Every year, the cliché is to say that some industry or other is experiencing a seismic shift. To paraphrase them, "Everything will be different," the marketers and industry news media say. Often, it's all just a lazy way of reporting or promoting evolutionary change—or no change at all. But occasionally, everything does end up not just different, but radically different. A paradigm shift occurs—an actual, not a hyperbolic, shift in paradigms that changes everything.
In 2012, however, HR and recruiting technologies are becoming radically different from what they've been. We are in the midst of a bona fide paradigm shift. It's only January, and 2011 is already a grainy homemade movie taken with a Super-8 video camera.
The last month of last year saw the formidable enterprise resource planning provider SAP acquire SuccessFactors, the perennial player in cloud technology–based human capital management. Gee, what could that mean? In the future, HCM might not be premise-based? That's a "probably," Roger. And then, SuccessFactors itself acquired Jobs2Web, big player in recruiting technology for social recruiting. Come in, Mission Control: Could the future of recruiting possibly be social media–based? That's another affirmative. Oh, and cloud monster Salesforce.com acquired Rypple, the performance management tool that employs sticky e-mail and social media engagement. What does that one mean? It's the toughest one to make sense of, but it's nevertheless big.
As with every year, HRO Today is about to make some sense from all these and other seismic shifts in technology for human capital management. The process is underway to select winners of the HRO Today 2012 TekTonic Awards, designed to recognize innovation and disruption in the world of technology.
Nominations are due by next Friday, Feb. 10, 2012.
Please email your nomination, including a description of why your product offers disruptive innovation, to Managing Editor Debbie Bolla. To view the award categories, follow this link. The application process for nominated software providers includes the completion of an online survey by customers and the submission of an analyst report. All winners will be announced at the HRO Today Forum April 30 through May 2, 2012, and featured in the June issue of HRO Today.
