Analysts Highlight TM Trends and Industry Leaders

Since the start of the new year, it seems like everyone – vendors, analysts, and journalists alike – is keen to put forth their two cents on what is going to happen in HR in 2009.  As wave after wave of dire economic news rolls in, most experts are taking the opportunity to coach companies on how to turn recessionary challenges and evaporating budgets into something good.  The message is: the companies that position themselves best for recovery will come out on top when the economy returns to some vitality.

I had the opportunity to listen to a lively webcast early in the week to hear Naomi Bloom (Bloom & Wallace), Ray Wang (Forrester), and Jason Averbrook (Knowledge Infusion) discuss their top issues in HR for the coming year.  A lot of the message was retrench, retool, and rethink what you are doing around processes, systems, and investments.  The panel also called attention to some specific 2009 trends, including:

1. The need for thinking about critical roles to drive business success (Naomi);
2. The mainstreaming of SaaS (Ray); and
3. The rapid adoption of Enterprise 2.0 tools (Ray).  

It’s not terribly surprising to see these themes also noted in the much-anticipated release of brand new Magic Quadrant for Employee Performance Management (EPM) Software.  This is the first such quadrant publication for the highly competitive EPM space, and I’m proud to share that Cornerstone is very favorably rated as one of the top handful of solutions in the market for performance management technology out of an initial pool of over 50 vendors.

The Gartner analysts are in agreement with the webcast panel in a few ways:

1. They observe a potential evolution from a tactical focus on automating processes to one that uses data to drive better decision-making around workforce and talent planning.  Certainly an attractive notion in the current climate.
2. Gartner notes that SaaS continues to make major inroads in EPM systems (while on-premise/hosted solutions decline), validating Cornerstone’s long-standing commitment to the model.
3. Finally, Gartner takes stock of the convergence of performance management tools with Enterprise 2.0 social software.  After all, when it comes to high performance in the workplace, it’s not just what you know, but who you know that counts.

What makes the release of this new Magic Quadrant report particularly significant for us is that last year, we were named a “Leader” on the Corporate Learning Systems (CLS) Magic Quadrant report.  That makes Cornerstone the only SaaS vendor highly rated in both the performance management and learning management reports.   

And, it’s validation for our approach over the last decade – that performance appraisal alone is not enough. As the 2009 crystal ball seems to indicate, now more than ever, organizations need an integrated approach to learning and performance to expect to see real improvement in workforce readiness and agility.

Charles Coy is the Director of Product Marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand