#HRTechChat with Marc Havercroft, Chief Customer Officer for SAP SuccessFactors

For this, the latest episode of #HRTechChat, our guest is Marc Havercroft, global chief customer officer for SAP SuccessFactors. Marc and I had a conversation a couple weeks ago and were both struck by how much we have in common in terms of our views on HCM. We at 3Sixty Insights speak of abstract and concrete HCM, and how you need both. Marc shares a very intriguing rendition on this, equating the two to operational-related HCM and experience-related HCM -- i.e., the employee experience. And we agree that whether it's abstract and concrete or operational and experience, all of it comes to bear squarely and undeniably on employee sentiment. Our podcast together reiterates these points and continues in this vein. Ultimately, our discussion explores wide-ranging topics related to the principle premise: Organizations that treat HCM as solely operational (i.e., concrete) struggle to see their people as anything but a cost to contain. In contrast, those employers that treat their people as an asset will invest in them and win. Going deeper, organizations should move their workforce out of the cost column and into the asset column -- literally. Old-school financial-minded executives might question the wisdom behind doing so. As Marc puts it, however, and I paraphrase, there comes a point when you can't worry about explaining that the world is round anymore. The world is round anyway. This or the other effort having to do with improving the employee experience may be an abstract idea and may not translate to a financially quantifiable line item any accountant or anyone in finance would recognize. It matters to success anyway. We must begin to take as postulate that the general ledger is not a full view of the health of the organization -- i.e., of its ability to succeed over the short or long term. Employee sentiment matters to an organization's success -- to the bottom and top line. Finance may not see it. They're entitled to their opinions, but not to the final say. I encourage you to click on the video above and view this entire episode. Marc brought much-needed energy, passion and ideas to this very important discussion.