Archive

2021 (1)

Monday, January 11 | Let’s Talk About Life: The Power Of Memories And Relationships In Coping With The Loss Of My Life Partner
Introduction Some of you may know that I wrote this widely read blog from November 2009 until my last post in August 2019. It wasn’t retirement that stopped me from blogging but rather the need to focus 200% on getting Ron through his second bout with cancer. While I was blogging regularly, about 80% of […]

2019 (2)

Friday, August 9 | Let’s Talk About Life: The Power Of Memories
My father passed away in 1995 just before my 50th birthday, and we buried him on my birthday. At his funeral, there was quite a crowd, not because of his prominence but because of all he had done for others in the community where he’d lived all his life. Not a man of any wealth, […]
Monday, April 22 | Passover Memories: Family, Food, And Immigration Policy
I’ve been feeling a little weepy this Passover, awash in memories of the epic Seders of my orthodox Jewish childhood. They were epic, not just in the number of people participating, nor in the abundance of wonderful, traditional dishes, but especially in the learning, the discussion, the debating, and the inclusion in all of that […]

2018 (7)

Sunday, December 23 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Retail Inventory Management
There are times when I really hate being a grownup, when I’d like nothing better than to be the child I never was. When your Mom dies before your sixth birthday, you grow up fast. And when your Jewish family’s economic survival depends on what their small retail business sells to their Christian customers during […]
Wednesday, July 11 | The Cavalry Isn’t Coming: “We The People” Are Our Only Defense
There was always the moment, in those old Westerns, when the settler families, perhaps led by John Wayne, realized that the Cavalry weren’t going to get there in time to save them from the outlaw gang which was intent on raping their women, stealing their horses, killing them, and burning to the ground everything that they […]
Thursday, June 28 | We Cannot Be Paralyzed By Our Fears!
I cried myself to sleep last night, more discouraged about America than I could ever remember. We worked so hard to get to an enviable place in our pursuit of that more perfect union, to a level of human and civil rights, of social justice and the rule of law, which was the envy of the […]
Tuesday, June 12 | Conference Attendee Tips — Illustrated Journaling, Golden Age mysteries, Boat Shows and More
Yes, I’m retired, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped learning — or attending conferences. Whether it’s the annual Florida Watercolor Society convention, and Urban Sketchers event, Emily’s List conference, or the Agatha Christie International Festival, much of what I learned about making the most of my time at the HR technology conferences of my pre-retirement […]
Saturday, June 9 | Suicide Leaves Indelible Scars: Remembering Joey Shapiro
Anthony Bourdain’s suicide and all the related tributes, personal introspections, lamentations and analysis have really upset me, and not because I feel his loss personally. Not being a foodie, I didn’t even know who he was until I caught a piece of one of his shows because I saw it mentioned as including Barack Obama. […]
Thursday, May 31 | Life Explained: A 3-Legged Stool
I’ve never understood people who take full credit for their accomplishments, as though getting top grades, running the fastest mile, being the most productive developer on the team, exceeding sales targets or alphabetizing by author and within genre your thousands of physical, wonderful to hold, books was a solo performance. And I’ll admit to cringing when […]
Monday, May 21 | Moving On: Tying Up The Loose Ends Of My Career
After several years of winding down my career gradually, I’m finally ready to pull the plug 100%. May 21, 2018 will hereafter be known as my retirement date. I’ve had a really wonderful time, done my best to make a difference, and made some great friends along the way, but now it’s time to move […]

2017 (6)

Saturday, December 23 | Naomi’s Christmas: Restorative Aloneness And A Childhood Spent In Retail
Ron left the house this morning before dawn, headed to Redmond, OR to spend Christmas with a range of Wallaces. Time moves more slowly when I’m alone, and it’s a very rare treat. Having a few days at home completely on my own hasn’t happened in years, in part because Ron was reluctant to leave […]
Monday, December 11 | Reprise: A Great Miracle Happened Here!
Chanukah 2017, With My HR Tech Wishes For 2018 Have you ever played the Chanukah game of spin the dreidel? With or without the modified rules derived from “spin the bottle?” Did you know that the four letters, one on each side of the dreidel, make up a phrase that translates to “a great miracle happened […]
Wednesday, April 26 | Belated Comments On Workday’s 2-27-2017 Earnings Call
[This should have been written and published in early March, but that’s when our kitchen remodel project went into what’s called demolition, and life at Bloom & Wallace has been pretty disrupted ever since. It’s going to be gorgeous when finished, but first we have to survive the process. And I can tell you from […]
Sunday, April 16 | A Layman’s Thoughts On American Healthcare
At the end of 2009, as the ACA was being born, while I was recovering from a fully insured (but dreadfully painful post-op) rotator cuff surgery, I shared my two cents worth on the coming of the ACA. With the healthcare debate now front and central in the GOP-controlled Congress, which is committed to repealing the […]
Monday, January 9 | Strategic Planning Is A Mindset!
Strategic planning is a mindset which can be applied to great swaths of your life. If you’re willing to do the heavy lifting, just like in business, strategic planning provides much improved outcomes. With all of my exciting plans for Christmas and New Year’s taking a back seat to my second head/chest cold of the season […]
Wednesday, January 4 | Death By Lousy HRM
Preface I don’t know what got into me. Without any planning of plot or characters, without any outline of key points chapter by chapter and, quite frankly, without knowing what the hell I was doing, I just started writing. The first chapter was posted 12-6-2016 (the finale on 12-30-2016), and then the fat really was in the […]

2016 (33)

Friday, December 30 | Death By Lousy HRM — Finale
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV, Chapter XVI, Chapter XVII and Chapter XVIII in case you missed them.] And there it was! DCI Fritz saw the way forward. Without forensic evidence to prove him the murderer or even an […]
Thursday, December 29 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XVIII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV, Chapter XVI and Chapter XVII in case you missed them.] There was silence as each of them absorbed the implications of what had just been said against the known backdrop of the case. […]
Wednesday, December 28 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XVII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV and Chapter XVI in case you missed them.] As they kicked around these latest ideas, DCI Fritz began to draw up a chart of his own on a napkin. Who could […]
Tuesday, December 27 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XVI
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV and Chapter XV in case you missed them.] While they were still digesting Zelda’s Sherry tray bombshell, and knowing that the thorough search for it would take many hours or even days, […]
Monday, December 26 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XV
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, and Chapter XIV in case you missed them.] When they’d gathered, making small talk until their food had been served, it struck each of the two ladies, without any conversation about it, that […]
Saturday, December 24 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
[I’ll get back to writing about my life after HR tech, about the murders I’m encountering along the way (as in murder mysteries), and about my increasingly portfolio life style, on Monday. But before we get to 2017, here’s the last reflection for 2016, on my childhood in the 50’s. The memories of those early years become more […]
Friday, December 23 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XIV
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII and Chapter XIII in case you missed them.] The next big issue presented itself to DCI Fritz when he got the final autopsy report with toxicology results. The most interesting item was that Mr. Cummins had […]
Thursday, December 22 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XIII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI and Chapter XII in case you missed them.] With this first news conference behind them, and everyone working hard on their assigned inquiries or analyses, and with the analyst assigned to help her making good progress, […]
Wednesday, December 21 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X and Chapter XI in case you missed them.] On one thing they all agreed. Much more deciphering was needed to paint a more complete picture of what Mr. Cummins had been doing, for how long he had been […]
Tuesday, December 20 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter XI
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX and Chapter X in case you missed them.] Fearful that Ms. Patel had fainted, Zelda stopped mid-way in her explanation of what she had found and moved quickly to Ms. Patel’s side while DCI Fritz asked one of his officers […]
Monday, December 19 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter X
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII, Chapter VIII and Chapter IX in case you missed them.] Mr. Wrigley was the first to speak after the word murder had hung in the air for a bit, and he was quite agitated. “But we’re a top security facility, and there’s not a […]
Friday, December 16 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter IX
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI , Chapter VII and Chapter VIII in case you missed them.] As agreed, they all convened in Mr. Wrigley’s office at 7:00 AM, hoping to meet while the building was quiet so as not to attract undue attention. Because she was best qualified to explain their […]
Thursday, December 15 | Death by Lousy HRM — Chapter VIII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI and Chapter VII in case you missed them.] In response to Zelda’s excitement over the phone, DCI Fritz stopped only long enough to pick up some tea and scones in the cafeteria, rightly assuming that Zelda hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for […]
Wednesday, December 14 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter VII
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V and Chapter VI in case you missed them.] With her eyes gone dry and her back aching, Zelda knew she needed a break and some time for all the disparate facts and questions to chase each other around her fertile brain until a useful pattern emerged. […]
Tuesday, December 13 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter VI
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV and Chapter V in case you missed them.] Zelda did not sleep well that night, but she was up early to notify her boss of what had happened and that DCI Fritz would be in touch to request information about her project and, perhaps others on the campus, which she […]
Monday, December 12 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter V
[Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III and Chapter IV in case you missed them.] Zelda had remained where DCI had found her when he arrived on the scene. As he approached her for his preliminary interview, she appeared to have dozed off (it was nearly 9:00 PM), but in fact she was in the early stages […]
Friday, December 9 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter IV
[Chapter I, Chapter II, and Chapter III in case you missed them.] It certainly felt like several hours had passed, but in fact it was only twenty minutes before DCI Fritz of the Peterborough CID arrived, followed shortly by his forensics, coroner and crime scene crew (collectively referred to as SOC). After asking Zelda if she […]
Thursday, December 8 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter III
Chapter I and Chapter II in case you missed them.] Mr. Cummins and Zelda agreed to meet the next afternoon, just a little after the close of business, because Zelda had to lead a major code review that was going to take all day. That night, in addition to preparing for the code review, she […]
Wednesday, December 7 | Death by Lousy HRM — Chapter II
[Chapter I in case you missed it.] Meanwhile, Doha Doha Castiglione, Dee Dee to his friends, was watching in shock and disbelief the dramatic interaction between Creepy Cummins, whom he’d begun to loath, and Zelda Kahniefmeyer, who had swooped in like an avenging angel to save his candidacy. So, when Zelda suggested that they grab […]
Tuesday, December 6 | Death By Lousy HRM — Chapter I
It was a dark and stormy night at Metadata Hall, the restored country manor house which was the UK regional headquarters for Great Software Inc., one of the largest global providers of all the software that anyone should ever need. Most employees had long since left for the long Bank Holiday weekend, but Zelda Kahniefmeyer was […]
Sunday, November 27 | Belated Reflections For Thanksgiving 2016
[If this post looks familiar, you’re not imagining things. I’ve done an annual Thanksgiving post for several years now because giving thanks and counting my blessings becomes more important with each passing year. As the body gets creakier and less obedient, and as pain levels become ever more challenging, writing this post is therapeutic. Almost as effective […]
Monday, October 31 | After A Half Century — “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish”
[Updated 11-12-2016: Well, so far, my pivot hasn’t worked out as planned, but then why should I be surprised? First, I came down with the head/chest cold from hell. With three major conferences in a row, the attendant hugging of a zillion colleagues, hours spent breathing everyone’s germs in flights, and changes in diet/time zones/etc., this was […]
Saturday, October 22 | SaaS Economics, Competitive Moats, And Interrogatory Configuration
[You may also enjoy my “Firing Line with Bill Kutik” episode on this.] There’s been a lot of discussion across the enterprise IT and financial analyst community about the long term economic viability of the SaaS business model. And the enterprise IT community continues to debate the merits of the various flavors of SaaS architectural and infrastructural models. […]
Saturday, September 17 | If You Don’t Ask The Right Qs, You Get The Answers You Deserve!
To get maximum value from attending #HRTechConf and/or #HRTechWorld, prepare your questions carefully and gather different points of view on possible answers. Be an investigative journalist in order to get useful answers to your important questions. Introduction It’s conference season, and we’d better get our act together if we’re not going to be “Trumped” during our time spent at […]
Wednesday, September 14 | Big Conference Attendee Tips — #HRTechConf, #HRTechWorld, #WdayRising
It’s that time of year again, and this year I’m scheduled for three major HR technology conferences between now and Halloween. Each is very different, but for me each represents a valuable opportunity to learn, network, visit with old friends, share what I know, and did I mention learn? I’ll have my husband, Ron Wallace, […]
Saturday, September 10 | Remembering 9/11/2001: Let’s Give ’em Hell!
For this 15th anniversary of jihadist Islam’s declaration of war on the United States, I wanted to express my anger at what this war has cost all of us in the loss of privacy and freedom as well as in human lives and treasure. It’s a war whose enemy combatants wear no recognizable uniforms, dwell […]
Wednesday, September 7 | Workday’s 8/24/2016 Earnings Call — Non-Financial Thoughts
There’s been some great coverage of their latest earnings call, to include from Dennis Howlett at Diginomica and Larry Dignan at ZDNet (and please do point me to other high quality coverage). Now I’m neither a financial or IT analyst, but I do think there are a few items from that earnings call which deserve a […]
Wednesday, August 31 | Prep Now For Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, And The “Days Of Awe” — 5777
[Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sunday, 10/2, and continues through sundown on Tuesday, 10/4. And thus begins the Hebrew year 5777. Yom Kippur beings at sundown on Tuesday, 10/11 and continues through sundown on Wednesday, 10/12/17.] Last year’s Jewish High Holy Days occurred right when I was celebrating my 70th birthday, so I was […]
Sunday, August 14 | Women In Tech, ‘Firing Line’, And Naomi’s World
Some of you may know that I started my professional career in 1967 as a programmer trainee at then John Hancock Life Insurance in Boston. I was part of a trainee class that was made up primarily of new grads from Ivy League universities with degrees in such diverse fields as linguistics, sociology, anthropology and, […]
Wednesday, June 29 | Home Remodeling, Moving To SaaS, And Life Lessons
In the last year, I’ve relearned a valuable lesson in vendor research, short-listing, evaluation, selection and management, and it’s been a very painful, expensive, and embarrassing lesson for someone who should have known better. Yes, there’s no fool like an old fool, especially when we let our good intentions and personal relationships get in the […]
Friday, June 17 | Annual Reprise — Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom
[When I wrote the original version of this post for Father’s Day 2010, I never planned to update and then reprise this post annually. But as each Father’s Day approaches, my sense of loss increases. With no family members of my father’s generation still living, my own sense of mortality grows. I so wish my Dad were still here […]
Saturday, April 2 | Grand Passion Is Essential To Both Great Wine And Enterprise Software
Ron and I spent mid-Feb to mid-March 2016 traveling in New Zealand and Australia, spending most of our time visiting with much-loved friends in both countries who we see far less often than we’d like. Although we have tons of modern ways to keep in touch, there’s just no substitute for being there, being together, hugging […]
Sunday, February 14 | From Human Resource Management To Worker Management Or ???
If you’ve read even a few of my posts, then you know I focus pretty consistently on an issue that lurks, quietly but dangerously, waiting to sabotage our best efforts to achieve improved organizational outcomes through improved workforce performance. The villain of this piece is the sloppy, inconsistent, ill-defined and rampant misuse of terminology. The English major/natural […]

