Hello! I am the newest member of the Bersin by Deloitte analyst team and it is a pleasure to make your virtual acquaintance! My research focus is leadership and succession management and I look forward to lively conversations around these important and interesting topics with you. A little bit about my background: prior to joining Bersin, I pursued a dual career as leadership researcher and consultant and I worked closely with organizations in both the USA and Europe (I am Austrian!) to drive methodical and practical business research. I consider leadership as both a social process as well as an organizational phenomenon and I am excited about our future research endeavors that will help us understand how best to leverage human leadership capital for individual and collective business outcomes. The way we think about leadership has changed dramatically in the past few years. Hierarchical structures, centralized decision-making and a "subordinate" workforce are expiring principles, as markets and business challenges rapidly change and organizations are required to engage a new type of workforce: future employees. Future employees - who, by the way, may already be working at your organization! -  will have grown up in a fully digitalized, connected and diverse world  in which new forms of work habits  and values  have emerged. Their requirements for being engaged, motivated and inspired may differ from what most organizations have seen before. The question for companies has become: How to build leaders who are able to connect with this kind of workforce so that strategies are executed and business goals can be met? Participants needed for new leadership research study! Reading a lot of secondary literature, my current research suggests that one effective response can be to develop a highly responsive, adaptive and flexible type of leadership, on the organizational and the individual leader level. In the coming weeks, I am conducting research interview to this effect and I am currently looking to talk to HR and business leaders who want to participate in our research! If you are interested in a 30-minute phone call with me, or know a senior HR or business leader who is, please send me an email: aderler@deloitte.com. I look forward to hearing from you! 

All over the world companies are trying to find new ways to change their performance management practices to improve employee engagement, performance, and development. Many are eliminating performance ratings, forcing managers to check-in with employees regularly, and rethinking their compensation strategies.  Some are doing pulse surveys, revamping their engagement models, and opening up their internal communications systems. As I study this market and talk with managers all over the world, one thing keeps coming out:  we need to build a business around feedback. Feedback is a big topic, and it's more complicated than you think: We all want it and we all want to give it ... but it's difficult to give and even more difficult to receive. And in the corporate world, people who give a lot of feedback are often labelled trouble-makers. Today building a feedback-rich culture is a tremendously important task, and it impacts teams, organizations, customers, and the whole company. Well a new world of feedback tools and approaches has arrived, and I believe it could be one of the most exciting things happening in management and HR. I just finished more than two years studying this space and wrote a long article I encourage you to read. Let me know what you think, I'd like YOUR FEEDBACK on all these ideas and new tools in the marketplace!

All over the world companies are trying to find new ways to change their performance management practices to improve employee engagement, performance, and development. Many are eliminating performance ratings, forcing managers to check-in with employees regularly, and rethinking their compensation strategies.  Some are doing pulse surveys, revamping their engagement models, and opening up their internal communications systems. As I study this market and talk with managers all over the world, one thing keeps coming out:  we need to build a business around feedback. Feedback is a big topic, and it's more complicated than you think: We all want it and we all want to give it ... but it's difficult to give and even more difficult to receive. And in the corporate world, people who give a lot of feedback are often labelled trouble-makers. Today building a feedback-rich culture is a tremendously important task, and it impacts teams, organizations, customers, and the whole company. Well a new world of feedback tools and approaches has arrived, and I believe it could be one of the most exciting things happening in management and HR. I just finished more than two years studying this space and wrote a long article I encourage you to read. Let me know what you think, I'd like YOUR FEEDBACK on all these ideas and new tools in the marketplace!

All over the world companies are trying to find new ways to change their performance management practices to improve employee engagement, performance, and development. Many are eliminating performance ratings, forcing managers to check-in with employees regularly, and rethinking their compensation strategies.  Some are doing pulse surveys, revamping their engagement models, and opening up their internal communications systems. As I study this market and talk with managers all over the world, one thing keeps coming out:  we need to build a business around feedback. Feedback is a big topic, and it's more complicated than you think: We all want it and we all want to give it ... but it's difficult to give and even more difficult to receive. And in the corporate world, people who give a lot of feedback are often labelled trouble-makers. Today building a feedback-rich culture is a tremendously important task, and it impacts teams, organizations, customers, and the whole company. Well a new world of feedback tools and approaches has arrived, and I believe it could be one of the most exciting things happening in management and HR. I just finished more than two years studying this space and wrote a long article I encourage you to read. Let me know what you think, I'd like YOUR FEEDBACK on all these ideas and new tools in the marketplace!

