Employers are using social media to put a shine on brands. That’s no surprise, but what may be is the degree to which they’re letting employees’ voices be heard as part of that brand message — pretty exciting times for brands. Not all leader’s feel comfortable with the approach, however; we have witnessed many a branded message gone haywire and plenty of companies that wished they could have retracted tweets. It’s a strategy not without risk: Some individuals have strong personal brands, which may dilute the employer’s brand. Yet, since most employees have ready access to social media, the strategy has the feel of inevitability.

In business we’re always looking for trustworthy answers from leaders and employees, so why not borrow a method that’s worked well in another industry? Bloggers, writers, journalists — they learn a few things early on or along the way: how to write pyramid style, how to interview, the right questions to ask, and so on. There’s a standard set of questions: the who, what, when, where, why and how. It’s a simple approach with a little magic, and it usually elicits trustworthy answers. For this week’s World of Work #TChat, we’ll look at the five Ws that can lead to a culture of workplace innovation.

Understanding talent vitals, the heartbeat of your business — you don’t often hear the term “vital signs” applied outside healthcare, but in my Leadership and HR circles I’m hearing more people talking about “talent vitals,” so the term appears to have crossed the chasm. I’m all for bridging gaps between your people talent and metrics. Because it has, and because we’d like to know what you all think, talent vitals will be the topic for this week’s World of Work #TChat. If we go with the healthcare root of the term, a vital sign is one that indicates a state of health in

Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result, is one of the informal definitions of absurdity — and insanity. Yet many businesses and leaders do just that. They repeat what they’ve always done, year after year, even as agile competitors swoop into their markets and blow up old business models. Google, Amazon, Apple — all have turned on their heads the old ways of getting things done, and the search engines, bookstores and computer consumer electronics companies blindsided by the innovation have fallen by the wayside. These aren’t one-trick ponies, either: These are innovative companies in the truest

We all live in social communities — not just physical neighborhoods, but online communities where people live and engage. Pick your passion, and there’s a social community for it.

We all live in social communities — not just physical neighborhoods, but online communities where people live and engage. Pick your passion, and there’s a social community for it. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn come to mind at first, but the list includes more interest-specific communities, too — e.g., BeKnown for job seekers, Ravelry for knitters and fiber artists, Orchid for jewelers, or the Steve Hoffman Forum for audiophiles. Pretty exciting, really — it’s why we here at TalentCulture and #TChat have been talking about talent communities for several months. But what about the concept of talent communities — are we really discovering the best talent available in these online communities?

When I talk to other recruiters and ask them what job #1 is, they’ll say it’s recruiting. And when I ask them where talent retention fits in their job descriptions, I often get a blank stare — or a slow head shake. But yesterday, during TalentCulture #TChat, I saw many nods of assent. We really enjoyed the topic, by the way: Putting recruiting and retention together is important to finding and growing outstanding teams of talent for employing organizations. Not everyone will agree with me on this notion, but who is responsible for retaining talent? In talent pro circles, the dynamics

When you think of employee engagement as practiced by many hiring leaders and organizations, does your mind flash to zombie movies? Yes? Well, you’re not alone. It turns out many managers can turn their employees into the walking dead — not through malice aforethought, but simply by forgetting that employees need to feel engaged and recognized, part of a team of contributors whose talents truly make a difference. By inspiring and engaging, smart leaders create sticky employees. Some leaders try to slap a Band-Aid on the problem by having lots of staff meetings. Yawn. Invariably, nothing is settled or resolved at

It’s not a shiny-new phenomenon, that would be so boring. Breaking news… employees increasingly bring personal digital devices to work. Where once a company provided pagers and digital assistants – most often Blackberrys (OLD SCHOOL) – to a select few executives, field service and sales talent, today the workplace trend is for most employees to bring their own devices; from garden-variety cell phones to a plethora of smartphones, iPods, iPads and laptops. It’s not unheard of for people to bring in audio and gaming systems, which are often Internet-enabled (Rhapsody, Pandora, anyone?) This presents a challenge for leaders. Do you agree?