2015 (15)

Wednesday, December 30 | Workday’s 2015 Tech Summit: What Hasn’t Been Reported Widely Enough
There’s been a ton of great coverage out of Workday’s 2015 Tech Summit, a preliminary list of which I’ve included below and to which I’ll add as others bring their coverage to my attention. But having attended this well-run event and after reading the coverage below and more, I was struck by how little attention […]
Sunday, December 20 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
[I’ll get back to writing about #EnSW, especially #HRtech, right after the New Year, but my recent strolls down memory lane have been part of my celebrations and reflections on turning 70, something you only get to do once. I also hope to make a lot more progress in the New Year on freshening my […]
Thursday, December 10 | Reprise: A Great Miracle Happened Here!
Chanukah 2015 HR Tech Wishes For 2016 Have you ever played the Chanukah game of spin the dreidel? With or without the modified rules derived from “spin the bottle?” Did you know that the four letters, one on each side of the dreidel, make up a phrase that translates to “a great miracle happened here.” […]
Monday, November 23 | Reflections For Thanksgiving 2015
Being both Jewish and American presents me with two major opportunities each year (so on Rosh Hashanah and now on Thanksgiving) to reflect on how very fortunate I am to live in this amazing country and on what I can do to make it and myself better. For all the problems we’ve got, and they are […]
Wednesday, October 14 | Prepare Your Questions For #HRTechWorld and #HRTechConf
If you don’t ask the right questions, you sure as hell won’t get useful answers! It’s HR technology conference season, and we’d better get our act together if we’re going to get the maximum value from our time spent at these conferences. That means knowing what questions we’re trying to answer before we’re bombarded with […]
Thursday, October 8 | #HRTechWorld And #HRTechConf 2015 Attendee Tips
With only one of me while both major HR technology conferences — if you haven’t attended the HR Tech World Congress, you may not realize that it’s become as large and as much of a must attend as the wonderful and separately owned/produced HR Tech Conference & Expo— are scheduled over just 10+ days later […]
Tuesday, September 22 | Reflections On Turning 70 — I’m Not Going Quietly!
I’m turning 70 this week — yes, 70 years old — and that milestone, combined with the natural period of reflection that I always observe around the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, has reminded me of just how truly blessed has been my life, how very lucky I am to have gotten […]
Thursday, September 10 | In Enterprise Software And Luxury Accommodations, Details Matter And No Disappointments Accepted
Ron and I have been spending a lovely holiday in England, treating ourselves to very high end accommodations in London and the Cotswolds, and now on the south coast of Cornwall. We’ve been having a wonderful time, including visits with friends, lots of theater in London, and endless explorations of quiet Cotswold and Cornish villages. Our […]
Tuesday, September 1 | Reprise: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, And The “Days Of Awe” — 5776
Not only does Yom Kippur begin at sundown on 9/22/2015, but my birthday follows immediately thereafter — 9/24/2015 — and it’s A BIG ONE, 70. It’s the age I always thought of as really old, but of course I’ve now redefined old age to start at 90. It’s another decade of my life coming to a close, thus increasing […]
Friday, June 5 | Persistent HRM Object Model Errors Part II — Separating Position From Worker
Introduction I’ve been on the warpath about flawed HR technology object models (and their predecessors, flawed data models) for longer than most of you have been sentient. My pique on this subject goes way back to the late 80’s and a now infamous consulting gig at then PeopleSoft in its early days when I expressed my […]
Thursday, May 21 | Modest Rant — Your HR Technology Portfolio Contains Three Types Of HCM Applications
[This post was inspired by an exchange in the HR Technology Conference discussion group.] When I look across all of HRM with the most expansive and contemporary perspective on work and workers (so here I include humanoid robots as workers but clearly not persons), I see the need and market for three very different types of […]
Friday, March 13 | Israel and Jordan: A Traveller’s Tale
[It’s been three months since I did my last direct client consulting, and I’m loving the transition to industry observer and kibitzer. I’ve got two major blog post series underway — one on persistent errors I see in the underlying object models of far too much HCM software (including brand new software) and one a […]
Wednesday, February 25 | Modest Rant — No HCM Pain/Rethink/Disruption, Then Little Business Gain
[This post evolved from my Twitter reactions to a range of marketing messages and advertorials which make it sound as though their current on-premise customers, as well as the on-premise customers of other vendors, could get all the benefits of business innovation enabled by next generation HCM software without much rethinking, redesigning, and disruption. Dare […]
Saturday, February 21 | Modest Rant — HCM SaaS Economics — One More Time!
[The impetus for this post, first published 2-21-2015, was some absolute nonsense online which sort of equated SaaS to “cloud” (and faux “cloud” at that), then suggested that, while customers might save a little in the short run with SaaS, it would cost them more in the long run (here using a strictly in-house TCO cost model without much attention […]
Monday, February 2 | Persistent HRM Object Model Errors Part I — Job And Position
Introduction In May 2012, I published a blog post that covered the basics of objects and object modeling — the very basic basics. Assuming you’ve all been studying this topic since then (if you hadn’t already done so), it seemed like a good time to note that simply applying the right modeling techniques does not get […]

2014 (15)

Monday, December 22 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
[Disclosure: If you think you’ve read something very similar before, you’re quite right. And you may read an updated version in the future. I learned so much about business, absorbed it through my pores, as I worked at Bloom’s Camera (later, Bloom’s Photo Supply and then just Bloom’s, Inc.), lingered at my grandmother’s kitchen table […]
Sunday, December 14 | A Great Miracle Happened Here! — Chanukah 2014 Wishes For HR Tech in 2015
Have you ever played the Chanukah game of spin the dreidel? Did you know that the four letters, one on each side of the dreidel, make up a phrase that translates to “a great miracle happened here.” Chanukah celebrates the miracle of freedom, a celebration not of a military victory but rather of the miracle […]
Monday, December 8 | A Rare (For Me) Commentary On Very Small Market US Payroll Tech
Background This post was inspired by a recent discussion among the Enterprise Irregulars. It began when one of our members called our attention to a recent story about ZenPayroll’s impressive roster of successful Silly Valley (my term for the group think or herd instinct often found in the Bay Area) entrepreneurs who had become investors. His inquiry: “Hyperbole […]
Monday, December 1 | Applications Integration — Core HR And Talent Management
[Looking for an appropriate image to convey the necessity of deep integration across core HR (whose system’s name is HRMS) and talent management (whose system’s name is usually abbreviated TM), I remembered this really terrific graphic from Josh Bersin. Giving tremendous credit where it’s due, this graphic is from an equally terrific post by Josh […]
Monday, November 24 | Reprise: Thanksgiving 2014, Marc Benioff’s 1-1-1, And Immigration Reform
Being both Jewish and American presents me with two major opportunities (so Rosh Hashanah and now Thanksgiving) each year to reflect on how very fortunate I am to live in this amazing country and on what I can do to make it better. For all the problems we’ve got, and they are daunting, we are so […]
Friday, November 7 | “Now I Had The Time Of My Life, And I Owe It All To You”
Or, How Macular Degeneration Changes Your Thinking Even Before It Changes How You See The World One of my favorite movies ever is “Dirty Dancing.” It takes place at a Borscht Belt-style resort of the late 1950’s/early 1960’s, has a musical score full of songs to which I danced in my early teens, and characters who […]
Friday, September 19 | Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, And The “Days Of Awe” — 5775
Not only does Rosh Hashanah begin 9/23/2014 at sundown, but my birthday follows immediately thereafter — 9/24/2014 — and it’s a big one. Not THE BIG ONE, but close enough to remind me that another decade is coming to a close. With far fewer years in front of me than those in my rear view […]
Friday, September 12 | Reprise — #HRTechConf And #HRTechEurope 2014 Attendee Tips
This comes to you from our Viking Longship, Forseti, tied up in the very heart of the City of Bordeaux on its completely renewed waterfront. We’ve had a wonderful three weeks of travel in France, including a week’s wine tasting cruise through the rivers of Bordeaux, but it’s time to get back to work. And since […]
Tuesday, September 9 | 2014 Edition: Do You Know How To Answer These HR Technology Questions?
[ It’s HR technology conference season, and we’d better get our shit together if we’re going to get the maximum value from our time spent at these conferences. That means knowing what questions we’re trying to answer before we’re bombarded with vendors telling us that whatever they’re selling is the answer to our not-yet-formulated-clearly questions. […]
Saturday, June 14 | Annual Reprise — Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom
[When I wrote the original version of this post for Father’s Day 2010, I never planned to update and then reprise this post annually. But as each Father’s Day has approached, my sense of loss increases. I so wish my Dad were still here to share with me and my sister the laughter and tears of everyday living. […]
Saturday, May 31 | Reprise 2014: SAP, SAP, Wherefore Art Thou SAP?
[The first version of this post was published May 25th, 2013 during the run-up to SAPPHIRE NOW 2013 and very shortly after SAP announced Lars Dalgaard’s departure and Vishal Sikka’s increased responsibilities — and very important responsibilities they were. Now here we are, nearly one year later, with Vishal gone, Bill McDermott as solo CEO, […]
Sunday, March 30 | Hidden Talent
As some of you know from my tweets, I tap danced last night as part of a very special adaptation of a classic Fibber McGee and Molly radio show at our annual fundraiser, Radio Daze: OnStage With Florida Rep. It was quite a night, a successful and really fun evening, with many thanks to the […]
Thursday, February 13 | Smart Machines/Robotics — Implications For HRM/HRTech — Where Do I Begin?
Last week I was privileged to deliver a presentation to the top women execs at ADP about the future of HR and HR technology. Sounds straightforward enough, but it wasn’t. My presentation wrote itself, and it demanded that I title it: ” A Tale of Two Futures.” One of those futures I described as extrapolative, […]
Monday, January 13 | My 2014 And Beyond Wish List For HRM And HR Technology
[I posted my first such wish list 1/29/2013, and just writing it lifted my spirits. So, I thought to myself, why not do it again?] If any of us really knew what was going to happen in 2014, wouldn’t we keep it to ourselves and invest accordingly? Furthermore, anyone worth their salt in the industry thought […]
Wednesday, January 8 | Applications Integration — Financials And HR
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about both business and applications integration. You may have read my modest rant on the bastardization of the term integration as used to describe how applications are connected. You also may have seen my videocast comments on the reasons why I think that your HRMS and core talent management applications […]

