July 8, 2026
HR Isn’t Cooling Off This Summer: 4 Workplace Trends That Will Separate Great Organizations from Everyone Else
Summer often brings a slower pace in business. Vacations are scheduled, calendars become lighter, and many organizations use the season to prepare for…
January 30, 2026
2025 HR Tech M&A Activity: Mega-Deals, Agentic AI, and the Learning Shakeup
2025 was a year of big swings in HR technology M&A. Private equity wrote checks measured in billions. Platform vendors went on acquisition sprees. And…
January 14, 2026
Your Workforce Knows Disruption Is Coming. Are You Helping Them Prepare?
Companies don’t serve customers, solve problems, or innovate. People do. So when we talk about whether organizations are ready for disruption, we’re…
December 15, 2025
Your Workforce Isn’t Ready for Change (And It’s Costing You)
Here’s a stat that should make every leader pause: Two out of three Talent leaders say their workforce isn’t highly adaptable to change. Think about…
December 9, 2025
The Real Cost of Inadequate Training and Development
Here’s something most leadership teams miss: when employees don’t receive adequate training, they don’t just fall behind on skills. They conclude their…
November 19, 2025
AI Is Changing Work. Learning Leaders Are the Ones Showing Us the Way
Across conferences, classrooms, and client conversations this year, one theme keeps resurfacing. People are excited about the possibility of AI, but…
November 11, 2025
Looking vs. Seeking: Why Intentionality Matters in Today’s HR Landscape
We’ve all been there. You’re looking for something: your keys, your wallet, maybe your favorite pen. It’s sitting right in front of you, but somehow…
October 10, 2025
Your Workforce Isn’t Ready for Change (And It’s Costing You)
Here’s a stat that should make every leader pause: Two out of three Talent leaders say their workforce isn’t highly adaptable to change. Think about…
June 30, 2025
The Great Learning Disconnect: What Your Employees Aren’t Telling You [Report]
Psychology research shows that when we face an overwhelming number of challenges, it’s easy to lose hope and feel helpless. In reality, today’s…
April 18, 2025
HR Tech Awards 2025 Winners Announced
In our daily work with talent leaders and solution providers, we run into some incredible technology. These tools available to organizations right now…
January 14, 2025
2024 HR Tech M&A Activity: A Year of Resilience and Growth
The HR technology market in 2024 was a story of resilience and growth amidst a rapidly changing global landscape. With the U.S. election dominating…
November 22, 2024
From Uncertainty to Opportunity: Cultivating a Culture of Continuous Learning for the Future of Work
In the current environment of rapid technological advancement, the expanding prevalence of sophisticated technologies and AI has ignited both…
November 6, 2024
How Learning and Skill Development Affect Business Agility, Employee Belonging, and Productivity [Report]
There’s an old proverb that essentially states “the shoemaker’s children have no shoes.” The more modern version is “the cobbler’s children have no…
September 23, 2024
HR Technology Conference 2024: Busting the “There’s Nothing New or Interesting” Myth
Every year our team attends HR Tech in Vegas, and inevitably every year I hear from someone on the show floor or post-event with the exact same…
September 9, 2024
What a Family Disney Trip Taught Me About Learning Experiences [Livestream Event]
When was the last time you had an “aha” moment that really excited you? For me it was during a recent family trip to Disneyland. I was keynoting at a…
July 25, 2024
The Powerful Intersection of Performance, Development, and Recognition [Infographic]
The confluence of employee performance, development, and recognition within an organization holds transformative power as a cornerstone for fostering…
June 10, 2024
Cornerstone Connect 2024: Acquisitions, Product Releases, and More
In the last year, most of the conversations I’ve had with employers around trends have come down to two big themes: skills and AI. Today, I had a…
May 1, 2024
HR Tech Awards 2024: Winners Announced
In our daily work with talent leaders and solution providers, we run into some incredible technology. Some of the tools available to organizations…
January 3, 2024
2023 Recap: A Turbulent Year with Significant M&A Changes in the HR Technology Market
Our annual reporting on M&A in the HR technology space is one of our most popular pieces of content year after year (see our 2022 version here). We…
December 18, 2023
What is the Complexity Coefficient and Does it Apply to Your Organization?
