Thomas Otter

(photo from English Cut, one day, I hope to have a suit made there)

There is a lot of excellent cost optimization research going on here at Gartner, and as you would expect it was a key theme at the recent symposium.

My small contribution to the research collection is a note called Workforce Analytics Skills Are Vital for Effective Cost Optimization (you will need to a Gartner client to get full access.) I stressed that few organizations have the workforce analytics systems and skills in place measure where to cut  properly. Without the right analysis first, cuts can damage the organization. One of my favourite HR blogs is The Evil HR lady. She had this to say about cuts and the need for HR  get analytical

We need to not sit by quietly while the "big boys" make the decisions and then carry them out. Are we conducting layoffs? Why? Before we sign on the dotted line we better be showing that his layoff will truly help the company financially. What is the cost of turnover? How come we don’t know this off the top of our heads? (Or at least how to calculate it?) Are we increasing the employee portion of medical expenses? What will be the result of this in terms of turnover? We better be able to build models.
What are models? Crud people, hire yourself some statisticians.

Picking up on this theme, I had a vendor briefing last night from Human Concepts. they have just announced they have acquired Optimize, software used to manage workforce separations, from Taleo Corporation.

I think this is a smart move for both companies, the fit with Human Concepts core organization modelling product is good, and means that Taleo can focus on building  new product on the Taleo Platform, rather than supporting a product they acquired as part of the Vurv takeover. It will be good for the Optimize customers, as the product will receive more attention.

Software alone will not ensure that you do the right thing when cutting, but it is better than simply guessing.

Workforce analytics will be a key part of my and Jim’s  research over the coming months.