2013 (33)

Monday, December 23 | Modest Rant — Applications Integration By Any Other Name… Is Something Else
Given the active discussion (debate?) over on LinkedIn about my proposed definition of true SaaS (now renamed “Blooming SaaS,” this post was intended to be more of an insistence on precise definitions than a disparagement of other business/deployment/architectural options in enterprise HRM software), I thought I’d rattle a few more cages. In the interests of encouraging […]
Monday, December 16 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
[Disclosure: If you think you’ve read something very similar before, you’re quite right. And you may read an updated version in the future. I learned so much about business, absorbed it through my pores, as I worked at Bloom’s Camera (later, Bloom’s Photo Supply and then just Bloom’s, Inc.), lingered at my grandmother’s kitchen […]
Wednesday, November 27 | Thanksgiving 2013, Marc Benioff’s 1-1-1, And Immigration Reform
It’s that time of year again when I reflect on how very fortunate I am to live in this amazing country and on what I can do to make it better. For all the problems we’ve got, and they are daunting, we are so very blessed to be here. For my first two blogging Thanksgivings, I did […]
Monday, November 25 | Modest Rant — Blooming SaaS Or Not
[After a really terrific discussion of this post’s original version, along with a zillion surrounding/closely related topics, over on LinkedIn, I’ve updated the terminology in this post as of 12-3-2013 to replace “true SaaS” with “Blooming SaaS.” This change is not intended to be facetious but rather to ensure that using value-laden adjectives, like true or […]
Saturday, November 16 | Where Were You — 11-22-1963
I was on such a limited budget, working nearly full-time, as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, that I couldn’t buy all of my first semester books at the very start of the semester. So there I was, in the basement (textbook section) of the UPenn campus book store, during my lunch break on […]
Saturday, November 9 | InFullBloom’s 4th Anniversary — Where To From Here?
I launched my blog about 4 years ago, 11-8-2009. In my wildest dreams, I never expected to attract so many loyal readers nor did I realize how much I would enjoy blogging. I so wish new readers could start at the beginning because I’ve been writing many posts that are best read in sequence if you […]
Sunday, October 27 | Do You Know How To Answer These HR Technology Questions?
[ I published the original version of this post on 9-12-2011, just in time for the 2011 HR Technology Conference, and I did an updated edition for the 2012 conference. I had planned to do another updated version for the 2013 HR Tech Conference in Las Vegas and the 2013 HR Tech Europe Conference in Amsterdam (which by now you […]
Wednesday, September 25 | Reprise — #HRTechConf And #HRTechEurope 2013 Attendee Tips
This comes to you from the Hilton at Heathrow Airport. We’ve had a wonderful sojourn in England — such a civilized country, especially when you’re far away from any large cities — but it’s time to get back to work. And since I know I won’t have wifi on the flight across the pond tomorrow, […]
Wednesday, September 4 | Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, And The “Days Of Awe” — 5774
As the years in front are increasingly outnumbered by the years behind, it’s a wise person who takes stock of what they’d like to do/see/experience/learn/etc. during those years in front and how and with whom they would like to spend their precious time. And today, we begin the Days of Awe, that time between Rosh Hashanah and […]
Sunday, September 1 | #HRTechConf & #HRTechEurope: 68th Birthday Resolutions
As I get ready to host Brazen Hussies events, speak at and attend the 2013 HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas and the (not related) European HR Technology Conference in Amsterdam, I’ve got some surprises up my sleeves, to include announcing my latest professional resolutions. There’s nothing more motivating when you really want to keep resolutions […]
Monday, August 12 | My First Word On #HRTechConf 2013 — And Your Best Discount
I’m writing this as Ron and I are in New England visiting my family and both childhood and university friends. One of our visits is to North Haven Island, off the coast of Maine and only accessible by Ferry (assuming the seas aren’t running too high). I’m told we’ll have at least limited cellular service, and our B&B […]
Monday, August 5 | Naomi’s Next Chapter: “Life’s A Banquet, And Most Poor Suckers Are Starving”
Wrapping Up My Consulting Practice, Starting My Next Career Chapter [For those of who got an early draft, please do read the final as I’ve updated it considerably based on your feedback and some late-breaking next chapter developments.] One of my absolute favorite actresses of all time was Rosalind Russell. She died of breast cancer in 1976, […]
Thursday, July 4 | July 4th Thoughts — Democracy Is Messy
I don’t remember a time when there were so many revolutions (or whatever you choose to call them) happening around the world, so many uprisings of ordinary people against the behavior, policies, strictures, etc. of their governments. Yes, I know that some of these involve millennium-old sectarian or ethnic hostilities burbling to the surface as […]
Wednesday, June 26 | Yikes! Is Oracle Reeling In Salesforce And NetSuite?
[Updated 6-30-2013 after having a little time to digest this week’s overload of Oracle deals and read/listen to many other perspectives. Whatever else may have been said by those much smarter and more in the loop than I am, it remains very clear that everyone involved in these deals is trying to shore up their […]
Friday, June 21 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Vienna — Final Update
Are you able to speak fluently a language other than your native one? Two such additional languages? Three? Four? Five? If you’re an American, you’re mostly answering no. How many of my American colleagues/followers are able to deliver a quality professional presentation in a language other than their native one? To participate in a business meeting […]
Monday, June 17 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Vienna — Update #2
In my first update from this amazing trip, I highlighted what we saw as outstanding performance by the concierge at The Ritz Carlton Istanbul in rescuing us when we got caught in the violent Taksim Park protests at the start of our vacation. But the logistics of that rescue were small potatoes compared with the logistical challenges […]
Saturday, June 15 | Annual Reprise — Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom
[When I wrote this for Father’s Day 2010, I never planned to update and then reprise this post annually. But as each Father’s Day approaches, my sense of loss increases. I so wish he were still here to share with me and my sister the laughter and tears of everyday living. Ron and I have large paintings […]
Tuesday, June 11 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Vienna — Update #1
There’s an old sailor’s expression that “anyone can man the helm when the seas are calm.” More than just in boating, this observation describes so many aspects of our work and personal lives. When everything is going along as planned, when we’re not thrown any curve balls, when G-d doesn’t decide to laugh in our faces, then […]
Tuesday, May 28 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Vienna
Ron and I will be traveling from 5/28/2013 through 6/13/2013 from Istanbul to Vienna (note: the route on the map shows the opposite direction), soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every step of the way. I’ll be doing some tweeting from “the road,” @InFullBloomUS, but I may not […]
Saturday, May 25 | SAP, SAP, Wherefore Art Thou SAP?
[Full disclosure: SAP has not been a client in many years, and then my work with them was quite limited.] I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for SAP. When I published my first (and thus far only) 700+ page book in 1994 (“Human Resource Management and Information Technology: Achieving A Strategy Partnership”), Klaus […]
Monday, May 20 | HRM Analytics — Dashboards, Cockpits And Mission Control
[Many of you know that my husband, Ron Wallace, was a mission manager at NASA for international Search and Rescue Programs (official program name COSPAS/SARSAT) until he took early retirement in 1999 so that we could relocate to our present home in Fort Myers, FL. We were both fascinated by all things spacey, and continue […]
Monday, April 29 | Painting And HR Technology — Yes, There’s A Connection
One of my goals for 2013 is to spend more time painting, particularly illustrated journaling. The particular techniques of interest are to do quick, annotated line drawings and/or watercolor sketches of whatever takes my fancy as we travel/play/go boating/whatever within an easily portable bound journal. I also want to try creating drawings that I can […]
Thursday, April 11 | I’m Feeling Optimistic About The State Of HR Technology!
I’ve been feeling quite optimistic lately about the state of HR technology, which is quite a good feeling. For most of my career, I’ve been frustrated by less than great software and less than great adoption of the best available software, but now there are multiple reasons for optimism on both fronts. First, I see several vendors moving and/or […]
Monday, April 8 | Reprise — How I Evaluate HRM Vendors/Products — What Impresses Me
[After many vendor briefings in Q1 2011, I published a series of blog posts summarizing my reactions to those briefings which really captured, as of then, how I evaluated vendors and their products/services. Rereading those posts after a two year hiatus, I was struck not only by their relevance to my current thinking about this […]
Monday, April 1 | Reprise — How I Evaluate HRM Vendors/Products — Capability Matters
[After many vendor briefings in Q1 2011, I published a series of blog posts summarizing my reactions to those briefings which really captured, as of then, how I evaluated vendors and their products/services. Rereading those posts after a two year hiatus, I was struck not only by their relevance to my current thinking about this […]
Monday, March 25 | Reprise — How I Evaluate HRM Vendors/Products — Strategy Matters
Happy Pesach! And for those of you with a few minutes to spare, this video from http://www.maccabeats.com will get you into the right mood. For those of you who celebrate Pesach, and for those of you who don’t, my personal prayer is that every form of slavery, from physical to economic to psychological, will be wiped out […]
Monday, March 18 | Reprise — How I Evaluate Vendors/Products — Ambition Matters
[After many vendor briefings in Q1 2011, I published a series of blog posts summarizing my reactions to those briefings which really captured, as of then, how I evaluated vendors and their products/services. Rereading those posts after a two year hiatus, I was struck not only by their relevance to my current thinking about this topic […]
Tuesday, March 5 | The Mysteries Of HRM And HR Technology — From The Pen Of Naomi Bloom
Those who know me well know that one of my greatest pleasures is opening, literally, a new mystery book of the British cozies flavor. These are the types of mysteries written during the Golden Age of British mysteries by the Queens of this genre: Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. I so […]
Wednesday, February 13 | There Are No Stars On A Failed Project!
There was quite a lot of discussion on Twitter and in the blogosphere earlier this week about a major payroll project disaster plaguing the State of California government. That discussion broadened to include tales of more failed payroll as well as ERP and various other large-scale systems projects. If you want to immerse yourself in tales of such […]
Tuesday, February 12 | Reprise — An Open Letter To HR Executives
[The original version of this post was published here in January, 2012, but a call I did last night with a magazine editor reminded me that we must emphasize just how important it is to start any HR technology project with a well-grounded strategy. Far too many HR leaders (and CFOs, line of business leaders, […]
Saturday, February 2 | Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes At Bloom & Wallace
[ We’ve been revising our business strategy, mix of clients, project types, and so much more on a regular basis since 1987, but this is the first time we’ve made such changes in the era of social tech. My own view is that we should be as transparent online as we are IRL, and that’s the […]
Tuesday, January 29 | My 2013 And Beyond Wish List For HRM And HR Technology
Never mind trying to make meaningful predictions, which are very hard to do safely when you’re under a zillion NDAs. Instead, I’m focusing my energies on what I want to happen. What would I make happen if my magic wand, bought years ago at FAO Schwarz, could be recharged? What would I ask him to do if The […]
Saturday, January 12 | Anyone Can Man The Helm When The Seas Are Calm
If you’re an observer of effective HRM and IT, if you’re passionate about what happens at the intersection of these subject matter domains, then even on vacation you can’t help but notice innovation or simply good practices in either or both. Ron and I are on vacation, cruising with Regent Seven Seas onboard Mariner from […]

