The working world created by "Web 2.0" tools will challenge manufacturing leaders as few technology shifts before it have. It will change how they manage their employees and force them to distinguish between technology that distracts and that which enables. And it will dredge up generational differences, data security concerns, and questions about the role of manufacturing workers within the enterprise. A powerful impact, no doubt. But far from drowning under this new wave, manufacturers seem bent on taming it, imposing their rules on a collection of free-wheeling tools. The toolkit answers to various names, including Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and Collaboration 2.0. It includes technologies that "connect people to other people's information in a way that ... is easy, lightweight, and fast," says Mark Levitt, program vice president for collaboration and enterprise 2.0 strategies at analyst firm IDC. The cast includes wikis, blogs, instant messaging services, social and professional networking sites, audio and video podcasts, content syndication (RSS), and other platforms for interaction and collaboration. The Internet is littered with blogs, Wikipedia-like collaborative sites, and social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, but that doesn't mean business networks should be, too. In that vein, employers will have their hands full in the next few years as they try to discourage the use of this software for non-work-related purposes. But the greater challenge, experts say, is to define how these technologies can help human resources and line-of-business leaders manage employees and improve the workforce. "I think we're still in the education phase of the technology," says Jason Cordello, vice president at the center of excellence at Knowledge Infusion, a consultancy focused on human capital management strategies. Conversations with numerous vendors of human capital management (HCM) software support his view. HCM software can help a company manage activities from recruiting and succession planning to performance management and skills training. A few pioneering HCM vendors are already building out these capabilities based on Web 2.0 techniques. Yet, many more are in the same boat as the manufacturers they serve: trying to coax an advantage out of consumer technologies that are essentially free agents, loyal to neither the employer nor the employee. Ryan Leary, social media strategist at Kenexa, an HCM vendor that specializes in recruiting, says some manufacturers he has worked with have used the term "just in time information," or JITI, to describe the new wave of IT tools. Before a meeting, for example, a worker can jump on microblogging site Twitter and broadcast a quick request for information or consult an internal wiki for help. Still, Leary says, despite the synergy, many managers harbor reservations about the technology: "Is my guy going to be on Facebook all day? Does he really need to chat with people online — what benefit is that?" Bob Clement, senior director of HCM product management at enterprise software purveyor Infor, says he is excited about the coming intersection of Web 2.0 and HCM. But with the economy in the tank, he says, manufacturers are focused on more fundamental problems. "Web 2.0 is probably not one of the burning issues right now," he says. Within the business world, views are mixed. An October 2008 IDC survey that crossed all North American industries found that among line-of-business workers, 50% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: "Our organization is effectively using Web 2.0 technologies (wikis, blogs, social networking)." In the HCM software space, some of the biggest names are still kicking the tires on Web 2.0. Oracle is a good example. While its forthcoming Fusion suite promises Web 2.0 functions, "at this time we don't have any 2.0 capabilities within HCM," a spokeswoman for the giant enterprise software company says. Rival SAP, meanwhile, is in the planning stages of incorporating Web 2.0, according to David Ludlow, SAP's vice president of HCM Solution Management. The enterprise software leader is contemplating tying recruitment software to social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook, while also weighing the idea of using richer employee profiles to facilitate work processes and using other Web 2.0 tools to enable better collaboration and learning. "I think it will represent a fundamental shift," Ludlow says. "I think the trend is there, and I think we'll see more of this going forward." Others, including Kronos, Kenexa, Lawson Software, IFS, and Infor, are mostly milling around the pool, dipping an occasional toe in the water, calculating their dives. Those already in the water include some startups and lesser-known software vendors, which may end up influencing the future releases of their larger competitors. Even the early movers, however, know that the path to strong business cases runs through a forest of bluster and confusion. "I think [there's] so much hype and buzz and inflated ideas [around Web 2.0] that we'll have to go through that phase to get out to the other side," says Charles Coy, director of product marketing at Cornerstone OnDemand, a SaaS-only provider of HCM software. On the "other side," Coy says, are explicit business cases for this new crop of tools, and, for Cornerstone and others, the avenues of exploration are diverse. Mapping the Offerings For a glimpse at what's to come, it's best to look at how software companies have approached collaboration technologies so far. In a number of areas within the HCM suite, experts say, Cornerstone OnDemand is setting the pace, enlisting the new generation of collaboration enablers to augment what to date have been relatively staid workplace practices. Saba Software may be the next closest competitor; its Saba Social suite, which relies heavily