
NorthgateArinso – More than you might suspect….
Dr Pepper (full disclosure – my favorite beverage) had an ad campaign for years claiming their carbonated drink was “so misunderstood“. Over the years, I’ve encountered a number of technology and services firms whose reputation or brand stood for one thing but the company was actually something else altogether. NorthgateArinso (NGA) is somewhat in that camp. […]

To Outsource Or Not To Outsource, These Are The Questions
Before Bill Kutik has a chance to tease me about the intensity (aka length and depth) of this post, be forewarned that there is serious “how to” material below. Every organization outsources parts of HRM, almost no matter how your define outsourcing. From using 3rd parties to do background checking or COBRA administration (both of […]

HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — Strategy Matters
Show Me The Money! In my last post, I wrote about one aspect of the way in which I look at and learn about the HRM software vendors and outsourcing providers with whom I’ve been meeting over the last few months, namely their ambition as businesses. In this post I want to take up another important aspect of […]

The Future Of HRM Software: Applicability/Eligibility
GOP View Of Obama’s Health Care Reform Bill This post is one in a series I’ve been writing about the preferred architectural behaviors for great HRM software, to include HRM SaaS InFullBloom (but many are equally important for single tenant HRM software regardless of how it’s licensed/subscribed and installed/hosted). I posted the introduction to this series […]

“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” — Let’s Change That In Chicago
The more things change, the more they remain the same doesn’t sound as romantic as the French, but it’s a reasonable translation. So it is in many aspects of life, and so it is especially in my little corner of the professional world, at that intersection of HRM and IT where I’ve been camped out […]

The Middle Market Is Bipolar!
Metaphor For Complexity We often do things in human resource management not because they’re important but because they’re needed and easy to do. A glaring example is the way in which HRM software vendors and outsourcing providers describe their target markets — and the way, by reflection, in which those same organizations describe themselves. The […]

More Of Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: KSAOC-Centric Strategic HRM
Figure 1: KSAOC-Centric, Strategic HRM One of the great debates in HR circles is over what is strategic and what is merely administrative with respect to human resource management (HRM) processes. That which is strategic, often referred to as talent management, is considered worthy of executive attention, academic research, attendance at expensive conferences, and the writing […]

Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part IV/Finale: The HRM Delivery System!
If you feel like you’ve been stranded along the way or that we’ve (or you’ve) been off on various scenic detours, my apologies for not providing the final installment of our Yellow Brick Road travelogue as quickly as I had hoped. Life just keeps happening; we keep up as best we can. When last we […]

Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part III: HRM Strategies, Outcomes And Design
My apologies for the long detour from the Yellow Brick Road while I attended to heavy business travel, client deliverables, more shoulder rehab, and the final business details for closing on M/V SmartyPants. More on SmartyPants in a later next post, complete with pictures. For now, we’ve got a lot more work to do along […]