2012 (48)

Thursday, December 27 | 2012 Was Workday’s Year; Who Will Own 2013 In HR Technology?
[Shout-out to my colleague Lisa Rowan at IDC. Her recent guest post was the impetus for my finishing this post, which I had started right after Workday went public on 10-12-2012.] 1987: Bloom & Wallace and PeopleSoft Founded 1987 was a big year in the history of HR technology. That’s the year I founded my […]
Monday, December 24 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
Disclosure: If you think you read this last Christmas, you’re quite right. And you may read it again. I learned so much about business, absorbed it through my pores as I worked at Bloom’s Camera (later, Bloom’s Photo Supply and then just Bloom’s, Inc.), lingered at my grandmother’s kitchen table after Friday night Shabbat meals […]
Saturday, December 15 | Tikkun Olam — We Are Commanded To Fix The World
When I was sixteen (the legal age for automobile driving in Massachusetts at that time), and after considerable driver training with the redoubtable Chief Walmer (a retired police chief who was the driving instructor of choice where I grew up), I: presented myself in person at the local DMV (the relevant government office); showed the […]
Tuesday, December 4 | Reprise: Choices, Compromises, Serendipity and Sh#t
Reflecting on what might make a great list of 2013 predictions — beyond those I’ll be discussing next week on my first videocast — I realized that I’d either be repeating a list of hot topics with which you’re already familiar or showing my ignorance (it’s getting worse not better with the explosion of relevant knowledge). So, […]
Tuesday, November 20 | Interrogatory Configuration And Workday’s Tech Summit 2012
[Full disclosure: Workday is a client, but I attended their Tech Summit 2012 and a portion of Workday Rising 2012 as an “influencer,” and my related travel expenses were reimbursed by Workday.] You may have thought that everything that could be said about Workday’s Tech Summit 2012 had already been posted, but you were wrong. […]
Saturday, November 17 | Thanks And Giving — Reflections For Thanksgiving 2012
[As I’m writing this, Israel is under attack from Hamas terrorists, and there are literally hundreds of Hamas rockets, supplied by Iran, raining down on Israeli civilians daily. In response, Israel is going after Hamas leaders, rocket launchers, weapons depots, and similar military targets. Can you imagine our response if the Mexican drug cartels sent […]
Thursday, November 8 | InFullBloom’s 3rd Birthday — Here’s Where It All Started!
Happy Birthday InFullBloom I launched my blog exactly 3 years ago, 11-8-2009. In my wildest dreams, I never expected to attract so many loyal readers — there are now 10K+ of you — nor did I realize how much I would enjoy blogging. So, with a huge shout-out to those of you who have encouraged […]
Saturday, October 27 | Great Customer Service Is Simple!
Nothing exposes you more viscerally to great or lousy customer service than what you experience on a long-planned and much-needed vacation. And when you’re paying the bill, with your precious free time and money, all your senses are on full alert for any delta between what you need or want and what you get. So it’s no surprise […]
Wednesday, October 24 | “I’ve Looked At Clouds From Both Sides Now”
Coming of age in the 60’s, I was so blessed to be there when some of the greatest folk music ever was written and performed, often by the same person. It was the Golden Age of singer/songwriters, and Joni Mitchell was one of the best. We all played guitars then and sang of ending […]
Sunday, October 21 | Reprise — Harry’s And Naomi’s Rules
[An earlier version of this post was published 3-11-2011.] Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about life lessons, about rules to live by, and about how to make the last third of my life as productive, full of joy and meaningful as possible. I’m inspired by my Uncle Paul Bloom, who will be 97 in January. […]
Thursday, October 18 | Impressions From HR Technology Conference 2012
I’ve just reread my observations from last year’s conference, and you should too. If I say so myself, it’s a pretty accurate portrayal of what was happening then, much of which is still happening but which is much farther along, at least in some (but by no means all) vendor products and some end-user organizations. Rather […]
Thursday, October 4 | Reprise In Time For #HRTechConf: Do You Know How To Answer These Questions?
[I posted the original version of this on 9-12-2011, just in time for last year’s HR Technology Conference. Now here we are again, in frantic last minute preparations, but so wanting to be sure that our conference plans are focused on the important HRM delivery system issues that we’re facing. So I thought it was […]
Friday, September 14 | Zombie HR Tech Vendors
What got me thinking about this was reviewing the list of exhibitors for the upcoming HR Technology Conference in Chicago. There are vendors on that list who’ve been around at least as long as the conference (and some for much longer), never gaining much sales momentum, never gaining much financial scale, and never gaining much attention […]
Thursday, September 6 | Everybody’s Talking ’bout Workday’s IPO, But I Think There’s Still More To Say
[Full disclosure: Workday is a client as are a number of their competitors. More importantly, I been looking under the covers of HRM enterprise software practically forever, and before that I was writing the code.] I still haven’t digested every word in Workday’s recently released S-1, nor am I likely to do so before I […]
Tuesday, September 4 | Loss Leaders: Great For Kodak Film But Perhaps Not For HR Technology
[Like all early childhood memories, please consider this story as a possibly flawed recollection. What remains is the learning, for which I’m very grateful.] I learned about loss leaders on my 5th birthday in 1950. My family-only birthday party (my Mom was very ill and died a year later) was convened at my grandmother’s home. Dad […]
Monday, August 27 | IBM Buys Kenexa — A Dramatization
I’ve been experimenting with GoAnimate, trying to make quick videos on a range of personal and professional topics. Here’s one I just did on the latest deal in HR technology: IBM buys Kenexa http://goanimate.com/videos/0MW0S_pmXbek?utm_source=linkshare. For a more complete treatment, you may want to join the discussion over at LinkedIn (free registration required). I’ll look forward […]
Saturday, August 25 | Guest Post — Paul Sparta — Apple Patent Victory Over Samsung Is A Disaster For Software
[This is my first guest post ever on my blog, and it’s very timely. For those of you who may not know my valued colleague Paul Sparta, who wrote this post, Paul is the former Chairman and CEO of Plateau Systems, Ltd. (until Plateau was acquired by Successfactors before Successfactors was then acquired by SAP) and […]
Tuesday, August 21 | I’m Keynoting European HR Tech Conf In Amsterdam
Last year I keynoted my first conference outside of the US, a major HR technology conference held in Athens. I had hesitated to accept such speaking engagements in the past out of a concern that my style of speaking, my humor (or what I think is humorous), and my Yiddishisms wouldn’t translate well for an […]
Friday, August 17 | Reprise: Legacy HRMS/Legacy Marriage: Sunk Costs Versus Innovation
[I wrote this post in June, 2010, just when Al and Tipper Gore had announced their separation mid-2010, at a time when true SaaS InFullBloom was in its infancy. I was spending a ton of time with a wide range of vendors, some licensees of my “Starter Kit,” working hard on the next generation of HR […]
Monday, August 13 | 15th Annual HR Technology Conference 2012 Attendee Tips
Having almost finished preparations for a long trip to England in September, soon I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my schedule for the 15th annual HR Technology Conference and making final preparations for the two sessions I’ll be doing there. From the time we arrive in Chicago late Saturday afternoon (yes, The Wallace will be […]
Tuesday, July 24 | My First Word On #HRTechConf 2012 — And Your Best Discount Offer
I’m writing this as Fort Myers is experiencing a relatively mild summer (compared to the rest of the country’s astonishing heat, forest fires, and deluge of political ads) while getting enough rain to float all our boats. Lake Devonwood is almost up to our pool cage, and it’s only the very high cage door handles keeping […]
Monday, July 16 | Reflections On: Swimming
When I was very young, while my mother was still alive although quite ill (as she had been from before I was born), all the Blooms would rent two shared cottages for a couple of weeks each summer at White Sands Beach, Olde Lyme CT. While the men worked weekdays at Bloom’s Photo Supply in Springfield MA, […]
Wednesday, June 20 | Prepping For A Week In Silicon Valley
I try to spend a week every year in Silicon Valley, meeting with vendors, catching up with colleagues, soaking up the atmosphere and drinking the very special water. On this year’s agenda are Cornerstone OnDemand (with a huge thanks for coming to the Valley), SAP and SuccessFactors, Oracle, and Workday, a major gathering of EIs […]
Sunday, June 17 | Reprise — Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom
[I hadn’t planned to update and reprise this post from Father’s Day 2010, but I’ve just gotten off a call with my sister, and I so wish he were still here to share with us the laughter and tears of everyday living. Ron and I have large paintings of our two fathers above a large […]
Monday, June 11 | Naomi’s Top Ten List — Coping With Vendor Consolidation
Last week I delivered a keynote for HR Technology Week which I hope many of you attended and/or for which you have access to the replay. I thought that the top ten preparedness list I created for this session, with many thanks to Ed Frauenheim for suggesting it, might make a good blog post. Hopefully, you’ll agree. In […]
Monday, June 4 | Are You The Very Model Of A Modern HR Leader?
I have always loved “The Pirates of Penzance,” and especially the monologue-like song of the modern Major General. Every time I think about the KSAOC profile for a position or job, about the KSAOCs of someone with whom I’m working or interviewing, or even about the KSAOCs I do or don’t possess, I’m reminded of […]
Tuesday, May 29 | Reflections On A Long Career — Part IV — Summing Up
In the first three posts of this series, here, here and here, I reflected on various aspects of building and sustaining a long and successful career. Now it’s time to sum up the lessons of my own career, a long professional run for which I’m truly grateful. There’s been a huge portion of good luck at work […]
Monday, May 21 | Objects To The Left Of Us, Objects To The Right Of Us
[This post is dedicated to Marc Maloy, SVP Worldwide Sales at HireRight, just because he asked for it. It’s the story of objects from a decidedly human resource management (HRM) perspective. For you object modeling mavens, rest assured that my knowledge of this topic as it is applied to software engineering is a little more complete and sophisticated […]
Monday, May 14 | Potential HRM Enterprise Software Landscape Disruptions — Microsoft
With the first post in this series, I introduced my concept of potential disruptors and other sources of disruption to the HRM enterprise software landscape. In that post I used Kronos and a hypothesized expansion of their functional footprint — a huge expansion of their functional footprint — combined with their global distribution capabilities, competent […]
Monday, May 7 | Potential HRM Enterprise Software Landscape Disruptions — Introduction And Kronos
Introduction The idea for this series comes from the work I did to update my competitive landscape talking points before several recent client meetings. After updating the vendor by vendor notes which are at the core of these materials, I was working on a new section I had titled “Wild Cards” when I decided that this […]
Monday, April 30 | Driving Business Outcomes — Vocabulary Shapes Our Thinking On Analytics
In a previous post, I focused on the most fundamental metrics for measuring the impact of changes in HRM, presumably intended as improvements, on revenues and profitability. Hopefully, I succeeded in offering no-nonsense, strictly financial metrics. Focusing on changes in revenues and profitability per agreed measures of workforce effort provides a starting point for thinking about what drives those changes […]
Monday, April 23 | Product Update: Workday 16
[Full disclosure: Workday is a client as are several of her competitors. Also, where I’ve noted below that something is free, a more precise description (with thanks to Dennis Howlett for suggesting this clarification) would be “included at no additional cost” if you’ve subscribed HCM.] It seems like only yesterday that I was writing (we […]
Monday, April 16 | The Future Of HRM Software: Agile, Models-Driven, Definitional Development
[Updated 6/18/2012 — Huge shout-out to Stan Swete of Workday and Raul Duque of Ultimate (both of whose firms have been clients, as was Raul’s former employer, Meta4) for their review and feedback on my much shorter first draft of this post, which addressed only models-driven development. Based on their feedback, I’ve now touched on agile software […]
Sunday, April 8 | Making My Peace With Not Knowing/Following/Connecting/Clicking Through Etc.
As a toddler, I took great pride in being able to rattle off the names of all the Kittredges (Barry, Bobby, Eddy, Georgie, Chucky, Sydney, Al, Ralph and Adele), a large family who lived across from us on Somerset Street. Later, it was important to me to have read every Nancy Drew mystery then every Agatha Christie then […]
Monday, April 2 | Deliver Me From Today’s Hot Topics!
It’s only April, barely the start of 2012’s vendor and industry conferences with their associated rebrandings, new positionings, exciting partnerships and product announcements, and I’m already tired of the constant drumbeat on mobile/social/big data/in-memory/analytics/consumerization etc. of enterprise HRM software. When everybody’s talking about the same things — even if most vendors don’t have many to most of these […]
Monday, March 26 | Reprise — The Road From HRM To Business Results Is Littered With Misguided Metrics
[I published a post addressing this topic right after I launched my blog 11/9/2009, and I never expected to address this topic again. Surely by now, I would have thought that we’d have broad agreement on how to measure the impact of HRM on business outcomes. But I had few readers in the beginning, and there’s […]
Thursday, March 22 | A Tale Of Two Perspectives — Customers Of And Investors In HR Technology
Cover of serial Vol. V, 1859 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it […]
Friday, March 16 | Reflections On A Long Career — Part III — The Network Effect
It always was and always will be about the power of the network. It really does “take a village,” the mutual support we derive from friends, family and colleagues, not only to raise our children but also to help us every step of the way through life. We owe so much to those from whom we learned (and continue to […]
Monday, March 12 | What Color Is Your Hair — Really?
People of all ages choose to modify their hair color, and for many different reasons. Sometimes, it’s simply to give themselves a change, as when a young person colors their blond hair auburn or brunette hair blond. Sometimes, it’s just to call attention to oneself, or to demonstrate a complete disdain for convention, which probably […]
Monday, March 5 | Even Successful Products Deserve A Sunset Plan
[Disclosure: This is part memoir and part advertorial, where the advertiser is Bloom & Wallace.] If you’ve been wondering about the long delay since my last blog post, read on to learn about one project on which I’ve been working. That project has been to finalize the sunset plan for my very successful, and only real, product — my HRM […]
Monday, February 13 | Reprise — HRM #EnSW Vendor Consolidation Fairy Tales
2-12-2012 I just couldn’t help myself on this one. After another week of non-stop M&A fall-out from Oracle/Taleo, I was reminded of the post below, written just over a year ago, and thought it was not only worth a reread but also an update. Some of it reads like I really did have a crystal ball, […]
Sunday, February 5 | Reflections On A Long Career — Part II — My Heroes
My first post in this series was about what we can do to prepare for and sustain a long, productive and satisfying career. In this post, I’d like to give credit — and there’s a lot to give — to the people who helped shaped the professional I became. We should all be so lucky as to […]
Tuesday, January 31 | Reprise — When Bank Branch Managers Are Called President
1/31/2012 — Shortly after I launched my blog, I published the post below. I’ve thought about it often since then, but never more so than today. So what set me off enough today to make me republish a two-year-old blog post? A very new HR technology blogger published a reasonable blog post that highlighted some vendors […]
Saturday, January 21 | Reflections On A Long Career — Part I — Life-long Learning
I’m a year older than Cher, and we would both “turn back time” if we could. Who wouldn’t? We also share having had a very long career — if nothing else — and mine is still in high gear. But it’s about what it takes to develop and sustain a long career that I’m writing here. Mostly, […]
Friday, January 13 | An Open Letter To HR Executives
Dear Sir/Madam, We may not have met, but I’ve got your back. I’m on your side when it comes to using effective HRM practices and business rules to drive improved business outcomes in your organization. I know how hard it is to draw those lines of sight from needed business outcomes, like faster time to market, […]
Tuesday, January 10 | Ruminations On Being Overweight And Smoking
This post was inspired by a discussion thread among the Enterprise Irregulars about the challenges of quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy weight, one of which I’ve overcome and the other of which will always be a work in progress. It really does take a village, and I’m grateful to mine, to deal with life’s […]
Friday, January 6 | So You Think You’re An HRM Business Analyst/Product Strategist?
A Business Analyst’s Work Is Never Done Originally published, 2/4/2011, I’ve updated this post on 1/5/2012 to emphasize the tremendous, really critical importance of understanding and making effective use of data analysis to drive improved decision-making. So that you can spot the updates, I’vedone them in italics. As many of you know, I’ve worked extensively […]
Tuesday, January 3 | There’s True SaaS, And Then There’s SaaS InFullBloom
In my last post, I provided a minimum definition of true SaaS and described the potential benefits for both vendors and customers who adhere to this now well-established concept in enterprise software. But the potential benefits are only realized as vendors move from delivering the basics of true SaaS to what I call SaaS InFullBloom, so […]