on Web 2.0 tools, will debut later this year. While not all HCM providers offer recruiting tools, the process itself is an integral part of any company's workforce planning, and a prime area for vendors and manufacturers to cherry-pick some Web 2.0 functionality. Since filling jobs depends on making the right connections in a highly connected but poorly mapped world, social networking tools are a natural fit here. Jobvite, a SaaS vendor focused exclusively on helping companies find talent, has integrated its recruiting software with networking sites LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, allowing companies and their employees to "target job opportunities to qualified people in their networks — and spread the word virally," according to the company. Kenexa's software developers are building similar bridges to LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace to broaden the reach of job postings, an effort that will show up in the new release of its software. Lawson, meanwhile, created the "Come Work with Me" widget for Facebook, which lets an employee place her company's job listings on her Facebook page; respondents are routed right to the company's Lawson Talent Management application. During the process of bringing a new employee onboard, Cornerstone's Coy says, managers tend to focus on hammering home policies and procedures, but neglect the social aspect of joining a company. He suggests launching newcomers into an online "new hire" network that gives them access to veteran employees, blogs, discussion forums, and other communication links that might make them feel at home. At the other end of the spectrum are the employees who are leaving the company due to retirement, new jobs, or even layoffs. In recent years, companies have begun to invest in the future value of these departing employees by creating alumni networks, many based on or enabled through LinkedIn-style tools. "We think that's a pretty good way for certain types of companies to get their feet wet in this area," Coy says. "You can build out a community — it's not terribly expensive to do so — and try to get your alumni engaged." Specialist vendors such as Conenza and Mzinga also offer software for this purpose. Thus, a company compelled to lay off workers in a down economy can maintain important connections that may help it when the time comes to rehire. Succession planning is another area of interest among manufacturers and HCM vendors alike. Although capabilities are still somewhat limited, a number of HCM providers spoke of someday mining a company's social network to discern the intangibles that help determine who should progress through the ranks or fill important positions. In the core HCM areas — performance management, shift scheduling, and on-the-job training — Web 2.0 is front-of-mind for many HCM purveyors. When it comes to training, experts often cite the adage that 20% of learning happens in formal teaching environments while 80% occurs through informal channels such as conversations around the proverbial water cooler. The new wisdom says move the water cooler online, leveraging social networks, wikis, etc., to create communities of practice. In Saba's Community tool, part of its Saba Connection module, communities of practice and simple discussion boards bring together employees of like interests. Under such a scenario, an employee at one plant might sign up through an HCM application to "follow" the postings and communities of a fellow plant manager, hoping to exchange informal best practices, says A.G. Lambert, vice president of marketing at Saba. "What Web 2.0 unleashes is a grass-roots, bottom-up ability to drive this informal learning and teaming around interests," says David Karel, vice president of product marketing at SuccessFactors, another SaaS-based HCM provider. Manufacturers in particular might warm to the concept of on-demand training. In a traditional scenario, a manager charged with training employees on a new procedure must bring them together for a briefing. Mike Berta, a doctoral candidate studying the business impact of blogs, wikis, and podcasts, offers an alternate, Web 2.0-enabled scenario. "We have three shifts of employees and we have to talk about a new standard operating procedure for how to use press number 4. Rather than have a training class about it, we can record a 15-minute lecturete and push that out through whatever means are available," including e-mail, a smart phone, or an iPod. "It really becomes a very portable, mobile learning device," Berta says. In manufacturing circles, the question of learning brings to mind the challenge of knowledge transfer. "The experienced people are ... getting older every day, and we're losing a lot of this experience and ideas and ability to manage," says Gregg Gordon, global practice leader for manufacturing at HCM provider Kronos. "The way to get these two groups together and not lose all this baby boomer knowledge is to provide them an easy interface where they can get this stuff out," he says, which can mean building a wiki or a similar online knowledge base. Cordello of Knowledge Infusion believes baby boomers are becoming more comfortable with social media tools, and just in time, given their imminent exit from the workforce. "For manufacturers, the important piece is being able to capture that knowledge that they have through the links of these tools," he says. Kronos, for its part, has turned to collaborative technologies to enable shift swapping for manufacturers. The company's Scheduling Assistant uses an algorithm that sifts workers' skills, availability, and work preferences to identify the top 10 candidates for an open shift, and then notifies them via text alert or other messaging channel. When the first respondent clicks the accept button, the software locks the worker into the shift. In the area of performance