—getting the data between two or more points the way the user expects to see and use it. It is for this reason that integration is so important and, without sound practices, analysis of data is challenging across applications. The majority of HCM software providers have long supplied standard, documented application programming interfaces (APIs) for practitioners to use in connecting to a variety of their custom and third-party products.  APIs are tools that specify how some software components should interact with each other. Generally, an API is a library that includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables—all of which are used by an IT staffer or a third-party technologist to create the integration between two applications, processes, or services.  The vendor in these instances has tested and certified the APIs for the use they will serve in the user’s environment.  Some bundle these as "connectors" which can be used to integrate two specific disparate applications—these may be chargeable, as is their implementation for the customer. Many users today integrate their talent management applications with their HRIS system of record, third-party products, such as other talent products from other providers, and services, such as prehire assessments and background checks, benefits, tax and payroll providers. These applications or services may or may not also be in the cloud (that is, accessible over the Internet via a browser or mobile device), rather than running natively in your data center. Users have choices in the way they choose to integrate all these disparate applications. Given the heterogeneity of the technology requirements today, many software providers support a third-party integration partner ecosystem to provide a choice to application users which need to integrate applications to an HRIS, or other third-party on-premise or cloud solutions. The integration of two very different systems, not only with each other, but with all of the related business applications and services on which HR professionals rely, is complex—hence time-consuming—and has to maintain the accuracy and integrity of employee data. Almost any data can be amalgamated via flat-file data transfer, but that is generally insufficient in providing the degree of integration companies rely on today. Third-party transport and data-routing tools exist, but often they too lack the deep integration that many organizations seek. Mind you, both of these measures serve to move data from one application to another. Middleware presents another viable option for integration. With the advent of SaaS and the rapid growth of cloud computing, middleware has had to address on-premise to on-premise data movement and consolidations, but also on-premise to the cloud, and even further, cloud-to-cloud integration. Many of today’s users of Cloud-based talent applications have tools available to ease the task. Documented APIs exist, and third-party applications and tools are available—many of which are certified by the vendors. Increasingly the vendors—recognizing that few of their customers live in a homogeneous software world, provide packaged integrations that are tested and often certified to address some of the many integration requirements of users today. Because these are not simplistic plug-and-play tools, they are likely to continue to require customizations as they are implemented to meet unique customer requirements. For managing talent, users often seek the ability to efficiently integrate data from their sourcing or hiring management software into onboarding, then to the employee profile, learning, and career preference applications - and then to their performance management and succession planning solutions, to name the more common. Acquiring all solutions from one integrated suite provider is one way to achieve integration; however, when your requirements cannot be met with that strategy, know that it is not an insurmountable show-stopper; you can look at other avenues.  It may cost you time (and perhaps expense), but the effort in amalgamating your data will likely prove worth the effort.   As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication. Copyright © 2015 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.   [1]   For more information, Big Data in HR: Building a Competitive Talent Analytics Function - The Four Stages of Maturity, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin, April 2012. Available to research members at www.bersin.com.