2011 (46)

Tuesday, December 27 | What’s True SaaS And Why The Hell Should Customers Care?
When I was barely into my teens, my mother’s (every mother’s of that era) version of the sex talk was captured in this expression: “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” This was long before birth control pills were invented, years before the “Summer of Love,” and decades before most of […]
Thursday, December 22 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
On Christmas Eve, my Dad’s retail camera shop closed early, and we knew we’d have him with us all that next day. Really just with us, even if he was too tired for much conversation after working the very long hours of the retail Christmas season. New Year’s Day was for taking inventory, and it […]
Monday, December 19 | Lars From Mars, The Wookey, Carmen Miranda And Me
When Ron and I moved near DC in 1977, there was a late night TV program, called “Creature Features,” that we loved. It was hosted by Dick Dyszel who, for reasons lost in the mists of marital life, I nicknamed Lars from Mars. Dick played rarely shown early SciFi films, many black and white and loaded with […]
Thursday, December 8 | What Just Happened To The Talent Management Technology Spend?
Updated 12-16-2011 after the 12-15-2011 announcement of Salesforce.com’s acquisition of Rypple. If there was any doubt left in your mind that I’ve been working in the hottest, sexiest corner of enterprise software, you’ve been living under a rock. After all, in a world of subscribed software where subscription pricing is most often correlated with “seats,” […]
Monday, December 5 | SAP/SuccessFactors — Help Me Count The HRM Codebases
[Update 12/5/2011 @ 1:40 PM EST — After an always great conversation this morning with Paul Sparta, Chief Integration Officer at SuccessFactors, here’s his update (as confirmed by Paul) on some of the important product and technology questions arising from the SAP acquisition of SuccessFactors: 1) “SAP and SFSF are committed to providing a high […]
Friday, December 2 | Eight Characteristics Of Effective HRM And HRM Delivery Systems
In my last post, I told some all too typical business stories in which it was easy to recognize, in situ, really bad HRM policies and practices, HRM service delivery and HR technology use. Every manager has their own favorite such tales of woe, and my HR practitioner colleagues are awash in the fallout from such […]
Monday, November 28 | Clowns To The Left Of Us, Jokers To The Right: It’s Easy To Spot Ineffective HRM
Clowns To The Left Of Us, Jokers To The Right Of Us… I’ve been collecting stories for years. Family stories, stories about friends, about trips Ron and I have made, about colleagues and others with whom I’ve crossed paths professionally, about the highlights and lowlights (and lowlives) in my personal and professional lives. Now, with […]
Monday, November 21 | Thanks And Giving — Reflections For Thanksgiving 2011
It’s that time of year again when American’s reflect on how very fortunate we are to live in this amazing country and on what we can do to make it better. For all the problems we’ve got, and they are daunting, we are so very blessed to be here. For the past two Thanksgivings, […]
Monday, November 14 | The Scourge of HRM Software — Technical Debt
I spent a very intense week last July in Silicon Valley meeting mostly full days each with Workday, SuccessFactors, Taleo, Saba and SAP, and would like to start this post with a huge and very public thank you to all of these vendors for their time, their preparations, and their hospitality. I’ve also been doing […]
Tuesday, November 8 | InFullBloom’s 2nd Anniversary — 11/08/2011
Who could have guessed, not only that I would have a blog, but also that I would be celebrating its 2nd anniversary and scoping out the topics for year 3? It’s been a wonderful two years, and I can’t thank my readers enough for investing their time with me. If only blogging (and much of […]
Sunday, November 6 | Carnac The Magnificent: Now The Answers To 2011’s Unknown Questions
Updated 12/15/2011 — in the wake of SAP/SFSF and now SFDC/Rypple, I thought I’d just better go right through these and do a general update. All I need now is for someone to acquire Bloom & Wallace, but then who would have imagined what’s been happening in “Our Town” over the last couple weeks? I […]
Friday, October 28 | #WorkdayRising 2011 — Mostly Non-Software Observations
Full disclosure: Workday is a client, and I was a compensated speaker at Workday Rising 2011. After several days in Vegas at Workday Rising, attending lots of sessions (including one I did with Leighanne Levensaler, VP for HCM product strategy, in which she did the play by play and I did the color, “what’s behind the […]
Sunday, October 23 | #Consumerization, #Gamification and #Mechugasification
I love the fact that enterprise software is becoming more like consumer software every day — more usable, more accessible, more obvious and discoverable functionality, more mobile/social/global, and with much more of the look and feel of the consumer Web sites I’ve come to know and love. And for all of us who love contests […]
Monday, October 10 | Impressions From HR Technology Conference 2011
Updated 10/11/2011 — join the discussion about getting to great HRM software over at LinkedIn’s HR Technology Group http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=1772602&type=member&item=74705112&qid=589809af-35c8-492b-b988-49f4c32dd041&trk=group_most_recent_rich-0-b-ttl&goback=%2Egmr_1772602 I’m exhausted but energized, if it’s actually possible to be in both states at once. I’ll leave it to others to do both the play by play and color commentary, neither of which is my forte. […]
Friday, October 7 | Yom Kippur, Steve Jobs, And Knowing/Doing What Matters
I never knew Steve Jobs, and I haven’t been an Apple fangirl until very recently. But his death, his oh so too early death, coming so close to Yom Kippur, has intensified my sense of this holiest of Jewish holidays. There’s absolutely no connection between Steve Jobs’ death and Yom Kippur, but in my mind […]
Saturday, October 1 | M&A Observations: Oracle, Infor And… SumTotal?
When SumTotal announced in July a not unexpected acquisition of Accero (really more of an aggregation because both firms were already owned by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm with a now substantial stake in HRM #EnSW) along with the acquisition of CyberShift, I was not surprised. One could speculate at length, and others have done so, about the […]
Monday, September 12 | HR Leaders: Do You Know How To Answer These Questions?
Unlike my good friend Ray Wang, there are no Naomi clones. Just this solo consultant trying to save the world from bad HRM and HRM delivery systems. And while I’m a pretty productive and hard worker, there aren’t enough hours in a lifetime to support every HR exec who comes calling with their always interconnected HRM delivery […]
Thursday, September 8 | Remembering 9/11/2001: Let’s Give ’em Hell!
For this 10th anniversary of jihadist Islam’s declaration of war on the United States, I wanted to express my anger at what this war has cost all of us in the loss of privacy and freedom as well as in human lives and treasure. It’s a war whose enemy combatants wear no recognizable uniforms, dwell […]
Monday, August 29 | Naomi’s Annual “Appearance” On Mr. Bill’s Radio Show
Oh No Mr. Bill! On Wednesday (8-31-2011) at noon EDT, I’ll be doing my fourth annual guest “appearance” on Bill Kutik’s Radio Show, which is very generously sponsored by Knowledge Infusion. I always look forward to doing these shows because Bill’s a great interviewer, the long tail of replays is enormous, and getting ready to […]
Monday, August 22 | 14th Annual HR Technology Conference 2011 Attendee Tips
After I finish preparations for my master class at HR Florida 2011, I’ll be putting the final touches on my schedule for the 14th annual HR Technology Conference and making preparations for the two sessions I’ll be doing there. From the time we arrive in Las Vegas late Saturday afternoon (yes, The Wallace will be […]
Tuesday, August 9 | The Four Pillars Of ADP
Everyone in my professional world, and most business people in general, know ADP — or at least they think they do. While ADP offers a very wide range of products/services to both employers and all types of vehicle dealers, they continue to be known most widely as “the payroll company.” The company’s history is one of which any founder […]
Monday, July 25 | My First Word On #HRTechConf 2011 — And Your Best Discount Offer
I’m writing this as Fort Myers is experiencing a relatively mild summer (compared to the rest of the country’s astonishing heat) while getting enough rain to float all boats. But no lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer here. A quick look at my calendar and todo list are enough to frighten anyone, but that’s what comes […]
Saturday, July 2 | And It’s Not Even Full-Blown Hurricane Season Yet!
I’m flippin’ tired of all the bad news. My twitterstream has been a surreal mixture this year of enterprise software (#EnSW) developments, HRM happenings and insights (#HRM) and all things related to HR technology (#HRTech) along with the end of civilization as we’ve known it brought to me by the global media. And it’s not […]
Tuesday, June 28 | Larry Ellison And I Disagree, And Not Just About The America’s Cup
First things first. Although all responsibility for this post is mine, I want to offer my sincere appreciation to Michael Krigsman (@mkrigsman on Twitter) for his suggestions on how I could write a better, more useful and balanced post and to Dennis Moore (@dbmoore on Twitter) for his insights (with which I agree entirely) about those […]
Wednesday, June 15 | Matching Vendor/Product And Buyer Lifecycles
This post was inspired by a Twitter exchange with a valued colleague after I tweeted that this might not be the best time to be a new buyer of Oracle PSFT/EBS HRMS given Oracle’s commitment to Fusion HCM as the next generation of these long-established product lines. My colleague very correctly pointed out that Oracle is […]
Friday, June 10 | HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — It’s A Wrap!
In my first post in this series on learnings from my Q1 vendor briefings/demos, I wrote about the implications of HRM software and services vendor ambitions for buyers and, more generally, for the industry. In my second post in this series, I covered a wide range of changes in the context within which these vendors […]
Sunday, June 5 | Monaco To Paris With Twitterscope Up
Provence, Toujours Provence You’ll have noticed that my last post went up on May 3rd, shortly after we left for two weeks vacation. Before I return to our regularly scheduled programming, to blogs on more or less professional topics, I wanted to say a few words about this vacation and its impact on my state of […]
Tuesday, May 3 | HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — What Impresses Me?
Here’s another post that I had meant to write much sooner, but now it will post while we’re in Monaco before the start of our cruise up the Rhone River. I’m going to try to do some tweeting/posting from the “road,” always hopeful that I’ll spot some note-worthy HRM practices along the way, but this […]
Friday, April 29 | Is It Really SaaS If?
I’ve long since put to rest the whole multi-tenancy debate around SaaS. If it isn’t multi-tenant, then it isn’t SaaS. You can host/subscribe single tenant software, and with piles of virtualization and other techniques for optimizing data center/operations costs, you may be able to approximate the operations costs of true SaaS in specific circumstances, but […]
Monday, April 25 | Is HR Really A Pink-Collared Ghetto?
I had planned to write this last September, so let’s just pretend that I did rather than wondering why I didn’t. It’s a critically important topic, and I hope that you’ll listen to the whole linked replay of the underlying discussion. We’re at a critical time in the HR profession, and your future depends […]
Friday, April 15 | To Outsource Or Not To Outsource, These Are The Questions
Before Bill Kutik has a chance to tease me about the intensity (aka length and depth) of this post, be forewarned that there is serious “how to” material below. Every organization outsources parts of HRM, almost no matter how your define outsourcing. From using 3rd parties to do background checking or COBRA administration (both of […]
Sunday, April 10 | Simple Pleasures — Hangin’ At Headquarters
Sunset Over Lake Devonwood Some time back I wrote about the cattle, gators and eagles at B&W headquarters. Our home and my working office are on Lake Devonwood, which began its life as a quarry when they were building the Tamiami Trail back in the 20’s, and now it’s become so naturalized that the only […]
Friday, April 8 | Lawson Software — A Very Sad Ending
Lars Lawson — The Symbol Of All Things Lawson I first wrote about the HRM enterprise software “Snowdons of Yesteryear” (with apologies to Joseph Heller for this misuse of his famous phrase, “where are the Snowdons of yesteryear” in Catch-22) in the earliest days of this blog (so 11/2009). In that original post, I reflected […]
Monday, April 4 | Event Report — Ultimate Connections 2011
I rarely attend vendor user conferences unless I’m an invited speaker or otherwise participating at the request of that vendor, so I’m the last person to offer a learned comparison of conference venues, programs, parties, swag, logistics, etc. But one thing I have observed is how much of a vendor’s corporate culture is on display […]
Monday, March 28 | HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — Capability Matters
HRM May Not Need Battlestar Galactica Capabilities My first post in this series focused on the importance of understanding the ambitions of HRM software/services vendors and the implications of those ambitions for buyers/investors/employees/the industry. Next came a post focused on the different strategies of these same vendors, the many moving parts that must be addressed in […]
Thursday, March 24 | Harry’s And Naomi’s Rules To Live By — Part I
Sunset At Bloom & Wallace HQ After doing one popular post inspired by the artifacts in my office, I thought I’d do another. This one is based on a very yellowed newspaper clipping (yes, they used to come on paper, which yellowed over time and became quite fragile, not unlike electronic files whose formats can […]
Monday, March 21 | Reengineering Is Very Much Like Sex
For reasons too complicated to explain, even to myself, I’ve been doing a lot of clearing out of the “underbrush” in my office over the last couple of weeks. Some of this was absolutely essential because the physical piles of papers that will never be read, the files of long gone clients, the insights notes whose sources […]
Monday, March 7 | HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — Strategy Matters
Show Me The Money! In my last post, I wrote about one aspect of the way in which I look at and learn about the HRM software vendors and outsourcing providers with whom I’ve been meeting over the last few months, namely their ambition as businesses. In this post I want to take up another important aspect of […]
Monday, February 28 | HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — Ambition Matters
When I Could Still Climb Mayan Pyramids Many of you know that I’ve been doing a ton of briefings/demos with HRM software and services vendors this quarter, with many more to come. So let me start this post with a major shout-out to all the vendors with whom I’ve met and will be meeting for their time, […]
Monday, January 31 | Carnac The Magnificent: Unseen Answers To 2011’s Unknown Questions
When we lost Johnny Carson, we lost a great entertainer. For thirty years, 1962 to 1992, he dominated late night television, and he did that without insulting our intelligence or our sensibilities. My beloved grandmother, Bubbi Bloom, with whom I lived through much of high school, would get ready for Johnny’s Tonight Show by putting […]
Wednesday, January 26 | The Future Of HRM Software: Applicability/Eligibility
This post is one in a series I’ve been writing about the preferred architectural behaviors for great HRM software, to include HRM SaaS InFullBloom (but many are equally important for single tenant HRM software regardless of how it’s licensed/subscribed and installed/hosted). I posted the introduction to this series in April, 2010, after I had already written […]
Sunday, January 23 | Eagles, Cattle, And Gators — Welcome To HQ
Mr. Eagle On His Lakeside Perch Many corporate, non-profit and public sector organization Web sites feature wonderful pictures of their offices/factories/mines/etc to suggest the substance and durable nature of their activities. Even in this era of virtual everything, there remains something comforting about knowing that our suppliers, customers, partners — really all of our trading partners — […]
Sunday, January 16 | Thomas Wailgum Inspired Post #2 — A Further Airing Of Grievances
Last month I had a terrific time airing a list of the grievances, just some of the routine annoyances, of my professional life. Well, that felt so good that I began making a similar list for my personal life. I hadn’t meant to share that personal list, but then a few of these sort of hit […]
Tuesday, January 11 | Bloom & Wallace Release 2011 — Constellation Research Group
In November, I posted the first installment of this series on planned changes in the mix and style of B&W consulting engagements/projects for 2011. In December, I posted about the work I’ll be doing in 2011 with Mercer’s Human Capital Operations And Technology Solutions practice with a particular focus on their Human Capital Connect solution powered by Peopleclick […]
Friday, January 7 | HRM #EnSW Vendor Consolidation Fairy Tales
Update: in the interests of full disclosure, many of the vendors/providers mentioned below have been, are or will be Bloom & Wallace clients. Nothing learned under NDA has been used in the creation of this post, nor have any delightful fairies been harmed. There was a ton of consolidation in the HRM software and services market […]
Thursday, January 6 | Free Agent Nation: Nail Tech Tales
Nail Tech Tales When Daniel Pink’s now classic “Free Agent Nation” was published in 2001, it brought to public attention the world in which I had been living for much of my professional life. Just in my little neighborhood, at the intersection of HRM and IT, I knew well several dozen solos, like me, who were earning […]

2010 (54)

