Talent Management Made Simple

What is The Transformative Workplace?

2012-01-13T08:13:00.001-05:00

Companies need to provide an open, trusted environment to develop, engage and inspire all the people in their people network, internal and external. They need to change the way they work by combining the best of social and collaboration technology with modern people and management practices. They need a unified, people-centric and social platform to enable the transformative workplace.

The transformative workplace is an interactive, always on, flexible environment that enables organizations and governments to provide their entire people network: employees; customers; suppliers; partners and citizens, with the development, engagement and inspiration they need to constantly transform themselves and their organization to meet the dynamic challenges of the knowledge economy and be more competitive through better innovation, speed, agility and trust.

Legacy talent management solutions have failed to change the way work gets done in the organizations. These legacy solutions have been designed for top-down control of talent, learning and recruiting, resources and processes. They are not designed to empower frontline managers and employees to align themselves to organizational strategies, connect with the right people, information or ideas to get their job done and take charge of their own professional development.

With the right software solution, instead of HR or learning functions, pushing content and processes that may or may not be relevant, the network will automatically enable and provide access to the most relevant content experts so people can take advantage of both formal and informal resources from the entire people network to get their work done.

Instead of career paths being defined and dictated by organizations, the network will dynamically track the real career path of successful individuals throughout the people network and provide that visibility to employees and managers. Instead of once a year compliance-driven performance reviews, the network will enable managers and employees, through the people network, to engage in a continuous cycle of feedback loops and constant development activities.

Organizational silos, lack of field connection with partners and customers and the barriers of time and space are the biggest obstacles to innovation. The transformative workplace will eliminate these barriers with the most robust collaboration and social technologies available today to enable unprecedented levels of innovation and collaboration from every corner of the people network.

Still not quite getting it? This video will lay it out for you in 3 minutes and 19 seconds:

The Ten Most Annoying Management Terms Of 2011

2012-01-13T07:50:00.001-05:00

We have noticed that every cause nowadays needs an "Awareness" campaign and though we feel that "doing" is of much greater importance than "awaring," we will go along with the fashion and launch a Management Talk Awareness Week with the list of phrases and terms we have found most irksome this year.

So here are the top ten annoying phrases of 2011 (even if some are older) that we would like to see the back of. Click here to see the list.

Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

2012-01-13T07:44:00.000-05:00

Staying with our Top Ten theme...Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again.Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management.

To see the Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent click here.

The 5 Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2012

2011-12-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

Hiring the best of the best is an absolute must if you are going to build a successful company. You will need to be prepared to compete against big companies with deep pockets and other up-and-coming startups that also have blue chip investors and a game-changing idea.

While you're planning your expansion, you're going to find that talent is in short supply, especially in these five areas.

Read more...

How Has Cloud Computing Impacted Businesses Around the World?

2011-12-14T07:21:00.000-05:00

The remote access, cost-savings and organizational benefits alone make it a no-brainer. Now that we’ve been floating around in the digital ether for a few years, what have we learned? How has cloud computing affected company bottom lines? Has it really made operations “greener?” Why do most companies move into the cloud in the first place?

Read more here...

One Page Talent Management: Eliminating Complexity, Adding Value

2011-12-11T07:24:00.000-05:00

"We can produce talent, just like we produce everything else..." - Marc Effron

Take an hour out of your busy day, and listen to this podcast. Marc Effron totally gets it that making the talent management process simple isn't just a cool sounding idea, it is a path to success! Like your humble author of this blog, he's "been there, and done that", and is happy to share his knowledge with you. Listen here...

10 Predictions for 2012: The Top Trends in Talent Management and Recruiting

2011-12-11T07:22:00.000-05:00

Excerpt:

2011 Was The Year of Social Media

2011 was a tough year for many in talent management, but despite compressed budgets, organizations continued to hire and develop talent. One factor that seemed to invade nearly every high-level functional discussion was social media. It’s clear that Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter will play a dominate role in recruiting and development best practices in years to come.

2012 Will Be “The Year of the Mobile Platform”

By the end of next year, even the skeptics will have to admit that the mobile platform will have become the dominant communications and interaction platform by early-adopting best-practice organizations. The capabilities afforded users of smartphones and tablet devices grows immensely day by day. Long before unified inboxes existed for the desktop, smart device users could see all incoming e-mail, social messaging, text messaging, and voice and video messaging in a single place.

read the rest...

The SAP-SuccessFactors Deal: Could the Tail Wag the Dog?

2011-12-11T07:21:00.000-05:00

The deal triggering other acquisitions akin to the way SAP, Oracle and IBM Corp. all bought business intelligence software players within a matter of months a few years back. read more...

The Talent Relationship Management Lifecycle

2011-11-10T08:54:00.000-05:00

Social Networking Meets Talent Management

What use cases (or business problems if you prefer) can I apply social networking to in order to do a better job of talent management? I think I was asking the wrong question. Instead of focusing on use cases, I should have focused on the talent relationship lifecycle. more...

