Got questions about the RedThread Tech Consortium? We have answers for you.  

In January of 2023, we were proud to launch a bold new partnership that invited vendors to support the development of independent, unbiased HR and Learning technology research. Here are answers to some of the inquiries we’ve had along the way about the Consortium.  

If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please reach out to us. 

 

What is the RedThread Tech Consortium? 

The RedThread Tech Consortium enables industry leaders to partially underwrite RedThread’s ongoing research on the technologies that support the future of work. Members are able to align their brands with a commitment to unbiased industry analysis and get early or enhanced access to our high-quality research. They can also invite their customers to access those same insights via quarterly HRCI-approved webinars. As a part of their membership, members provide RedThread with data, suggest relevant research topics, and participate in a lively community of like-minded organizations.  

 

Who should join the Tech Consortium? 

You should! Our Consortium members are typically companies in the HR or Learning technology markets who wish to demonstrate their strong commitment to high-quality, agnostic industry intelligence.   

 

What exactly is included? 

The Consortium has two membership tiers — which include many benefits, such as 3 seats for our gated research membership community and bragging rights as a Tech Consortium member. At the higher level of membership, members can distribute one of our tech research studies to customers and prospects. We will be adding to these benefits in the future.
 

You can read more about the specific membership levels here.

What are these future benefits you speak of? 

We plan to add additional perks for Consortium members as we grow. For example, we will soon be kicking off a new series of quarterly HRCI-approved webinars to accompany our tech report releases, which will be promoted as sponsored by the collective Consortium. The webinars will feature a slide with the names and logos of all Consortium members. TC members can invite their customers and prospects to these webinars, providing education and thought leadership to those folks.  

 

Can we license any reports we want? 

Our BETTER level of Consortium membership comes with the ability to license one of our tech reports each year. We will add your logo and description and provide permission to distribute them to your audience for lead generation. This is limited to technology reports only and does not include our non-technology-related reports.  

 

What if we want to license a non-technology report? 

Our BETTER level Consortium membership includes the ability to license a technology report only. If you wish to license a non-technology report, we’d love to talk. Please contact us for details. 

 

Do your reports only talk about Tech Consortium members?   

Our technology reports are partly underwritten by our Tech Consortium but are in no way influenced by our client or member lists. RedThread Research is committed to unbiased industry research, and we include all applicable organizations in our technology reports — whether they are members of our Consortium or not. 

 

Does being a member of the TC mean that RedThread will never say something “bad” about my organization?  

Our philosophy is that there is never a “right” or “best” solution. Different vendors offer distinctive capabilities, and different clients have varying needs. We focus on helping folks understand the market and how it is changing, not crowning any vendor as the “best” or “worse.” That said, we also recognize that vendors have different strengths and weaknesses, and being a member of the Tech Consortium will not prevent us from making those calls as we see them. When you join the TC, you are ascribing to a higher value of honesty and integrity in research, and that same approach is applied to everyone — regardless of their membership status.  

 

Will you co-create or custom-create reports for our organization? 

No. We do not create custom reports for any vendor or solution. When companies license our work, they do not have any input into the actual content of those reports. Consortium members do have the opportunity to share their ideas for future research topics, but we make those decisions and set our research agenda independently. We’re deeply grateful to our Consortium members for supporting our work — but ultimately, we must call the industry as we see it. 

 

Why should I join the RedThread Tech Consortium over other communities?   

The Consortium is an important way to showcase your company’s integrity and share your commitment to the highest standards of unbiased research. Consortium members also get early or exclusive access to some of the most substantive and actionable research available in the industry. Plus, you’ll be directly connected to us and to your peer organizations through our Consortium portal — to communicate with one another, provide feedback on proposed future research questions, and contribute to data gathering. Just as RedThread is unique in the industry, so is our Consortium. 

 

Who are the other Tech Consortium members? 

You can see the full list of our members on our Tech Consortium web page.
 

What will be required of us as Consortium members? 

As part of membership in our Consortium, organizations sign a pledge to support high-quality research, share business data with RedThread on at least an annual basis, and agree to provide access to at least 5 customers (min) per product to respond to an annual questionnaire. This helps us to gather some of the information that informs our work. We also ask for your ongoing participation in our RedThread research community, as you will learn from others, and we will learn from all of you — which makes everyone smarter!  

 

What if we need more than three seats? 

All Consortium members can buy additional membership seats at a discounted rate.    

 

What if we need to switch membership seats and users? 

We can help you with this at any time. Chat with us. 

 

What is so special about RedThread?  