Friday, December 24 | A Bloom’s Christmas: Inventory Management And Retail Retold
On Christmas Eve, my Dad’s retail camera shop closed early, and we knew we’d have him with us all that next day. Really just with us, even if he was too tired for much conversation after working the very long hours of the retail Christmas season. New Year’s Day was for taking inventory, and it was […]
Wednesday, December 22 | Thomas Wailgum Inspired Post #1 — My Airing Of Grievances
I was much inspired by Thomas Wailgum’s post today about how various “tech vendors, CIOs, analysts and other assorted IT types” had let him down in 2010. It’s a great catalogue of bad behavior by people and companies who should know better, and I enjoyed it so much that I read it twice before starting my own […]
Tuesday, December 14 | The Wallace And Me: A Love Story
Ron and I met when he was a Captain in the US Air Force, stationed at Hanscome Field outside of Boston, and I was the payroll operations and systems manager at Polaroid by day and getting my MBA by night at Boston University. Was it love at first sight? Who remembers? But what I do […]
Sunday, December 12 | Snowdons Of Yesteryear: History Is Repeating Itself
A Night In The Dinosaur Graveyard * About this time last year, I did a post entitled “Where Are The Snowdens Of Yesteryear: A Cautionary Tale” in which I told the tale of long-forgotten mainframe HRMS software brands whose death-knell was struck in the sea change from mainframe to client server computing that began, at […]
Friday, December 3 | Bloom & Wallace Release 2011 — Mercer Human Capital Connect
I Hired Naomi! Last month I posted the first installment of this series on planned changes in the mix and style of B&W consulting engagements/projects for 2011. It’s now with great pleasure that I announce one of those engagements. Beginning in January, I’ll be acting as a strategic advisor to the Human Capital Operations and Technology Solutions practice […]
Tuesday, November 23 | Counting My Blessings: Thanksgiving 2010
For those of you who haven’t started your list, here’s mine for Thanksgiving 2010: Ron Wallace — if you haven’t met The Wallace, you’re in for a treat. He’s smart (and never flaunts his far greater intellect than mine), beyond funny (especially when doing those imitations of all the satellite systems he’s helped design), kind […]
Monday, November 15 | A Paean To Older Workers
My paean to older workers, a twitterverse: When does a worker become an older worker? At a particular age? when KSAOCs with half-lives have degraded to that point? When they look old? Am I an older worker? I accept being a senior citizen when it comes with discounts, medical coverage, help putting my luggage in […]
Friday, November 12 | The Absolute Last Word On #HRTechConf 2010
#HRTechConf 2011 After being prompted that not everyone is following me on Twitter — in fact, that not everyone is on Twitter — I thought I’d better capture my tweets on this topic in a blog post. So, in case you missed this debrief, here were my thoughts as of 10/19/10 via Twitter on having […]
Wednesday, November 10 | Is SHRM Listening?
Forty years on, and we’re still talking about organizational readiness for strategic HRM (of which talent management is a large piece). Boring! The time for action is long past. SHRM, are you listening? Why the hell isn’t your critical HRM data (e.g. positions, jobs, KSAOCs, worker, organizational structures, etc.) in better shape? Why aren’t your […]
Monday, November 8 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices
Of the many reasons cited for outsourcing one or more HRM business processes as well as for making investments in HRM software, none is more susceptible to marketing hype than that outsourcing providers and software vendors deliver “best” practices in HRM. The best HRM software, “out of the box,” may certainly deliver some good practices in […]
Saturday, November 6 | Change Management: M/V SmartyPant’s First “Sail”
When I wrote this post last November about our last sail on Mar-Lin nights, our new boat didn’t have a name, I had never seen her nor handled her controls (think user experience!). Our new boat was mostly represented by a growing (ultimately huge) file of email exchanges, contract document versions (of course I implemented version controls), […]
Friday, November 5 | Bloom & Wallace Release 2011
50 Reasons Not To Change When I began my solo consulting practice in 1987, I worked at any one time with one to three large, global, complex corporations, using the then current version of my strategic HRM delivery systems planning methodology. I helped the HR executives of those companies refine their overall HRM business strategy and […]
Friday, October 29 | Dennis Howlett-Inspired Post #1 — Multi-tenancy In HRM SaaS
This is the first of what I suspect will be many posts for which the impetus is a question from a specific colleague, in this case Dennis Howlett. So as to give credit, or at least curiosity, where it’s due, this one’s for you. Having seen me refer to (Dennis might say pimping) my latest […]
Monday, October 25 | Multi-tenancy: Table Stakes For HRM SaaS In 2011
With 2011 practically upon us — here at Bloom & Wallace, we’ve got 2011 laid out and a lot of our major time blocks for 2012 in process — it’s time to declare the do we or don’t we need multi-tenancy discussion over for HRM SaaS, with multi-tenancy the clear winner for both vendors and […]
Saturday, October 23 | Another Op’nin, Another Show: 2010/2011 At The Florida Rep
It’s autumn again in Fort Myers, a really wonderful time of the year. Daytime temperatures are back in the 80’s with the nights slipping into the low 60’s. The humidity has moderated, orchids are blooming like mad, and it’s time to replace the summer potted flowers with impatiens, which much prefer the cooler temperatures. The torrential […]
Monday, October 11 | #HRTechConf 2011 Prep: 65th Birthday Professional Resolutions
Missing #HRTechConf this year meant, even more than the loss of professional learning/networking/vendor briefing/audience interaction/etc., not seeing good friends. Since many of my closest friends began as professional colleagues — and that process continues — I really missed our annual “reunion.” But I truly was where I needed to be, supporting my closest of friends […]
Saturday, October 9 | Friendship And Technology: Shout-out To Vinnie Mirchandani
Long before I had a blog of my own, way back in May, 2009, Vinnie Mirchandani, who runs Deal Architect and wrote The New Polymath along with his very active consulting/speaking practice, encouraged me to do a guest post on another of his blogs, New Florence, New Renaissance. He was hosting a series of guest […]
Sunday, September 26 | My Cousin Joey, The Last Of The Borscht Belt Comics
On my stepmother’s side of the family (my stepmother was a first cousin of my birth mother, who died when I was 5+, so things were a little complicated), we were related to The Three Stooges, but I never got to spend time with them. However, on the Bloom side of my family, we were […]
Tuesday, September 21 | 13th Annual HR Technology Conference 2010 Attendee Tips
As soon as I’ve finished delivering my Webinar entitled “Convergence in Bloom” today, I’ll be very focused on completing preparationsfor the 13th annual HR Technology Conference. From the time we arrive in Chicago late morning on Monday (yes, The Wallace will be with me), until we leave late Friday, it will be non-stop vendor meetings, exhibition […]
Wednesday, September 15 | Naomi’s Questions For Oracle OpenWorld 2010
With Oracle OpenWorld 2010 coming up next week, I hate having to miss one of the major enterprise IT three, four, five-ring circuses of the year. I would have loved to attend, but HR Tech 2010 is thefollowing week. And unlike my much valued and much younger Oracle AR handler, Kris Barondess, I’m no longer able to […]
Monday, September 13 | Choices, Compromises, Serendipity and Sh#t
Life doesn’t just happen. Well actually it does, but there are a zillion opportunities for you to chart and then steer your own path through it by how you react to the opportunities and challenges that life offers. The choices you make (shall I marry Ron Wallace or one of the other fine contenders?), the […]
Saturday, September 11 | Remembering 9/11: Let’s Give ’em Hell!
What follows is an email I wrote to friends and family on 9/13/2001 after arriving home safely in what can only be described as the great HR Tech Conference evacuation of 2001. It was a very scary time, and what I wrote captures both my fears and my anger. If I’d had a blog then, […]
Monday, August 30 | Naomi’s Annual “Appearance” On Mr. Bill’s Radio Show
On Wednesday (9-1-2010) at noon EST, I’ll be doing my third annual guest “appearance” on Bill Kutik’s Radio Show, which is very generously sponsored by Knowledge Infusion. I always look forward to doing these shows because Bill’s a great interviewer, the long tale of replays is enormous, and getting ready to be pithy and ready […]
Tuesday, August 24 | Event Report — Workday Technology Summit 8-23-2010 — Humongous Post
Workday held a briefing yesterday for twenty of enterprise software’s toughest and most knowledgeable analysts. Workday had much more to say about their technology and business strategy, about their underlying architecture and object model, and about what’s cooking in the Lab than they’ve revealed thus far to this type of audience. Even a few surprises […]
Friday, August 13 | M&A Observations: Whither Goest Genesys?
Late-breaking news. Genesys’ buyer is PeopleStrategy, the current owner of Integral Systems (which was Dave Duffield’s predecessor company to PeopleSoft, so we’re going back here to the mid-80’s for it’s heyday). PeopleStrategy is led by Randy Cooper, who also led the buy of Genesys for Salary.com. Randy is very experienced with that generation of HRMS, […]
Monday, August 9 | “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” — Let’s Change That In Chicago
The more things change, the more they remain the same doesn’t sound as romantic as the French, but it’s a reasonable translation. So it is in many aspects of life, and so it is especially in my little corner of the professional world, at that intersection of HRM and IT where I’ve been camped out […]
Monday, August 2 | M&A Observations: StepStone Solutions Acquires MrTed — Who’s Next
Just in this morning was the announcement that StepStone Solutions is acquiring MrTed in what appears to be a very congenial coming together of two prominent European players in the talent management software market. In the interests of full disclosure, StepStone is a client with whom I’ve been working actively as this deal was getting […]
Friday, June 25 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: France/Spain
