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Picture of Meghan M. Biro

Meghan M. Biro

Like most people who gravitate toward HR, Meghan loves people. Early in her career, Meghan realized she was a rare people person who understood tech. As a high tech recruiter, Meghan worked with hundreds of companies, from early-stage startups to global brands like Microsoft, IBM and Google. Meghan founded TalentCulture in 2008 to lead a conversation about the future of work with her peers in HR and leadership. These days, she is consistently included in lists of top online influencers and writes about HR tech and talent management at Forbes.com, SHRM.org and a variety of other media outlets. Her career background spans recruiting, tech, marketing, branding and digital media. As an HR tech analyst, author and brand strategist, Meghan is sought after for her ideas about the future of work, is a regularly featured speaker at global business conferences, and serves on boards for leading HR and technology brands.
Picture of Meghan M. Biro

Meghan M. Biro

Like most people who gravitate toward HR, Meghan loves people. Early in her career, Meghan realized she was a rare people person who understood tech. As a high tech recruiter, Meghan worked with hundreds of companies, from early-stage startups to global brands like Microsoft, IBM and Google. Meghan founded TalentCulture in 2008 to lead a conversation about the future of work with her peers in HR and leadership. These days, she is consistently included in lists of top online influencers and writes about HR tech and talent management at Forbes.com, SHRM.org and a variety of other media outlets. Her career background spans recruiting, tech, marketing, branding and digital media. As an HR tech analyst, author and brand strategist, Meghan is sought after for her ideas about the future of work, is a regularly featured speaker at global business conferences, and serves on boards for leading HR and technology brands.

#WorkTrends Preview: Forget Work-Life Balance. Start LIFEworking

While we have been led to believe that we can separate our personal and work personas, we are only one person. We don’t need to have this separation and balancing act in our lives. For many, work has become how we define ourselves and why we need balance is because many of us no longer have a life outside of work. We can buy into the work-life balance mythology or we can change the story and realize there is only life; no blending or integrating required. We need to become whole as people by figuring out what role work plays in

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Are Private Exchanges the Future of Employer Health Insurance?

Mention health insurance to friends or colleagues and everyone has a different opinion—and the conversation isn’t much different up in the C-suite. When private health insurance exchanges launched onto the corporate radar a few years ago, moving from a small business and individual marketplace to a solution for large-scale corporate benefits, they were heralded as revolutionary. The health insurance environment is changing—but not in the way, or at the pace, the industry has expected. Instead of a sprint, private exchanges have made a slow climb. And with the launch of public health exchanges under the Affordable Care Act as well as

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#WorkTrends Recap: Overcoming the Symptoms of Destructive Management

During today’s first #WorkTrends show, we discussed how to overcome the symptoms of destructive management. #WorkTrends Founder and Host Meghan M. Biro was joined by Shawn Murphy, a well-respected author, keynote speaker, and CEO/Founder of the consultancy Switch & Shift. Destructive management has been percolating in organizations for some time. Its adverse effects have become commonplace and too little is being done about it. Our guest, Shawn Murphy, discussed his debut book, The Optimistic Workplace, which defines the symptoms and many antidotes to overcoming destructive management. He also shared why and how to move towards building an optimistic workplace. It was

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5 “Foot” Steps To Creating Brand Humanization

I’m super passionate about the importance of Brand Humanization, that mix of culture, community and corporation which can create magic for employees and shareholders, or signal trouble, not only in the ranks, but in the larger world of brand reputation. There is so much happening in this arena right now. It’s very cool really. On the one hand we have TOMS Shoes, the oh-so-hip shoe brand with a huge social network sustained by a very human brand with a cause. TOMS hits all the high notes in Brand Humanization. It leverages the power of social networks and attracts a growing community

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STEM Recruiting: The Biggest Area You’re Ignoring

When it comes to the future of higher education, there’s no shortage of conversation and/or focus on the importance of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math). While STEM learning is a hot topic in academic institutions, many companies are unaware that the pipeline of talent in STEM fields is drastically under-filled. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be more jobs in tech than there are bodies to fill them. Somewhere between 1 million and 2.5 million jobs will go unfilled, most of them in the engineering and computer science fields. That’s a serious shortage. This means companies will

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Beware the Feel Good Work Culture

How critical is work culture to recruitment and employee retention? It’s important, I’ll give you that. But a feel good work culture might do more harm than good. As the economy continues to grow, hiring managers and HR personnel realize how fiercely they must compete for top talent. As I recently wrote, if you’re looking to snag the best prospects, employee perks alone just won’t cut it. Today’s modern employee is looking for much more than great benefits and a healthy 401K plan. Those recruiting for tech industries especially know that companies such as Google and Facebook have raised the bar

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6 Ways to Help Attract a Founding Team, Pre-Revenue

So, let’s say you have a great idea. Maybe it’s been your side project, or maybe you’re 100 percent committed to making this idea a business. In the pre-revenue phase you’re now in, you need to focus on how to attract the best founding team. And you need to understand that your road ahead is not going to be easy, because a founding team in an early-stage startup generally has little or no revenue, and a whole lot of potential problems. At the same time, you probably already know that finding good technical talent, versus business talent, is critical, and that

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#WorkTrends Preview: Overcoming the Symptoms of Destructive Management

The TalentCulture #WorkTrends Show is all new on Wednesday, February 10, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT). Destructive management has been percolating in organizations for some time. Its adverse affects have become commonplace and too little is being done about it. Our guest, Shawn Murphy, will discuss his debut book, The Optimistic Workplace, which defines the symptoms and many antidotes to overcome destructive management; he will also share why and how to move towards building an optimistic workplace. Shawn Murphy is an author, keynote speaker, and the CEO/Founder of the consultancy Switch + Shift. Connect with Shawn on Twitter

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Millennial Women Encouraged to Close the Leadership Gender Gap

Much has been written about how Millennials are changing the way we work and do business. While the pace of that transition has been dramatic in some areas, we still lag in others. For example, many young women still feel they need to make more sacrifices than men to get to the top. For many, it just isn’t worth the effort—and the result is that relatively few women want to be number one in their organization. But that might be about to change. Initiatives are being introduced to change that mindset for young women who are preparing to enter the world

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5 Leadership Toys For The Multigenerational Workplace Sandbox

The multigenerational workforce; you’ve heard about it. There are about six generations that live in America today – three to five of which are in the workplace, with another set to enter within ten years. You’ve probably heard most about Generations X (30-50 years of age) and Generation Y (Millennials, 11-29), with the occasional reference to Baby Boomers (51-68), the group arguably hit hardest by the recent Great Recession. Please note that these age brackets vary from resource to resource but this gives you the general gist. Thanks to a global economy which stubbornly refuses to improve in any meaningful way

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#TChat Recap: How to Manage Through Influence

During today’s final #TChat show and before we transition to #WorkTrends next week, we discussed how to manage through influence. #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman were joined by Jim Fields, Vice President of Customer Experience Marketing at SAP, a multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Organizations are becoming more matrixed and less hierarchical every day and command-and-control corporate structures are relics of the past. Dealing with flatter organizational structures, outsourcing, and virtual teams can be quite challenging and the power of influence is becoming more important.

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3 Secrets To Leading A Multi-Everything Blended Workforce

The new normal in terms of the workforce is not just multi-generational or global. It’s multi-everything. Working alongside each other are permanent payroll employees and all kinds of contingent workers. A recent government report found that 40.4% of the U.S. workforce is composed of contingent workers, and the numbers are trending up. For a slice of reality, I hopped on Glassdoor and typed in, “Google contingency worker” jobs. Of the 49 that came up, there were even positions to be part of the team that manages Google’s enormous, 70+ country, contingency workforce. Highly skilled, intensely focused, precisely specialized, or just super-competent generalists

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5 Warnings for Leaders: Brand Humanization Is Not A Social Media Fad

Notice how hard brands and company leaders are fighting for your attention lately? They’re trying Brand Humanization; to position products and services to appeal to consumers, de-position the competition’s (very similar) stuff, and a million other tactics. But has it worked? Do brands truly appeal to you at a human level? Maybe not in many, many cases just yet. But they’re trying. One indicator is brands’ efforts with Trust Marketing. Spending as much time on Twitter and other social media channels as I do, I can see why. Trust is necessary if we are to think of brands in human terms.

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We is at the Core of Great Leadership

As the American workplace continues to evolve, traditional leadership structures are dissolving. As a result, we’re beginning to see a shift from an “I” concept of leadership to a “We” concept. This is an example of holocracy, which is making inroads in supplanting the hierarchical organizational structures of yesterday, and it’s an interesting shift. What is holocracy? Well, it’s a management structure that brings discipline and structure to a peer-to-peer workplace, with the goals of achieving maximum creative expression while emphasizing accountability. So, how do leaders lead effectively in this new landscape? How do they get buy-in from their teams without

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Cheers To The Talent Who Focused On The Future Of Work In 2015

I’m always looking forward in the world of work: exploring what the future of work will hold and how we can get there, how can we recruit the best and brightest and keep them, what’s tech is coming down the pike. Talent is inherently future-centric, driven as much by the underlying reality of succession and how to withstand the new normal of disruption and the incredible shrinking barrier between work and life. But 2015 has been a milestone year. So I’m going to look back. I’m in a thankful mood. First off, I always want to thank the communities I’m a

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#TChat Recap: How HR Leaders Achieve Talent Brand Dominance

