HR survey data released this week

Two reports:
Our first CedarCrestone HR Survey "Pulse" report that collected data in December about expected changes in HR technology expenditures. Not as bad as expected: 70% of respondents said "no change." Of the remainder, 11% indicated expected increases; 19% expected decreases. The net change was -6% although it varies by type of technology and by industry. See www.cedarcrestone.com/research. The category of Strategic HCM applications (talent management focus) was the least impacted.

We also published our first CedarCrestone HR Survey focused on Asia and Australia. This effort was sponsored by Oracle, BUT responses came from organizations with varying solutions. This first CedarCrestone Asia Pacific HR Systems Survey of 277 organizations representing over 2 million employees discovered:
• The number one business initiative for APAC survey respondents is a focus on metrics and analytics whether in the form of developing a metrics strategy, integrating data sources, or implementing business intelligence applications to enable metrics-based management. Aligning employee performance with organizational goals (including implementing a performance management application) and business process improvements are also top initiatives.
• Self service and moving to an HR service center approach enables organizations to serve more employees with their HR staff.
• Talent management and business intelligence applications matter—those organizations that have these applications report higher financial performance than those without these applications.
• An integrated talent management approach enables organizations to achieve a lower total cost of ownership. Organizations with such an approach also reported higher sales and more than double the operating income growth than those with alternative approaches (44% vs. 17%). In this economic environment, an integrated talent management portfolio is a best practice.
• Web 2.0 is at the innovator stage among APAC respondents, but early adopters worldwide are achieving early positive advantage of double the sales growth of those without these technologies.
• Oracle’s Human Capital Management (HCM) software suites (PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business Suite) are the top choices of APAC organizations for administrative, service delivery, talent management, and business intelligence applications. These software solutions enable organizations to successfully automate their HR processes, provide employee and manager self service, manage and retain talent, and gather HR-related business intelligence in support of metrics-based management.

Sacred Places

It's been too long since I've written here but I want to share some thoughts with a dear friend and this is a good place to do it. I've been wanting to post some pictures and talk about my "spiritual journey" in China this past November.
I am a practicing Buddhist who belongs to a local sangha in Auburn. I am also a lapsed Methodist. I get more sustenance from meditation and weekly discussions at the sangha.
My trip to China was mostly for work, but my husband and I had 8 days to "see" China. Whenever we could, we visited Buddhist sites and other sacred places. Remind me to share those pictures, but here are a few that were special.

The Laughing Buddha is a delightful carving near the entrance of the Lingyin park and temple in Hangzhou. There are hundreds of carved buddhas....this is my favorite.

It is said about this buddha:
"His belly is big enough to contain all intolerable things in the world;
His mouth is ever ready to laugh at all snobbish persons under heaven."
May his belly hold any pain that dear friend Bonnie has today.

But the destination here is the Lingyin Temple where you see a 55 foot Buddha statue made out of camphor wood.



This is the Sakyamuni Buddha statue. My heart was so filled with peace and love and true joy seeing this statue. I know it is just an icon, but I think the day, the journey, the fact that I'd been on a 7 day vacation with my husband and had trekked in the cold cold with thousands of people to get to this place, at that time led me to this sense of peace and joy more profound than I've felt anywhere other than in simple meditation.

Asia Pacific High Level Survey Findings on state of HR technologies adoption

This first CedarCrestone Asia Pacific HR Systems Survey of 277 organizations representing over 2 million employees discovered the following. This survey report will be published in the next week:
● The number one business initiative worldwide, including for APAC countries, is a focus on metrics and analytics whether in the form of developing a metrics strategy, integrating data sources, or implementing business intelligence applications to enable metrics-based management. Aligning employee performance with organizational goals (including implementing a performance management application) and business process improvements are also top initiatives.
● Self service and moving to an HR service center approach enables organizations to serve more employees with their HR staff.
● Talent management and business intelligence applications matter – those organizations that have these applications report higher financial performance than those without these applications.
● An integrated talent management approach enables organizations to achieve a lower total cost of ownership. Organizations with such an approach also reported higher sales and more than double the operating income growth than those with alternative approaches (44% vs. 17%). In this economic environment, an integrated talent management portfolio is a best practice.
● Web 2.0 is at the innovator stage among APAC respondents, but early adopters worldwide are achieving early positive advantage of double the sales growth of those without these technologies.

