Posts

HR Trends That Matter in 2023: An Insider’s Guide

/, , , , , /by

People often ask me which HR trends should be on their radar. It’s a fair question, because I organize two of the HR profession’s most popular conferences, UNLEASH America and UNLEASH World. During the programming process, I work closely with hundreds of human resources leaders and industry influencers, as well as HR technology and services providers. Spotting key trends is easy, because patterns appear as I reflect on the topics speakers pitch, along with themes that emerge among exhibitors, attendees, and startup competitions.

This year, 7 closely related HR issues and opportunities are trending:

  1. Asynchronous work
  2. Distributed, remote and hybrid work
  3. Upskilling and reskilling
  4. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
  5. People analytics
  6. Employee experience
  7. AI and the automation

These HR trends probably sound familiar, but they continue to define the future of work. That’s why they’ll take center stage at our conferences in the year ahead. For details on what I’m seeing and hearing about these hot topics, read on…

7 HR Trends That Matter Now

1. Asynchronous Work

Asynchronous work is the future of work. It’s an environment where people collaborate and complete tasks without real-time presence or communication.

Some industries have relied on asynchronous work for decades. For example, in the software sector, developers often work from wherever it’s convenient. They rely on a blend of standards, practices, and tools that support distributed project management, team problem solving, and interactions. This improves productivity in various ways — especially by reducing interruptions when people want to focus on their primary tasks.

Asynchronous work also improves the accuracy of strategic planning and decision making. Without accuracy, running a business is very difficult.

Many companies are still striving to enable asynchronous work. This includes connecting systems of record so relevant data is secure but also highly available. The goal is to ensure that information isn’t scattered, so people don’t need to call or message others whenever a question arises. Speed bumps like these can create huge volumes of reactive work.

An asynchronous work infrastructure is the foundation of another key HR trend: distributed, remote and hybrid work…

2. Distributed, Remote, and Hybrid Work Models

The pandemic was like a time machine. It instantly catapulted much of the world into a variety of work models that many of us discussed for decades, but hadn’t implemented. Now, these work models are here to stay.

For example, consider one of our biggest clients. At the start of 2020, this company was planning an 18-month global roll out of Microsoft Teams. But when the pandemic struck, they actually rolled-out Teams within only a few days!

This wasn’t an isolated incident. Organizations of all types suddenly had to embrace flexible work  arrangements. Now, although some teams are returning to the office, remote work structures remain. This is driving demand for hybrid work, where people can engage remotely at least one day a week.

Another HR trend emerging from the pandemic is the four-day work week. Previously, this was also widely discussed but not widely implemented. Then, during quarantine, flexible work arrangements became a necessity. This paved the way for ongoing adoption of the four-day work week and other innovative scheduling models.

Pandemic-era flexible work arrangements also helped many employees improve work/life balance. This is yet another HR trend that received attention in the past, but was rarely achieved.

Flexible work models aren’t perfect. But I doubt we’ll ever return to a world where people go to the office and work from 9-5 all week. We’ve seen flexible work succeed, even under the most difficult circumstances. We now know it doesn’t make sense to endure long, expensive commutes and childcare struggles. And why limit creativity and productivity to a prescribed time and place?

3. Upskilling and Reskilling

Although tech industry layoffs are rampant and a recession is looming, the war for talent continues to escalate. But this isn’t really news. It’s been building for years. So, what is the HR trend to watch here?

Many workers who perform repetitive tasks increasingly feel frustrated by a lack of career growth. For decades, we’ve discussed the gap between these jobs and knowledge work. But now, the gap is growing even wider, as technology continues to advance and employers invest more heavily in upskilling and reskilling knowledge workers.

To keep top talent onboard, employers are making learning and development a priority. Professional development is also a powerful way to attract new talent in an increasingly competitive hiring climate. But what does this mean for people with jobs that are likely to become obsolete or automated soon?

Professional growth is increasingly important to people in every line of work. So employers are investing in learning programs to help attract and retain a future-ready workforce. HR departments are finding that implementing and maintaining effective learning programs is much faster, cheaper, and easier now. That’s because learning systems are adding innovative tech like AI-driven capabilities, interactive video, and augmented reality to improve learning experiences. They also offer APIs to connect learning platforms with other HR and business systems, so employers can more easily assess employee skills, track development progress, and measure learning outcomes.

Ultimately, this means employers are becoming better-equipped to help individuals grow in their careers, while helping their organizations succeed.

4. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Another key HR trend focuses on workforce diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). This isn’t just lip service. It has been a serious priority for years, and the commitment continues. Here’s why:

Studies show that diverse companies outperform others. That’s partially because they can tap into a broader range of employee perspectives — spanning age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and more.

In healthy cultures, all employees are paid equally for similar roles. But that’s not the only requirement. People also need to feel welcome, respected and included in relevant meetings and decisions. These pillars of DEIB are more important than ever in today’s dynamic work world, and they’re becoming even more integral to the fabric of vibrant organizations.

5. People Analytics

For decades, data analytics has played a central role across business disciplines — finance, logistics, e-commerce, sales, marketing, and information technology. Now it is becoming common for HR applications such as learning, recruitment, performance management, and employee experience platforms.

Going forward, HR teams will increasingly rely on people-oriented analytics systems to make evidence-based decisions. For example, when relocating an office, decision makers will want to assess talent, performance, and many other data points to determine who should staff that office.

Also, look for AI to play an increasingly important role in people analytics applications, so organizations can improve decision support, performance analysis, and predictive processes.

6. Employee Experience

Now more than ever, organizations are emphasizing employee experience — including onboarding, workflow, culture, career development, and other aspects of work life. This is because a positive work experience correlates with higher engagement, productivity, satisfaction, commitment, and retention.

Also, employee experience is gaining traction because analytics systems are becoming more prevalent. This means more organizations have the capacity to evaluate the impact of employee-focused initiatives. Measurement typically focuses on onboarding, training, and other career experiences such as project assignments and promotions.

Employee experience is derived from customer experience and personalization initiatives used in marketing to assess customer preferences and develop relationships based on those interests. Similarly, the more an HR organization learns about employees and their preferences, the more effectively it can design custom work experiences with a more positive impact on engagement, performance, morale, and commitment.