For almost 15 years I have been focused on using research as a tool to help businesses solve strategic HR, learning, and leadership challenges. As most of you know, this focus has helped us pioneer a special breed of "actionable research" designed to help HR and learning professionals understand the marketplace, learn about trends and leading-practices, and diagnose their strategies to better understand next steps. We are very proud of our innovations - they include the use of validated maturity models (with detailed data and benchmarking behind them) in more than 20 different areas, comprehensive data on spending and resource allocation, and of course much detail on HR technology, solution providers, and content vendors and how they typically fit into the market. Throughout this journey our goal has always been simple:  to help companies address their most pressing talent challenges, and hopefully make their own workplaces more engaging and rewarding. And in the process of doing all this hard work, we realized that we could also help the HR community enhance its own professional skills and expertise - and of course help make businesses better at serving customers. This week, after more than two years of effort, we are introducing the next step in our journey - a new set of content and technology offerings we call BersinOne. While I rarely write blogs promoting our own offerings, in this case I just want to explain what we've done so you can learn more and see where we're going. Moving from Understanding to Action. Over the years we always asked our analysts to focus our research on "actionable information" - models, tools, frameworks, and examples that can help people solve problems. And most of you have told me this is very valuable and very helpful.  But it hasn't been enough. Despite our best efforts to write as much as we can, people continuously come to us and say things like "thank you for explaining that maturity model or that practice, but how can I implement it in my organization?" After thinking about this issue for many years, we believe we have come up with a new approach - and that is the focus of BersinOne.  Simply explained, what we realized is that major HR, learning, and talent management solutions tend to revolve around six basic steps, and when we want to build a world class solution, we always go down this path: Learn:  The first step in a problem is to learn about the space. If you have retention problem, or a hard time attracting candidates, or a gap in leadership capabilities - the first thing you should do is "learn about the space."  This means learning the vocabulary, understanding some of the basics, and starting to identify what "world class" looks like.  Our Lexicon, frameworks, case studies, and research reports are heavily focused on giving you the "101 course" in almost every area of talent, learning, and leadership.  And now we also include CHRO and VP level content, designed to help leaders quickly learn what they need, while you dive into detail as a practitioner or project leader. Prioritize:  The second step in developing an HR or talent solution is to prioritize. Where do we start?  What parts of our existing process or program should we throw away and what parts should we keep?  Should we double investment in this area or just tweak what we have?  These issues of how much to spend and what areas to prioritize can be tricky, because many companies aspire to copy a company like GE or Google, only to find that they simply "can't get there from here" and it might take years to reach that level. So here we provide diagnostic tools, Factbooks (books of spending level by maturity and industry), and maturity models to help you figure out precisely what the "next step" means to you and your organization. Design:  The third step is the fun part - designing a solution.  Here is where we sit down with a whiteboard (or website) and start to design how we want to redesign our onboarding program, architect our new leadership development, or maybe change our pre-hire assessment or interview guide.  Our goal here is to give you lots of guidance, tools (very precise checklists and action plans), and examples (case studies and artifacts from other companies) so you don't have to "reinvent the wheel."  And of course we try to show you what we've learned about design areas that are potential pitfalls or errors others have experienced, to help prevent you from making mistakes.  And by the way, design practices tend to change every year or two, so you have to stay current. Right now mobile apps, behavioral economics, and gamification, for example, are becoming very important. Select:  The fourth step, and sometimes the biggest of all, is to select a solution provider, product, or platform to help. My experience shows that there are very few HR and learning solutions that don't involve vendor technology, content, or platforms.  So we believe one of your most critical steps is finding the right partners, selecting the right tools, and sifting through the thousands of content and assessment providers to find the one best for you. This is why we focus on being effective HR analysts - we want to give you as much insight as we can about who does what, where they focus, and what their relative strengths are. Implement:  The fifth part of a solution is implementation. This, of course, is where the rubber meets the road - and topics like education, change readiness, change management, communication, and stakeholder buy-in can be especially critical. We are just introducing a major new area of research on change, and I think we've learned a lot to share with you - because no matter how beautiful and elegant a solution may be, if people don't use it there is no value at all. Measure: And finally, perhaps more important now than ever, is the need to measure what you've done. As an engineer with a background in analytics, I think measurement is very often a missing piece - and in HR, just like any other part of business, there are many things we can now measure. We study all areas of measurement and analytics and we offer tools, working groups (people you can learn from), diagnostics, and lots of templates to help you measure what you're rolling out. Measurement is far more than computing the ROI - it's putting in place an ongoing process to monitor and help continuously improve the program you've created. From a technology perspective, BersinOne is a major upgrade and face-lift to the BersinInsights platform we launched back in 2012. The new platform integrates all our research, tools, community, and diagnostics into an clean and new experience that will soon include role-based access to help you immediately find exactly what you need. Our goal with BersinOne is to be "the single place you go" to learn, address problems, and meet others in our community.   Part of the new content and platform strategy is to redesign our content around what we now call Bersin Blueprints - specific content designed to address current pressing talent challenges. The Bersin Blueprints, and there are four being launched today, compliment the Bersin Playbooks and extend them to give you step by step guidance using the six phases discussed above. And we have made it easier then ever to find what you need.  While all our subject areas and practices remain, all our content and tools are now also organized by nine solution areas - so you can quickly focus on a problem rather than look for content by topic or date. Becoming World Class at Talent:  More Important than Ever The world of HR, leadership, learning, and recruitment is more important than ever.  We will continue to develop innovative research and tools to help you stay ahead, solve problems, and develop your team. I look forward to sharing more with you, and of course welcome your feedback and comments.

