As the HR tech space continues to grow, it’s becoming increasingly important for organizations to place a strong focus on effectively managing alliances to build out a strong partner ecosystem. Since 2011, the First Advantage partner ecosystem has grown from a few select partners to over 200 since the acquisition of Sterling in October 2024.
When managing relationships with some of the largest HR tech companies in Human Capital Management (HCM) as well as in the Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) space, you must put a focus on strategic planning, performance measurement, innovation and adaptability, and positioning your organization for continued success by analyzing future trends.
Understanding Alliances
Before sitting down to start identifying potential partners, organizations must define what they are looking for. Asking the question, “what are the key components of a strong alliance within the HR tech space?” is the first step. HR teams should be on the lookout for positive qualities such as trust and commitment, open communication, and accountability. Both parties should be committed to the success of the partnership, regularly communicate to maintain operational stability and address any potential risk or issue, and be accountable for roles tied to revenue growth.
Along with those key components, prioritizing internal buy-in and what type of technology an alliance has to offer cannot be overlooked. Partnership goals must be aligned with the strategies of all teams considered “key stakeholders” within each organization. Those teams should include product and technology to determine if what an alliance is offering can be considered world-class technology. For example, First Advantage advances on partnerships where technology comes together to support mutual customers by delivering job candidates a truly seamless experience. This could not be properly executed without the best technology offerings.
Strategic Planning and Performance Measurement
Once the appropriate alliance attributes are defined, organizations must identify possible partners and evaluate potential success, including analyzing market trends, understanding the needs of customers, finding good cultural fits, and leveraging existing networks. Your customers are already buying HR tech products and software from people and companies they trust, so those trusted vendors should all be considered as potential partners. Organizations can learn a great deal fromsimply talking to customers and understanding their priorities when it comes to their HR tech stack.
Cultural fits can be assessed through initial meetings to gain an understanding of each other’s value propositions to customers and goals for the partnership. This helps to ensure each identified alliance is willing to invest time and resources into the things that will make the partnership successful, including their willingness to collaborate on integration capabilities, marketing campaigns, training sessions, and more.
The criteria needed to evaluate performance consists of goal alignment and revenue growth. Both parties must have clear objectives of what a successful partnership looks like, and goals should be shared regularly. While multiple goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) can be identified, revenue growth tracks the impact of partner relationships to ensure growth and retention of customers as a result.
Additional goals and KPIs can include the number of new business opportunities generated through referrals, customer and alliance satisfaction rates, and operational efficiency (i.e., time-to-revenue and time building an effective integration). A well-known platform such as Salesforce can help to report on progress by tagging and tracking all opportunities referred or influenced by alliances. This also ties directly into open communication as detailed reports can be shared for periodic reviews with identified stakeholders.
Innovating Toward Future Trends
As growth in the HR tech space continues to increase, so too does the need for alliances to leverage trends and provide opportunities for innovation.
Innovation is fostered by encouraging collaborative brainstorming sessions, investing in new technologies, talking to customers to understand current and potential new needs, and staying up to date with industry trends happening now and those we expect to come in the future.
Expected trends to prepare for include the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the talent acquisition process/workflow, continued emphasis on data security, and the need for flexible and scalable integrated solutions via one platform.
Organizations need alliances to scale and grow, but this cannot be done without proper management. By defining expectations, strategically planning, consistently measuring, and innovating to stay current with trends, a well-structured and managed partner ecosystem can be built to support mutual customers that are navigating the ever-growing HR tech space.
This originally appeared on HR.com: https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/all_articles/hr-tech-building-strong-partnerships_ma22fhk5.html?s=6uzP5DKe4TBBnmpU