In our research on high-performing organizations, the term “complexity coefficient” is one that we use to describe companies that are outliers from the…
July 31, 2023
What’s New in Employee Retention, Performance, and Culture? [Livestream]
On Thursday, August 10th, our team will be hosting a special livestream to look at our brand new data on Performance, Engagement, and Culture…
May 8, 2023
3 Learning Trends for 2023: Talent Shortage, Manager Enablement, and Mental Health [New Report]
At the Learning Technologies UK event last week, I found in many conversations with learning professionals that they can get bogged down and frustrated…
April 18, 2023
Women are 50% Less Likely to Have Visibility into Internal Career Opportunities [New Research]
Recently, the Japanese multinational Fujitsu was commended by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry for its efforts to encourage the…
March 15, 2023
Is Mentoring Outdated in Today’s Workplace?
The workplace is where people go to earn a living, be productive, and learn new skills, so why not use it as a way to develop your employees at the…
February 1, 2023
It’s HERE! My New Talent Scarcity Book is ***Free*** For a Limited Time
Over the last year as companies struggled to find good people to hire and fought at the same time to keep their best staff, I knew there had to be a…
January 18, 2023
Heads Up: These Employees Have Zero Interest in Learning and Career Growth
We often hear that learning and development is one of the keys to retaining employees, because they value it so much. But what about those employees…
January 9, 2023
2022 Was Another Record Year for HR Tech: See 20+ M&A Activities that Shaped the Market
Last year one of our most popular posts on the blog was a recap of some of the 2021 M&A activities across the HR Tech landscape. When you juxtapose…
December 16, 2022
What Frontline Workers Care About in 2023 [Infographic]
With all of the news focusing on layoffs and potential economic challenges, it might surprise you to hear that employers hiring frontline staff are…
December 12, 2022
New Research: What Learners Want Most in 2023 [Infographic]
When it comes to hiring, employers spend a good bit of time learning and understanding what their candidates are looking for. We want to make sure our…
November 28, 2022
Employee Burnout and Belonging: Top Learning Trends for 2023 [Infographic]
Employee belonging, burnout/stress, and DEI are all tied together, and they all intersect learning as well. In our brand new research on learning and…
July 11, 2022
Schoox 2022 Awards Case Study
About the Company Schoox transforms learning into business growth. Our learning platform and course marketplace help companies accelerate business…
May 18, 2022
HR Tech Awards 2022: Winners Announced
In our daily work with talent leaders and solution providers, we run into some incredible technology. Some of the tools available to organizations…
March 17, 2022
Cornerstone to Acquire EdCast, Reshaping the LXP and Learning Tech Markets
As reported by Yahoo Finance, Cornerstone plans to acquire learning experience platform (LXP) EdCast. In our analysis of the learning technology…
February 7, 2022
Can You Really Save 200,000 Minutes of Onboarding Time? [Webinar]
What’s your take on onboarding? Back in the day, I really enjoyed the opportunity to help new hires set up benefits, meet our team, and get their gear…
February 2, 2022
New Research: Employees Score Companies with a Failing Grade on Mental Health Support
Employers are trying. They really are. In the new report published this week based on responses from 1,000 employers and 1,000 workers, we saw…
January 30, 2022
The Remote Work Gap: How to Add Flexibility in a Non-Flexible Industry or Job
This is one of the hottest conversations in the workplace, today, and no, I’m not talking about the most challenging hiring environment we’ve ever seen…
January 28, 2022
Tech Brief: Gloat
Gloat is an Internal Talent Marketplace used by the world’s leading enterprises. The platform helps enterprises democratize career development, unlock…
January 27, 2022
Tech Brief: Alleo
Alleo enables hybrid and virtual meeting participants to get more work done synchronously during the meeting diminishing after meeting asynchronous…
January 24, 2022
Talent Mobility: The Key to Engagement, Retention, and Performance [Infographic]
Our research over the last six years has indicated several practices that set high-performing employers apart from the rest. One of the big ones?…
January 12, 2022
Two Out of Three Employees Want this Talent Practice Right Now
