At COLLABORATE 19, Nancy Estell Zoder, Senior Director of Oracle HCM Cloud Product Strategy, spoke about the Oracle HCM Cloud roadmap for the future and how it can transform and optimize workforce management.

While Oracle has proven itself in the cloud for several years, there have recently been dramatic strides in the development of its offerings and the services provided to customers. Oracle HCM Cloud now boasts an extensive global presence in product offerings and customer base. Not only does the program provide a number of SaaS solutions, but Oracle HCM Cloud customers also have access to specific solutions and expansive opportunities within HR.

Oracle HCM Cloud is also a major player in the field of adaptive intelligence. As one of the first to market AI from the HCM perspective, there has been ample time for further development of systems and features—including the predictive analytics that were applied years ago but continue to receive investment from the Oracle product strategy team. Oracle HCM Cloud has shown how AI can empower HR transformation.

Historically, the implemented product strategy was aimed at simplifying and standardizing everything—processes, data collection, etc. This resulted in discovering best practices for Human Resources, becoming more talent-centric, and providing services within the user’s organization.

Upon further research, the best approach for organizations does not always lean on simplicity. While end user interactions should ideally be simple, the management of Global HR, Workforce Rewards, and Time and Labor can be necessarily complex. Oracle has simplified the interface in order to manage these complex processes more effectively.

According to Nancy Estell Zoder, Senior Director of Oracle HCM Cloud Product Strategy, these enhancements are only available because of the full suite that is offered in Oracle HCM Cloud. She explains that the SaaS offerings have doubled in the past 12 to 18 months.

The Problem

As is the case with fingerprints and snowflakes, no two people in your organization are exactly alike. Each person has different expectations for interaction with the user interface. This means that you cannot build your overall organizational processes around a specific individual.

To break this down a bit further, employees and managers should have simple, easy access to career and job details and have comprehensive support to optimize organization. Contract workers have timekeeping and billing responsibilities and should have access to organization information. Interns, on the other hand, have certain user experience expectations and require short-term access with progression opportunities. Managers may have the time or desire to understand a process, whereas contract workers or interns are usually less available for complexity.

Oracle HCM Cloud has invested in identifying and providing solutions for complex processes like these and allowing different types of interfaces based on personal work approaches.

Although the desire is for simplicity, HR is not simple. There are honestly more exceptions to rules than there are rules when it comes to managing the people and their nuances within an organization. Essentially, HR is assigned to making a very difficult job look easy in the eyes of the end worker population.

The Solution: Oracle HCM Cloud

One solution in Oracle HCM Cloud is comprehensive support of a global workforce, or Global Human Resources (GHR). The purpose of GHR is to bring efficient and effective management of a globally integrated workforce, serve as a single source of truth for employee data, and provide a global localization-based user experience. Benefits of GHR include:

• A 360-degree view of personal and professional profile information
• Self-service benefits management
• Employee and organizational social collaboration

Another new approach in the Oracle HCM Cloud roadmap, HR Rules Management, allows organizations to centralize rule administration—meaning the rules are no longer in the processes. Users will no longer have to assess, administer, or interpret rules multiple times. Additionally, location-based access control allows the organization to enable and disable access to HR records for an individual—dependent on if they are in the office or away. The organization can set parameters to ensure users have access to information that is valid to them as people, but not valid as workers outside of business hours.

There are also plans in the Oracle HCM Cloud roadmap to continue expanding Experience Design Studio, the channel through which organizations with complex business rules can provide unique experiences for various employees. Essentially, Experience Design Studio provides the ability to configure processes based on specific attributes that are defined.

For example, a manager in the U.S. with employees in both the U.S. and Germany has different rules to follow to complete the same task (i.e. promotions) for both individuals. This is often due to legislative reasons, but it can also promote best practices for competition’s sake within the applicable country. Previously, managers were expected to know how to approach any and all situations. However, with Experience Design Studio, HR can define the rules for the manager and provide him or her with the necessary guidance per situation.

Additional updates and solutions include Workforce Rewards, Workforce Management, Talent Management, and Talent Acquisition.

Adaptive Intelligence in HCM

Derived from Oracle’s Governance Risk and Compliance solution that is available to Financials customers, advanced HCM controls enable an organization to take a proactive measure regarding the management of data security. The system does this by leveraging key algorithms that are delivered with the solution to enable organizations to proactively identify potential risk areas and manage HCM data. Risk areas may include personnel placement—for example, identifying that a person who runs payroll should not be able to hire employees.

Additionally, the introduction of digital assistants for candidates is a game-changer. It is available now, and expansion is scheduled in the Oracle HCM Cloud roadmap to include smart compliance, intelligent career planning, and more. The key opportunity in expansion is the new user interface, which allows you to accomplish as much as possible through the chat window or digital assistant on your phone. Learn how Oracle Digital Assistants are changing finance.

According to trends, the future of interaction will be through a digital assistant that allows the user to ask a question and receive guidance to a solution within the chat window. Although employees can ask simple questions like:
• Who is my manager?
• What time zone is this employee currently in?
• What time should I call him?

However, they can also conduct and manage processes through digital assistants. Even promotions can occur through a digital assistant and conversational HCM.

For a quick-look demonstration of this new conversational HCM through digital assistants, check out the video below.

Cloud Engagement and Cloud Customer Connect

In the past, it took several years to collect enough data from Oracle customers to define priorities, flesh out the process, and roll out a new product. However, Cloud Engagement has allowed Oracle to move products to market within as little as ten months in response to customer interaction. From start to finish, the customer’s input is valued as a top priority.

The key is to this quick production is Cloud Customer Connect. Customers have access to ask questions, submit ideas, engage with members, and more. The Oracle strategy team takes these interactions very seriously, to the point that 80 percent of the most recent updates were customer-sourced enhancements.

Oracle HCM Cloud Roadmap

There are new features continuously being released on Oracle HCM Cloud’s roadmap, many of which are driven by customer input. Here’s a breakdown of what’s currently available, what’s coming next, and what’s planned for the future:

For more information about the Oracle HCM Cloud roadmap and strategy, check out Nancy’s full presentation attached below.

Additional Resources

For more Oracle HCM Cloud resources, case studies, best practices, etc., check out Quest’s Oracle HCM Cloud Content Center. There are resources and training available for all aspects of HCM Cloud, including payroll, analytics, recruiting, and more!