Human Capital Management

Human capital management (HCM) applications software automates business processes that cover the entire span of an employee's relationship with the corporation (as opposed to the department or group to which the employee belongs) as well as management of other human resources used by the enterprise (e.g., contingent labor, contractors, and consultants), including — increasingly — human resources employed by suppliers and customers. The center of the HCM applications suite is designed for core HR functions such as personnel records, benefits administration, and compensation. Increasingly, these functions are being delivered as employee self-service or manager self-service in order to automate record keeping and updating as well as consolidated reporting. The following are representative core HR applications vendors:

• Genesys PeopleComeFirst HRMS Suite
• Kronos timekeeping and attendance applications
• Oracle Enterprise HCM Suite
• SAP Human Capital Management
• Ultimate Software Ultipro

Globalization, flexible work rules, and the strategic importance of people assets have forced organizations to transform their human resources systems into a more real-time, personalized, and operational intelligence business function that goes beyond the traditional view of aggregating personnel data. Four major segments (or submarkets) are being offered as extensions to core HR functionality, forming the basis of a new generation of HCM applications framework.

eRecruiting

eRecruiting applications are designed to automate the recruitment process through better tracking of applicants, screening and skills assessment, profiling and resume processing, and identifying talents inside or outside the organization.
Key features include:

• Manage skills inventories
• Create and manage job requisitions
• Identify appropriate employment candidates
• Coordinate team collaboration within hiring processes
• Facilitate resource planning
• Deploy workers to appropriate jobs, projects, or teams
• Representative erecruiting applications include:
• Peopleclick Recruitment Management
• Taleo Enterprise Staffing Management
• Yahoo!/Resumix Hiring Gateway

Incentive Management

Incentive management applications are designed to automate the process of providing cash and noncash incentives to employees, partners, and external users through advanced modeling, reporting, and built-in interfacing to payroll processing systems.
Key features include:

• Quota and territory management
• Calculation and distribution of commissions, spiffs, royalties, incentives to employees, and channel and business partners
• Compensation analysis using internal and external data for retention risk analysis
• Linking incentives — cash and noncash — to business objectives
• Payroll and payment engine interfaces
• Account payables integration
• Representative incentive management applications include:
• Authoria Compensation Advisor
• Callidus TrueComp
• Synygy EIM

HR Performance Management

HR performance management applications are designed to automate the aggregation and delivery of information pertinent to the linking of job roles and the mission and goals of the organization. More specifically, the system allows users to automate the performance review process by using mechanisms such as training and key performance indicators (KPIs) to constantly track and monitor the progress of an individual employee, work team, and division.
Key features include:

• Assessment of individual and organizational skills gaps that impede performance and job advancement
• Continuous reviews and establishing milestones
• 360-degree evaluation and real-time feedback
• Performance appraisal automation
• Goal setting and tracking
• Employee surveys
• Alignment of human assets to corporate objectives
• Learning development and job improvement programs
• Fast tracks for top performers
• Delivering training
• Content creation and templates
• Representative performance management applications include:
• Kenexa Career Tracker
• Softscape Achievement Plus
• Witness Systems Equality Contact Store

Workforce Management

Workforce management applications are designed to automate the deployment of the workforce through workload planning, scheduling, time and attendance tracking, resource management, and rules and compliance management. Increasingly, workforce management applications are being integrated into customer relationship management applications in a contact center environment. Through extensive use of workforce management applications, organizations are also able to develop training guidelines, career advancement plans, and incentive compensation programs to improve, motivate, and sustain the quality of their employees.
Key features include:

• Skills and certification tracking
• Shift/vacation bidding
• Workload planning, forecasting, and scheduling
• Scheduling optimization
• Customer wait-time forecasts
• Coverage management
• Absence management
• Labor activity tracking
• Rationalization of revenue per full-time equivalent
• Cost of sales activities
• Sales resource planning based on local and regional opportunities
• Representative workforce management applications include:
• Aspect eworkforce management
• IEX Totalview
• Kronos Workforce Central