I recently spoke for IAMHR, an event that Phenom put on, and they did a writeup of the session and some of my research. I’m reposting here because 1)…
January 5, 2022
2021 Was the Biggest Year Yet for HR Tech: See 30+ of the Top M&A Activities
Last year one of our most popular posts on the blog was a recap of some of the 2020 M&A activities across the HR Tech landscape. When you juxtapose…
December 7, 2021
The Power of a Single System to Manage, Track, and Report on Employee Skills
Years ago a storm came through the town where I lived and damaged a building on my father’s property. He needed it repaired, so I volunteered for the…
November 10, 2021
2021 HR Tech Awards Case Study: Fuel50
Read the full case study Problems The Technology Solves Fuel50 is a transparent talent and opportunity marketplace to meet the business needs for…
October 19, 2021
How Internal Mobility Solves for Risk, Cost, and More
Talent mobility can help your company tap into the trillions in GDP growth coming in the next 25 years. That’s a big claim, but the connection is real…
October 10, 2021
2021 HR Tech Awards Case Study: Schoox
Read the full case study Problems The Technology Solves Learning Engagement. Schoox offers an intuitive, social and mobile interface that learners…
October 1, 2021
Machine Learning Allows Employers to Leverage Skill Data in Ways We Never Dreamed
In 2019, our team at Lighthouse Research & Advisory set out to determine if artificial intelligence (AI) is better than humans at some HR tasks. We…
June 28, 2021
These are the Learning Technology and L&D Skill Gaps that Exist [New Research]
When situations change and people can’t change fast enough, everyone turns to the learning team for answers. But what if they have questions of their…
June 18, 2021
Skills Power Every Talent Practice: Building Your Skills Business Case
Like many parents in the last year, I’ve spent more time with my kids’ learning materials, re-familiarizing myself with the ins and outs of…
May 27, 2021
HR Tech Awards 2021: Winners Announced
Last year, our inaugural HR Tech Awards program was a chance for technology providers to show how they serve their clients. This year, an astounding…
May 21, 2021
Solution review: Engagedly
Engagedly is a tool for talent-focused organizations. It enables talent development through mentoring, coaching, and feedback tools that are highly…
May 10, 2021
HR Analyst Day: April 2021 Overview
Last month our team tackled another HR Analyst Day initiative, talking with more than a dozen providers across learning, talent acquisition, HR, and…
February 12, 2021
20+ High Impact HR Technology Acquisitions, Mergers, and More from 2020
In 2020, in spite of the pandemic-related shutdowns and other business impacts, the HR technology industry was within a few M&A deals of the 2019…
February 1, 2021
3 Simple Secrets to Better Employee Experience: A PayPal Case Study
In the last couple of years, “employee experience” has become this ubiquitous term that is a catch all for pretty much everything related to employees…
January 22, 2021
Empowering Your Internal Experts for Better Learning Outcomes on We’re Only Human
I really do believe this is a moment for learning and training that could see a transformation that benefits learners. Simon Greany, Elucidat We’re…
January 11, 2021
How HR Tech Can Future Proof Your Business Against Another Pandemic
97% of firms in a recent Lighthouse Research and Advisory study claimed HR technology enables future readiness within their business. Since the…
January 7, 2021
7 HCM Trends for 2021: Prioritizing People-Centric HR
2020 is going to be the year that the world never forgets, but in a swirling pool of chaos there are some important components that we can’t miss…
January 5, 2021
HR’s Hard Reset: Featuring Schoox on HR Tech Talks
In the aftermath of 2020, HR needs to be ready for a hard reset. In this episode of HR Tech Talks, Matthew Brown from Schoox will bring some ideas and…
November 5, 2020
HR Analyst Day 2020: Final Day and Closing Thoughts
If you missed it, check out what happened during HR Analyst Day: Day One and Day Two. This week I am partnering with Jessica Miller-Merrell of…
November 3, 2020
HR Analyst Day: Day Two Recap (File Management, Talent Development, and More)
If you missed it, check out what happened during HR Analyst Day: Day One. Also see the final day wrap up and insights here: HR Analyst Day 2020 closing…
November 2, 2020
HR Analyst Day: Day One Recap (AI, Virtual Hiring, and More)
This week I am partnering with Jessica Miller-Merrell of Workology on HR Analyst Day, which is a bit of a misnomer because it’s actually running most…