Ron and I will be traveling again from 6/25 through 7/17 (life is short!) mostly in the Languedoc and Dordogne in France and on the Med coast of Spain between Valencia and Barcelona. We’ll be soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every step of the way, to include […]
Tuesday, June 22 | The Future Of HRM Software: Embedded Intelligence
There’s an easy way to describe what I mean by embedded intelligence. Conjure up a memory of the best, most knowledgeable, most effectively consultative and strategic thinking HR leader you’ve ever known. Now conjure up a memory of that master of regulatory options and obligations, that HR administrator who really knows the innermost details of all […]
Sunday, June 20 | Father’s Day Thoughts: Remembering Jack Samuel Bloom
From my Dad I inherited: his ability to tell a good story, to make a point while making you laugh; his commitment to active friendship, the kind of friendship that does what you need even when you don’t know you need it; his belief that any day on which you wake up is already a […]
Wednesday, June 16 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Venice — Field Report Part II
The first part of this post was a personal report on our recent travels. In this second part, I want to share what I learned about our industry’s “best” practices along the way. More specifically, I want to describe some of the HRM practices that Regent Seven Seas uses to deliver a consistently high quality […]
Monday, June 14 | Legacy HRMS/Legacy Marriage: Sunk Costs Versus Innovation
Al and Tipper Gore by Steve Mack/FilmMagic Two completely unrelated conversations over the last week caused that ding ding thing in my brain that happens when the dots connect themselves and I have an aha moment. One of those discussions took place on a radio talk show I heard while driving to a meeting. The […]
Monday, June 7 | The Middle Market Is Bipolar!
We often do things in human resource management not because they’re important but because they’re needed and easy to do. A glaring example is the way in which HRM software vendors and outsourcing providers describe their target markets — and the way, by reflection, in which those same organizations describe themselves. The presumed similarity in […]
Tuesday, June 1 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Venice — Field Report Part I
Ron and I were traveling from from 4/30 through 5/17/10 from Istanbul to Venice, soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every step of the way. I did some live tweeting from “the road” and sent frequent travel bulletins to friends and family. I had planned to write a field report […]
Friday, April 30 | In Search Of HRM/HRMDS/HR Tech “Best” Practices: Istanbul To Venice
Ron and I will be traveling from 4/30 through 5/17/10 from Istanbul to Venice, soaking up “best” practices in HRM, the HRM delivery system and HR technology every step of the way. I’ll be doing some tweeting from “the road,” @InFullBloomUS, but I may not have time to blog for a while. Did you ever […]
Tuesday, April 27 | More Of Naomi’s Killer Scenarios: Retroactive Processing
Once upon a time, the concept of retroactive payroll processing was invented to handle the all too often situation of a personnel action (that’s what they were called when I was young) that was presented to “the system” after the date on which is should have taken effect. Without a retroactive processing capability in payroll, […]
Friday, April 23 | The Future Of HRM Software: Effective Dating
Did you think this was going to be a guide to finding the man/woman of your dreams? Wrong! If you ask any HRM software vendor or BPO provider if their software is effective-dated, the universal response will be yes. And they’re telling the truth. Even the sorriest HRM software allows for the effective-dating of SOME […]
Thursday, April 22 | The Future Of HRM Software: Naomi’s Preferred Behaviors
Having done the first post in this series, on interrogatory configuration, without even realizing that I wanted to do an entire series, I then did a setup post to launch what I hope will be considerable discussion of the desired architectural characteristics (a.k.a. Naomi’s preferred HRMDS platform behaviors) of great HRM software. No one HRM software package, […]
Monday, April 19 | More Of Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: KSAOC-Centric Strategic HRM
Figure 1: KSAOC-Centric, Strategic HRM One of the great debates in HR circles is over what is strategic and what is merely administrative with respect to human resource management (HRM) processes. That which is strategic, often referred to as talent management, is considered worthy of executive attention, academic research, attendance at expensive conferences, and the writing […]
Monday, April 12 | Product Update: PeopleSoft 9.1 Talent Management
I’ve pulled the original post while discussions are underway with Oracle to address their specific concerns about its completeness, correctness and factual basis.
Monday, April 5 | Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part IV/Finale: The HRM Delivery System!
If you feel like you’ve been stranded along the way or that we’ve (or you’ve) been off on various scenic detours, my apologies for not providing the final installment of our Yellow Brick Road travelogue as quickly as I had hoped. Life just keeps happening; we keep up as best we can. And if you’re just […]
Wednesday, March 31 | M&A Observations: NorthgateArinso Acquires Convergys’ HRO Business
There’s been a lot of commentary on this deal, so well may you ask what more there is to say. But just like with the Workday 10 release on which I just posted, I think there are several aspects of the NorthgateArinso/Convergys HRO deal that deserve further attention. Against a backdrop of why Convergys HRO failed and what that failure […]
Monday, March 29 | Product Update: Workday 10
You may well wonder why I’m writing about this when Workday’s newest release (yes, those releases are coming three times a year when PeopleSoft releases are coming every 3 years) has already been covered by several of the top enterprise software analysts, including Altimeter’s Ray Wang, InformationWeek’s Doug Henschen and Strativa’s Frank Scavo, and many more have full research notes […]
Thursday, March 25 | HRM SaaS InFullBloom vs Everything Else: The Musical!
Since my singing finale to last year’s closing keynote at the HR Technology Conference (if you missed it, you missed it because no YouTube versions have popped up — yet), many colleagues have asked me about my next such performance. And no, the picture (that’s me in the foreground) isn’t from HR Tech but rather from my long […]
Tuesday, March 23 | The Adventures Of M/V SmartyPants: From Factory To Fort Myers
Woman does not live by work alone, at least not this woman. After several years of research (you’re surprised?), and a major setback to new boat plan A when the “great recession” hit, we contracted late last summer for a brand new American Tug 34, hull #136. Think custom software project using a proven object […]
Monday, March 22 | Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part III: HRM Strategies, Outcomes And Design
My apologies for the long detour from the Yellow Brick Road while I attended to heavy business travel, client deliverables, more shoulder rehab, and the final business details for closing on M/V SmartyPants. More on SmartyPants in a later next post, complete with pictures. For now, we’ve got a lot more work to do along […]
Monday, March 1 | Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part II: Vision, Strategy And Outcomes
In Part I of our journey down the yellow brick road to great HRM and HRM delivery systems, I set the stage in terms of the environment in which our organizations must operate and what they must do to be successful. By now you should have decided for your own organization — or will do this shortly […]
Wednesday, February 24 | Uncle Paul Says “Don’t Blame The Democrats For The Mess We’re In.”
Have I told you about my Uncle Paul? He’s the last Bloom of my father’s generation, the last link we have to the generation with whose values and collective guidance I was raised. It really does take a village to raise a child, and mine consisted not only of Blooms but of an extended Jewish […]
Monday, February 22 | Follow The Yellow Brick Road Part I: Business Environment And Challenges
In my 2/9/2010 post, I announced that I would be publishing my strategic HRM delivery systems planning methodology on this blog, so I thought I’d better get started. Although there’s a very geeky set of materials to guide me on these projects, I call the version of my methodology intended for clients, “follow the yellow […]
Monday, February 15 | M&A Observations: SuccessFactors Acquires Inform — What’s The Real Issue Here?
There’s been some terrific discussion in the blogosphere about SuccessFactor’s recent acquisition of Inform, and I won’t repeat here what Ventana Research, Knowledge Infusion OnDemand and others have had to say about what looks like a smart move for SuccessFactors and a potentially important contribution to HR’s ongoing quest for the “holy grail” of actionable analytics, […]
Tuesday, February 9 | Thinking Is My Job: Blogging Those Thoughts Is Now My Passion
I started my career as a programmer writing payroll applications in machine language to run in 4K memory. Over more years than most women would admit, I’ve focused my career on the application of information technology to HRM in order to achieve breakthroughs in business outcomes. Rather than being satisfied with cheaper payroll operations or faster […]
Friday, January 22 | Reflections Of A Digital Immigrant Gone Semi-Native: The Sad Tale Of Charles Phillips
Yesterday an Oracle story broke big-time, and it wasn’t about Fusion application delivery dates, pricing, or how much work it would take to get from EBS or PeopleSoft HCM to Fusion HCM apps. It also wasn’t about Oracle giving its installed base a break on their maintenance fees or committing to keep most of Sun’s workforce. […]
Wednesday, January 13 | Reflections Of A Digital Immigrant Gone Semi-Native: Professional Value Of Social Technology
I’ll get back to the world of HRM and IT as soon as I have two arms with which to tackle the really meaty stuff, but for now I’m continuing my one-armed reflections of a digital immigrant gone semi-native, the first installment of which is here This post owes a shout-out to Jason Averbook and Ray Wang for […]
Saturday, January 9 | Reflections Of A Digital Immigrant Gone Semi-Native: An Embarrassment Of Riches
As many of you know, I had left shoulder rotator cuff repair surgery on 12/18/09 and have been mostly offline since then except for backlogged blog posts (extensive, probably boring suggestions for “killer” scenarios) and the odd tweet (sometimes very odd as a result of the pain meds I’ve been taking, as sparingly as possible). With […]

