This year, AT&T identified a labor supply issue that many other organizations are also struggling with. Only about half of AT&T's 250,000 employees had the necessary science, technology, engineering, and math skills that the company requires. They had a tough choice to make – they could hire software and engineering people and pay extremely high acquisition costs to secure them.

One of the biggest challenges that HR departments in organizations face, is meeting their objectives with limited resources. In particular, it can be difficult to keep up with ongoing trends in HR and the tools with which to accomplish tasks and strategic goals. There are a number of software companies out there that supply tools to help HR departments and it can be difficult to figure out which tools are a best fit and which companies provide the best service and support.

You’ve implemented a new HRIS but was that implementation successful? And how to measure that success? The system may be functioning perfectly and yet be an utter failure.

It’s tempting to go the ‘gut instinct’ route. After all, everything’s working, the sky hasn’t fallen, and it ‘feels’ like a successful conclusion to months of work.

Businesses around the world are facing an interesting challenge – they want to provide the latest engaging technology tools to their employees to improve productivity, but they need to ensure that they are using the right tools for their organization so they can automate repetitive tasks and create streamlined workflows without increasing their technical and administration costs.

There has been plenty of press about the disastrous Phoenix payroll implementation in the Canadian federal government. This week I read about yet another case of large payroll errors due to a new system implementation. And this time it was the Maricopa County Community College district, which is one of the largest community college districts in the US.

There is a lot of internet buzz about the newest and latest technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing, and how they might be applicable to HR. Compare that level of buzz to the reality of the innovation application in HR and there is a stark difference between what organizations are talking about and what they are actually doing.

In this day and age, there are hardly any organizations that do not have an HR system in place. Maybe they are only using Excel and Access for performance, Word for policies, Manual for call-ins, scheduling and discipline; Smart lists for disability management; Great Plains for Payroll and still EMS for employee records. Well, you get the picture now. You must have realized that there are issues with this approach.

The phone rings, I take the call, it’s not pleasant and it happens more than you’d think. I’m referring to prospective clients that are deep into, or have completed an HRIS implementation before they realize that the software will not do the job. They have spent good money, still have their needs unmet, and are exhausted by the failed process.

Payroll, Compensation and Employee Benefits are among the foundational building blocks within an organization to support your human resources - the people that work for you. Effective and efficient management of those functional areas can be significantly improved, or compromised, depending upon the company’s level of understanding of those functions. Your use of reliable data from those areas is key to supporting informed decisions and becoming a world class organization.

Year-end is usually a time for reflection; and I couldn’t help notice how much AI and machine learning have been talked about as the biggest trends in HR Technology in 2017. As someone who regularly reads Bill Kutik’s commentary on HR technology trends, his post on the Major Memes of HR Tech resonated with me as it illustrates how some tech trends, like ESS,