Taleo Re-Invents Performance Management with Breakthrough New Product

Cutting Edge Solution puts an end to Useless Annual Performance Reviews, Serves as a Powerful Management Tool and a Career Planning Resource for Employees

Dynamic and Engaging Interface Uses Web 2.0 Technologies and Social Networking to Drive Viral Adoption

At Taleo World 2007, Taleo Corporation today announced Taleo Performance, a breakthrough new solution that transforms how organisations manage and motivate their most important assets ñ their people. Taleo Performance is an engaging and dynamic application that enables continuous performance management and gives managers a single view of all the information they need to motivate, develop and align talent with the companyís business goals. Taleo Performance, which is the only solution built on a unified talent platform, includes Performance Management, Goals Management, Career Management and Succession Planning.

A new Taleo Research survey conducted online by Harris Interactive examined the factors that motivate employee performance and satisfaction. A lack of growth opportunities was cited as the top reason for having voluntarily left a job among respondents who consider themselves motivated employees. Growth opportunities are clearly important to good employees, yet only 12% of full and part-time workers say that their employers give them a career path plan. In addition, 57% of survey respondents say that they have either never had a performance review or said it was neutral to not useful; only 21% of employees who have ever had a performance review considered their most recent one to be extremely useful.

Typical performance management solutions simply automate outdated manual processes for performance reviews. Taleo Performance puts an end to useless annual performance reviews. By integrating with daily business productivity tools such as Microsoft Outlook, users can quickly request and capture feedback and supporting documents on an ongoing basis throughout the year without ever logging into the application. This ongoing feedback process facilitates continuous performance management and also simplifies developing performance reviews as the manager has to simply organise, compare and synthesize the information.

How is Taleo Performance Different?
- Intuitive User Interface ñ The solution, which was developed in Adobe Flex, has the look and feel of a consumer internet application, making it approachable and accessible for managers and employees. Traditionally, user adoption has been a barrier to the success of performance management solutions

- Social Networking and Collaboration ñ Employees can view career paths taken by other employees throughout the organisation to identify career mentors. Users can also build their own networks by adding individuals or importing whole groups from tools like Microsoft Outlook and LinkedIn. Users can work together to gather performance review information, collaborate on goals and projects, receive feedback on succession plans and hundreds of other job-oriented tasks

- User Generated Content ñ Taleo Performance removes the burden from HR of developing and maintaining common performance data in favor of content that is dynamically generated by users

- Breadth of Functionality ñ Taleo Performance goes beyond traditional performance management solutions to include career and succession planning in addition to performance and goals management

- Unified Functionality ñ Linking performance data and career preference gives unprecedented visibility into all the information needed to simplify managing talent across multiple business units, organisations, geographies or talent types

- Proven Platform ñTaleo has 1,200 customers, 1,000,000 users and 66,000,000 candidates running on its leading on demand, web-based platform for talent management. It is the most robust and reliable platform in the industry with over 99.9% availability

Click here for a more detailed comparison of how Taleo Performance stacks up against traditional performance management solutions.

Comments on Taleo Performance Management:
ìHarnessing the power of the talent within your organisation is the key to success in the talent age, yet the existing tools for managing and developing talent are totally inadequate and simply automate outdated manual processes,î said Michael Gregoire, CEO of Taleo. ìTaleo transforms performance management from a once a year obligation into a competitive edge that businesses can use to harness innovation and facilitate execution to achieve outstanding business results.î

ìTaleo Performance should be part of the DNA of any talent-driven organisation,î said Eric Niman, Director of HR Business Systems.at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. ìThe ability to dynamically align individual goals and reviews with overall business needs is powerful and compelling.î

ìTaleo Performance is a unique and promising new solution that has the opportunity to truly transform the way business handles talent management,î says Josh Bersin, CEO of Bersin & Associates.

Jason Averbook, CEO of Knowledge Infusion says, ìBased on our forthcoming Talent Management Suite adoption study, usability has become the most important factor when selecting a Talent Management Suite. We are excited to see Taleo place such importance on usability in the Taleo Performance Solution. This is what will make Taleo successful and their users successful in the war on talent.î

Why do Companies Need Performance Management Now?
- Current performance rankings are ineffective. A recent BusinessWeek poll surveyed 2000 executives, and 90% of managers and 97% of executives ranked themselves in the top 10% of performers. Todayís Performance Management techniques arenít giving managers and executives the tools they need to paint an accurate portrayal of their performance

- Our current business environmentócharacterised as the talent ageórequires an updated talent management methodology to drive the next level of business performance: Performance 2.0. In this new modelóinstead of being the owners of processes, forms, and complianceóHR becomes the strategic enabler of talent management processes that provide business value for managers and employees alike. Performance 2.0 empowers the business to effectively manage the next generation workforce with next generation talent management processes and practices, running on the next generation talent management technology platform to drive better business results by optimising the acquisition and performance of human capital assets