Last week we talked about how tech professionals can help assess and hire other tech pros, and this week we discussed how HR leaders can achieve talent brand dominance. Employers are constantly assessing the state of their company brand. But very few understand how their talent brand impacts their reputation to job seekers and the company morale amongst existing employees. A talent brand is what people think, feel, and share about a company as a place to work. According to this week’s guest, less than 30 percent of the working population cares about their company’s product brand. What they are concerned

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Introducing the TalentCulture #WorkTrends Chat and Podcast

We’ve all seen many a site proclaim significant changes for 2016, but in this case, the proclamation is earned, and real. It’s been quite a ride and I will continue to make new things happen here. My friend in forecasting and futurecasting about the world of work (Kevin W. Grossman) is heading for some exciting new ventures and partnerships, and so am I—right here— with the TalentCulture Community. Kevin is still going to be a featured voice here on the blog as we move forward. I’m amping up my own podcast, shifting from #TChat to a focus on something new, and

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4 Reasons Social Media Is A Critical Recruiting Tool

There’s always that tipping point when the future turns into the present; novelty becomes the new normal. In tech recruiting, that’s the case with social media. If you’re not building social media into your recruiting efforts at this point, you’re not really recruiting on par with the industry standard. Need a kick in the pants before life puts you in a food coma? Here are four ways social media is now a recruiting must: 1. It’s the best way to reach job seekers. I’m seeing a lot of confusion in this realm, but simply put, far more job seekers are on social

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Tips for Employers Managing Part-time Millennials

If you’re an employer managing a part-time Millennial workforce, you know that it requires a different management style than times past. A common scenario is: The young employee who works part-time and is perpetually checking their social media channels. On the surface it looks like a simple management problem; the instinctive response is to crack the whip and demand that your employee focus on what’s in front of them and not tweet, Facebook, or Instagram during work hours. But does that really ensure quality of work? The short answer is no. Therefore, what boundaries should you be setting to make sure

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An Algorithm Couldn't Have Hired Steve Jobs

Here’s the plan: buy the newest, greatest HR software that’s part of the new wave of hot technology attracting lots of eager investment, make the big announcement, reassure all the hiring managers it’s an easy interface, and then what? Just see what happens when real people use it? Hmmm. I’m thrilled that HR technology is rising to the fore, with innovative companies like Workable, recently infused to the tune of $34 million. But it is important that you understand how to connect that technology with the people with whom it will interface. What Workable aims to do is give smaller firms

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#TChat Recap: How Tech Pros Can Help Assess and Hire Tech Pros

Last week we talked about why the best recruitment means smarter workforce marketing, and this week we talked about how tech pros can help assess and hire tech pros. In the world of recruiting, experts are a little more difficult to define. The exception to this rule is, of course, the field of technology. The tech field is based on those that have real-world developed sought-after skills. True technical expertise is difficult to find, even as it is increasingly needed in today’s rich digital economy. With companies increasingly relying on their employee’s technical acumen it has become more important than ever

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Key Points from LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2016 [Report]

Each year, technology brings new recruiting trends to the HR world that impact both how we recruit, and retain, employees. It’s up to businesses to stay on top of these changing trends if they want to acquire the best talent. Obviously, that’s easier said than done, especially for smaller businesses that may not have the time and resources available. That’s why LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends for 2016, created by a panel of experts, is a fantastic guide for HR professionals and hiring managers The report is geared toward small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) looking to upgrade their recruiting processes for the New

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Considering Team Chemistry: Would You Hire Stephen Colbert?

To many, Stephen Colbert is an American icon: A comedian with a sharp, sardonic wit who has had a huge impact on our culture. You may find Colbert hilariously entertaining. But would you hire him? At first glance, this may seem to be a great idea–everyone loves a funny guy, right? Well, to a point. Have you ever worked with a funny person who just can’t stop making jokes, even when you’re trying to get work done? What would a personality as big as Colbert’s do to your work culture? Hiring managers and HR professionals are starting to take these questions

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When Workplace Culture And Brand Goes Horribly Wrong

Everyone’s been weighing in on the recent expose on the workplace culture at Amazon, and on what Jeff Bezos has built (or not built). Honestly, I cannot say I’m surprised. The culture there shows signs of being broken, and has been for years: if you treat your workers like interchangeable parts, that’s not culture, it’s a disconnect. It’s important to remember Amazon is only one of many, many brands that faces challenges on this front. What’s important is that we learn from feedback and listen to the warning signs. One might argue that the numbers speak for themselves, but the collateral damage

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Think Like a Workplace Futurist

In the first quarter of 2015, Millennials finally overtook Generation X as the largest cohort in the workplace — there are more than 53.5 million of them working today. Their massive size and economic power has had marketers and business leaders tracking the “Millennial mindset” for years. And yet, nipping at their heels, here comes Generation Z, the oldest of who are just starting to come of age. The U.S. Census estimates that Generation Z will include close to 80 million members — a number that eclipses the conversation-dominating Millennials. It’s time to stop thinking in terms of generations; such thinking

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