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CRM Applications Go Internal (continued)

Among the CRM-like applications favored by HR pros, contact management appears to have the edge, but is mainly used for recruitment purposes rather than retention. "I have seen an increase in the correlation between contact management and recruiting," says Rowan. She cites PeopleClick as one example of a contact management system designed for recruitment; it recently announced a contact management system expressly to be used to keep in touch with and manage candidates for open. "This is a good use for CRM/contact management, as getting new recruits in the door is itself a sales proposition," says Rowan.

CRM vs. Everything Else
Still, when it comes to actually managing staff, other technologies are considered much more useful.

"Products like SharePoint are becoming excellent collaborative platforms and can support collaboration, knowledge management, some limited social networking and workflow. A tool like this has enormously more efficacy than a CRM tool," says Fitzgerald.

"I see lots of applications for social networking software in the workplace," she adds. "There are applications for career planning/skills software and there are applications for blogging and collaborative software. These are good ideas as long as they are used to enhance human interaction and not replace it."

However you choose to manage your staff, IT is the best place to try out any new system. "IT staff is generally comfortable with applications and might serve as a good pilot group to try out general workforce management applications," says Fitzgerald. "In general, if you can't sell the value of the application to someone who loves software, you will never get the rest of your workforce to adopt it."

For now, though, it looks as if CRM for internal staffing purposes is getting the pink slip.

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