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Benefits of Measuring Your Candidate Experience – #WorkTrends Preview

Hiring is a fact of business for companies, whether it be a consistent part of their process or an occasional effort. The one thing for certain is that all industries want star candidates to fill vacant positions. However, a disconnect can occur when companies don’t create a great experience for many candidates.

Exactly what is the business impact of a poor candidate experience? According to the latest Global Talent Board research, 41% of your candidates will take their allegiance, product purchases and brand relationships elsewhere because of it. This is big and directly impacts an organization’s bottom line and reputation.

A good candidate experience is smart marketing for an organization. A negative candidate experience may cause the right candidate to turn down the job. If management doesn’t care about the recruiting process, what else is falling through the cracks?

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 1pm ET, #WorkTrends host Meghan M. Biro and her special guest Kevin W. Grossman, Talent Board President of Global Programs will discuss the research from this latest survey and how brands can easily implement alternative ways of engaging job candidates to reinforce a strong candidate experience and support a healthy business bottom line.

Benefits of Measuring Your Candidate Experience

Benefits of Measuring Your Candidate Experience Join Kevin and Meghan on our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, July 12 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.

Immediately following the podcast, the team invites the TalentCulture community over to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion. We encourage everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a live chat, focused on these related questions:

 Q1: Why should brands care about the candidate experience? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

 Q2: What are the benefits of measuring candidate experience? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q3: How can brands implement candidate feedback for positive change? #WorkTrends  (Tweet this question)

Don’t want to wait until next Wednesday to join the conversation? You don’t have to. Check out the #WorkTrends Twitter feed or join our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group. Share your questions, ideas and opinions with our awesome community.

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#TChat Preview: How HR Leaders Achieve Talent Brand Dominance

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, January 27, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about how tech pros can help assess and hire tech pros, and this week we’re going to talk about how HR leaders achieve talent brand dominance.

Employers are constantly aware of the state of their company brand. But very few organizations realize the impact of their talent brand on both their reputation to job seekers and company morale amongst existing employees.

A talent brand is what talent (which comprises both working and non-working professionals think, feel, and share about your company) as a place to work.

Contrary to what employers believe, 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 with is how employers approach caring for their people and addressing their needs. Most hiring authorities aren’t coming to terms to deal with the reality that their talented employees have options.

#TChat Event: How HR Leaders Achieve Talent Brand Dominance

TChatRadio_logo_020813

Tune in to our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, January 27 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about how HR leaders achieve talent brand dominance with this week’s guest: Joan Graci, CEO and President of APA Solutions, a boutique employment and human capital consulting firm.

#TChat on Twitter — Wednesday, January 27— 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

Immediately following the live show, the team will move to the #TChat Twitter stream to continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. We invite everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What is the difference between employer brand and talent brand? #TChat (Tweet this question)

Q2: How do you measure talent brand and replicate its success? #TChat (Tweet this question)

Q3: What should HR and recruiting implement now to improve their talent brand? #TChat  (Tweet this question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. Feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!

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TalentCulture's #TChat: The Evolution Of A Successful Chat

TalentCulture and #TChat. The evolution of a successful Twitter chat…

Meghan M. Biro and I have done something amazing here, something we are so very proud of. We started over five years ago in November of 2010. With only Meghan’s TalentCulture site and its early followers and readers, a handful of early-adopter Twitter friends and followers, and a hashtag by the name of #TChat — the TalentCulture Twitter Chat was born.

We never thought it would last a month. But it did. Then, two years later we launched the #TChat Radio Show, and eventually merged the two together to form the TalentCulture #TChat Show, the one many of you have come to every Wednesday from 1-2 pm ET. The one where we invite insightful guests to discuss a myriad of hot topics about  and workforce.

And, with the help of our Cyndy Trivella, our tireless production manager, as well as many other remarkable people, and of course our generous sponsors, thousands of knowledge-thirsty professionals join us every week from across Twitter and the entire social business universe — including business leaders, HR and recruiting thought leaders, technology innovators and social marketing leaders.

But now it’s time for us each to evolve into something bigger–and we’re so excited about that. Meghan and I are going to end this amazing story we started together, and Meghan is going to move forward supported by her amazing team at TalentCulture team focusing on what it is she’s passionate about: the Future of Work.

Don’t get me wrong, Meghan and I are still going to collaborate and support one another. Absolutely. She’s a dear friend and that will never change. But I’ve got some things of my own that I’m passionate about that I want to redirect my efforts to. I have the Talent Board and the CandEs and future podcasts coming and you’ll definitely be hearing more from me. Meghan will continue her focus on TalentCulture and reimagining the future of work and she’ll be debuting a new show of her own very shortly. We’ll both continue to do amazing things in 2016 and beyond and we hope you’ll be a part of them.

Only #TChat is going away. But it will be replaced by something equally as exciting, and you’ll continue to hear from and interact with both of us, on a regular basis!

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end…” —Semisonic, Closing Time

The success of all this was truly because of you, our loyal community and friends. We can’t thank you enough. Please keep making that incremental happy workplace magic however you can and we know we’ll be seeing more of you.

And remember – middle initial always count.

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#TChat Recap: Why the Best Recruitment Means Smarter Workforce Marketing

Last week we talked about how to create the ultimate hiring experience; this week we discussed why the best recruitment means smarter workforce marketing.

Today’s hiring economy is highly complex and competitive and finding top talent is harder than ever. In fact, attracting candidates and retaining current employees is a lot like attracting and retaining customers.

Abby Euler, Talent Acquisition Evangelist at IBM Smarter Workforce, joined us and shared a wealth of wisdom, sharing a wide variety of insights on technology, branding, recruiting and more.

It was a lively #TChat podcast and Twitter conversation on a topic that’s very relevant to organizations of all sizes across industries.

Want to learn more? Listen to the recording and check out the highlights below:

Thank you to all the TalentCulture sponsors, partners and supporters!

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, January 20, 2016, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT). Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about how tech pros can help assess and hire tech pros with this week’s guest: Kevin D. Rooney, CEO of Expert Interview.

Join our social communities and stay up-to-date! The TalentCulture conversation continues daily. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream, 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 on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

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#TChat Preview: The Power of Relationships from Bedroom to Boardroom

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about a few of our favorite #TChat shows, and this week we’re going to talk about the power of relationships—from the bedroom to the boardroom!

