Eight years into an economic boom, however, the tables have turned. Powered by Internet-based technology, reengineered corporate structures have fostered the emergence of virtual workforces, making it easier than ever for free agents to float from company to company and project to project. But the hypergrowth so many companies have experienced in this booming economy has led successful companies in almost every industry to covet qualified employees and to find that, with accelerated demand, these qualified and talented employees are harder than ever to find and once found, even harder to keep. Part of the retention strategy has become offering richer and richer benefit packages and more creative and unusual options. Managers, decisionmakers, strategic thinkers, and planners now need meaningful information at their fingertips at a moment s notice.
HR has a role to play in providing that.
For many companies in the services sector, in particular payroll alone can account for up to 70 percent of total expenses. And with increased vacation time, better medical coverage, and a host of new educational and career development perks built into the package, benefits, which used to represent maybe 20 percent of an employee s salary, now often top 30 percent. Of course what service organizations provide is people. And whatever it takes to make sure those people are in place is, in essence, simply the cost of doing business a basic finance concern. Knowing that, of course, demands not only a certain type of software, but a lot of information and knowledge sharing.