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3 Posts authored by: Heidi Spirgi
Heidi Spirgi
1

Last week’s HR Technology Conference & Expo was a departure from previous years in many ways – seriously cool new technologies, higher levels of innovation, slicker UI’s, some of the best of commercial applications incorporated into HR applications, and mobile device integration to name a few.  But there was one overriding difference that jumped out at me in every session I attended, every conversation that I had and even in the product demos that I saw - and that was a new focus on the BUSINESS.  Yes, that word I kept hearing was “BUSINESS.” 

 

In fact, I would venture to say that for every 10 times I heard someone say “HR” at the conference, I would hear “BUSINESS” one time.  While 10:1 is not as good as it can get, it’s a far cry from a year ago when as an industry we were at roughly a 40:1 ratio.

 

The conversation at HR Technology had two new threads to it that were not there in 2007:

    1. HR technology as business solutions, not HR systems
    2. HR technology as means to connect, share and co-create across the business

 

The myopic view of HR is slowly changing and the walls between it and the business are slowly disintegrating.  Here are some snippets from 2 of the best attended sessions that give proof to this changed conversation:

 

From the 11th Annual Industy Analyst Panel:

  • General consensus amongst the analysts that HR needs to respond to the financial crisis by getting crystal clear on what will make the biggest impact on the business.  There was more attention given to aligning HR activities with business strategy than to cost containment and risk mitigation (the traditional HR and IT response to a downturn in the economy)
  • Focus on “critical roles” based on business strategy; be targeted in the way you approach talent
  • Discussion of HR technology as “productivity tools”

 

From The Industry's First Talent Management Shootout:

  • “Business people are the users of talent management suites”
  • Focus on the employee: recommended jobs based on strengths and desires; interest lists (ala Amazon)
  • Focus on the business user: mobile device integration, and action-oriented functionality
  • The C-suite view of talent

 

So congratulations to ALL who have played a role in pushing the B-word – BUSINESS – into the HR technology conversation. 

 

Who knows? Maybe next year we’ll be at a 2:1 ratio. Here’s to change…

1 Comments Permalink Tags: critical_roles, hr-technology, hcm, talent-management, talent_management, future
Heidi Spirgi
4

Over the past two decades, countless academics, researchers and thought leaders have tried to prove the value of human capital.  None have succeeded in developing a definitive, iron-clad quantitative model.

 

But I ask the simple question WHY?  WHY is this an important question to answer?  What is the VALUE in the answer?   And what could we do DIFFERENTLY or BETTER if we did develop such a model?

 

When building talent management strategies for companies, I spend about 1/3 of my time working with business leaders, CEO’s, CFO’s, General Managers responsible for P&L, as well as line managers with a handful of direct reports.  I’ve worked with over a hundred companies over the past 3 years and never once have I met a business leader who needed quantitative proof of the value of human capital.  They know it. They get it. They live it.

 

In fact, business leaders understand at an even more fundamental level than many HR practitioners the importance of talent.  I have countless stories of business leaders who rattle off during the course of an interview the financial impact of human capital to their business.  Here a few:

 

 

  • The VP of Operations for a large manufacturer who quoted the exact dollar amount of lost revenue due to the inability to fill a plant maintenance worker position

  • The head of engineering for high tech company who cites talent issues as the reason for a delayed product launch

  • The GM of a well-known US retailer who fires off the opportunity cost (framed in terms of revenue and profit) of high turnover

 

It is undisputed by business that engaged talent with the right skills, competencies, and knowledge in the right job leads to higher levels of business results. 

 

Let’s stop battling windmills and choose a more worthy opponent.  Let’s instead take on the following:

 

 

 

  • What business measures do business leaders care about?

  • How do talent attributes (skills, competencies, performance ratings, potential, source of hire, experience, engagement, learning agility, etc.) correlate with these measures?

  • And finally, how can HR and the business jointly take ACTION to influence these attributes and drive higher levels of business results?

 

These questions CAN be answered, are starting to be answered by leading HR organizations, and drive significant value into the business.

 

 

 

4 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: talent, management, workforce, intelligence, talent, intelligence
Heidi Spirgi
1

At Knowledge Infusion we work with both end user organizations and vendors helping to define the future of talent management.  After three years of intense focus and growth of the industry, there are still wildly divergent points of view in the market of what true talent management is...WHAT it looks like, HOW it should function, and WHO is responsible for it.  The verdict is still out whether HR departments, business leaders and talent management vendors will be able to transform to deliver to the potential.

 

Here are a few of the measures of success that will define the day when we (the collective human capital management and talent management community) will know we've made it...

 

  1. Talent planning is as essential to the business planning process as the budgeting process

  2. Talent dashboards show the correlation between business KPI's (sales, service,production, and quality) and talent attributes (competencies, training, compensation, performance, potential, source of hire)

  3. Competencies are developed by the business, managed by HR

  4. Talent management suites are bought by CEO's, CFO's, and GM's

  5. All business leaders understand and measure the correlation between employee engagement and customer engagement

  6. Talent management applications look and feel like consumer applications...easy, simple and content rich

  7. Talent management applications leverage operational data to measure talent productivity and quality

  8. Employees have access to relevant information to help them identify career and development opportunities that leverage their interests and abilities

  9. Organizations know more about their employees than they do their candidates

  10. Talent management include intelligence to identify employees at risk and alerts to managers about relevant development and mobility opportunities for their employees

For now, I'll take even one or two of these as a sign of industry health.  Let's all think big and create change.

1 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: talent_management, business, software

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