SHL – SHL is a vendor I’ve tracked from back in the early 1990s. Originally named Saville Holdsworth Limited, the company has grown via acquisitions and organic growth. It’s even had some bouts with its namesake founder over the name of the firm.
SHL executives discussed with me three items: an update on their growth; update on their Talent Acquisition solution; and, update on their Talent Mobility solution. As to growth, SHL is now in 50 countries and has solutions in 32 languages. Sales are approximately 1/3 Americas, 1/3 Europe and 1/3 Asia Pacific.
The Talent Acquisition solution uses decades of data and expertise SHL has collected via personality surveys (and, most importantly, data around which personalities will probably succeed in a given firm & position). This solution clearly leverages SHL’s long-time competencies and is absolutely a solution where many competitors and HR solution buyers are focused on in this economy. Simply put, employers don’t want to just hire anyone, they want people who will stay years longer than average and outperform prior generations of workers.
The Talent Mobility solution is pretty interesting. Global firms, in particular, should look at this product line. The software examines the skills, personality, etc. of existing workers to identify which of these possess the native success factors to succeed in a new geography. The solution also identifies the experiences, training, etc. that are needed to transform a current worker into one who be successful in a new role and/or country.
SHL also has an Analytics solution. They briefly explained how it detects the root causes behind recruiting and succession pipeline losses occur. This product will need some tailoring by individual companies as different firms in the same industry have different cultures, succession requirements, skill requirements, etc. As a result, SHL would need to load different benchmark data that is relevant to the specific customer.