How old would you be if you lived on Mars?

For me, I'd be 34. I rather like that. Check this out this birth calculator for each of the planets. And, I'm really young on Saturn!

Balancing self, relationship and work

I've been asked why I'm doing a blog on quilting and surveys. For some time now, people at my company had been encouraging me to do a blog. But I think I never wanted to do a blog just on work stuff. It wasn't until my friend, Dickie, started one on quilting (and life) that I decided ...OK. I can do one on quilting too AND also on work stuff. Further, I'd had a conversation with a colleague at Knowledge Infusion. Heidi Spirgi and I were talking about blogging being a male endeavor. Certainly most of the blogs I follow that are work related are by guys. Heidi and I both agreed though that life is not just about work and that women's lives seem much more full. For us women, life is a balance. It's a balance of our commitment to work, our commitment to our relationship with our partner and family, and most importantly a commitment to the relationship with our emerging selves.

So, for me, work-life balance means balancing all three of my commitments: to my husband, kids, and extended family; to my work; and to me. Surprisingly, blogging is a lot about that last one. By getting some of my thoughts into writing, I am exploring that last most important relationship.

Encouraging innovation -- you can help by voting

As you read the following (copied from an email from the Herman Trend email on November 26), realize that innovation comes from collaborative endeavors. By voting, you too can contribute. Visit Project 10 to the 100th to sign up to vote.

Herman Trend says: "Some months ago now, the leading searching engine Google launched a competition calling for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Herman Trend says: "Some months ago now, the leading search engine Google launched a competition calling for ideas "to change the world by helping as many people as possible". It was open to anyone anywhere in the world.

They call the contest "Project 10 to the 100th"; 10 to the 100 is another way of expressing the number "googol", a one followed by one hundred zeroes. The goal of the challenge reflects the company's goal---"to achieve great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact". The Project is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing [their] users' insights and creativity. Yes, Google wants to help change the world for the better. Unfortunately, the deadline for submission of ideas was October 20, 2008.

However, you can still vote on the idea you believe is best. The voting on ideas will begin on January 27, 2009. (They will send you a reminder to vote, if you wish?) At that time Google will post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. To implement these projects, Google has committed $10 million, and their goal is to help as many people as possible.

This Project reminds us of others. Many of us have heard about the X Prize given for Space Flight. Yet, the X Prize Foundation is planning other prizes in diverse fields, including Health Care, Education Energy and Environment, Exploration, Global Entrepreneurship, and Life Sciences.

The other well-publicized competition to encourage innovation is the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Challenge. For years, the United States Department of Defense has had an interest in developing a driverless vehicle that would navigate long distances. Remarkable technological advancements have emerged from this annual contest.

Expect more entrepreneurs, private enterprise and government entities to offer incentives to encourage and reward innovation. For the entrepreneurs, the pay-off is leaving the legacy of a better world; for private enterprise, it is about demonstrating corporate social responsibility; for government, it is about advancing defense technologies at a relatively reasonable cost."

Fabric Dyeing in China

On the next to the last day of our trip in China, we visited Wuzhen, about 75 miles from Hangzhou. This scenic town is another of the "water towns" in China. But my real interest in this town was that it had an exhibit of indigo-blue fabric dyeing. Actually, the whole town is kind of like our Jamestown, where there are many of the "old" crafts exhibited like basket making and making combs from horn, and more. But, as a quilter, I find the old crafts related to fabric very interesting and will always go out of my way to see these. This trip was worth it.

The picture above is how they finally dry the dyed fabric and it's lovely to see these long swaths of cloth blowing in the breeze (about 40 degree breeze the day we were there). The process goes like this:

1. Prepare a pattern. These used to be done by hand, but are now done by machine. They look like this. The crafts person puts a paste on the design.
The crafts person puts a paste on the design and when they lift the pattern off, it looks like this:
Then the pattern is pressed against the fabric and dyed in vats like these:

And, finally, the fabric is dried in the wind as in the picture at the beginning. Unfortunately, the "old" process has been replaced by machines, but it was good to see the old way. Modern quilters are still using the old way too. Here's a blog all about fabric dyeing: http://wordpress.com/tag/fabric-dyeing/