HCM goes mobile on tablets and smartphones

By Lesley McCreath

One way of looking at Human Capital Management (HCM) is as a system whichviews employees as a number of definable analytics - handling people as human capital whose immediate value can be measured. It sounds Orwellian, but in its best iteration, HCM also strives to enhance the value of employees by investing in their future. Under this more holistic view of HCM, staff managers are tasked with defining the metrics of performance expectations for their team – and accomplishing tracking that provides accountability but also rewards innovation and improvement. And, they need to do be able to do this from anywhere in real time.

In the business office, HCM solutions manage day-to-day recordkeeping and provide managers with all the human performance data they need to make effective decisions quickly. On the road, mobile HCM provides a powerful immediacy to managing human resources, and this is driving even more mobile deployment.

A benchmark report from the Aberdeen Group Library concludes, “Mobile technology is one of the new frontiers for talent and workforce management.” According to Aberdeen, mobile HCM can accomplish a wide-range of tasks:

  • managing candidate relationships by smart phone
  • scheduling shifts via text message
  • delivering multi-media learning on mobile devices
  • updating performance reviews from online portals accessed through handheld devices

These abilities mean that more and more Human Capital Management solutions are adopting mobile technology to bring this instant information to users. According to a benchmark study on Next Generation Workforce Management from Ventana Research, “…organizations will be deploying more tablets; 17% currently use them, and 30% have plans to deploy them.” The study also reports that 67% of workforce management use smart phones as part of their HCM solution, and 17% plan on deploying more of them.

Almost every major tablet vendor and solution provider now has mobile workforce management systems. The Ventana study noted several products that recently premiered:

  • Oracle Fusion Tap HCM for tablets
  • Peoplefluent management suite for the iPad
  • Worker management and analytics programs for both the Kronos and Kenexa tablets.

Peoplefluent’s Mobile Talent Management Suite was even named a top HR Product of 2012 by Human Resource Executive Magazine. The old HR department is evolving; HCM is going mobile, using social, making workforce management work from anywhere.