  A leadership vision: followership in 2030 Imagine a group of elementary school children and fast-forward fifteen years to the time they enter the work force. What will they be like? What will they be interested in? What will inspire them and which principles will guide their choices? Which organizations will they want to work for, and what kind of employees will they turn out to be? Every attempt to describe the best leaders in 2030 should begin with asking about their followers. Knowing about the nature of their work, their values and expectations can help define key leadership skills. The primary factor for the fundamental differences between previous and future generations of workers is the near unlimited access to information. Enabled by technology, individuals and teams in 2030 are expected to be better informed and educated than ever before as they continue to explore ways of acquiring, managing and utilizing data. Future employees will have grown up in a fully digitalized, connected and diverse world in which new forms of work habits and values will emerge. Eventually, these changes will likely transform the role of employees within the leader-follower relationship.   Fewer limitations in regards to when and how people work, the freedom to share information and learn in more democratic ways have already begun to change work principles towards collaboration flexibility, and decentralization. As the corporate ladder is often a thing of the past, employees can create their own networks and career paths instead of relying on hierarchies and position thinking. These developments are changing the nature of followership dramatically. Better access to information provides employees with deeper knowledge and enables a higher degree of intellectual autonomy and emancipation. In 2030, workers will likely expect to be part of - not subject to - leadership processes. They should not just be followers but collaborators, associates and allies who require a new type of leadership than the generations before them. The best leaders in 2030... ...should understand that the workforce continues to transform into an emancipated and informed entity that openly disregards traditional structures, thinks independently, acts autonomously and knows what to expect from extraordinary leaders. More on what constitutes an extraordinary leader in this context next time! Feedback and comments are welcome! Please email me at mailto:aderler@deloitte.com     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.  

Here is an interesting proposition. You are a software provider, but you know you will never have the time to create every feature your customers might need, especially in the timeframe they want it. But you have other choices:  typically, a company might partner with other providers, such that their customers can get the solutions they need - but you may not have too much influence over that partner’s roadmap or product direction.  Or perhaps you as a software provider might just acquire that other company rather than partnering with it: a venture that may prove pricey, and may or may not deliver long-term value.   But what if there were something in the middle - more skin in the game than partnering—but not as much skin as if you acquired the whole company? This is the road that software provider Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) is taking: the "something in the middle."  Through its Innovation Fund, the company provides venture capital, workspace and mentorship to the young companies, particularly those seeking to build businesses in the LA area, where Cornerstone is located. That said, one of the early growth stage companies involved in the program is in Silicon Alley—New York City.  Named One Month, it has an interesting value proposition:  that its clients can learn a new technical skill in one month. Its video-based courses help students complete a project (such as building an app), possibly while learning a new software tool, such as Ruby, Python or Swift.  Company executives state that 25,000 people have taken its courses with a high retention rate.[1] Course enrollment start at $49 a month.[2] Named one of Social Media Week’s "10 Start-ups to Watch"[3] last February, it has had three rounds of investors, including Cornerstone in the third round.[4] In theory, this functionality could be available to CSOD’s customers as a means of promoting rapid learning models.  The company has made no promises for any long-term support of the solution for its customer base. Silicon Valley isn’t totally ignored here either. Rallyteam relocated to San Francisco from the Santa Monica area to participate in the Orange Fab accelerator program.  Backed by Norwest Venture Partners,[5] among others,[6] and now by CSOD, the company provides SaaS solutions which encourage what it calls "smart matching" of employees to projects for agile and effective teamwork.[7] Workpop and Strive are both in Santa Monica and both companies have created programs for hiring management.  Workpop was recently named one of the "Coolest New Businesses in LA" by Business Insider.[8] It provides tools and data to give an employer a better understanding of a candidate’s fit within a company, with the goal of both reducing time to hire and decreasing attrition. A key feature of Workpop is its tracking of people across companies rather than solely within a specific company. Workpop has completed its second round of funding.[9] Strive, also in its second round of funding,[10] goes after that illusive technical software developer.  