Badger said HR-XML is favorable for vendors because it can increase software quality while reducing development time.

With HR-XML as an industry-wide standard, a person's resume can be exported from OpenSkills in HR-XML format and then imported into the company's HR database.

"So it's quite a big deal," Badger said.

Sutherland Shire Council IT manager Allan Dawson said a lot of HR software is still quite proprietary and "we put up with it".

Dawson welcomes an open standard like HR-XML which could "clean up things" and make them simpler, particularly with the import and export of data.