2009 (27)

Monday, December 28 | More Of Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: Discontinuous Organizational Changes
This is the last, at least for a while, post in a series I’ve been doing that suggest some “killer” scenarios for HR leaders and their teams to use when considering how to design their HRM processes and their HRM delivery system. These are also excellent topics for the scripted scenario demos that I believe are the […]
Saturday, December 26 | Reflections On The Health Care “Debate”
Long before there was COBRA, long before family coverage included adult children, long before graduate school tuition included basic health care, and long before auto insurance provided adequate medical coverage, I had a small fender bender auto accident in Boston, where I was working days and getting my MBA at night. I was between jobs […]
Wednesday, December 23 | More Of Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: Ongoing Organizational Design Complexities
One of the toughest aspects designing or evaluating HRM software is hoe well it accommodates quite specialized but frequently observed organizational designs that go way beyond the traditional command and control model that’s hard-wired into the designs of many legacy ERPs/HRMSs. Although accommodating newer organizational designs has been a goal of these older platforms, when it […]
Monday, December 21 | More Of Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: Worker Lifecycle Events
After my initial post on “killer” scenarios, I’ve had a lot of positive feedback (more via email than via comments on the post, so perhaps some of my colleagues are a little reluctant to have their say in public?) on the value of that content and requests for more of the same. No problem. My […]
Friday, December 18 | After 40, It’s Patch, Patch, Patch
I can tell you a few things about aging. The best way to express my philosophy of aging is through the words of an unknown writer: Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, […]
Monday, December 14 | The Tower Of Babel In HRM: Where Is Our Domain Object Model?
One of the biggest challenges in any attempt to apply information technology to the human resource management (HRM) business is that we don’t yet have an industry, geographic and vendor neutral vocabulary for discussing its major concepts, let alone the details. Is my candidate your applicant? Is my contractor your contingent worker? Is my total compensation […]
Thursday, December 10 | Let’s Kill Off RFPs!
In an earlier post, I suggested the use of scripted scenario demos to determine the fit between HRM software and an organization’s needs. But what are scripted scenarios and demos based on them? How do you create effective scenarios? And how do you avoid scenario overkill? Scripted scenarios are very much like mini-Harvard MBA case studies in which […]
Monday, December 7 | The Future Of HRM Software: Interrogatory Configuration
Two of my long-standing HRM software architecture preferences have gone mainstream: True multi-tenancy, a required foundation for successful HRM SaaS products or BPO platforms; and Highly configurable tenants, to include the effective-dating of those configurations, full inheritance across and within tenants, and no disruption of configurations as the vendor applies new releases. Sounds wonderful, and many HRM software […]
Saturday, December 5 | Tiger And Me: A Cautionary Tale
He’s not my type, nor am I his, but I’ve met several Tigers in my forty plus years “on the road.” Early days, while I was still in graduate school and single (yes, I really was young once and quite a hotty), he was a Boston Bruin star. I was working full time days as a […]
Thursday, December 3 | Retirement Planning
Fooled ya. This isn’t about me but about your HRMS — my own retirement planning will be addressed in a future post, dated sometime after the 2nd coming. With a new generation of ERP/HRMS in release or coming next year, a reasonable question is when and how to plan for the retirement of your backbone HRMS, of your […]
Tuesday, December 1 | Naomi’s “Killer” Scenarios: Work And Workers
Finding best fit HRM software starts with knowing your organization’s needs and then “trying on” software via scripted scenario demos (I’ll get to that methodology in another post), looking for the best fit at the combination of time/money/risk/management attention/etc. that you’re willing to invest. Exploring that fit is the purpose of Naomi’s “killer” scenarios. Naomi’s “killer” scenarios are those […]
Friday, November 27 | Change Management: Mar-Lin Night’s Last Sail
Even as we look forward to the delivery of our next boat, I lament the end of our sailing dreams. The reasons why we really had to move from sailboat to “stink pot” are distant memories: the inability of my increasingly arthritic joints to handle the physical aspects of running a blue water sailboat, the now […]
Monday, November 23 | Counting My Blessings: Thanksgiving 2009
For those of you who haven’t started your list, here’s mine for Thanksgiving 2009: Ron Wallace — if you haven’t met The Wallace, you’re in for a treat. He’s smart (and never flaunts his far greater intellect than mine), beyond funny (especially when doing those imitations of all the satellite systems he’s helped design), kind […]
Saturday, November 21 | When Bank Branch Managers Are Called President
Today’s wonderful Dilbert strip got me thinking about how easy it is to use words that mislead, manipulate, and generally obscure the truth. In Lake Woebegon, where all the men are handsome and the children are above average, we dance around performance issues, letting the person in question think that things are going pretty well when, in […]
Friday, November 20 | Where Are The Snowdons Of Yesterday: A Cautionary Tale
Do you know the story of MSA (Management Sciences America)? That once proud business applications software vendor dominated the market for financial systems in the early 80’s, when it was the largest such software vendor by far. By 1991, it had been relegated to the software graveyard. And if you read about it’s flamboyant, larger than life CEO, […]
Thursday, November 19 | Signal To Noise Ratio: Performance Management Breakthrough?
Wikipedia defines the signal-to-noise ratio (did I mention that Ron was a NASA communications systems engineer with an ABD in electrical engineering?) as the ratio of signal power to the noise power corrupting the signal. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise, a very good thing. SNR compares the level of a desired signal to the level of […]
Wednesday, November 18 | Lies, Damns Lies, and Metrics – – With Apologies To Mark Twain – – Part IV
By now you’ve either decided that you NEVER want to hear another word about HRM/HRMDS metrics, or your metrics spreadsheet is ready to roll. You’ve used the highest level processes of the HRM domain model, mine or yours, as the columns and a metrics taxonomy, mine or yours, arrayed as the rows. What’s next is to […]
Monday, November 16 | My Life In 140 Characters
Why would anyone launch a blog if they’re already writing a monthly column in a print magazine or could tell their story immediately in 140 characters or less on Twitter? What stories are worthy of or require more than 140 characters but need the immediacy and “artistic” control of a blog? These are just some of the questions I’ve been […]
Monday, November 16 | Lies, Damns Lies, and Metrics – – With Apologies To Mark Twain – – Part III
In my last two posts, I introduced the importance and use of metrics in the running of the HRM business and it’s HRM delivery system (HRMDS). I then introduced my HRM domain model to provide a precise and consistent terminology for the HRM processes when discussing HRM and HRMDS metrics (or any other aspect of […]
Friday, November 13 | We’ve Come A Long Way In HR Tech!
We spent this morning at the Fort Myers boat show, which was very much diminished because of the economy. It was very unlike our own 2009 HR Technology Conference, which was overflowing with vendor booths and full of energy. But what really struck me as we walked through the boat show was how far we’ve […]
Friday, November 13 | Lies, Damns Lies, and Metrics – – With Apologies To Mark Twain – – Part II
In my last post, I began discussing the importance and use of metrics in the running of the HRM business and it’s HRM delivery system (HRMDS), to include those metrics needed in the service level agreements for shared services and when any part of the HRM business and/or HRM delivery system is outsourced. And please […]
Wednesday, November 11 | Lies, Damns Lies, and Metrics – – With Apologies To Mark Twain – – Part I
Since we’re already on the subject of metrics and more metrics, let’s take a deeper dive before making further investments in HRM and the HRM delivery system (HRMDS). We know we can’t improve what we don’t measure, but the dirty little secret of HRM and HRMDS metrics is that we will only get improvement in […]
Tuesday, November 10 | Referral Fees, Success Fees, La Mordida Is La Mordida
Jason Averbook did a great post today on the sleezy (my term, not his) practice of so-called consultants who accept payments from vendors for favoring them in some way, e.g. putting them on the short list when they’re assisting end-users with vendor evaluations and selections. His post got me thinking, and the beauty of my […]
Monday, November 9 | The Road From HRM To Business Results Is Littered With Misguided Metrics – – Part II
Thanks for coming back in spite of the math — or because of it. Now that we know what we’re trying to do, to improve revenues and profits, we’ve got to explore, getting down and dirty, what drives financial results in a specific organization. Do newer products garner the greatest increases in sales and profits? […]
Monday, November 9 | The Road From HRM To Business Results Is Littered With Misguided Metrics – – Part I
If the real purpose, the only purpose, of HRM is to achieve organizational outcomes, then we’d better be able to measure the effects of specific investments in HRM on those organizational outcomes. Otherwise, why would anyone trust us with a budget? The primary outcome measures for private sector organizations are revenues and profits, so we’d […]
Sunday, November 8 | What And Why Are Human Resource Management?
If I’m going to use this blog for its intended purpose, then I’d better get right to work on a core, perhaps the core, issue that lurks, quietly but dangerously, waiting to sabotage our best efforts to achieve improved organizational outcomes through improved workforce performance. The villain of this piece is the sloppy, inconsistent, ill-defined […]
Sunday, November 8 | Drum Roll Please! Da Da Da DAH!
Welcome to InFullBloom. I’ve been agonizing over this initial post for weeks, and I’m still no closer to knowing what to write than when I started. I so wanted to grab everyone’s interest and immediate respect by saying something really profound about improving the practice of HRM, the use of HR technology, achieving organizational outcomes, […]

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