Founded by the same team that created CodeWars (a community in which developers compete on code challenges), Strive’s goal is to automate the technical hiring process for its client companies. Its platform is intended to source and test qualified developers, exercising their coding skills for more effective matching with positions. Investing in young startups is nothing new in the software industry: companies such as Salesforce.com have been doing it for years.  However, in the integrated talent management suite world it is a bit rarer: Cornerstone may well be a bellwether as to the effectiveness of such an initiative by an HCM software company.     This publication contains general information only, and none of the member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, its member firms, or their related entities (collective, the "Deloitte Network") is, by means of this publication, rendering professional advice or services. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional adviser. No entity in the Deloitte Network shall be responsible for any loss whatsoever sustained by any person who relies on this publication.   About Deloitte Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of DTTL and its member firms. 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. Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited   [1] https://onemonth.com/ [2] As reported by One Month executive at an introductory event sponsored by CSOD. [3] http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/startups-to-watch-why-entrepreneurs-will-build-the-future/ [4] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/one-month-rails [5] http://www.nvp.com/team/matt-slotnick/ [6] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rallyteam/investors [7] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rallyteam [8] Business Insider, February 18, 2015. [9] With $7.9 Million In Funding, Workpop Launches As A Job Marketplace For Hourly Workers by Ryan Lawler. September 16, 2014 http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/16/workpop/ [10] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/codewars/investors

It's HR Technology season, and once again vendors are introducing amazing and disruptive new technologies in all areas of HR.  I developed our "Ten Big Disruptions" report again this year, which I encourage you to read. At a high level, let me summarize what's going on - and as always we encourage you to reach out if you'd like to discuss more. The HR Technology market tends to go in cycles, as companies install new solutions and go through a 5-7 year cycle of implementation, rollout, and then replacement.  In several areas of HR we are nearing the end of a cycle, so let me summarize some of these evolutionary changes - then you can read the report for more detail. First, there is a massive replacement of licensed, traditional HRMS systems taking place. More than 40% of all companies are replacing or plan to replace their core HRMS systems. Cedar-Crestone believe 60% of all companies are working on a new enterprise HR systems strategy and 46% are increasing budgets. Interestingly, Stacey Harris (one of our alma maters) also found out that companies with new, recently upgraded HRMS platforms are spending 22% less per employee on HR, so they are seeing financial benefits (even though the cost of implementing new HR technology is high). These new HRMS systems are cloud based, and they are coming from vendors (Oracle, SAP, Workday, ADP, Ceridian, Ultimate Software, and others) that have mostly built-out talent management suites.  Almost 26% of the companies in the Cedar-Crestone survey are doing "rip and replace" - totally throwing away their old systems. I just hosted a panel with Delta Airlines (SAP implementation), Macy's (Oracle implementation), and United Technologies (Workday implementation) and we discussed the highly complex, multi-year process these companies are going through to replace their core technology. In every case the company selected a vendor that had particular capabilities that met their needs, and in each case there are many incumbent systems, payroll providers, and outsourcers involved. Erica Volini, Deloitte's service line leader in HR Transformation and Technology, explained clearly that there are no "best products" in this space - it's all a matter of where you're coming from, where you're going, and the vendor who's roadmap best matches yours. Second, the talent management market is being redefined. I've been in this market for 15+ years and the standalone market for learning, recruitment, and other talent applications is being redefined. The LMS markets is being disrupted by new video-based learning solutions, many of which will be complimentary to installed systems. There are a host of new, disruptive recruitment vendors who are clearly going to change the applicant tracking market. In fact I believe that market is ripe for disruption, since most ATS systems are quite old (as are the vendors).  