I received an email recently from one of the preeminent Talent Management vendors talking about using their Talent Management system to plan for headcount reductions. That particular vendor was not touting a new feature of their application but it started me thinking. Given the substantial industry wide layoffs that are now underway, should the HCM and Talent Management vendors be delivering a module specifically to help with Headcount reductions? If HR systems are truly about managing talent and not just storing information about talent then helping companies identify and retain talented employees should be paramount during a staff reduction. I know that the Performance Management modules can be used to identify both higher and lower performing employees but are these modules scaled to help with massive layoffs? Citigroup is set to layoff 50,000 employees, Bank Of America will eliminate 35,000 jobs and AT&T will let go 12,000 employees.
Are our HCM and Talent Management applications currently up to the task of helping companies make sure they retain the right people when tens of thousands of jobs are being eliminated or do we need something new to help with this? In addition to the Workforce Management menu item do we now need a Workforce Reduction menu item?
What are your thoughts?
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Thanks for posting and starting the discussion. Here is my take on this.
I think that the role of Talent Mgmt is not just to facilitate a layoff but to help recognize and mediate the fallout afterward. The same can be said for a merger.
Now as to whether there is a vendor or customer ready for this I agree we have a way to go there and anyone who wants to suggest otherwise needs to spend some time really self-reflecting vs. attempting to sell you something.
I like the quote Jason Averbook uses to make this point “why does LinkedIn and Facebook know more about your workforce than you do?”