7. AI and Automation

I’ve mentioned AI previously, but AI and automation deserve a separate discussion. That’s because both are transforming HR processes by dramatically streamlining tasks and enabling HR teams to focus more on strategic priorities.

AI and automation are critical to people analytics and employee experience initiatives. For instance, they can help detect when an employee is unhappy and at risk of resigning. Then, they can recommend ways to correct the issue before it’s too late.

In addition, these tools can alert HR and business managers when employees aren’t receiving appropriate onboarding or learning support. They can also assess and recommend an employee’s unique training path based on the market’s changing demands and the organization’s talent realities.

AI and automation will increasingly permeate HR, reduce the burden of administrative tasks, and offer invaluable insights regarding employee growth, performance, engagement, satisfaction, and commitment.

Final Thoughts on Current HR Trends

The pandemic unleashed work changes no employer could predict. But that’s only the beginning. Now, changes that started several years ago are leading to even more challenges and opportunities ahead.

In today’s volatile talent market, workers continue to place new demands on employers. Meanwhile, HR tech innovation continues to accelerate, giving organizations even more powerful and effective tools to improve all facets of work. As employers rapidly adopt new tools and techniques to improve organizational impact, the future looks bright across the HR landscape.

Avoiding Survey Fatigue: 4 Tips and a Breakthrough

/, , , , , /by

Without a doubt, employee surveys are the most widely used employee engagement tool. Surveys make it possible for employers to gather workforce feedback quickly and easily in a form that’s convenient and comfortable for participants. They are often easier to set up and manage than other feedback mechanisms. Plus, acceptance rates show that employees prefer surveys over other tools. However, you can have too much of a good thing. In fact, research indicates that a constant flow of surveys can be costly and self-defeating. That’s because it leads to survey fatigue.

What is Survey Fatigue?

Survey fatigue is a common issue that HR and business leaders should keep in mind when seeking employee feedback. On one hand, people tend to appreciate being asked for input. On the other hand, surveys can reach a point of diminishing returns when employees become emotionally tired and disengage from the process. This happens for multiple reasons:

  1. When people receive too many survey requests within a short timeframe,
  2. When survey logic, structure, or content is overly complex,
  3. When surveys are unnecessarily long or repetitive,
  4. When people feel their feedback isn’t seriously received.

Survey fatigue decreases participation rates. This, in turn, can reduce data accuracy and understanding of employee community sentiment.

How Does Survey Fatigue Affect Employee Satisfaction Programs?

The goal of a good survey is to obtain the most reliable insights from a representative cross-section of your employee base. The higher the participation rate, the more accurate your response data is likely to be.

Survey fatigue can translate into lower overall response rates that jeopardize data quality. This seriously threatens your ability to gather valuable information about workforce satisfaction, morale, cultural health, and overall employee experience.

Can you conduct an effective survey with a low response rate, if the data is representative of your overall employee community? Yes. But only if you are very sure that the lower number of respondents is actually statistically representative of the larger group. And that is difficult to accomplish.

Here’s one reason why: People with strong opinions or extreme positions aren’t affected by survey fatigue, so they’re more likely to respond. That’s because they’re highly motivated to make their voice heard.

As a result, the survey data will reflect only the most extreme views. It won’t accurately represent the majority view because survey fatigue caused other employees to abandon the feedback process. This is a type of survey bias called non-response bias.

How to Avoid Survey Fatigue

It’s important to understand the most frequent causes of survey fatigue, as well as best practices to avoid it. While there’s no single way to prevent fatigue in employee surveys, combining multiple methods can help you develop engaging, accurate surveys that yield high response and completion rates.

Here are 5 strategies to try (including one you’ve probably haven’t yet considered):

1. Limit Survey Frequency

One of the most important ways to avoid survey fatigue is to carefully time the cadence. Some organizations assume “more is better,” so they send multiple surveys every month. But that kind of pace can overwhelm employees, and may overwhelm your staff, as well. Instead, step back and consider your goals. Then develop fewer surveys, each with a specific objective. For example, you can use pulse surveys to get a quick snapshot of employee sentiment about key topics of interest. On the other hand, a full-scale engagement survey is more appropriate for measuring overall employee satisfaction and commitment.

2. Keep Surveys Concise

Long, complex surveys can be overwhelming. They’re likely to discourage employees from participating. It’s important to keep every survey targeted, concise, and to-the-point.

3. State Your Purpose Every Time

You’ll want to be sure employees understand each survey’s objectives and importance. When people know how their participation can affect their work life, they’re likely to take the time to share their opinions. For example, let’s say you want to know how employees feel about your return-to-work policy before you adjust it. Tell them upfront you’re gathering feedback about this because you’re planning to implement changes next quarter.

4. Remember, Timing Is Everything

Survey timing can have a significant impact on response. For instance, surveying employees during busy or stressful timeframes may produce inaccurate results, because people may not have the time or energy to respond as fully or thoughtfully as they normally would. Instead, distribute the survey when employees are likely to provide meaningful feedback. And be sure to keep the response window open long enough to collect data from those who want to participate.

5. Tap Into the Power of Passive Listening

Here is one feedback strategy you probably haven’t considered yet — passive listening. Thanks to new technology, these capabilities are revolutionizing the traditional survey process. By leveraging AI technology, passive listening can improve your understanding of employee morale, work culture, and trending topics in work conversations. All of this intelligence is gathered automatically in real time, and is continuously available for deeper analysis and action.

By working in the background, passive listening gives HR teams a wealth of employee sentiment insights without forcing people to respond directly to a survey. In addition, passive listening helps HR and business leaders make future surveys even better by providing a head start in understanding what employees already think about key issues.

Final Notes

Survey fatigue can harm your organization’s efforts to gather valuable information about retention, satisfaction, morale, cultural health, and the overall employee experience. But you can avoid fatigue by reducing the frequency of feedback requests, keeping surveys concise, clarifying your purpose, carefully scheduling delivery timeframes, and relying on passive listening tools to gather helpful intelligence without having to develop and distribute surveys.

By following these guidelines, you can increase overall feedback and improve data accuracy, while gathering more valuable workforce insights.

What do Deskless Workers Need in an Employee Experience?

/, , , , , , , , /by

Sponsored by Workforce Software

Most HR and business leaders know that their employee experience profoundly influences organizational success. It shapes morale, productivity — even the bottom line.

