I really enjoyed thinking out loud, last week, about the pioneering role athenahealth and TriZetto are playing in moving healthcare forward. I liked it so much, in fact, that I might make a habit out of it. This time around, I’m thinking, out loud, about Aflac and Workscape, and their role in the future of human resources…
You surely know Aflac. Yes, the “ask about us at work” duck people. You probably know them best for their “we pay you cash if you get sick or hurt and miss work” insurance products. But, because of the close working relationship they normally have with human resource departments large and small, Aflac has built a growing portfolio of human resources support services for businesses, including managing the administration of coverage continuity, flexible spending, and transit expenses. Aflac is known in the information technology world for their respected (but proprietary) SmartApp customer relationship management software, which allows Aflac to efficiently manage what is, essentially, its own minimal human resource information systems for each of the companies it serves.
While Aflac is a household name, Workscape might be a little bit less well known to folks outside of human resources. But the company is increasingly building its reputation through its innovative use of technology to help companies better manage human resources, including benefits and compensation. The company has signed up companies big and small, from General Motors to FedEx, and even IBM. The key for Workscape is its web-based suite of software that allows businesses to stop having to worry about developing their own human resources information systems or integrating one that’s too big, too small, but never just right. Instead, Workscape adapts, hosts, and manages its solutions for each of its company clients. As an added blessing, employees at Workscape-served companies can then access an online portal, hosted by Workscape, to utilize self-service human resource tools.
While Aflac will probably always be better known for its insurance products, I think continued focus on its Aflac for Business benefits and human resource services could be a real growth area for the company. In fact, as Aflac for Business grows, it could even lead new clients to Aflac’s insurance products. Likewise, I think the future for Workscape is huge: as Salesforce.com and athenahealth and others prove that web-based solutions can really work for business, more and more are looking to other innovators in that field. I think Workscape just might be one such company worthy of the spotlight.
I’ve done work for companies that have “managed” their human resources in all sorts of ways. For one, you basically had to call ADP, which was barely preferable to banging your head against a wall. Just to be clear, I’m pretty sure ADP has never met a bureaucratic hoop or antiquated technology it didn’t like.
At another company, you could spend hours on hold waiting for a frustrated human resource agent to figure out what to type into his or her computer to get it to do some seemingly elementary function, all the while said company was still throwing away millions to implement an already-deprecated human resources information system.
In any case, I would much rather have dealt with the friendly folks at Aflac or the convenient self-service tools of Workscape.
I imagine widespread deployment of electronic personnel records that are convenient, accessible, and, to a certain extent, portable will probably be a reality sooner than the same can be said for electronic health records. We’ve made it there in the financial world… Once our human resource and medical files catch up… Well, by that point Saint Peter will probably be reviewing all my electronic records for admissions purposes…
Good luck, though, to Aflac and Workscape. For your enjoyment purposes, just imagine if the following highly-trained goat was employed to recycle unnecessary human resources paperwork… Yes, that’ll be the day…