And the market for new performance management systems is emerging. I know, the ERP vendors do all this stuff. Well even so, companies of all sizes will often either A) not use the ERP vendor's products, or B) can't afford the ERP solution - so these new vendors have a huge marketplace ahead. As always, once the gorillas emerge they will likely be acquired by the big HRMS/Payroll providers, but that's years ahead. Third, the market for feedback, culture, and engagement apps is here. I wrote extensively on this in the article "Feedback is the Killer App." The traditional annual engagement survey is going the way of the dinosaur (slowly however) and a new breed of pulse tools, feedback apps, and anonymous social networking tools has arrived. If you aren't exploring this space you are missing a huge opportunity to make your company better. I wont list the vendors here, but every one of them is growing and I see this as a whole new segment. Fourth, we have a maturing market for employee well-being, wellness, and productivity systems. We have published a lot of research which shows that employees are overwhelmed, and right now I'm working on next year's Deloitte Human Capital Trends (click here to participate) and you'll see even more on this coming up. To deal with this companies are now introducing some very exciting and well developed systems that let your employees join health-related challenges, track their fitness, collaborate with their health care providers or others, and just help balance their work-life. Personally I think this will be a huge market going forward, and even device manufacturers and exercise equipment providers are developing these systems. Fifth, the era of People Analytics is here. I just published another article on the Ten Things We Have Learned in People Analytics.  In short, this space is now maturing. While most companies are early in their implementations and solutions, there are now a good set of organizations that have implemented strong people analytics strategies, and almost every vendor now has some form of predictive analytics embedded into their product. Rather than seeing dashboards, you're likely to see "recommendations"- so some of this technology is invisible behind the scenes.  Tools to predict flight risk, assess high potential job candidates, even find toxic employee behavior - are all in the market today.  While many are not highly proven yet, they all work to a degree, providing great value to any company. Apps as the Platform of the Future The final note I'll make here is that "appification has arrived."  As you'll read in the report, mobile apps are the future - and they are different and more powerful than typical browser-based web systems.  Not all the killer apps have been created yet, but most of the new, exciting HR applications coming are apps first, then web systems later. This does not mean they aren't powerful and complex behind the scenes, but they expose themselves as pinch and swipe on your phone - making it easier than ever to embed location and peer to peer collaboration into the system.  We'll write more on this soon. If you haven't been evaluating HR technology lately, you should now. The investment and venture capital pouring into new companies is astounding, and many of these new tools are transformational in their value. It's an exciting year to be an HR professional: the worlds of technology, mobile computing, analytics, and behavioral economics are all coming together for you!  We look forward to helping you understand and implement some of these exciting new solutions.          

Over the past few months, I’ve spent significant time thinking about L&D and its relationship to the rest of the organization. I’ve been hearing more and more about how L&D is not keeping up with the needs of the business, how employees are turning to outside sources to spend their developmental hours, and how business leadership has completely lost confidence in L&D. There are examples of organizations doing L&D well, and we hunt them out and highlight them, but I don’t think anyone is going to argue with me that L&D, as a function, is in crisis mode. As I speak with these more mature organizations, common threads begin to emerge. These organizations exist to drive business value, versus existing to provide training. The common theme is how L&D aligns (or doesn’t) with the rest of the organization. Here are my three most prominent observations. 1.       L&D is more aligned when it speaks the same language as the business. While the rest of the business tends to focus on terms and KPIs like customer engagement, conversion rates, and time to market, L&D often tosses terms like learning objectives, instructional modalities, and course completions. L&D may very well be utilizing its expertise to provide knowledge and skills to drive the business. But sometimes the vocabulary gets in the way. I recently spoke to a director of L&D who told her team, "Go ahead and geek out with the learning stuff when you’re talking to us, but when you face the business, make sure you’re speaking their language." Sage advice. 2.       L&D is more aligned when it understands and communicates with all of their stakeholders. L&D typically has three major stakeholder groups, and it should communicate and build relationships with each: ·         Business Leaders. Business or executive leaders can be compared to buyers. They set priorities and provide funding; they understand the strategy and shift it when necessary; they play a large part in shaping the culture; and their support of learning and development initiatives may be the difference between success and failure. When L&D understands and aligns with business leaders, they tend to focus their efforts and resources in the right way, and are better able to make the case for additional resources when necessary. ·         Line Managers. Line managers can be compared to influencers. They influence employee priorities; they are responsible for executing business strategies; they own the learning culture; and they frequently own some sort of budget. When L&D understands the pain points of line managers, it is able to efficiently address them in the solutions that are provided. When this happens, they likely gain the respect and confidence of line managers, which can help confirm that the right developmental activities are taking place. ·         Employees. Employees are the consumer of learning products provided by L&D. They give up their time and attention to learn. Employees are interested in doing their jobs better and more efficiently; in avoiding being overwhelmed and overworked; and in developing their own careers. When L&D understands these motivations, they can design initiatives that better fit into the work, increasing the probability that learning is happening continuously. 