October 28, 2020
Talent Marketplaces are Here: Key Players, Usage, and Unanswered Questions
Several years ago, World Bank Group was in trouble. The organization had been through a series of challenges and was in the midst of a hiring freeze in…
August 14, 2020
HR Tech Award Winners 2020 Announced
This has been a year unlike any other, but one thing that has been steadfast in the last few months is the support that the HR technology industry is…
August 10, 2020
What 10+ Studies Say About the COVID and Post-COVID Workplace
Over the last two months our team has been talking with different technology firms and business leaders about what’s happening and what is next. The…
August 3, 2020
How to Develop and Verify the Skills Your Workforce Needs [Video]
I have a vision of the workplace where HR knows as much about the skills of the workforce as finance does about the dollars and cents on the balance…
July 23, 2020
Engaging and Developing your Remote Workforce: Winning the Productivity Game [HR Tech Roundtable]
Recently I wrote about a new series of events we’re supporting called the HR Tech Roundtable. We have another coming up and I’d like to personally…
May 29, 2020
HR Tech Roundtable: A New Virtual Event for HR and Talent Executives
In the book Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi talks about the power of building powerful personal and professional networks: one person, one…
March 20, 2020
#HRTech Companies Offering Free Resources and Information During COVID-19 Crisis
Note: updated 4/20/20 at 7:00am CST with additional resources (24th update since publication on 3/20/20) Our team has been careful in recent days to…
February 24, 2020
Everything You Need to Know About Reskilling (Including Some Surprising Stats)
When a firm has 250,000 global employees, it’s easy to become comfortable with how things operate. However, that’s when things usually end up going…
February 18, 2020
Insights from Cox Enterprises, Emerson Electric, Delta Airlines, and More [Podcast]
When I started writing nearly 11 years ago, I never imagined it would become the tool to reach the large audiences that it is today. Some of that…
January 28, 2020
20+ HR Technology Acquisitions, Mergers, and More from 2019
In 2019 there were dozens of mergers and acquisitions in the world of HR technology. This represents a vibrant industry full of continuous innovation…
January 6, 2020
Announcing the HR Tech Awards Powered by Lighthouse Research & Advisory
We are announcing our new HR Tech Awards program and are excited about how it will impact the industry and support the HR tech buyer community. Learn…
October 11, 2019
HR Technology Conference 2019: AI Grows Up, The Data Play, and More #HRTechConf
This fall has been incredible with plenty of travel across the globe, and the coming weeks promise more of the same. One of the events that I…
July 9, 2019
Just What is “Advisory” Anyway? How We Work with Clients
Recently we’ve been getting more requests for help from a broad variety of employers and vendors in the industry. They have typically seen our research…
June 4, 2019
13+ HR Case Studies: Analytics, Culture, Learning, Recruiting, Technology, and More
As someone who has worked in the HR profession, I know well the full value of stories, examples, and case studies. At the end of the day, practitioners…
May 7, 2019
The Gravitational Pull of Suite vs the Innovation of Best of Breed
It never fails. Almost every time I speak to audiences about talent, technology, AI, or another related topic, I get a question very similar to this…
March 18, 2019
New Research: 81% of Learning Pros Say Disruption Drives Upskilling and Reskilling Demand
We keep hearing that artificial intelligence, bots, and other components of technology will force employers to rethink skills in the workplace. But…
January 15, 2019
Artificial Intelligence for HR: The Book is Live! (#AI for #HR)
Over the winter holidays you might have missed the fanfare, but the new book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, is now available! We will not be pushing…
December 3, 2018
How Learning is Changing: An Interview with Skillsoft’s Chief Content Officer
Ask almost any business leader, and they’ll tell you that they want their organization to have a culture of learning. However, in today’s discussion…
November 26, 2018
#AI in #Learning: 8 Learning Content Recommendation Signals for Personalized Experiences
AI is penetrating into every aspect of HCM, including learning and development. In many briefings with technology providers I’m hearing the same thing…
November 20, 2018
2019 HCM Trends: Market Size, Investment Priorities, and More
As we edge closer and closer to 2019, I’m receiving more and more questions from employers and vendors in the community about what trends I’m seeing…
October 12, 2018
Artificial Intelligence in Learning: The Resounding Message from #DoceboInspire
I’ve written quite a bit on AI and its impact on the employee experience, but one area that I have talked less about is the learning side of the…
October 1, 2018
Saba Buys Lumesse: Fills Critical Gaps for Technology and Customer Acquisition
Things are moving quickly in the HCM technology industry. Last week I reported in from Saba Insight, the company’s annual user conference. This week…
September 27, 2018
Key Takeaways from Saba Insight 2018 (#sabainsight18)
2018 is the year that learning and performance are finally intersecting. I’m talking with a variety of vendors that are tackling this, and one of them…
May 23, 2018
20+ Onboarding Hacks to Improve the Employee Experience [Free Report]
One of the talent areas that most businesses can improve is onboarding. In some cases the experience is poor, but even for those doing a good job, it’s…
April 17, 2018
A Video Primer on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on HR
When the Industrial Revolution waned and knowledge workers became more common, what kinds of skills set apart the great employees from the not-so-great…
April 4, 2018
Nearly Half of 2017 HR Tech Funding Events went to AI-Focused Companies
This year I’ll be releasing my new book, Artificial Intelligence for HR, focusing on how AI can enable HR to be more human, not less. This post…
March 27, 2018
5 Common Challenges with Internal Talent Mobility
One of our specialties at Lighthouse Research is diving into internal talent mobility. We’re talking with vendors that sell the technology. We’re…
February 26, 2018
Hackathons Solve for HCM Issues: Learning, Recruiting, Retention [Case Study]
“This message will appeal to people in our recruiting process who gravitate towards a culture of hackathons and innovation. It will also turn away…
January 30, 2018
HR Tech Vendor Demo Makeovers: A Conversation with George LaRocque
If you didn’t already know it, one of the information channels we provide at Lighthouse is a podcast called We’re Only Human. The focus of the…
January 16, 2018
3 Innovative Non-LMS Learning Technologies to Know
Lots of technology exists today to support the HCM function, and one of the areas that is fairly mature is the learning management system, or LMS…
November 14, 2017
[New Research] Radically Rethinking Your Learning Content Strategy [Free Report]
Anyone who believes that yesterday’s learning content can engage today’s modern learner is sorely mistaken. More than ever employers need to think…
October 24, 2017
Think Your Employees are Learning? Make Them Prove It
“This is the training course I took in 2007 for advanced Excel shortcuts. And this was one of my favorite classes where we learned how to deal with…
September 18, 2017
The Next Skill for L&D Professionals: Learning Experience Design #doceboinspire
Thanks to Docebo for bringing me to their first Docebo Inspire event in Boston this week. That made the idea for this blog post possible! On my flight…
September 6, 2017
3 Keys to Creating Engaging Learning Experiences
By now you’ve most likely heard about and begun thinking about the employee experience, because you can’t turn around without reading an article or…
June 16, 2017
Talent Mobility as a Key Business Practice
Talent mobility. It’s an evolving talent practice that delivers incredible value for the workforce and the business, and it gives the organization a…
April 12, 2017
3 Stories of Transformational Learning from #Perspectives17
This week I have had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Skillsoft Perspectives in Las Vegas. It has been a great event and I enjoyed the content…
July 20, 2016
Building a Business Case for HCM Technology
Talent leaders that are attempting to select, purchase, and implement HCM technology are often challenged by a lack of experience with the process of…
June 27, 2016
Delivering a High-Quality Employee Experience
As I traveled home from yet another conference last week, I reflected back on the many conversations I had with talent leaders and vendors and how they…
June 17, 2016
Building a Skills-Based Organization
I’ve had numerous conversations in the past week about skills in the workplace and their impact on how work gets done (or doesn’t get done). From a…