Today I am back on the HR 2.0 topic.  It seems like every blog, news article or factoid I read these days is all about social this or wiki that and the word “mashup” seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue.  Actually ‘social” and “wiki” are already kind of dated and mashup is (IMHO) a newer, slightly evolved, version of the same.

So, reading about things like Yahoo! Buzz and MyPunchBowl’s own Buzz I began to wonder what an HR mashup would be?  What would it do?  How would it make our lives better?

I see two possible HR mashups: one for the HR professional and one for the HRIS user.

First, let’s define what a mashup is: a mashup is essentially the aggregation of data from diverse sources into one place.  A hip techno geek might want to wax poetic about the separation of data and presentation, but in my mind that’s over complicating something that is basically simple.  In the modern age you can get instant access to pretty much any piece of information you want and from pretty much any source you prefer.  Bring all those pieces of information from all those various sources into one place and present it in a meaningful way and you have yourself a mashup.

If you look at either Yahoo! Buzz or MyPunchBowl’s Buzz you’ll see what is essentially a mashup (more so for Yahoo! Buzz) that adds a social twist by allowing users to rate the content within the mashup.  Visit Digg and you can see more of the same.  The proliferation of this kind of site must mean there is (at least a perceived) need for it.  I think it also means that the need has not been met.

So, back to the HR Mashup…

What if you, as an HR professional, had a mashup at your disposal that brought together all of the HRIS, HR automation, time and attendance, etc information of meaning to you and then let other HR professionals give it a virtual thumbs up or thumbs down so that the cream rose to the top and the chaff fell away?  Would it help you keep up with current HR issues, changes in HR law and see HR trends emerge?

What if you, as an HRIS user, had a mashup at your disposal that brought together all of the time and attendance, learning management, performance management, applicant tracking, etc data you might want?  You could see that suddenly everyone is taking the day after Thanksgiving off or that everyone in your job family has signed up for a new course or certification or that everyone with your experience is applying for this new job?  It seems like it might be a nice way to stay on top of changes and events within the workplace for which you might use your own company’s HRIS tool.

A mashup is kind of a mob mentality, but one that would use a collective to push important current and emerging topics to the forefront.  It’s really a two heads are better than one kind of thing: if every other HR professional is finding topic C to be particularly salient maybe you will too?  Or maybe you can keep your marketability high by seeing the trend that everyone competing for that job you want 9or have) is adding to their skill set by getting certification Y.