RedThread Research is a women-owned firm, founded on a commitment to exploring technology trends and delivering rigorously impartial analysis across HR and L&D topics. Our independent, “No Bullsh*t” approach has set us apart from the “pay-to-play” research that is common across the industry. Supporting our work helps to align your brand with high-quality, unbiased industry insights. 

 

When can I start my membership?  

You can get started today! Our Consortium is an annual, renewable commitment. Your membership can start at any point in the year and be renewed annually. 

 

Do you still have space?  

We certainly do. Contact us if you’d like to get the process started.  

 

Keep the questions coming, and feel free to reach out to us at any time.  

Thank you! 

Member-only webinar:

Frontline workers can make or break an organization: They're often the ones interacting with customers and are the "tip of the spear" executing the organization's strategy. But in our experience, many HR systems and processes aren't designed with the frontline worker in mind—leaving this critical population under-supported, unempowered, and not fully enabled to do their best work.

Organizations need to do better. That’s why we’re researching the question: How can organizations better enable frontline workers to thrive in their current and future roles? We will look at this question through the lenses of employee development, employee experience, culture, performance management, and DEIB. This webinar will explore the results of the research, highlight key findings and open questions, and invite viewers to apply the learnings in their own organizations.

 

We invite you to a roundtable discussion to help us answer: 

“In what new ways are today’s L&D leaders leveraging learning analytics to have impact on organizational goals?” 

Join us for an interactive, participatory discussion on this question. We'll gather a group of people leaders to connect, dive deep, and share ideas. 

L&D leaders have been trying to connect learning strategy with business impact for decades now. However, many L&D leaders see the function as just a cost-center that needs to justify it’s worth. As a result, they only get as far as reporting on metrics that focus on “outputs” like completion rates, attendance, or satisfaction levels, rather than “outcomes” like organizational goals.  

However, the tight labor market, growing learning demand, and the elevated status of L&D teams means the approach to learning analytics needs a drastic overhaul. L&D leaders need to leverage learning analytics to bring data-backed insights that enable employee development, inform decisions, and guide investments.  

 

Member-only webinar: For the last few years, L&D functions have been working to help their organizations become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. The best way to help is: Make employee development itself more equitable and inclusive.

But how?

We've talked to leaders, surveyed employees, and crunched the numbers…and we have answers.

It turns out there are 3 key practices that L&D functions can apply to make the biggest impact on DEIB in their organizations.

Come find out what they are!

 

Today, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of the new RedThread Tech Consortium.

The HR and Learning technology market is growing exponentially, with new ideas and innovations every day. 

That’s a very good thing for leaders and employees, but it can be confusing for anyone looking for independent, unbiased research into performance, people analytics, learning and development, and the other technologies that support the future of work. 

Let’s be real. There is a lot of fluff out there, with too many buzzwords and pseudo-research.

Vendors and their customers want to make decisions with the best possible information — but all too often, the research they see is created to support an agenda. Guided by sponsorships, consulting services, or pay-to-play, many researchers have priorities of their own that may not match those of practitioners. 

At RedThread, our research is always independent, so that our readers know they can have trust in the analysis. We made a commitment to an independent, “No Bullsh*t” approach that has guided our firm and everything we produce. No one has input into our output but us. 

In order to expand that research, we needed to create partnerships with industry leaders who understand and support that mission, and believe strongly in underwriting that kind of unbiased research.  

That’s why we created the RedThread Tech Consortium. And we’ve been delighted to see how many companies share our philosophy, and are stepping up as champions of good quality thought leadership. 

We are so grateful to those founding members — Augmentir, Axonify, Betterworks, Degreed, Eightfold, Perceptyx, Reejig, SeekOut, Skillable, SplashBI, TechWolf, Top Employers Insitute, Visier, and Workday — for their belief in quality research and in us.

As Stacia said in our press release: “We take a principled and meticulous approach to how we do research.  When you see RedThread’s name, we want you to immediately know it is going to be honest, unbiased research. This Consortium is a way that we can continue to deliver on that promise — and also invite our members to be part of our bigger commitment to high-quality analysis.” 

Of course, the RedThread Tech Consortium is more than simply a group of underwriters. It’s also a community. Our Consortium members get access to a virtual hub exclusively for members, where they can have discussions, ask questions and share news and ideas, and where they get early access to our research. 

Consortium members are also active resources for our team — sharing relevant business data with RedThread and working annually with their customers to provide important insights into the industry via questionnaires. 

Here’s what some of the Consortium members had to say:

“We’re excited to participate as a founding member of the RedThread Tech Consortium. RedThread’s research continues to set the bar when it comes to HR, performance management, and learning trends, and we are looking forward to providing continued guidance for customers looking to technology to shape the vision and direction of learning and development within their organizations.” – Chris Kuntz, VP of Strategic Operations, Augmentir

“I’m thrilled that Axonify is among RedThread Tech Consortium’s founding members, Their commitment to delivering thoughtful, industry-leading research on topics that are key to HR & LD professionals is aligned with our focus on enabling a greater sense of communication and community within the industries that we represent.” – Carol Leaman, Co-founder and CEO, Axonify 

"Degreed exists to challenge the status quo.RedThread Research and the community they’ve created shine a light on how the most innovative learning and talent teams are building what's next in HR. We're excited to support this work of capturing and sharing these stories, ideas, and lessons. We hope this Consortium will help inspire and guide others who want to follow." – Todd Tauber, SVP Strategy, Degreed

“The Talent and HR Tech landscape is complex and experiencing considerable disruption. RedThread Research has been at the forefront in providing the insights that corporations need to navigate these changes, especially around key concerns like DEIB, AI and skills technology, and learning and Talent mobility. Eightfold is proud to be supporting RedThread Research’s Tech Consortium which will help organizations become future-ready.” – Michael Dunne, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Eightfold

“The RedThread team is laser-focused on the people analytics technology marketplace, and they’ve been providing invaluable insights and advice for vendors and their customers. As a vendor in this space, we’re excited to be part of this Consortium, and to be able to support  quality, non-biased research on the topics affecting enterprises and people analytics professionals most.” – Daniel Norwood, VP of Marketing, Perceptyx, Inc.

“The team at RedThread Research has built one of the most respected research organizations in the HR industry today, and we here at SeekOut are looking forward to working with them more closely as part of the Tech Consortium. Joining this group will not only benefit SeekOut by giving us advanced insights into the HR and people industries, but it will benefit our own customers through the development of new product features and offerings based on those unique insights.” –  Claire Fang, Chief Product Officer, SeekOut

“Vendors in the HR Tech market are (re-)shaping their vision and products at an incredible pace — which creates confusion. That’s a natural thing to happen in emerging technology markets. RedThread Research helps filter out the noise and lead customers to better buying decisions — with less fall-out and fewer failed projects. And that eventually creates more trust across the entire market.” – Andreas De Neve, CoFounder and CEO, TechWolf

“RedThread provides some of the most valuable insights into the HR market today. We're excited about the Tech Consortium and we're thrilled to be a founding member of this initiative." – Jake Sorofman, CMO, Visier 

Some of the RedThread Research projects the Consortium will support in 2023 include analyzing the tech marketplace Performance Management​, People Analytics, DEIB,​and Learning vendor solutions.

If you are interested in learning more about joining the RedThread Tech Consortium please reach out to [email protected].

Companies are facing tough times. Rising inflation, return-to-office challenges, and continuing concerns around mental and physical well-being are putting immense pressure on leaders. On the other hand, employee expectations of their employers have shifted. Performance management can help companies address their challenges and meet employee expectations. It can improve employee engagement levels, retain talent, and help achieve customer satisfaction.

In this member-only webinar, Stacia Garr and Priyanka Mehrotra will cover:

1. The current trends in performance management
2. The areas companies should focus on and why
3. Practical ideas on how to get started

 

With a looming recession, but a still-tight talent market, it can be hard to know what information to pay attention to and how to respond. Join Dani, Stacia, and Cristina Goldt (GM of Talent Optimization at Workday), as they discuss what’s happening in the broader environment and how to effectively respond to it.

Frontline workers can make or break an organization: They're often the ones interacting with customers, and they're the "tip of the spear" executing the organization's strategy. But in our experience, many HR systems and processes aren't designed with the frontline worker in mind—leaving this critical population under-supported, unempowered, and not fully enabled to do their best work.

Organizations need to do better. This roundtable aims to answer:

How can organizations better enable frontline workers to thrive in their current and future roles?

Join us for an interactive, participatory discussion on this question. We'll gather a group of people leaders to connect, dive deep, and share ideas.

It's a particularly challenging time to be a manager. Not surprisingly, their effectiveness and engagement is on a decline. The topic is a priority for many organizations, but they struggle to understand how to best support their managers in the new hybrid world of work.

In this member-only webinar, Stacia Garr and Priyanka Mehrotra will cover:

• the current state of managers
• the impact of manager effectiveness on current organizational challenges
• practices that drive manager effectiveness
• the role of organizations in supporting their managers