One of the most critical elements of any relationship is trust. Couples who build a strong sense of trust are happier than those who don’t. Following the same concept, people in trustworthy work relationships have proven to be more productive and have better connections with their co-workers.

Business leaders, including HR, must inspire trustworthy relationships since they’re responsible for internal customers: decreasing attrition, increasing employee engagement, decreasing sick days, increasing productivity, enhancing communication between departments, tearing down silos, and so much more.

How can we create a more trustworthy work environment for all our relationships, one that leads to a sphere of greater happiness, connectivity, and productivity?

#TChat Events:The Power of Relationships from Bedroom to Boardroom

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, Dec 16 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about the power of relationships from the bedroom to the boardroom with this week’s guest: Tamara McCleary, an internationally recognized expert on relationships and conscious business.

 Tune in to our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, Dec 16 — 1 pm ET

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wednesday, December 16— 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT
Immediately following the radio show, the team will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. We invite everyone with a Twitter account to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What obstacles make trust-building difficult in today’s workplace? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How can biz leaders and HR create more trustworthy work environments? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How do cooperative business relationships actually impact the business? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

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#TChat Preview: Looking Back on Some Favorite Chats

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, December 9, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about how social recruiting makes the talent business case, and this week we’re going to share a few of our favorite #TChat shows from 2015!

No, we’re not doing a production of Sound of Music — but since it’s nearing the end of the year and the holidays are upon us, the TalentCulture #TChat Show co-hosts and co-founders Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman, along with their amazing #TChat event manager and show producer Cyndy Trivella, wanted to share some favorite shows from this year.

It wasn’t an easy task; there are just too many great shows to pick from. But, to make it easier, we broke them down into three categories:

  • The favorites that made us think
  • The favorites that made us learn
  • And the favorites that made us laugh

So stroll with us down memory lane with us, all aglow with holiday cheer. It will surely be a #TChat to remember.

#TChat Events: Looking Back on Some Favorite #TChats

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, Dec 9 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman along with their amazing #TChat event manager and show producer Cyndy Trivella, as they share some favorite shows from this year.

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, Dec 9 — 1 pm ET

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wednesday, December 9 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT
Immediately following the radio show, the team will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. We invite everyone with a Twitter account to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What were your favorite #TChat shows that made you think and learn? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What were your favorite #TChat shows that made you laugh? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What topics do you want to see us cover in 2016 and why? #TChat  (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

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#TChat Recap: Workplace Trends Through The Eyes Of Millennials

This week the TalentCulture team discussed workplace trends through the eyes of Millennials with Frank Moreno, Vice President of Product Marketing at PeopleFluent, the leading total workforce HCM technology company.

There are a lot of misconceptions about how the digital generation works, and what motivates them to stay engaged and perform in the workplace. What do you need to know as an employer?

Listen to the recording and review the Twitter chat highlights below to find out what millennials need and want in the workplace.

https://twitter.com/fmoreno44/status/646739656734842880

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Sept 30th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next #TChat topic: The Neuroscience of What Keeps Leaders Up at Night – Wednesday, Sept 30th, 2015 — 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.

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date! The TalentCulture conversation continues daily. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: Candidate Experience Through The Eyes Of The Job Seeker

This week the TalentCulture team discussed the importance of the candidate experience with Joe Essenfeld, Founder and CEO of Jibe; and Ivan Casanova, SVP of Marketing and Product at Jibe.

There is a growing disconnect between how candidates find and connect with companies online. Career sites represent the largest source of hire, and yet too many recruiting leaders overlook that. To truly understand what drives candidate behavior on the Web, you need to see the experience through the eyes of job seekers.

To learn more, listen to the recording and review the Twitter chat highlights below.

https://twitter.com/Jibe/status/644203222941495297

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Sept 23rd: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next #TChat topic: Workplace Trends Through The Eyes Of Millennials – Wednesday, Sept 23rd, 2015 — 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.

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date! The TalentCulture conversation continues daily. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: Why Compliance Is A Complex HR Necessity

This week the TalentCulture team discussed why compliance is a complex HR necessity with Todd Owens, CEO of TalentWise.

The ideal goal for HR in any organization is building the best performing teams and finding the greatest talent so that business can scale – and sustain that growth over time. But that doesn’t come easy – HR can’t focus on talent acquisition and management unless compliance is addressed.

HR technology providers need to be partners in compliance for HR because it can help reduce risk and give them more time to focus on what matters most in their organization.

To learn more, listen to the recording and review the discussion highlights below.

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Sept 16th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: Candidate Experience Through The Eyes Of The Job Seeker – Wednesday, Sept 16th, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2015

This week we were joined by Steve Boese, co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications.

Kevin, Steve and I talked about trends and current innovations in HR Technology, why they’re important, and how HR and technology intersect inside modern organizations today and tomorrow.

Cloud computing, HR data management, talent analytics and best of breed and integrated HR and talent acquisition and management systems continue to be hot trends in the HR tech space. We investigated these as we  looked at the hot HR technology trends of 2015 and the upcoming HR Technology Conference and Exposition.

Listen to the recording and join us in person or online for our special 2015 HR Technology Conference #TChat show in October to discover the latest movers and shakers within the HR Technology space.

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Sept 9th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: Why Compliance Is A Complex HR Necessity – Wednesday, Sept 9, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: How To Recognize And Stop Workplace Bullying And Harassment

This week we talked about how to recognize and stop workplace bullying and harassment.

You may have read the Amazon news recently about their toxic workplace culture. While not new news, the unfortunate fact is there are too many other “bullying” and undermining cultures in business today.

Like pollution, workplace bullying and harassment does not usually kill you right away, but an enormous amount of misery is caused — and time wasted — because of unkind words and behavior that cause hurt feelings that take a toll on workplace productivity and relative happiness.

All of us can take leadership roles in helping prevent and stop harmful behavior by example, create clear boundaries about what is and is not acceptable, and a plan for upholding these boundaries

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Sept 2nd: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: The Hot HR Technology Trends of 2015 – Wednesday, Sept 2, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: Why Multi-Generational Leadership Activism Is In

This week we talked about why multi-generational leadership activism is in. We were joined by Jon Mertz, thought leader, author and a Leader to Watch in 2015 by the American Management Association; and Danny Rubin, Millennial communications expert and author.

