Presentation originally delivered in February 2012 to the National Labor Exchange (NLX) on HR data interchange standards and HR-XML in specific. The presentation is still very relevant as standards are still not widely adopted in Government, leading to higher costs for everyone. The NLX is a public-private partnership that collects and distributes job openings exclusively found on over 15,000 corporate career websites and state job banks growing on a daily basis.

1. Standards
Mike Seidle
Director of Development - DirectEmployers
Board of Directors - HR-XML Consortium
mike@seidle.net

2. Let's all do things the same way.
That way, your electricity can power my light bulb...
... and fit in the fixture designed by someone else.

3. Why Standards Matter
"Standards contribute more to economic growth
than patents or copyrights" -- IEEE
● Reduces research and development costs
● Stimulus for innovation
● Government: Better regulations.
● Private Sector: New markets, growth and
profits.
● Individuals: products and services that work.

4. Why Technology Standards Matter
to HR
● Easier to adopt new technologies like
mobile.
● No technology barriers to new HR services.
● Software is not in control of your business.
● Less costly & time consuming to integrate
acquired workforces.
Ultimately:
● Lower cost per hire.

5. Kinds of Standards
International & National: ISO, ITEF, IEEE,
ANSI. Ultimate in managed evolution and
change control.
Consortia: MPEG-la, OASIS, USB, DVD,
W3C, Schema.org. Managed evolution, change
can be rapid.
de facto: Just kinda happen. No real control.
Don't evolve well. Everyone just does it this
way.

6. What is a good standard?
One that everyone uses.
(a bad standard is one that only you use)

7. Exhibit: SmartPhone
Licensed: ARM Processor
ETSI GSM Cell Phone
De Facto: Open Source Unix
De Facto: WebKit web browser
EMCA: JavaScript Language
W3C: HTML & HTTP
Industry Consortia: OpenGL
Industry Consortia: MPEG
ITEF: SMTP Email
ITEF: POP3
Over 500 standards used in most
smartphones

8. Why Does it Matter to
NLX?

9. Vendor Lock In
Stuck with one vendor.
Locked in to contract.
Change is too expensive.
(standards make it easier to let more than
one vendor work together, too)

10. Incompatibility
Can't exchange data.
Models are different.
Expensive and time consuming to move data
that should be a snap in 2013.
(Secret weapon for vendors who want to
extract dollars from you.)

11. Enable Innovation
Stand on the back of giants.
Quickly innovate.
Evolve to meet the challenges of the future.
(We all spend a lot of time reinventing
wheels. Let's invent something new.)

12. HR-XML: Why It Matters
● Industry Consortia Driven.
o Oracle, SAP, ADP, Kronos, Taleo
o US Office of Management & Budget, US Postal
Service
o Most of the background screening industry
o and as of 2013, DirectEmployers
o Future: hopefully, your state or company.
o 43% of ATS Industry
o 50% of HRIS Industry

13. HR-XML: Why it Matters
● Standard Model Developed By Experts
o Recruiting (Candidates & Positions)
o Compensation
● Already Implemented
o SAP, Oracle, ADP, candidate screening industry
o Low cost to adopt
● Certification Suite Exists
o Vendors can validate their products.
o Data has to be structurally clean.
o Still no cure for bad data.

14. Standard Model
1. No need to waste project dollars on
developing data model and vocabulary.
2. Off the shelf tools for validating.
3. Simplifies interoperability
a. Think "PDF" or "Word Document". HR-XML is the
document format for position openings & candidates
4. RFPs: All data can be imported and
exported as valid HR-XML version 3.2

15. Developed by Experts
Today's HR-XML was developed by the most
successful and widely used HR software
vendors.
Tomorrow's HR-XML can be molded by... YOU.
Just join the consortia, and you have an
incredible amount of influence.

16. What DE is doing with HR-XML
● Adopting the HR-XML model for our next
generation software.
● Adding support for HR-XML input and output
to APIs & Feed processing.
● Will take time but have HUGE payoffs
o Better compliance data
o Better LMI data
o New products like My.Jobs
o Compatibility

17. Other Standards
schema.org - markup for your job postings that
make it easier for search engines to index your
jobs.
Very important to Google, Bing, Yahoo
Open Graph - Social markup. Tells social sites
about your web content.
Very important to Facebook