What a difference a year makes. While 2009 was marked with economic uncertainty, 2010 ended on a high note for most talent management technology providers. Overall, leading solution providers noted more deals, more investment in research and product development, more consolidation and a renewed level of optimism. Given the current state of the market, what can we expect for 2011? Last night’s State of the Union addressed a rise in innovation and a growing desire for companies to reinvent themselves in the upcoming year. This message certainly holds true in the talent management technology arena.

The next wave of talent management technology has entered the market, offering more connectivity, interactivity and employee engagement (not to mention some significant VC backing). Overall, social networking is a common theme. These startups are not necessarily replacing talent management systems but offering more options and a fresh approach to enhancing an existing systems strategy.

Here are a few worth checking out…

Socialized HR: Veechi’s flagship product is one of the most innovative providers to move into the talent acquisition space over the past year. This solution eliminates all paper-based resumes by allowing recruiters to take a picture of a resume in real-time. The resume is then scanned and parsed and sent off to a talent acquisition system. A social identity report allows recruiters to view the LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter activity of each candidate. It also provides a discrepancy report to identify inaccurate information on either resumes or LinkedIn profiles.

gr8people: Finally, some innovation outside of the talent acquisition market.
Just announced last week, gr8 people is offering a solution that gets to the heart of what matters to both employers and job seekers…collaboration, engagement and cultivating high potential talent. We can expect nothing short of a world-class solution from the Founders of VirtualEdge, Jayne Kettles and Diane Smith.

Jobmagic: Jobmagic offers a social recruiting platform with the ability to create personalized job postings, publish jobs on social networking sites and strengthen branding. Not only has Jobmagic created quite a following – just check out posts on Facebook and Quora – but it has acquired some significant customers including TJX Companies, Trinet, and HealthSouth.

StartWire: A solution aimed at job seekers not employers, StartWire (founded by Chris Forman – CEO of AIRS) uses social networking to help candidates find jobs. Bill Kutik gives a great overview here…. http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533328336

Roundpegg: The pre- and post-hire assessment market has been gaining a lot of momentum over the past year, especially for off-the-shelf assessments. Organizations can no longer afford a bad hire. Roundpegg is tapping into this market, offering both self-assessments and organizational assessments to help organizations identify the right fit.

MatchFWD: Employee referral programs are considered the most effective source of hire by leading organizations. MatchFWD connects the concept of employee referral programs with social networking to help organizations identify top talent and engage with a broader workforce.

Sayhired: Providers such as SkillSurvey and Checkster have achieved success by automating some of the tedious aspects of the recruiting process such as online reference calls. Sayhired is following suit by offering a solution with automated phone screening and reference checks.

The solutions listed below are just a small sample of some of the providers entering the market. We will continue to cover innovation in the talent management space throughout the year….stay tuned.