{"id":4585,"date":"2008-04-17T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/hroworld-2008-an-industry-re-inventing-itself\/"},"modified":"2008-04-17T20:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T20:30:00","slug":"hroworld-2008-an-industry-re-inventing-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/hroworld-2008-an-industry-re-inventing-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"HROWorld 2008: An industry re-inventing itself"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hrow\"Braving the annual industry HRO schmooze fest<\/a> this year, I realized I was emulating Roger Federer\u2019s extraordinary Wimbledon run by making it to my fifth-consecutive show.  <\/span>Only an elite few have made all six \u2013 at least I can\u2019t claim that honor -:)<\/p>\n

From the moment I stepped into Naomi Bloom\u2019s Brazen Hussies<\/em> event on Tuesday night and was ordered to eat a heavily-garlicked vol-au-vent with the instruction \u201cwe\u2019ve all had one, and so should you\u201d, I knew something interesting was in the air this year.<\/p>\n

For starters, all the industry big-guns were there; the leading HRO providers with all had their head honchos; the sourcing advisors; both SAP’s and Oracle’s BPO teams espousing the virtues of outsourcing on their ERP platforms; every staffing, benefits, talent management, data-something-or-other firm you\u2019d never heard of; and even a few mercenary analysts dotted around the place.  <\/span>We even had a new double-act to entertain us \u2013 the Elliot and Richard show, moderated by the vivacious and cabalistic Jay Whitehead.  <\/span>This was one networking event when you just had to be there.<\/p>\n

So, in true HROWorld tradition, I slammed myself with 20 back-to-back meetings over the two days, supplemented with a constant supply of stale coffee and a constant stream of sales literature I will cherish for a long time (ahem).  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

My overall impression of the state of HRO is one of re-engineering to get this right.  <\/span>This was the resounding message I got from several discussions with the market-makers in this industry. OK, we\u2019ve had a few non-starters<\/a> recently<\/a>, but let\u2019s emphasize these were projects that were cancelled before<\/em> any implementation work had taken place, and in several cases, the contract had just never quite made it to fruition.  <\/span>This doesn\u2019t imply that HRO is failing; it implies that some businesses have made strategic decisions that now isn\u2019t the right time to undergo open-heart HR surgery on themselves.  <\/span>And do you blame some of these firms, when the bottom has fallen out of their industry and they might<\/em> just have some other urgent priorities to rectify?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I wrote a year ago that the industry crystallized around the Convergys\/J&J deal<\/a>, and I was right.  <\/span>What I liked about this show was the serious discussion on what works in HRO versus what doesn\u2019t.  <\/span>There was a refreshing honesty from almost everyone regarding the steps suppliers and buyers need to take to make this work\u2026and so much less hype.  <\/span>In fact we had so little hype, we could have used some.  <\/span>Most of the suppliers are seriously focusing on what they are good at, and crafting HRO solutions based on their core strengths.  <\/span>The need for standards and common service levels was discussed at length, with several ongoing initiatives in the industry currently focused on the joint-development of common HR standards and technologies that enable a more robust, repeatable HR delivery model.  <\/span><\/p>\n

There was universal recognition that HRO works when solutions are crafted from the bottom-up, with services added incrementally and HR leaders having more time to develop successful governance practices, as opposed to some of these massive end-to-end \u201cbig-bang\u201d deployments, that have often resulted in a misalignment of expectations and delivery.  <\/span>This isn\u2019t failure or disaster; it\u2019s a 9 year-old industry testing the boundaries of what works – and what doesn\u2019t.  <\/span>I\u2019ve been at pains recently to point-out that 97% <\/a>of HRO deals have succeeded \u2013 and by succeeded, I emphasize that they are plugging away to get this right.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be brutally honest here, this is business process outsourcing \u2013 and this is a tough complex business, where things can only go wrong<\/em>.  <\/span>You really cannot judge the \u201csuccess\u201d of any major outsourcing engagement until it\u2019s at least<\/em> 3 years\u2019 along and transition has been completed.  <\/span>The day of the billion-dollar mega-HRO deal may be over for now, but take some time to look at the plethora of these \u201cbottom-up\u201d engagements taking place, where companies like ADP<\/a> and Ceridian<\/a> are racking up their HRO clientele at double-digit growth rates; look at Hewitt\u2019s<\/a> re-focused strategy on centering its core benefits outsourcing business as the kernel of its HRO delivery model; and look at Accenture<\/a>‘s and IBM\u2019s<\/a> continuing efforts to optimize their global HRO engagement models, with HR service-delivery centers employing thousands of service personnel across several global locations. The seeds of this industry have been sewn, and we\u2019ve had our reality check.  <\/span>Now it\u2019s time to move on and watch some great companies make this thing work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Braving the annual industry HRO schmooze fest this year, I realized I was emulating Roger Federer\u2019s extraordinary Wimbledon run by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80,832],"tags":[],"organization":[],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-4585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hr-outsourcing","category-hr-strategy","category-sourcing-best-practises"],"yoast_head":"\nHROWorld 2008: An industry re-inventing itself - Horses for Sources | No Boundaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/hroworld-2008-an-industry-re-inventing-itself\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HROWorld 2008: An industry re-inventing itself - 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