Social Networking in Talent Management: An Update

2011-11-10T08:51:00.000-05:00

Excerpt:

"I firmly believe that this new form of software-enabled collaboration is a revolution, not an evolution. Like many of the software innovations that I have personally witnessed over my career (e.g. the first color graphics PC, the CD-ROM, the web-browser, Flash, SaaS architectures, and others), social networking is really going to shake things up. The reason is that these systems are both complex, data-rich, and require a new type of software architecture. A system which supports 200,000 employees and customers with in-depth employee and customer profiles, active communication and blogging, tagging, content management, custom branding, and tracking each and every communication is quite a complex software solution. As we examine these vendors we are finding some very significant new areas of functionality which are going to change and upset the traditional HR software companies." Social Networking in Talent Management: An Update

LinkedIn IPO - A Radical Transformation in Corporate Recruiting Begins

2011-01-29T07:32:00.001-05:00

On January 28th, LinkedIn announced its long-awaited IPO. The numbers tell a story: this company is going to radically transform corporate recruiting.
Click the title of this article for more information...

Informal Learning becomes Formal

2009-01-23T08:14:00.001-05:00

Excerpt: "It's now official. After surveying our entire research membership and having more than 30 conversations with leading HR and learning leaders (including with Xerox, Accenture, British Telecom, Edward Jones, Department of Defense, and Network Appliance), I am now 100% convinced that 'informal learning' has become 'formal.' That is, if you want to build a high-impact, cost-effective, modern training organization you must 'formally adopt' informal learning.

So what does this all mean? A few statistics:

78% of corporate managers believe that 'rapid rate of information change' is one of their top learning challenges (800+ HR and L&D managers surveyed in 2008).

80% of all corporate learning takes place through on-the-job interactions with peers, experts, and managers (estimated data collected from over 1,100 L&D managers late in 2008).

Over 30% of all corporate training programs (ie. classroom or other formal programs) are not delivering any measurable value (data provided through the same survey).

Nearly all Millenial employees (under the age of 25) expect to find an on-demand learning portal (similar to Google and YouTube) within their employer's environment."

Click the header of this post for the entire article.

Lessons Learned - Dec - ASTD

2008-12-29T09:09:00.001-05:00

Excerpt: "With financial markets in turmoil, training professionals will likely find their budgets receiving intense scrutiny. Concurrent with pressure to reduce costs is the requirement for companies to ensure their employees have the necessary skills, not only to compete effectively, but to ensure organizational survival. A critical way to both assess and build skills is through competency models."

Click the header of this post for the entire article.

When Product Equals People, Knowledge Is Key

2008-12-13T08:31:00.002-05:00

Excerpt: "As a professional services firm with more than 180,000 employees globally, Accenture collaborates and shares ideas with clients. As chief human resources officer, Jill Smart is responsible for talent management for the entire firm. Her close-to-the-action position offers access to the best and the worst in other organizations' HR processes, and she said the learning never stops.

TM: What is Accenture's approach to talent management?

Smart: We sell the knowledge capital that our people have, so management of that talent is really management of our product. Product development for us is about developing our people, building their skills and the unique and innovative aspects of their knowledge capital. Those components, in addition to career management, traditional training and succession planning, would be how we define talent management."

Click the header of this post for the entire article.

What Directors Should Ask about Talent Management - BusinessWeek

2008-12-10T06:43:00.001-05:00

Content: "Here are seven questions corporate directors should be asking to determine how well career development and succession planning are being implemented"

Click the header of this post for the entire article.

Manager's Sandbox: innovative talent management

2008-12-08T20:48:00.001-05:00

Excerpt: "The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris is a book about quitting your 9-to-5 to pursue the life you’ve always dreamed of. This isn’t about running your own business - it’s about owning a business that runs itself so you can stop living on a “deferred life plan” and start enjoying your golden years right now.

Is it unrealistic? In many regards, of course it is. But it’s not quite as far out as you might think. I recently read The 4-Hour Workweek and to my surprise, a book about quitting your job had a few things to teach people about talent management."

Click the header of this post for the entire article.

How Should My Company Evaluate and Select a Talent Management System…or any HR System for that Matter?

2008-11-23T08:30:00.002-05:00

From hrchitect.com:

"With the multitude of platforms, vendors and system capabilities, the selection of a talent management system can be a larger and more complicated project than anticipated. There are several steps that HRchitect recommends to its clients (and that HRchitect utilizes when assisting companies in this complex and puzzling process) and we will cover these in a series of upcoming blogs.

These steps and accompanying descriptions should give you an appreciation for the potential magnitude and complexity of doing a thorough talent management system software evaluation. Certainly, in the space of a blog we won’t be able to go into complete detail for each step (nor should we give away all our best practices!)

The typical software evaluation project usually runs 3-5 months. Timeframe may be shorter for smaller employers with potentially less users, processes and complexity and possibly longer for larger employers replacing a robust legacy talent management system."

Click here for the rest of the story.

Executive Coaches as Advisors

2008-11-23T08:27:00.002-05:00

From Dr. Earl R. Smith II:

"Having an executive coach as a trusted business partner and advisor has now become a common success strategy for many executive. By helping corporate leaders and their senior teams navigate through various business challenges, the coach is able to add substantial value by collaborating directly with the senior management team.

This guidance and support helps the team focus more effectively on both their own leadership development and that of their employees - and on the strategic interests of the company. The working relationship between a coach and senior teams more effectively achieves important business objectives by greatly increasing the success of each employee and of the team."

Click here for more.

Consolidation Seen in Talent Management Software

2008-11-21T09:18:00.001-05:00

From workforce.com: "The economic downturn could speed consolidation in HR software, industry experts say. HR technology consultant Naomi Bloom expects consolidation not just among talent management players, but also in the broader realm of HR software and services. Not all vendors present at last month’s HR Technology Conference in Chicago will make it, she predicted. A good number of them are “not well enough capitalized to last out a really down year,” Bloom said."

Click here for the rest of the story.

Is talent management important in an economic downturn?

2008-11-18T07:50:00.002-05:00

Excerpt: "Talent management allows businesses to attract, develop and retain the right people. In an economic downturn talent management has become increasingly important; nevertheless, it can also quickly become a lower priority in the minds of some businesses that are faced with pressures to cut costs and do more with less. However, with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) predicting a further half a million UK jobs will be axed next year, the reality of today’s economic situation means that recruiting, keeping and motivating the best employees has never been more crucial."

Click the headline of this post for the rest of the story.

Recruiting Tools Still Leave Much to be Desired

2008-11-18T07:49:00.003-05:00

From Human Resource Executive Online: "After seeming to settle down and consolidate for a while, recruiting software has once again become the most competitive, contentious and confused sector in all of HR technology. Why? Because they still haven't gotten it right!

For the last 10 years at least, I've said the recruiting software sector (be old-fashioned and call it Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS; be hip and call it Talent Acquisition) is the most competitive, contentious and confused area of HR technology and maybe of all business software!"

Click the headline of this post for the rest of the story.

Talent Management Is Like the Kidney

2008-11-16T19:59:00.004-05:00

From Business Software Guide: "Talent management functions like the kidney that hires the good personnel and fires the bad ones.

The two kidneys are the vital organs in the body amongst other functions cleanse the blood of toxins and keep it chemically balanced. The kidneys are sophisticated reprocessing machines and process the blood to filter out the wastes and extra water. Similarly a good talent management system will hire the good personnel, retain them and remove the bad ones."

As usual, click the headline of this post for more details.

Lessons from the Holiday Season: Optimize, don't just Cut

2008-11-15T08:10:00.003-05:00

Excerpt: "Everyone puts on a little weight during good times – vacations and holidays are notorious times for over eating, relaxed behavior and good feelings. Well for businesses, the vacation has come to an abrupt end. After years of easy credit and a booming housing market, the bottom has fallen out from under companies more quickly than anyone had expected, and the economic uncertainty looks as if it will continue for some time."

Click the headline of this post for the rest of the story...

Uncertain Economy Weighs Heavily on US Workers, Accenture Study Finds

2008-11-14T07:58:00.001-05:00

Excerpt: "NEW YORK - (Business Wire) Nearly two-thirds of U.S. middle managers say that the economy is having a negative impact on their work environments, according to an Accenture (NYSE: ACN) survey released today.

The survey of more than 300 U.S. middle managers found that 61 percent said that employees are concerned about losing their jobs or that morale is down. Additionally, more than half (53 percent) of respondents said they are dissatisfied or only somewhat satisfied with their jobs."

Read more by clicking the headline of this post.

CRM = Human Capital Management

2008-11-09T08:37:00.002-05:00

From FT.com: "Customer relationship management (CRM) is regarded as “understanding the customer”, but many organisations and technology developers approach it as a data-segmentation and profiling exercise. I contend that effective CRM must also involve adopting a 360-degree view of the performance of the staff who manage customer relationships.

Managing customers is only truly possible through managing customer-facing staff. It is simply not possible to achieve effective CRM by only looking at one side of a multi-faceted issue. Systems and solutions geared to analysing customer data are only analysing part of the picture.

Overlooking how the staff who deal with customers are performing is perhaps the biggest issue affecting customer satisfaction. If maximising revenue from customers is an organisation’s objective then a simultaneous objective needs to be the maximising of service delivery to customers."

Click the headline of this post for the entire article.