Regardless of pop culture wisdom, every generation wants to change the world, and millennials are no exception. But every new generation’s flaws are also stereotyped and criticized by the mainstream media, to the point where it’s non-productive.

What if these very criticisms were the foundation for refreshing new leadership? The good news is they can be, if mentored and nurtured accordingly.

In fact, this isn’t the age to just mentor millennials. We can learn better ways to grow our own talent and leadership skills from different generations. Engagement is out. Activism is in.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Aug 26th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: How To Recognize And Stop Workplace Bullying And Harassment – Wednesday, Aug 26, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: How Social Networking And The Job Search Pay Off

This week we were joined by Robin Schooling, accomplished HR Leader, strategist and advisor; and Cyndy Trivella, Marketing Manager for SmartSearch applicant tracking systems and Events & Accounts Manager at TalentCulture. We discussed ways that social networking and the job search can pay off as well as pitfalls when you don’t mis-manage your social brand.

Developing and presenting your social media persona in a way which grows reach and influence with peers is no easy job. There are no ‘quick fixes’ when it comes to developing your social media brand. There are, however, some proven tactics and philosophies to consider which could help optimize the influence of your social networking efforts and help you develop important new business relationships.

Robin and Cyndy shared insights and methods around how to create personal and corporate brand engagement. Managing your online profile and persona consistently and accurately is where it all starts. Those organizations searching you and your “brand” out and reviewing who you are will be looking for anomalies that don’t add up — and you want to always have everything add up — even if you’re not looking for a job.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Aug 19th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: Why Multi-Generational Leadership Activism Is In – Wednesday, Aug 19, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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!

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#TChat Recap: How Employers Can Help Bridge The Great Debt Divide

This week Kevin and I were joined on the TalentCulture #TChat show by Dan Macklin, co-founder and vice president of SoFi, as we discussed how employers can help bridge the great debt divide.

Debt-ridden Millennials represent a big proportion of today’s workforce. In fact, they will soon be the majority. The vast sums of debt hanging around the proverbial necks of the young is like nothing graduates have experienced before. The sad fact is that the economic collapse in 2008 leaves a burden which will be carried by a generation. It will impact Millennials’ paths to secure and happy lives. Employers, however, can help.

The obstacles facing the modern workforce requires innovative solutions. To attract top talent and foster long-term employee engagement, organizations should look at offering access to student loan refinancing programs, more expansive employee benefits, and other assistance which helps employees gain greater economic independence.

Millennials, of course, are not the only financial losers in the today’s workforce. Many Gen Xers and Baby Boomers also feel these financial pains and bear the brunt of lingering student debt.

The need for employers to offer employees assistance with these issues is greater than ever, especially if they hope to recruit and retain key talent, reduce costly turnover and make up the ground they’re losing due to the impact of their student debt and the healthcare reform on their medical benefits.

Did You Miss The Podcast Show? Listen On BlogTalkRadioiTunes or Stitcher.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Aug 12th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: How Social Networking And The Job Search Pay Off – Wednesday, Aug 12, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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

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#TChat Recap: Why Recruiting Is A Legitimate Career Choice

This week we were joined by Shally Steckerl, founder of the Sourcing Institute Foundation and a pioneer in talent sourcing and recruiting, as we chatted about why recruiting is a legitimate career choice.

Recruiting, for many, has been an accidental career choice. For others, its a destination career. We discussed organizations like the Sourcing Institute Foundation who follow a mission to change historic misconceptions of the industry. Part of the bad press come from the obvious lack of training for Talent Acquisition pros. There is, however, a growing need for comprehensive corporate recruitment training programs.

Recruiting is, and should be, a top career choice for confident, able and performance-minded people. Let’s keep spreading the good recruitment word!

Did You Miss The Podcast Show? Listen On BlogTalkRadioiTunes or Stitcher.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, Aug 5th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: How Employers Can Help Bridge The Great Debt Divide – Wednesday, Aug 5, 2015 — 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. See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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

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#TChat Recap: How HR Drives Positive Workforce Impact With The Right Data Insights

HR has more momentum and presence in driving technology decisions than we have seen in years past. That’s why this week we talked with guest Marc Rind, VP of Product Development & Chief Data Scientist of ADP Analytics and Big Data, about how HR drives positive workforce impact with the right data insights. Marc discussed how do we seize the day and the innovation needed to make a big impact on organizations and workplace?

Our #TChat podcast conversation considered how HR can understand the business and the metrics that drive competitive advantage. Afterall, the right data is key across the HCM space.

Asking business to make decisions based on data insights can be scary if HR doesn’t understand the relevance and credibility of the data. A big lesson was that getting the right data can drive tech innovation towards a positive workforce impact.

Did You Miss The Podcast Show? Listen On BlogTalkRadioiTunes or Stitcher.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, July 29th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: Why Recruiting Is A Legitimate Career Choice – Wednesday, July 29, 2015 — 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 See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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

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#TChat Recap: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand

This week we talked about how to identify, grow and market your employer brand. No matter how you slice it, it’s really a lesson on research and positioning and how you end up marketing your company as the place to work.

Our guest was Susan LaMotte, SPHR, founder of exaqueo, a workforce consultancy. Susan explained that you can’t be everything to everyone and too many companies are trying to be just that. No matter how “great” you think your company is, the “greatness” message won’t weed out the people who aren’t a great fit for your company.

So first you should ask your current employees about what your company does well as an employer, and all of the things that it doesn’t do well. Then build a real employer brand foundation so you can better extend that brand in the market.

 

Did You Miss The Podcast Show? Listen On BlogTalkRadioiTunes or Stitcher.

 

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, July 22nd: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: Innovation & HR: Carpe Diem — Wednesday, July 22, 2015 — 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 See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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: Big Stock Images

#TChat Recap: How To Create A Culture That Rocks

On July 8th we discussed how to create a company culture that rocks. Our guest was my friend Jim Knight, a leading training and development expert who worked with Hard Rock International for 20 years where he led the renowned School Of Hard Rocks.

Jim offered some rocking, high energy dialogue around the art of candidate engagement and why its vital to develop a cohesive company culture. A powerful, productive and fun company culture  is the sum total of its employees. As Jim put it, employees collectively make up the heart and soul of the organization.

This week’s show was a real blast and, for me, really brought home the importance of the cultural fit in the hiring stage and beyond. The Twitters rocked on with us in big numbers this week – trending, for example, in L.A. – a pretty rock n’ roll city!

Great “bands” and brands focus on culture first and foremost so it will drive engagement, business outcomes and ultimately success. So remember #TChat fans, while skills are important, there must also be a rocking fit between the culture of the employer, and employee, ‘brands’.

 

 

Did You Miss The Podcast Show? Listen On BlogTalkRadioiTunes or Stitcher.

What’s Up Next? #TChat returns Wednesday, July 15th: #TChat Radio Kicks Off at 1pm ET / 10am PT — Our radio show runs 30 minutes. Usually, our social community joins us on the Twitters as well.

Next topic: #TChat Preview: How To Build And Market Your Employer Brand — Wednesday, July 15, 2015 — 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 See what’s happening right now on the #TChat Twitter stream 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: Big Stock Images

#TChat Events Moving To Wed 1-2pm ET

#TChat Moves To Afternoon Eastern To Meet Demands Of A Global Audience!

Following five years (can you believe it?!) and numerous requests by fans across the globe, we’ve decided to be bold and go live at a time which also gives business leaders in Europe, Asia and Africa the chance to listen and get involved with #TChat in real time!

April 22nd: #TChat moves to a new lunchtime slot of 1-2pm ET / Noon-1PM CT / 10-11am PT / 6-7PM UK

BTRThe TalentCulture #TChat Show has been airing since November 2010. Founded and presented by Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman, our show has provided an ever-growing community of business leaders with awesome insights from guest influencers and practitioners from across the talent, leadership and tech landscapes.

We’re proud to say that our humble show has developed into a major weekly learning and collaboration opportunity for thousands of knowledge-thirsty professionals. Our dedicated followers include business leaders, HR and recruiting thought leaders, technology innovators and social marketing leaders.

The show will continue to bring A-list leaders and personalities to the interview table and to #TChat on Twitter – offering insights and tips about career management, hiring trends, leadership, learning, talent strategy, recruiting, social workplace issues, technology trends and much more!

We look forward to continuing to bring you the hot topics in today’s world of work and welcome our new listeners from Europe, Asia and Africa,

New To #TChat?

Starting April 22nd, the #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 1:00-1:30 pm ET, followed by the ever-popular #TChat Twitter chat from 1:30-2:00 pm ET.

But wait — what exactly is #TChat?

Why should you spend your Wednesdays online with us? It’s not just a radio show and a Twitter chat — it’s a community devoted to advancing the human side of business. And the lights are always on in our #TChat Twitter stream. We’ll see and Tweet you real soon!

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

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

BTR stitcher_logoItunes_podcast_icon

Empowering Workplace Leadership Every Other Step of the Way

“When the world is a monster
Bad to swallow you whole
Kick the clay that holds the teeth in
Throw your trolls out the door…”

—R.E.M.

Right after the early morning conference call, an instant message popped up on my laptop screen.

You all right? It read. It was from a colleague over 2,000 miles away, with the rest of our team almost another 1,000 miles away from him.

Three simple words: You all right?

They tumbled in my head like lottery ping pong balls, then lined up in different iterations:

All right you
You right all
Right you all

Another IM appeared. You seem a little edgy today.

I wrote back: Do I? Sorry, we’ve all got a lot going on and I’m a little frustrated today. Can’t stay ahead of the constant change sometimes and unclear of what we’re doing.

His answer was prompt. You and me both. No worries. We just like the ‘Mr. Upbeat, let’s make a better plan’ man. Sorry you’re edgy. We’ll get there.

I wrote back: Thanks, Brother. I’m good. I’ll get back to making better magic. I always do.

Do it, and be good. He wrote back.

Two hours later I hiked up a nearby hill for my cathartic morning workout listening to one of my favorite playlists. The R.E.M. song “Can’t Get There From Here” came on and added a few more lottery balls in my head:

(I’ve been there I know the way)
Can’t get there from here

I’ve been there, I know the way, but I do believe you can get there from anywhere, even here. Here and there both being my purpose, my vision, and my relentless pursuit of mindful presence and consistent personal leadership, to empower a better workplace.

The last part sounds like a hack product and/or service marketing message, but it’s true for me, with “workplace” being a broader metaphor for “being a better life,” and since work on many levels is a large part of life, why not make it better? I actually really believe it.

Our positive personal visions are what guide, compel and propel us. Combined, these collective building blocks can be formidable strongholds, leading to better families, communities, governments and businesses.

In the workplace, there are those storied business visions that have guided and propel and inspire, but today they seem to be few and far in between. Dr. Jesse Lyn Stoner, Founder of Seapoint Center for Collaborative Leadership and co-author with Ken Blanchard of the bestseller Full Steam Ahead: Unleash the Power of Vision, shared with us on the TalentCulture #TChat Show that her and Ken have interviewed thousands of people in organizations whose number one concern is lack of a shared vision.

Less than 10% of the organizations we’ve visited are led by managers who have a clear sense of where they are trying to lead people.

All right you. I’ve been there, I know the way.

According to Dr. Stoner, what’s important about vision is not only what it says, but how it’s created and how it’s lived. It’s a picture of a desirable future you intend to create that illuminates your underlying purpose and values.

And for a vision to be compelling and provide ongoing guidance, it must illuminate all three elements of a compelling (and propelling) vision:

  1. Purpose (or Mission)
  2. Values
  3. A Clear Picture of a Desirable Future

Developing sustainable business vision and strategy are difficult to execute. Most leaders default to actions steps and tactical plans and spend most of their time reacting to what needed addressing yesterday, even if they invest up front to create the vision.

For all of us moving at the mind-bending speeds today, caught in a continuous orbital loop where no one ever lands or strategically plans beyond today. Frustrated individual contributors and leaders alike must learn to break free from this heavy gravity for a desirable future, our collective futures.

Critics and cynics will say we’ll remain unhappy reactive tacticians and we’ll keep seeing the posts like “5 Reasons Your Boss Sucks” and “19 Ways Your Workplace Is Killing You,” for many of them, the self-fulfilling prophecy continues to ring true.

The workplace (and the world at large) remains a monster to many of us. Even for me – one day it’s riding on my shoulders like a playful child, and the next day it’s eating me up.

I don’t know if we need Chief Happiness Officers in the workplace, but we do need leaders around the globe who emulate the three elements above.

And that all starts with self. I know I’ll continue to be mindful of my guiding and compelling personal vision and values for a desirable future, to nurture positive can-do leadership with one realistic caveat about the monster: empowering a better workplace with leadership every other step of the way.

About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.

photo credit: What’s eating you? via photopin (license)

 

Brave The Flaming Bullseye With Total Talent Acquisition

“It is the fire that lights itself
But it burns with a restless flame
The arrow on a moving target
The archer must be sure of his aim…”

—Neil Peart (writer and musician, “Cut to the Chase”)

He hated driving. And yet, he drove me home from the airport. Nice guy. Personable. Articulate. Cleanly shaved head, just south of my age. Mid-forties I guessed. Great driver actually. Very aware of everything around him. We immediately hit if off as we discussed the ups and downs of the Bay Area highways and byways, the best times to drive and the worst.

“Well, you’re hitting the driving thing head-on,” I announced in a poor attempt at punning.

He laughed nonetheless. “It’s my job for now. I don’t have a choice.”

He leaked a weak smile in the rear-view mirror. Before I could press him further he deflected to me and what I did for a living.

A little while later I again tried to learn more about his professional life, but to no avail. What was obvious to me was that he was one of the more qualified “underemployed,” those who only work part time doing whatever because they can’t find full-time employment. How are companies leveraging this underserved talent pool and candidates like him? And can they?

Cut to 24 hours earlier while I sat with colleagues and an entire recruiting team from one of our recruiting customers talking about how to remain compliant while searching, sourcing and pipelining. If you’re in HR and recruiting, you understand the broad critical complexity of regulations that are in place to protect employers, employees, applicants and candidates.

The senior vice president of talent acquisition led the meeting and at one point he said something quite profound and refreshing, not something I’d heard of late:

“We cannot allow compliance to manage us. We have to be able to search and source our own databases in a timely way without compromising quality…in the spirit of effectiveness and productivity, not necessarily efficiency.”

At the same time the disparity between organizations that achieve high-performance talent acquisition and those that don’t usually boils down to agile processes and transparent branding without completely compromising compliance – all with the right technology that empowers the total talent acquisition package.

Competing for the best people, regardless of role or classification, has again become priority number one with an emphasis on the speed and quality of the hiring process. But it’s definitely a moving target – according to survey data collected by my mothership, PeopleFluent, 73% of the HR and recruiting survey-takers noted that developing a talent pipeline was a struggle.

Plus, if you take into account the latest BLS employment numbers, the true total unemployed include the underemployed, which is nearly double the usual unemployment numbers pumped into the media mainstream.

Mercy me, it’s a confusing hot mess out there. To add to the confusion, Will Thomson, Global Sales Recruiter for Rosetta Stone and the Founder of Bulls Eye Recruiting, told us on the TalentCulture #TChat Show that this year, 2015, will be the best year for recruiting since 1999.

Wait, what? Well, more jobs were created in 2014 than in any other year since 1999. According to a recent New York Times article, employers have hired more than 1 million people since November 1, 2014.

But, companies still struggle with sourcing the right people and job seekers can learn just as much if not more about a prospective employer today than the employers can learn about them. They can shop and screen with the best of them, which is why company culture and transparent relationships will be the primary drivers for successfully recruiting and retaining employees in 2015. The talent acquisition teams that get this will facilitate winning.

The challenge lies in doing away with the old recruiting process model and implementing a modern, total talent acquisition approach to recruiting. In fact, according to Brandon Hall Group’s High-Performance Talent Acquisition Framework, Total Talent Acquisition is a culmination of the process of identifying, engaging, assessing, hiring and onboarding talent in order to successfully grow an organization’s workforce.

According to data from the 2014 Candidate Experience Awards (the CandEs), companies can do this better by setting expectations up front, and having more job-relevant components in the application and seeking feedback from their candidates. Along these lines, it is crucial to provide a detailed description of the application process, which will help candidates understand how to apply, the reasons for asking diversity-based questions, privacy commitments and accommodations for people with disabilities.

Employers can also enhance the candidate experience, and better target qualified candidates, by including video-enabled screening questions and assessments in the application process. Doing so will enable companies to provide a more personalized process, allowing candidates who might not be qualified to self-select out, while moving the best candidates forward. Not only will these efforts help to shorten the application process and keep talent more engaged, but it will also help to target the qualified talent the organization needs to remain competitive.

When equipped with the right total talent acquisition technology solution, companies can provide a more engaging and transparent candidate experience, a more streamlined process for recruiters to sort through candidates and an effective process for hiring managers to make well-informed decisions, which in turn improves the overall speed and quality of hire today and far into the future.

Telling my driver that “drivers” were one of the top 10 hardest roles to fill in 2014 probably wasn’t something that he would’ve wanted to hear. But if we brave the flaming bullseye together – candidates, recruiters, hiring manager – with a total talent acquisition strategy, maybe we can hit the mark more often for everyone including the qualified underemployed.

Empowering Your Brand: From The Shades To Personable Sunshine

“The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect,
So hard to earn so easily burned
In the fullness of time,
A garden to nurture and protect…”

—Neil Peart (writer and musician)

In all fairness, I didn’t read it. I only called the post out for the sake of comedic relief when others use popular, head-turning headline hooks. But then a Twitter follower asked me if I read the post in question, because it was actually tongue-and-cheek post about why recruiting is like Fifty Shades of Grey.

But I didn’t care, because I’ll never read that post, or listen to anything referencing the books’ premise metaphorically, or the actual novels themselves, nor will I ever see the movies. I chose to turn the page because what it represents to me and my sensibilities – equating abusive sexual power over women (and/or each other) to love, or at least to something that resembles mutual “like” and attraction.

You may like it and that’s fine. Enjoy. You may continue to leverage the marketing metaphor. By all means. Since the books were published and leading up to the release of the first movie on Valentine’s Day this year, relating the “shades” to HR and recruiting has been a marketing pastime.

Who am I to judge, since I’m now the one referencing the shades in this very article?

You may agree with me or not, but either way, I’m a vocal proponent of domestic violence and sexual abuse awareness. That is something I’ve been crystal clear about it, growing up in it. Plus, now that I have two young daughters, it’s even more acute to me – and I hope to you, too.

In fact, the next time you’re in a room with 6 people, think about the following (according to statistics compiled by NOMORE.org):

  • 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men experience violence from their partners in their lifetimes.
  • 1 in 3 teens experience sexual or physical abuse or threats from a boyfriend or girlfriend in one year.
  • 1 in 5 women are survivors of rape.
  • 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced some form of sexual violence in their lives.
  • 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men were sexually abused before the age of 18.

But that’s me. That’s part of my background, my now life, my persona, my personality, my personal brand, and what I choose to share about the sensitive subject includes being an advocate for awareness. That’s how I hope the world chooses to see me as well.

We are defined by where we stand and how we stand when it comes to our presence and our personality. That has never been truer than with online visibility. On the one hand it’s elevated the visibility of many more individuals across industries (while, some would argue, lowering the bar of quality and integrity).

We’re also under the microscope more than ever, and whatever we share online, stays online. Social media has forced more and more companies to use it as an early warning system to improve risk management, and for good measure, since there are plenty of missteps. Plus, every word we release online powers up the perpetual personality assessors – which are the rest of us.

And since the rest of us are judge and jury who can eviscerate and empower at a moment’s notice, wouldn’t you want to always power up that personable sunshine, the kind that drives long-term innovation and positive change? Wouldn’t you want the world to see how fascinating you are and how valuable you are to that same said world? Especially if you are innovative, passionate and positive?

If you do, understanding how the world sees you can help. There are plenty of personality assessments out there that tell you how you see the world. But how does the world see you? On the TalentCulture #TChat Show we talked about one such way via The Fascination Advantage, a “how the world sees you” assessment based on over two decades of communication research about how people and brands become more fascinating conducted by Kelton Research.

I took the personality assessment and found out that my primary advantage is “innovation,” my secondary advantage is “prestige,” and my archetype is “The Trendsetter,” which is a combination of the two.

What does it all mean? Well, it means that the world sees me as competitive and ambitious, that I’m able to influence direction with a fresh interpretation of market opportunities, that I’m a trailblazer who guides others in often-uncharted territories. I’m able to see opportunities where others see only threats and I implement change with determination.

Right on. I’ll take all these empowering words any day. Sally Hogshead, the creator of “The Fascination Advantage,” shared that, “When you find your more perfect words, that’s when you make a difference.” And because everybody has strengths, it’s the differences that matter and how we maximize our hopefully positive personas.

The differences – that’s how we power our personal brands. But unfortunately the carbon footprints we sometimes leave pollute our mindful presence and the very personal and professional relationships that are supposed to be the natural resources critical to thriving.

That’s why I recommend to live as inspirationally as possible and strive for more perfect words, and take ownership of your personality and your personal brand, online or off, to move from the shades to personable sunshine.

About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.

photo credit: Arise to a whole new world via photopin (license)

HR Isn’t The Needy, The Nerdy Or The Girlie

Cool spring morning. Grade-school recess. A group of boys and girls gather on a damp field. Captains are called out. The usual suspects. The strongest players. Each picks his own number two. The second-strongest players. The ones they’ve done battle with before. Sometimes a girl but usually a boy.

The number twos call out names and point successively. Advise their captains who else to pick. One by one by one. Strongest to weakest. Until the last few remain. The skinny asthmatics. The uncoordinated. The needy, the nerdy and the girlie. The perennial last picked. Or the never picked.

Sometimes a teacher or a playground monitor would intervene. To encourage the kids to include the never picked. But mostly they didn’t. Mostly they just wanted to play with the best. If new kids came to school, they’d have to prove themselves worthy before becoming sought-after talent.

Those were the rules. And they always played to win. Always. Played. To. Win. You may not be old enough to remember these playgrounds of mythic Gen X and Boomer lore, before the “it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” Before the not keeping score and non-discriminatory team picks. Before the nearly forced inclusion and everyone getting a trophy.

I remember. I was a captain and a number two. Even early on when I was a skinny asthmatic, I broke the childhood glass ceiling with decent coordination, people skills, strategy, flexibility, energy and empathy.

Then, as with every generation since, growing up means more of the “winning” same in academia, sports and the workplace. Regulatory complexity may mandate some leveling of playing fields, especially around equal opportunity and giving everyone a fair shake, but in business we play to win. And make money. And be better. And have a lot fun doing it.

When you know the players and how well you’ve play together, as in the playground example, you can replicate your winning teams with consistency, because the players rarely change. Unless you grow up and live and work in a world where tenure is less than five years and people can be as fluid as the very air they breathe, especially when it’s stale or poison, it makes amplifying talent engagement a business imperative.

Enter the people person, the second-strongest player, the key advisor to the captain. The one who gets the game, the players, the competition and who knows what to invest when and where and how much.

Get this: The enterprise executive whose traits are most similar to those of the CEO is the CHRO.

Did you get that? The CHRO (42 percent of which are high-performing females, by the way, for those keeping score at home). Not the CFO, CMO, or CIO. The only other exception is the COO because these roles and responsibilities often overlap with the CEO’s, this all according to “counterintuitive” and groundbreaking research based on data from executive recruiting firm Korn Ferry and the work of Dave Ulrich, a University of Michigan professor and a leading consultant on organization and talent issues.

You can read all about it in the HBR article “Why Chief Human Resources Officers Make Great CEOs.” This research also clearly revealed that a CEO’s people skills, strategy, flexibility, energy and empathy (and many other business-centric attributes) closely align to the CHRO.

Forward-thinking companies understand that these skills are critical to the top roles to engage and retain top performers – and attract the best candidates to join the team in today’s highly competitive market. This is why amplifying talent engagement can and should be treated as a business investment strategy – which is what the C-suite wants, and their respective boards, investors, high performers and prospective employees and customers.

Now it’s true that the majority of HR professionals tend to be nurturers, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but those who come from other parts of the business have learned those other parts. They’ve also had P&L responsibility, and have also done an HR stint (or two). These are ultimately the potential leaders, the CHROs, the bright CEO-shadows aglow with talent engagement outcomes that come from their cultural investment, business investment and revenue growth strategy.

The good news is that according to a recent PeopleFluent survey, HR leaders are focused on the following top three talent engagement strategies in 2015:

  • Leadership Development
  • Talent Acquisition
  • Performance Management

And Brandon Hall Group research showed that today high-performance organizations “optimize and maximize their business performance by investing in their talent management as a true business function that powers the business strategy.”

Sound familiar? It should, because every reputable analyst firm in the HR industry validates this over and over again.

However, it’s also counterintuitive today that one of the hottest topics still being discussed is whether or not HR should be split in two – one branch that handles administration and the other to manage leadership and organization.

Research by Bersin by Deloitte underscores this because HR is swamped with administrative tasks. Nearly 50 percent of business and HR leaders surveyed said their companies are “weak” on preparing HR to deliver programs aligned with business needs.

What to do? Get the proper technology in place. Using the playground-team analogy again, growing companies just can’t scale beyond a few hundred employees without the right technology enabling HR to scale certain tasks in a way that humans never can. This means bringing efficiencies to a complex administrative process that could never be achieved otherwise.

This is exactly what we recently discussed on the TalentCulture #TChat Show, with the consensus being the right technology partner not only takes care of the repetitive administration tasks from recruiting to onboarding to learning and development to performance management and more, they become the business partner that excels in culture empowerment, talent engagement, business strategy and actionable and sustainable growth, ensuring the technology investment is sound with continuous return.

CHROs demand this partnership; and Mark Stelzner, Founder and Managing Principal of IA, a consulting service firm that has supported many of the most complex human resource decisions in the world, has told me this time and again over the years. But like me and thankfully many others, these CHROs leading the charge of change and amplified talent engagement are quite sick and tired of being treated like the needy, the nerdy and the girlie.

Because Brothers and Sisters, this winning HR team is the one you need to be on today and tomorrow.

About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.

photo credit: Finish via photopin (license)

Our Storied Lives: One Little Melodic Career Tale at a Time

“Begin the day with a friendly voice
A companion unobtrusive
Plays that song that’s so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood.”

—Neil Peart (Rush, “Spirit of Radio”)

The Viennese composer from London had vanished. For the nearly two years he worked for me prior to that, he had raised thousands of dollars for the university. One day he asked me to read his manuscript, The Dramatic Music of Henry Purcell, and then shortly thereafter he was gone.

His eviction final, he had no choice but to find another place to live, which wasn’t easy caring for more than a dozen cats and living on such a fixed income, no matter how well he performed at work. The landlord of his studio apartment had received too many complaints about the smell and the howling late at night.

“Kevin, I’m going to go feed my cats before tonight’s shift,” he’d say to me nearly every single day after the afternoon shift, loaded plastic shopping bags of cat food and other staples in both hands.

We ran two three-hour fund-raising sessions Sunday through Thursday. I loved listening to his voice when he called alumni, parents or friends of San Jose State University. His proper English accent conveyed a honey-laced maturity and polite confidence. He was the only older non-student at the time making fund-raising calls for the annual fund I managed while I attended SJSU.

“Hello, this is Gerhart Reichlin calling from San Jose State University, and I’m reaching out to our esteemed alumni today to help us maintain our quality academic programs…”

He never talked much with the other student callers, just basic pleasantries, and usually the others distanced themselves from him unless the call room was completely full.

Over time his voice betrayed confusion and instability, like spider cracks in a windshield, but I could never discern what if anything was wrong. He was my dad’s age, born in 1932, but with much more hair than him: thick and gray and always unkempt underscored by briar patch eyebrows and wiry hairs that sprouted here and there on his face. He owned one pair of beat-up loafers, two sports coats, two pairs of slacks, and a few perpetually stained off-white dress shirts.

And he smelled. Really bad. All the time. A cross between cats, body odor and the musty air from rooms sealed for decades, which is why everyone in the room wanted their distance. No matter how many complaints I received, and the manager before me had received, he never changed his hygienic behavior for the better. I was such a naïve young manager, just wanting everyone to get along and like me, praying they’d all perform well regardless.

I ended up buying him soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste and a toothbrush (his teeth were stained and crooked, with a few missing, like a dilapidated fence). He always thanked us graciously and took the supplies home, but the next day, he always looked and smelled the same.

Gerhart actually had two college degrees in music, a bachelor’s and a master’s. Sometimes I’d see him take an ratty accordion file folder out from a paper bag he brought once in a while, and compose on coffee-stained music sheets. He was also a writer, and my own aspirational goal of being one was the impetus for him opening up to me somewhat. He shared some of his life with me – snapshots of his travels from the UK to New York to San Jose, to the odd jobs he kept in between, to his socialist sentimentality, to his taking care of his cats, but other details were sparse; he was a disheveled, smelly, cat-owning, highly intelligent but slightly off, fund-raising enigma.

However, he had written a manuscript decades earlier about a 17th-century English composer I had never heard of named Henry Purcell, which wasn’t a stretch considering Baroque composers weren’t on my top-10 list. Or top 100. Or any composers for that matter. Only rock and roll and R&B soul.

Regardless, he really wanted me to read through it and give him my honest feedback. I was honored, this request coming from a man whose life experience was akin to a fine red wine left too long unopened, while I was only 22 years old, my own writing as immature as freshly squeezed grapes. Plus, he had read a few of my short stories with valuable feedback.

I had his manuscript for weeks before I read beyond the cover page. Every day he asked me and every day I told him I was just too busy; at the time I had been reading The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson, about an anti-hero with leprosy being thrust into another world.

Finally, I got beyond page one, and I read his deadly dry prose as far as I could, but what was clear between the lines was the passion he had for this composer, his life and his body of work. I realized that he wrote this homage when he was my age at that time, and decades later he still praised this man’s work – just as I have done for decades with “composer,” writer and musician Neil Peart of the band Rush, now celebrating over 40 years of magic music making morning moods.

I still gave Gerhart a kid-gloves review, keeping his fragile ego in mind, and of course wanting only to be liked. He thanked me repeatedly, holding the manuscript close to his chest like a long-lost friend. A few weeks later, he was gone. Once I finished my college degree and moved on from SJSU, his memory slipped away from me.

Until the TalentCulture #TChat Show when Christoph Trappe talked about authentic storytelling in the workplace. That’s when I started thinking about Gerhart’s life and his impact on mine today, which is why I wrote this piece. I again did a little online research and found that he died in 2004, with no other insight into his life other than when I knew him.

The world shares so much today online about how our work and personal lives are intertwined and combined like continuously mutating DNA; how many of these stories are now transforming recruiting, hiring, continuous development and feedback, leadership development, employee retention, that little-known buzz word called employee engagement, and of course marketing and customer acquisition. Yes, these are the perennial feedback loops on work-life integration itself in the 21st century.

But remember, the workplace merry-go-round ain’t ever slowing down, and the economist reality of creative destruction is upon the world yet again. Whether the wealthy “one percent” and/or the robots completely take over may be a wishbone of contention, but what’s fairly clear is that abstract thinking, creativity, adaptable communication, empathy, storytelling and the unique musicality of being human are the sought-after skills of today and at least the immediate tomorrow.

People may pay more attention to economists, analysts, influencers, the marketplace, and marketing in general (and the robots yet to take over), but they should take a beat and pay even more attention to the storied lives that inspire and sustain individuality and community, that give us something to aspire to or rise above. They are made up of those who share their positive purpose freely, and those who can relate to it, flaws and all, and that which ultimately defines the future for each one of us, one little melodic career tale at a time.

About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.

photo credit: liza31337 via photopin cc

The Body Language Business And The Now of You

“You’re sharpening stones, walking on coals
To improve your business acumen…”
— R.E.M. (“Exhuming McCarthy”)

Look at me. Eyes right here. Watch my face, my arms and my hands as I talk. In fact, watch my entire physical demeanor. What does it tell you?

Now, imagine that you’re on your way to a job interview. The grueling commute of only inching along has take its toll on your already fragile job-searching soul and you take a deep breath when you finally park.

You enter the building and the interviewer escorts you to the interview room. You’re asked to sit and the interview begins.

It’s then you notice the interviewer’s facial expressions changing rapidly – happy, sad, angry, surprised, confused – over and over again.

“You do know why you’re here, right?” the interview asks, hands fidgeting and doing a tabletop dance.

“Yes,” you answer. What’s wrong with this person, you think.

“If you were a bicycle, what part of the bike would you be and why?” the interviewer asks.

Are you for real?

“Well, I’d be the gear shift, so I could help my team and the company be agile in a such an ever-changing—”

The interviewer interrupts and slams both fists onto the table and shouts, “Why do you want this job?!?”

You actually jump in your seat. Anger flashes off and on the interviewer’s face like a series of poorly lit red-eye stills.

The interviewer, with arms now crossed, eyes rolling, speaks again, “It’s a business imperative that you understand the difference between right and wrong and all things in between.”

“Um … okay?” you say.

You squirm in your seat but keep your line of sight focused on the interviewer, fighting with your face not to betray your confusion and fear.

“We all know the difference and meet our business objectives every single day. We really do. But we need to ensure you can do the same,” the interviewer says, arms outstretched and palms up.

You nod and twiddle your thumbs. The interviewer gives you a “thumbs-up,” then just sits stone-faced at the table in front of you, waiting for you to respond.

You choose your words carefully, your confident gaze never wavering from the interviewer, your hands clasped together in front of you on the table.

“I do understand the difference,” you say.

“You’re hired!”

Wow.

Sure this is a nonsensical scenario, but I’ll bet some of you have experienced your share of bizarre workplace encounters. Plus, we’re always in workplace situations where body language and facial expressions contribute greatly to the “now” of you, and the other person, in the moment.

In fact, we’ve actually been reading each other’s outward appearance and disposition for thousands of years, or at least trying to, in order to discern what we should do next in these contexts:

  • To Befriend
  • To Berate
  • To Educate
  • To Elevate
  • To Hire
  • To Kill (in case of emergency)

Yes, a brutal oversimplification, but it’s even more complicated with the micro-expression nuance that science has tried to explain in recent decades. For example, how Ekman and Friesen introduced the notion of “micro-affect displays” in a 1969 article in Psychiatry, but it wasn’t an extensive study and this subject has been mostly ignored.

Except, of course, the hundreds of millions of dollars that governments have dumped into the study of body language and facial expressions to uncover spies and terrorists, with some success, but also a big waste of money when it comes to “reading” passengers at airports, according to one expert referenced in an Economist article. Also in 2013, the U.S. General Accountability Office “deemed facial cues worthless as a way of detecting people with bad intentions in airports” according to a New York Magazine article.

Closer to workplace home, however, there are those who are applying the science of reading “face” to screening and hiring. For example, Dan Hill, a facial coding expert, was hired by the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team to read faces. This includes the faces of college prospects and NBA players in order to determine if they have the right emotional attributes that will give the Bucks the competitive edge.

In the New York Times article linked above, Dan Hill states that our faces betray our true emotions and can predict our even truer “intentions, decisions and actions.” He uses the psychologist Paul Ekman’s widely accepted FACS, or Facial Action Coding System (I referenced Ekman above about “micro-affect” displays). The FACS is used to decipher “which of the 43 muscles in the face are working at any moment.” This includes seven core emotions: happiness, surprise, contempt, disgust, sadness, anger and fear.

But there’s an entire litany of researchers and experts who warn that reading too much from body language and facial expressions is dangerous and misleading; too many liars are too good at being bad without anyone “seeing” it. Many of you in HR and recruiting have experienced hiring “train wrecks” time and again to know how unfortunately true this is. And many of you have interviewed with HR and recruiting train wrecks.

What is clear is that individuals not only need to be aware of those around them and be able to read body and face in context, they also need to be self-aware enough to manage their own emotional reactions to the reading.

In other words, you need to be able to be flexible and fluid enough in your speech and physical reactions to what happens around you, in the workplace and the “homeplace,” to convey honest conviction, confidence and definitive decision-making without betraying your fears or discontent. That doesn’t mean you don’t betray some in the name of personable transparency, but again, it’s all about clarity of context.

Deborah Thomas-Nininger, founder of DTN Productions, a training company specializing in business etiquette and reputation management, expressed on the TalentCulture #TChat Show that body language conveys everything from confidence to approachability; it’s more honest than the spoken word. Literally in the blink of an eye, we can make someone feel quite valued or unceremoniously dismissed.

That’s why developing our softer skills is today’s differentiator and managing our “emotional intelligence” is so critical in the workplace (and the homeplace). This is the body language business and the now of you, so manage it well.

Unless you’re one of the liars too good at being bad; in that case, keep your hands and face to yourself.

About the Author: Kevin W. Grossman co-founded and co-hosts the highly popular weekly TalentCulture #TChat Show with Meghan M. Biro. He’s also currently the Product Marketing Director for Total Talent Acquisition products at PeopleFluent.

photo credit: LaVladina via photopin cc