management, SuccessFactors, which was founded in 2001 and claims 2,300 customers, takes a novel approach. Employees using SuccessFactors' software can exchange virtual merit badges that recognize any number of achievements. Start-ups such as Rypple offer similar tools for informal feedback. Some experts speculate that such feedback may someday become part of the formal review process. "It becomes very important capital," says SuccessFactors' Karel. Amid the hoopla surrounding Web 2.0, it's easy to see the manufacturing workforce split into two camps, with "carpeted" workers engaging these new tools and "concrete" workers alienated from them. "Social networking tends to require a certain level of participation from users to make it valuable," says Cornerstone's Coy. On a manufacturing floor, where workers might not be connected to computers throughout the day, it represents a unique situation. "I can see the challenges there," he admits. Tight Control Kronos' Gordon sees operations as a tightly controlled world where productivity metrics drive every decision. Even in the production environments where Kronos has deployed self-service kiosks, he says, managers want tight control over how and when an employee can use the system. "To say to a manufacturer [worker], 'Hey, if you're looking for an answer to this thing, go and scan the internal Facebook'— I think there might be resistance to that." Doug Gutridge, the vice president in charge of human resources at Kirby Risk Corp., a Lafayette, IN-based manufacturer and wholesaler of electrical equipment, may just be the prototypical manufacturing HR leader. A self-professed "old guy" who deliberately leaves his cell phone in his car, Gutridge says "Web 2.0" isn't part of his vocabulary. Kirby Risk recently implemented SuccessFactors' software to create an automated system for goal planning, performance evaluation, succession planning, compensation management, and performance improvement management. The system has inspired a beneficial shift, Gutridge says, as performance reviews now follow a set schedule that is enforced by the software itself. With the SuccessFactors tools in hand, managers "see the value of getting good information, [getting] feedback to their employees and feedback from their employees," he says. Still, direct interaction with the system is limited to employees who use a computer, forcing Kirby to create a manual workaround for the manufacturing floor workers. While Gutridge likes the discipline SuccessFactors has brought to the company's managers and employees, his enthusiasm doesn't extend to the general use of Web 2.0 tools. Kirby's enterprise system recently began to slow because employees were downloading online videos. Kirby, he says, maintains a fairly restrictive policy on which technologies can be used in the workplace. "It burns a lot of time," Gutridge says. The temptation may be to imagine that manufacturing workers have no interest in Facebook, wikis, and blogs. They're less tapped into technology than front-office workers, some would say. But consider that the split may be generational, not cultural. The young workforce of tomorrow will be filled with people who grew up in a more connected, socially networked world, across all roles in the manufacturing enterprise. Larry Dunivan, senior vice president of global human capital management products at Lawson, says the difference between a 60-year-old line worker and a 28-year-old line worker is stark. "The way in which they're willing to, expected to, need to interact is very different," he says. "If you're a high-school-educated person, you don't need much more than that to be spending a great deal of your life through those [Web 2.0] mechanisms." Age will play a significant role in Web 2.0's ascendancy, agrees David Gartside, managing director of Accenture's Talent & Organization Performance practice. "As the net gen, or millennials, come into the workforce, there's going to be a greater push for this in more and more organizations," he says. "Companies will only be able to resist that demand for so long before they start losing people because people just say, 'Look, it's just not cool to work here.' " The weak economy may delay this tipping point somewhat, but he thinks it's inevitable. The new networked world will not dawn without input from manufacturers, of course, and most business leaders intend to mold collaboration tools to company policies. Risk and Reward Gartside sees constriction on the near horizon. "I think what you're going to see over the next two to three years is a clamping down, where [CIOs] are saying, 'OK, I'm happy for you guys to do this, but I want to put a fence around it. And I want to have some sense of security around what's going on. We're not having all of our company secrets suddenly flying across the firewall.' " IDC's Levitt agrees. "There's a recognition that we don't want to stop people from using these tools to create and share information, but we need to begin to at least protect that information in a way that we expect to do for all kinds of corporate information." Rob Cross, a business process consultant, University of Virginia professor, and author of The Hidden Power of Social Networks and other books, says workplace-based networks and other collaboration tools will flourish (see sidebar). "As vehicles to see how things are happening, and to help other employees see how things are getting done and get their work done, they've got to be in place," Cross says, "because you can't design for the future the way we used to 30 years ago." As for those who will develop and sell the applications, SAP's Ludlow sums up their task succinctly: "Always, in software product management, you have to balance the art of the possible with the reality of the use." As they contemplate the potential of Web 2.0 in workforce management, manufacturers will need to find that balance themselves.