Sometimes people wonder why software as a service (SaaS) took off so quickly in the HR world. One of the key reasons I believe is the fact that strategic HR is a mission critical function, but is rarely supported enough by IT.

In the latest Taleo Research paper, “The Gap between IT and Strategic HR in the UK (free download)” this disparity is shown very clearly. Of course payroll and administrative HR are covered for the most part. But when you look at workforce planning, performance management, recruitment, and internal mobility; only less than a third of organizations estimate that they are adequately supported.

But it is not new to have a long laundry list of things that we want to improve. The question is most often: Which one will we tackle first? To the question of priorities, most respondents selected Employee Communications. And Talent Management was in second place, way above any others!