3.       L&D is more aligned when it focuses. Because business moves so rapidly and strategies pivot regularly, L&D should provide the organization with knowledge and skills for any new direction. It isn’t an easy job. But, it’s an important one. An L&D department should put as much thought into what they aren’t going to do as they do into what they are going to do. When L&D is able to draw a clear distinction between the things that they and the business would like to do, versus the things that will likely actually move the business forward, they are often better able to allocate their resources to provide what the business needs. It’s better to do less and do it really well, versus doing too much and failing. And that’s it. My top three for alignment. If you’d like more info on any of these three topics, you’re in luck. There happens to be a webinar on this topic on December 10 at 1:30 EST.  You can register here. We also just completed a series of articles, performance support tools, and infographics that speak to this subject. Just search for Aligning L&D in the Bersin Library.   

Josh Bersin has led the market with a message for HR practitioners at all levels:  Be Bold! Take the reins, mobilize the troops, and capture the HR and Talent field in your organizations.  The mantra for the HR community includes - perhaps for the first time—words such as "innovate," and "become data-driven," to "boldly go where no HR team has gone before." Hyperbole aside for a minute, the charter remains; but stepping up to the proverbial plate requires fearlessness and gumption; willingness to take a risk, and the courage to lead. Today’s HR leaders recognize this. Boldness is not just for the HR department however: companies that supply software for managing HR also face the need for such decisive action.  One example is SilkRoad, a SaaS-software company that launched a core HR product a few years ago that failed to meet the standards the company sets for itself.  Here is where the bold part come into play: management decommissioned the product and went back to the drawing board; rather than trying to be all things to all people, the new product which emerged, SilkRoad HRMS, is far more focused, leaving areas to third parties where third parties may do them best, such as payroll and benefits management. Product providers can be bold in their market strategies as well. Consider innovative ways to look at HR, such as "how much core HR is enough?"  What does a core HR software solution need to look like for, for example, a mid-sized company that has no international employees?  When talent profiles sprouted in the last decade, many of us analysts hypothesized that that employee profile could "take over" the system-of-record employee profile in the core HR system.  For many of the vendors that today provide  both core HR and talent  management systems  (such as talent acquisition, learning, career, performance, and succession management), that integration has happened:  there is one employee profile that contains both employment information and talent information.  But the innovation comes in with those suite providers who are talent-only - often linking to a third party HRIS system.  What employee information is indeed sufficient?  Some talent solution vendors see an opportunity to support their users—again, mostly less complex business environments—with one employee profile stemming from an integrated talent suite. Think about it: One single point of truth for information about a given employee without the complexities that sometimes accompany an HRIS.  The boldness of replacing a traditional HR system with a talent management system and an employee profile—no matter how complete—may not be sufficient in organizations that rely on the HRIS to determine ACA eligibility, as only one example.  But you must admit it is intriguing at a time when companies are looking for less complex ways of managing their businesses. I’m not forgetting HR however; consider emboldening your team. Look where you can reskill or upskill your department with the skills they will need for the rest of the decade.  Improve business acumen across the HR team. Upskill analytic skills. Enhance proficiency with today’s technology. Collaborate tenaciously with other divisions in the organization.  Build internal project management and change management proficiency within your team. Re-envision HR; re-envision the solutions you use every day, or if you are a solution provider, that you create. Consider revision -a word that does not mean "do over"—but "to look at with new eyes." Let’s be bold enough to re-envision and  revise.   This publication contains general information only, and none of the member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, its member firms, or their related entities (collective, the "Deloitte Network") is, by means of this publication, rendering professional advice or services. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional adviser. No entity in the Deloitte Network shall be responsible for any loss whatsoever sustained by any person who relies on this publication.   About Deloitte Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of DTTL and its member firms. 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. Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited