HR software is rarely a source of excitement, but traditional priorities were turned on their head at the Softworld event at the Birmingham NEC last week. John Stokdyk reports
Sandwiched between accounting/finance and project/performance management exhibitors, the HR & payroll companies were frequently swamped with visitors while rival exhibitors were left moaning about the lack of passing traffic.
Rising interest in HR came as no surprise to Graham Kimberley of COA, which last year brought Grampian Software into a group that also offers several financial software families as well as the PeopleAnalytics program.
According to COA executives, the combination is proving to be a persuasive one. "A significant percentage of FDs have responsibility for HR and many of the metrics they look at are financial metrics around people. Sickness and absence get talked about as a metric, because that's a key measure that cosdts them money.