So, if you want to improve the future of work, it’s time to think outside of the standard office “box” when you think about employee experience. Why? Consider this fact: A whopping 80% of the world’s workers don’t even sit behind a desk. Instead, these deskless workers show up each day on the frontlines of healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.

It makes sense to offer these workers an employee experience that meets their unique needs. But what exactly do they want? That’s a good question. And it’s why we’re exploring this topic today with an expert in the psychology of work…

Meet Our Guest: Angelina Sun

I’m excited to welcome Angelina Sun, PhD, Workforce Management Solutions Director at Workforce Software. Angelina has worked in various industries, including education, consulting, computing, electronics, e-commerce, and enterprise software.

In her current role, Angelina focuses on how to manage and communicate effectively with deskless workers. She’s inspired by technologies that offer intelligent and innovative responses to social changes and contemporary workforce issues. And I think she’s the ideal person to talk about how employers can better address the interests of deskless workers. Please join us as we explore this topic…

Defining Employee Experience

Welcome, Angelina! What would you say employee experience means for shift-based deskless workers?

The concept of employee experience is interpreted in multiple ways. I think of it as all the individual moments and interactions along an employee’s journey, as well as their perception of those moments.

For deskless workers, it’s about meeting their expectations for better pay, schedule flexibility, and work-life balance. They want to feel better informed and more fully supported. And they want to know that they are heard.

Deskless Realities
Could you tell us more about the challenges these workers face?

Our research found that 50% of deskless workers deal with weekly shift changes. And the same percentage receive their schedules at most one week in advance. This means their employee experience is constantly falling behind.

These people need more work schedule flexibility. They need multiple training options. And they need to have a voice in their work.

These are real issues that organizations must address to improve the employee experience for deskless workers.

Technology’s Role

How is technology helping organizations address these needs?

Improving employee experience definitely requires more than human effort, alone. The right tools and technology are certainly a critical enabler.

For most deskless workers, that means going mobile. If resources are directly available where they’re working, they don’t need to go out of their way to find information, or have to email their colleagues and managers. In fact, most deskless workers don’t even have a work-specific email account.

Benefits of Supporting Deskless Workers

Your point about email is so important to keep in mind!

Absolutely. These people are doing their jobs on the shop floor or behind the wheel, so they don’t have access to a computer. Their requirements are very different.

But organizations that optimize the employee experience for deskless workers report 18% higher productivity, while reducing turnover cost by 25-59%.

They also see improvement in key business performance metrics…

For more insights from Angelina about how to improve the employee experience for deskless workers, listen to this full podcast episode. And be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

Also, to continue this conversation on social media anytime, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Transforming Talent Acquisition: One Employer’s Story

/, , , /by

If your organization is like most, you’re constantly looking for ways to strengthen your workforce through smarter talent acquisition tactics. Although recruiting has shifted dramatically during the past few years, some innovative practices from the pre-pandemic era are worth another look.

A Pre-Covid Lesson in Recruiting Innovation

One example is the talent acquisition process at financial services provider, TIAA. Several years ago when the company completed a full-scale recruiting revamp, we spoke with Angie Wesley, then SVP and Head of Talent Acquisition.

TIAA has since promoted Wesley to Head of Workforce Strategies and People Operations. She has also been named one of the top 100 Women in Business by the National Women’s Conference. And looking back now at how she advanced talent acquisition at TIAA, we can see why she is recognized as a visionary. She clearly is ahead of the curve. 

Because TIAA is a well-established organization, Wesley knew she needed to initiate change in ways that would inspire buy-in, particularly from the recruiting team. Her approach is a powerful lesson in how to beef up business processes with technology and avoid friction while getting everyone onboard.

Rethinking Recruiting for Modern Business Needs

There’s no question that next-level recruiting depends on modern technology. But business aspirations are extraordinarily high. And modern recruiting tools, alone, are not enough to drive a cultural sea-change. For example, many employers want to:

All of these depend on a strong tech stack. But as we’ve seen time and again, simply acquiring new tools and bolting them onto existing processes and ecosystems is not sufficient. Integration and adoption are key — and that takes serious organizational insight, training, and adjustment.

Building a Better Tech Stack For Everyone

That’s where Wesley’s role came in. She led the transformation of TIAA’s recruiting functions so team members could better navigate the modern candidate marketplace.

(Brief reminder: Before the pandemic struck, recruitment was already facing serious pressure. From a very tight talent market to shifting candidate expectations about the hiring experience, employers were fielding plenty of recruiting challenges. But none of us could imagine the Covid curve ball coming our way.)

As Wesley told TalentCulture at the time, next-level recruitment was “either going to come to us, or we were going to have to join it.”

The tools she selected and implemented helped TIAA’s recruiting team in numerous ways. In particular, they significantly improved the candidate experience and paved the way for a more streamlined, compliant hiring process.

What’s more, Wesley’s advancements didn’t get mired in resistance. All too often, organizations meet change with pushback at numerous levels, from employees who don’t want to adjust their workflows to senior leaders who aren’t sold on the ROI of a new recruiting tech rollout.

In TIAA’s case, what made the difference? Two clear objectives…

Keys to Recruiting Transformation Success


1. Provide Training to Build Familiarity and Confidence

Wesley noted that recruiters voiced more concerns than anyone else. “A lot of these recruiters are seasoned, so they have their own way of moving candidates through the process,” she explained. “We had to show them how technology actually helps them, instead of inhibiting them.”

To encourage adoption, TIAA instituted both in-person and remote (web-based) training. The content included plenty of context and real-world examples from other organizations. This approach helped staff members agree that the new tools could help improve their productivity and performance.

In addition, TIAA started tracking who uses the tools, so they can find and fix individual issues. “If we have folks that aren’t using a certain technology or tool in our recruiting process, we’re able to identify them and work with them to understand and resolve the difficulty,” Wesley explained.

2. Focus on Candidate Experience

Many recruiting technology upgrades are intended to improve the candidate experience, but sometimes they miss the mark. Wesley made sure candidates remained a top priority throughout the planning and implementation process.

These days, some of TIAA’s changes may seem like table stakes. But several years ago, these recruitment essentials weren’t a given. (Technology evolves fast!) For example:

  • Online Applications
    TIAA made sure its employment website and career pages were mobile-friendly and candidates could complete the application process on any device.
  • Digital Assessments
    The company began offering assessments that candidates could complete online at their convenience — another forward-thinking capability that is now considered a best practice.
  • Text-Based Communication
    Recruiters began relying more heavily on text messaging to conduct conversations in real-time. This led to more frequent candidate communication that helped the recruitment process feel more immediate, personalized, and meaningful. Ultimately, this     kind of responsiveness made a big difference that translated into better hiring outcomes.
  • Video Interviewing
    The hiring team also instituted video interviews. Again, this was once a leading-edge strategy that positioned the TIAA employer brand ahead of others. But the organization needed a better way to reach the passive talent market. At that time, the most attractive potential candidates were employed elsewhere. Video interviews offered more convenience and less disruption. Of course, during Covid, video interviewing became the new norm. Now, many organizations still rely on video tools to extend recruiting reach and streamline the hiring process.

Reinforcing the Human Side of Recruiting

Does TIAA’s recruiting game plan suggest that technology should replace human interactions? Not at all. Actually, this is another lesson to remember for the future of talent acquisition. The human element counts, always.

According to Wesley, “What we are finding is candidates still want that human touch in the process somewhere. They don’t want technology to take care of everything.”

Employers must strike a balance in the recruiting journey. Candidates want to experience the human side of your organization, especially when it comes to your company’s history, culture and values. Potential employees appreciate personal conversations with people who can speak on behalf of your brand.

On the other hand, candidates also value employers who quickly process their applications and provide a hiring process that is reasonably simple and painless.

So by all means, deploy the best and most innovative recruiting technology to make the whole journey easier and improve the overall candidate experience. But don’t forget the human touch. After all, those personal moments along the way may just give you an advantage in hiring the best talent.

How Social Background Checks Preserve Work Culture

/, , , , , , , , , , /by

Sponsored by: Fama.io

Every employer wants to provide a safe, supportive environment where people can do their best work. That’s a key reason why social background checks have become so popular. But many organizations don’t talk openly about how they make this happen.

I get it. This can be tricky to manage. But workforce wellbeing and your brand reputation are on the line. So, it’s wise to include a strong social media screening solution in your HR toolkit.

What kind of services are leading the way? And what should you consider when seeking a provider you can trust? Join me as I explore these questions on the latest #WorkTrends podcast episode.

 

Meet Our Guest:  Ben Mones

Today, I’m speaking with Ben Mones, Founder and CEO of Fama.io, the world’s largest provider of social background checks, and a leader in applying artificial intelligence technology in workforce screening services. As an expert in this process, Ben is an excellent source of advice for HR practitioners and business leaders.

Linking Culture With Social Background Checks

Ben, welcome! Let’s dive right in. How do you see social background checks tying into the employee experience?

Too often, employers don’t talk about background screening because they think it’s a “dirty” job at the front of the candidate funnel or during the onboarding process.

But that’s not what we do. We look at publicly available online records to detect behavioral patterns associated with intolerance or harassment. We look at things that, if left unchecked, could find their way into a company culture and create some damage.

Remote Work Raises the Stakes

Many of us work virtually now, so the stakes are higher. I mean, how are we getting to know people?

Agree. We often meet our coworkers by friending them on Facebook, following them on Twitter, or exchanging DMs on Instagram. So, if we’re interacting in these digital spaces, the importance of digital identity naturally follows.

Digital Screening Adoption Rate

How many companies are screening candidates or employees?

CareerBuilder and SHRM say 70% of employers perform some sort of social media or online profile check before bringing people on board. For example, they may be Googling someone before hiring them.

Risks of Social Background Checks

Compliance is a big concern with this process. What are the risks?

I think the risks of doing it yourself scare people away.

For example, you could be exposed to things you shouldn’t see. If a recruiter does this internally, they’ll see a person’s gender, ethnicity, pregnancy. You’ll see all these protected classes.

EEO says you can’t unring that bell. You can’t unsee that information. So because bias naturally occurs within all of us, you consider these sorts of things in your hiring process.

Avoiding Compliance Pitfalls

How can employers deal with these risks?

Managing the process through a third party helps squash those risks because you can configure the solution to filter only for job-relevant information.

This means you’re blind to all the protected class information you’d see if you were conducting social background checks on your own.

Key Screening Factors

What core behaviors do you look for in social screening? 

Here’s what we don’t do. We don’t do a yes/no recommendation on a person. Instead, think of flags for things like intolerance, threats, harassment, violence, crime and drugs.

 

For more advice from Ben, listen to the full podcast. And for detailed information about how your organization can benefit from social background screening, visit the Fama.io website, where you’ll find benchmarking reports and other resources for employers.

Also, be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Why Employee Engagement is Upside Down

/, , , /by

impact award
Leaders and managers frequently refer to the famous Albert Einstein quote when something in their organizations isn’t working after repeated efforts. I wonder what Einstein would say about employee engagement?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

For two decades, the benchmark of benchmarks for employee engagement is Gallup, a world-class research organization. Gallup research shows that, over the past 10 years, the percentage of engaged employees has fluctuated. From a low of 30% to a high of 36%.

Much ado was made about a slight uptick in engagement before the pandemic. Then Covid struck and the trend reversed.

I’m pretty sure Einstein would agree with my old boss at Cisco, former CEO John Chambers. John famously described missed expectations at Cisco this way:

I never get hard work confused with results.

To see engagement move up only six percentage points over a decade without enduring results is underwhelming, at best. Especially when the engagement rate was so low to begin with.

The Decline of Engaged Employees

The most recent 2022 Gallup numbers show the percent of employees engaged is down.  U.S. companies are down 32%. It was 30% in 2002 and 2012.

I’m not sure how many billions of dollars were spent on employee engagement measurement and programs during this time, but it is clear from this data it was not a productive investment.

The inertia reflected in the engagement data reflects what I’ve heard over the past three years talking to hundreds of HR leaders about what works and what doesn’t in employee engagement.

Most of the feedback is best paraphrased this way:

We are not learning anything new from our employee engagement data.

Competition vs Collaboration

I’ve been lucky to work with hundreds of companies and their leadership teams. Especially after I wrote The Collaboration Imperative, which shared the best practices used at Cisco in its transition from a culture based on internal competition to one based on internal collaboration.

From these listening sessions, I’ve come to believe that certain ideas exist in organizational thinking in the absence of hard evidence. I don’t know how these ideas got started. I just know the ideas are entrenched.

For example – the way leaders and managers think about employee engagement today. It reminds me of the way organizations think about career planning. That it is the responsibility of the employee, despite overwhelming evidence indicating a different reality.

If it is true that employees are responsible for their own careers, why is “my manager” the most cited reason when an employee leaves a company?

Employee Engagement is Upside Down

I want to eat my own dog food by starting with evidence. I’ve spent the pandemic sponsoring a large, real-world research study on what makes an employee want to stay at a company. I wanted to know what it would take to get an employee to recommend where they work.

Our primary research and the large collection of company data captured in the second phase of our research confirm we’ve been measuring the wrong things in employee engagement.

In fact, employee engagement is upside down, according to our research.

Instead of measuring how engaged employees are, we should be measuring how engaged leaders and managers are.

In statistical terms, our evidence-based model demonstrated a strong, positive linear relationship between the degree to which leaders and managers engage employees and the willingness of employees to recommend where they work. In other words, the more engaged leaders and managers are in creating organizational culture with their teams, the greater the likelihood of an employee recommending the employer. Our research conclusions have a 95% confidence interval.

The Impact Leaders Have on Employee Engagement

Just like career planning. It’s time to embrace the fact that leaders and managers are the reasons why people fall in love with a company and its culture — or not. Leaders create the global cultural values of an organization; managers implement those values locally.

Company values are based on human behavior, not a poster on the wall. Values-based behaviors start with role-modeling them as leaders and managers. How can we expect employees to be engaged if their management team isn’t?

If we’re going to innovate in how we think about employee engagement, I want to call upon Einstein again for help.

Einstein was famous for thought experiments.

Here’s one. Management guru Peter Drucker said you can only manage what you measure. What if leaders and managers were accountable for engagement?

What would happen to employee engagement?

Photo: Edwin Andrade

How Does Data Accessibility Impact Your Culture?

/ /by

What do we love about the TalentCulture community? It’s a community of participants who understand the power of information and feedback. With that in mind, instead of talking about great surveys and the data they reveal to better our workforces and workplaces, we’re conducting one. We want to know how human capital management (HCM) and payroll technology are helping you — and what effect they’re having on your employee experience and workforce culture. So we created a short survey, all of 10 minutes or less, to find out. And we want you to take it. 

In the spirit of transparency, a quality we all value, we’re sharing the results with those who leave their email at the end of the survey. We’re pretty sure you’re going to want to know what this survey reveals. The questions were designed to find out how we’re using HCM and payroll digital tools, and to what extent organizations are making it possible for employees to access and manage their own data. Employee self-service tools (ESS) are on the rise, but how are we offering them, and which ones are among the most popular? We’re also looking at just what we’re doing on paper and what we’re doing within HCM and payroll systems — from pay stubs to work schedules, from assessments to benefits and training. 

This isn’t just a “do you use this?” survey. We wanted to find out more than just the what. We wanted to find out the how and the why. Did your workplace culture change when you started offering increased accessibility to data? How has it changed, and hopefully improved, the employee experience? What do you wish you could offer, but can’t? And if you can’t, what’s holding you back? We’re looking forward to your answers — and the more people that answer, the bigger the picture we’ll get. No matter what our expectations are, the data is what matters. Your data.

Thank you ahead of time for participating.

The TalentCulture Team

Gary Hamel on Workplace Bureaucracy

/, /by

The opening keynote speaker at UNLEASH America was Gary Hamel, one of the world’s most influential business thinkers. He is a professor at the London Business School, director of the Management Innovation eXchange and the author of several best-selling books, including “The Future of Management” and “What Matters Now.” Hamel is also the most reprinted author in the history of the Harvard Business Review. He spoke about the stifling effects of top-down management and how we need less — not more — workplace bureaucracy. Here are highlights from Hamel’s Q&A session with the media.

Understanding the Effects of Bureaucracy

“Bureaucracy shackles people with rules that prevent them from doing the best thing for the organization, the best thing for customers,” Hamel says.

He doubts that most organizations have tried to measure the costs of bureaucracy — which include insularity (too much time spent on internal issues, politicking, too much energy spent trying to gain power) and friction (too much busy work that slows down the decision-making process). Other costs include bloating (too many management layers), risk aversion (too many barriers against taking risks) and inertia (too hard to proactively change).

“Without having a benchmark there and any cost data around that, you have no idea what it’s actually costing your organization,” Hamel says.

Ten or 15 years ago, not many companies were concerned about the environmental cost of business. But now, that’s a major issue, and companies have environmental reports. Hamel recommends doing the same with bureaucracy. “If I’m an investor and I understand that this top-heavy, rule-driven culture is going to cause the organization to miss opportunities, miss how to allocate resources and misuse their talent, that is something I want solved.” While CEOs vaguely understand these costs, he says, they haven’t actually calculated the costs and decided this is a problem that needs to be solved.

Embracing Change

It’s possible to run a billion-dollar business with virtually no management layers, though Hamel believes the average person can’t conceive of this idea because they’ve never seen it before. “For example, at GE Aviation, they have 400 employees at the plant and one plant supervisor,” he says. He recommends getting out to see these companies and how they operate to understand how they are able to maintain control, discipline and alignment without a superstructure of supervisors.

“And then you have to be able to find a migration path between the present and the future,” Hamel says. Many post-bureaucratic organizations were formed that way, so they didn’t have to “uninstall” bureaucracy and tear down all of their rules and regulations.

This can be more complicated for more traditional companies because bureaucracy does serve a function. “Even though it has a lot of downsides, bureaucracy is the way we get control and coordination and consistency in large organizations.” If you try to destroy that and start all
over, Hamel warns, that will lead to chaos. “That’s why you need to approach it as migration path as you think about such principles as openness, meritocracy, experimentation and other next-generation management principles.”

He recommends challenging long-held organizational assumptions. “You just assume that power trickles down, you assume that you need managers to manage — but none of these things are eternal truths, they’re not principles of physics.”

Using Technology to Reduce Workplace Bureaucracy

Hamel believes that technology can dramatically change how organizations are run: how to find and hire people, how to make capital and strategic decisions. But right now, technology is primarily being used for white collar productivity (sharing documents, sharing schedules, etc.) or to aggregate information and exert more control. “Managers today have an enormous amount of real-time, microscopic information about performance, and the temptation is to have time cards on steroids.” Managers are paid to control, he says, and he thinks they may use technology to disempower rather than empower workers.

Technology has offered much more choice in our lives as consumers, but where is the equivalent empowerment in the workplace? “Why don’t we design our own jobs? Why don’t we pick our own colleagues? Why don’t we choose our own bosses? Why don’t we approve our own expenses?” That might sound crazy, but Hamel says organizations are doing it.

Hiring strategies are moving toward a consensus model, he says. “Historically at Whole Foods … if you wanted to work there, you would work for a couple of weeks with one of their in-store teams, and it took a 70% vote of the in-store team to hire you.”

Even project development is becoming more democratic. Hamel says that at Chinese manufacturer Haier, every new product starts as an online project with customers. “For example, when they want to develop new air conditioners, they go to social media and ask, ‘What do you want in an air conditioner?’ The first time they did this, they received 700,000 comments and had hundreds of thousands of fans following the project.” The company even uses social media to find technical partners. In one instance, they posted a technical challenge and asked who could solve it. The outcome? Dow Chemical responded, “We can build a membrane for that.”

#TChat Recap: Realities Of HR-Vendor Relationships

/ /by

A new reality is upon us.

According to new KeyInterval Research, HR departments are looking more like a purchasing departments and becoming quite skilled at managing vendor relationships.

But only a small fraction of those vendor-practitioner relationships produce high levels of excellence and return on investment.

This week’s #TChat guests: William Tincup and John Sumser, long-time HR and recruiting industry luminaries, friends and the founders of KeyInternal Research, shared the realities of the ideal HR-vendor relationship with our community.

Our attention must turn from the vendor landscape to the practitioner reality at the intersection between HR and technology. That reality is all about relationships.

But is HR getting better at managing their vendor relationships?

Connecting and building these essential HR-vendor relationships are facilitated by access to cloud, social, and mobile technologies.

Not everyone agrees that relationship management is getting better. HR must still battle bad practices and resistance to innovation.

Leadership can start relationship-building by prioritizing end-user satisfaction: satisfaction means quality adoption. Invest in the right technology and implement an application that works.

The most successful HR implementations are when they align with business outcomes.

The right HR software aligned with business outcomes, prioritizing end-user satisfaction, and leading with an open and positive mindset, are the essential components for creating lasting and meaningful HR-vendor relationships.

See What The #TChat Community Said About HR Vendor Relationships:

What’s Up Next? #TChat Returns Wednesday, March 25th!

#TChat Radio Kicks Off at 7pm ET / 4pm PT — Our weekly radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on Twitter as well. The topic: The Predictive Power HR Can Bring

#TChat Twitter Kicks Off at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT — Our halfway point begins with our highly engaging Twitter discussion. We take a social inside look at our weekly topic. Everyone is welcome to share their social insights #TChat.

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our Google+ community. Engage with us anytime on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics through our weekly email newsletter. Signing up is just a click away!

Passive-Recruiting Photo credit: Startup Stock Photo

#TChat Recap: #DiceInnovate Relationships Win In Tech Recruiting

/1 Comment/ /by

The competition for top tech talent is as fierce as ever, and the talent knows it.

According to Dice’s recent Tech Candidate Sentiment Survey, at least 50% of candidate respondents said they wish recruiters would do more research before calling, but this is significantly down from 2013.

Recruiters need to aim with accuracy to successfully source candidates with in-demand STEM skills. Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud are essential tools for authentic relationship-building and tech talent engagement.

This week’s #TChat guests Ashley Fox, Program Associate at Partnership for Public Service; and Pete Radloff, Lead Technical Recruiter with comScore, shared how the right online research tools and continuous relationship-building help talent acquisition teams win in tech recruiting.

Recruiters and hiring managers are challenged by bad practices, new technology adaptation, and a “we’ve always done it this way” mindset. We fear change.

Companies who continue to post-and-pray will pay with their pockets. Leaders who prioritize relationships will win. The “Best Employer” companies are led by CEOs who embrace people practices as a profit-generating strategy.

Relationships are “time-consuming” but the ROI will amaze you. It’s all about what Ted Rubin calls “Return on Relationship”: the value a company or brand gains by nurturing relationships.

You have to be human in this culture to create and maintain a healthy talent pipeline. Engage with your talent from all angles.

Ashley and Pete reminded our community about the 3 R’s of recruiting: relationships, research, and retry.

Let’s win in tech recruiting by embracing the 3 R’s with a constant effort, on all fronts, with a human face.

See What The #TChat Community Said About Research & Relationship-Building In Tech Recruiting:

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat Returns Wednesday, March 25th!

#TChat Radio Kicks Off at 7pm ET / 4pm PT — Our weekly radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on Twitter as well. The topic: The Realities Of The Ideal HR-Vendor Relationship

#TChat Twitter Kicks Off at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT — Our halfway point begins with our highly engaging Twitter discussion. We take a social inside look at our weekly topic. Everyone is welcome to share their social insights #TChat.

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our Google+ community. Engage with us anytime on our social networks or stay current with trending World of Work topics through our weekly email newsletter. Signing up is just a click away!

Passive-Recruiting Photo credit: Startup Stock Photo

#TChat Preview: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

/10 Comments/ /by

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about values based leadership and this week we’re going to talk about the state of HR Technology with a co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications. He also writes an HR blog and hosts the HR Happy Hour Show, a radio program and podcast.

Yeah, that guy — Mr. Steve Boese.

Employee engagement and recognition, company culture, cloud computing, HR data management, talent analytics and integrated HR and talent acquisition and management systems continue to be hot trends in the HR tech space, not to mention social collaboration and video (from recruitment to onboarding to core talent management).

And a better user experience to boot is what it’s all about today. There’s a renaissance of new edge applications improving recruiting, learning and talent engagement, and HR buyers are more sophisticated that ever before.

And we have a bonus round. Our #TChat community members can get $600 off of the HR Tech Conference full rate (expires August 4). Pssst…the secret code is TW14 (case sensitive).

This year’s HR Technology Conference & Exposition is coming up fast (October 7-10), so join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about the state of HR technology with this week’s guest: Steve Boese, a co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications.

Sneak Peek: The Hot HR Technology Trends of 2014

We spoke briefly with Scott Boese in our video preview to learn more about this week’s #TChat topic. Check out our YouTube Channel for the full video!

Related Reading:

Steve Boese: Which Tech Advice Is Good Advice? #SHRM14

John Sumser: Find The Thread In HR Technology

Meghan M. Biro: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

Stephanie Reyes: HR Technology – From Thought To Action

Trish McFarlane: HR Technology: Little Training, Big Regrets (KnowledgeGraphic)

Todd Raphael: More Alphas, More Betas, More Vegans In The Recruiting Technology Startup World

Sneak Peek: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 23 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Steve Boese.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 23 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What’s new or interesting in HR technology today? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What are the reasons why recruiting and learning technologies are in high demand? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What are key HR buyer questions about technology and implementation? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

photo credit: Matthew Clark Photography & Design via photopin cc

The Business of Talent: Magic? #TChat Recap

/ /by

A Really Big Show…

Sleight of hand. Misdirection. Levitation. The Grand Illusion. Sounds like a great Vegas act. But is this any way to describe “people” practices in today’s world of work?

Truthfully, we’ve all seen it and felt it. Many of us have developed mastery at it. Even when it’s unintended, a bit of smoke-and-mirrors comes in handy when working the crowd on the “talent” side of the house.

No worries. Your secret is safe here. #TChat isn’t a confessional, but those of us who’ve been responsible for aspects of talent acquisition, development or performance management have learned what works well enough to comply with business rules and get the job done. But how well is that working for the organization?

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

It’s not that we’re not trying to be more accountable and transparent. Besides, new social tools and technologies are shining light up our sleeves, for better or worse.

However, we are naturally stalwart creatures of comfort and habit — we don’t adapt easily. Incrementally perhaps, but not easily. It’s tempting to fall back on the same old tricks of the trade, even as external catalysts are forcing us to change for the better. Progress isn’t necessarily linear movement.

For example, consider the conversation we had this week with #TChat Radio guest, Josh Bersin. Josh is the Founder and Principal of Bersin by Deloitte, leading provider of research-based membership programs in human resources (HR), talent and learning.

Among other things, Josh shed light on factors that are driving the global disparity between skills demand and supply. One point in particular — new talent selection, mobility and succession planning have long been determined primarily by gut instinct.

A Capable Workforce = Sustainable Magic

But saying that talent strategies should focus on hard skills is no longer magical enough. The softer skills — communication, empathy, team-building — are just as integral to selection and development, if not more so.

Josh looks at challenges in human capital management through this more strategic lens. It’s what he calls capabilities development, where both hard and soft skills are addressed in a holistic way. As organizations reinforce and expand these combined capabilities in real-time, and provide flexible context that responds to workforce competencies, we can expect business performance to improve.

The foundation is solid – we’re now able to glean useful talent insights from powerful tools that help us process and analyze the disparate “people” data we’ve held in cold storage for decades. And other technologies are enabling continuous learning and development, across business functions, and throughout the entire employee life cycle. High art, indeed.

Showtime!

Of course, magic shows still have their place — marketing spin helps to attract, retain and entertain. Meanwhile, we can feel confident relying more on science than art to inform our instincts as we move forward with workforce decisions. Talent-minded professionals are limited only by our willingness to adapt. We can lead by example.

#TChat Week-in-Review

If you missed any of this week’s events – or to revisit insights anytime – just follow the links below…

SUN 3/17  TalentCulture CEO, Meghan M. Biro, kicked off the week by looking at how strong leaders are strong learners in her Forbes.com post: “The New Rules of Leadership.”

TChatRadio_logo_020813

Listen to the recorded show with Josh Bersin…

MON 3/18  #TChat Weekly Preview laid out key questions for the week: “Learning, Leadership and Talent”

TUE 3/19  #TChat Radio Show: Josh Bersin discussed how market factors and technology innovation are leading organizations to dramatically shift fundamental “people” practices – including talent acquisition, development and performance management. The 30-minute show is packed with insights for HR and learning professionals, as well as business managers.

WED 3/29  #TChat Twitter: The TalentCulture community showed up in full force at our weekly Twitter forum to report from the trenches about their experiences and ideas. Check out these highlights from the conversation…

#TChat Twitter Highlights Slideshow: Learning, Leadership and Talent

[javascript src=”//storify.com/TalentCulture/tchat-insights-learning-leadership-and-talent.js?template=slideshow”]

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

THANKS: Again, thanks to Josh Bersin for joining us this week, to help us understand how organizations can better leverage talent in today’s world of work. Your expertise and insights are invaluable to our community.

NOTE TO BLOGGERS: Did this week’s events inspire you to write about leadership, learning and talent? We’re happy to share your thoughts. Just post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we’ll pass it along.

WHAT’S AHEAD: Next week – fasten your seatbelts as we take the community for a spin into the brave new world of social learning, with our very own community leaders, Justin Mass (learning technology evangelist at Adobe) and Michael Clark (leadership development expert at ReCenter).

Until then, we’ll continue to tackle World of Work conversation each day. So join us on the #TChat Twitter stream, or on our new LinkedIn discussion group. And feel free to explore other areas of this redesigned blog/community website. TalentCulture is always open and the lights are always on.

We’ll see you on the stream!

Image Credit: Stock.xchng

A Talent Community for Angels

/ /by

Post written by Thom Haslam

One of the most beloved movies of all time, It’s A Wonderful Life is a favorite of every cable station during the holidays.  This heart warming story of a Guardian Angel earning its wings is also one of the greatest movies about careers in the history of Hollywood.  The story revolves around George Bailey, who has dreams of doing big things in his career, with hopes of “lassoing the moon.”  He reaches his goal eventually, but not in the way he dreamt it would happen. No, George never leaves his home town of Bedford Falls, but over the years he builds a company Talent Community that helps him overcome career hurdle of becoming, as his brother says at the climax of the film, “The richest man in town!”

Social Recruiting

Unfortunately, we’ve been drinking too much Egg Nog during all those reruns and the message has been missed.  Instead, companies have joined the stampede to Social Recruiting by establishing a “talent community” on Facebook or LinkedIn and attracting as many followers as possible.  As George demonstrates, it’s the quality of interactions he has over the course of his career that earns him all his riches.  The giant Fan Page Communities are great places for people who have applied for a job to get their voices heard, but are not great for meaningful exchanges that will cultivate a talented person who is not looking for a job.

In its current form Social Recruiting is labor intensive.  A company that builds a Fan Page with a promise of interaction for all comers, finds it impossible to stop the constant flow of chatter that is needed.  The millions spent for this purpose is breathtaking, but the Return On Investment has been called into question – rightfully so.  These activities probably shouldn’t be considered Talent Communities as they’re more appropriate for marketing products.  To be successful, a Talent Community needs a more structured engagement program that cultivates people of interest and provides an Employment Message with justified expectations.

Talent Community Difference

The promise of Talent Communities to provide a more efficient employment process can be huge, with recruiting time spent, talent quality, hiring costs and “time to hire” metrics drastically altered from what we have all come to expect over the last 40 years.  By maintaining a specific Community goal, a company has a real opportunity to attract workers like George Bailey who aren’t looking for a new job, but are focused on taking on greater challenges instead.  The elusive “other 80%” of the workforce, that have been difficult to attract with employment advertising and referrals, can be cultivated with a Talent Community.  This can be a major break through that if fully embraced can change the employment landscape forever.

Talent Neighborhoods

The broader Talent Community’s main focus is to increase the exposure of the Employment Value Proposition or Branding on an industry wide pool of talent, while smaller Talent Neighborhoods provide for development of targeted hiring Short Lists.  A company can get the most out of their Neighborhoods by segmenting them into numerous functional areas of need.  In this way, a recruiting organization can tailor their message to a more targeted group, and the size of the company wide Community can be pared down to a more manageable level for interaction and engagement with the various division or team based hiring authorities.

Obviously, it makes sense to create Talent Neighborhoods for roles within a company that experience a high degree of turnover or that come open several times during the year so a “renewable recruiting” program for these jobs is created, saving time and money.

Heavenly Hiring

Taking lessons from a fictional character like George Bailey may not always be a good recipe for success, but the desire for career consumers to want an upwardly mobile work life at a job they love should not be left to fiction.  For the past 40 years we have screened out nine out of ten workers for every req we filled, mostly with little to no explanation except, “you weren’t good enough,” and workers haven’t appreciated it.  With Talent Communities we have the opportunity to eliminate  decades of neglect and change the way our country’s work force view their career so that bells are heard jingling throughout the economy and talent shortages of angels in heaven are a thing of the past…

 

HR Demo Show Vegas – Humanizing Employer Brands Makes Me Happy

/1 Comment/ /by

There are technologies that transform an economy (railroads), and technologies that lead to an industry (and an economy) treading water (railroads.) HR technology is a transformative set of technologies, one I can’t wait to dig in to. The place to see what’s coming up for us HR and Recruiting practitioners is the HR Demo Show, to be held May 24-25 at The Venetian in Las Vegas.

Did I say Las Vegas? Yup. I will be making an appearance on a blog squad that includes friends like Maren Hogan Craig Fisher and Geoff Web. I also look forward to meeting Jessica Miller-Merrell IRL for the first time. Fun times.

In this case I’m talking about new technologies for the workplace and talent management, not trains. Technologies have transformed many businesses and industries and displaced others. But its value as a creator of strategic value has been under attack for some time.

Flashback way back yonder to the year 2003 Nicholas Carr published ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ in the Harvard Business Review, followed by a book, Does IT Matter? in 2004. His argument (to paraphrase the article, and some of Carr’s rebuttal of various criticisms): because IT is structural, built in to a company’s operations, it is no longer a strategic differentiator or source of advantage to businesses. Sure, it helps with competitiveness – you need to be on par with those in your industry in your use of IT to survive – but it’s no longer a source of tremendous advantage. IT has become a commodity.

Back to the present. Not so fast. Technology is very much transforming industries. In Recruiting and HR specifically, technology is a transformative power because today’s social tools have the power to enable emotional connections between employers, employees and job seekers (future employees). This is a hugely important tool for connecting with and hiring the right talent. And it’s no sceret I love any valuable tool that helps employer’s humanize their workplace brand when recruiting new people to teams. Job seekers “buy into” a workplace culture when they accept a job offer – it’s an emotional connection made with people first and foremost.

Things are changing fast in the world of software tools designed to support Recruitment and HR functions within a workplace. As Kevin W Grossman says, the next five to 10 years should be an interesting time for talent management technologies in our space. Cue the flash and sizzle: be at the HR Demo Show to hear what’s changing.

So much is exciting. I am going to look at things that promise much improvement for talent management in the workplace:

  • Humanizing talent acquisition—by facilitating human interaction and establishing emotional connections between employers and job candidates. Taleo looks like an interesting option here.
  • Helping to build an employment brand—by creating talent communities via social, mobile, cloud and collaboration technologies and activities.
  • Going beyond standard applicant tracking system features—by reaching into the CRM realm to keep the pipeline filled with truly qualified candidates, to grab and nurture candidates’ interest, and to empower global recruitment and multi-lingual outreach. Kenexa has an interesting set of offerings, as does Epicor.
  • Getting social networking to work effectively by driving applicants back to companies’ career portals; giving companies a clearer picture of their social media efforts/effectiveness, and helping them track and manage referrals more efficiently.

I’ll be attending talks on RPO, HRO and MSP practices and IT solutions, and reporting back to you. There’s a ‘demo’ in the show name, so I’ll be going to demos of various interesting and geeky offerings – right up my alley. I’ll be separating the very cool from the not-so-cool and on where we can use new technologies for strategic, competitive advantage.

It’s Vegas, so there will definitely be a stroll and a dance (or five) down the Strip (no cards, please) or a stop at the Red Square. There will be opportunity to connect with my fellow HR and Recruitment practitioners and purveyors of HR systems. And there will be lots of opportunity to find out about talent management, and how systems will help our industry make this a priority to stay innovative.

Join me in Vegas. Or check in here and hear what I’m hearing. HR/Recruiting technologies are on the cusp, and I don’t want to miss the opportunity, the transformation, the prospect of creating competitive advantage.

IMAGE VIA Flickr