Consultant's Corner

HR Technology 2008 – What's That Word Ringing In My Ear?

heidi.spirgi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:52:15 GMT

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:

HR technology as business solutions, not HR systems
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…

Staying On-Course During Times of Uncertainty

bonnie.tichman — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:43:48 GMT

I was employed in the Recruiting and Staffing industry post 9/11, and after enduring the most horrific event in our nation’s history, it truly felt as if the business world stood still. We saw the contingent staffing market rise modestly as companies tried to fill workforce gaps, but full-time recruiting took more than a year to rebound due to hiring freezes across industries and regions.

We have to remember that economic cycles are periods of change just like the seasons. Just a couple of years after 9/11, the housing market boomed. The sense of affluence was everywhere with home values skyrocketing; which, of course, caused many Americans to borrow beyond their means, which brings us to today.

In addition to being one of the world's wealthiest men, Warren Buffet is also known for his common sense investment advice. According to him, “A market downturn, doesn’t bother us. For us and our long term investors, it is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices. Only for short term investors and market timers is a correction not an opportunity.’- Warren Buffett

As HR professionals, how can we help our organizations continue to strive to be great companies, with great management? How can we stay on-course in terms of our HR goals, strategies and execution plans, or adjust our course slightly, without stifling progress?

During the tough road that may lie ahead, it is our time to take action. Here are 5 key things HR can do to make a difference during this economic downturn:

1. Realign with new business strategies and validate existing ones. Partner with the business - - and be a part of the business. Understand what goals and initiatives are changing and the associated talent implications. Realign your talent strategies and programs to support the business, in measurable business terms. This may include preparing for possible downsizing, specialized high-volume recruiting to upsurge select products and markets, and realigning remuneration schemes to drive the right goals and behaviors.

2. Realign with your executive stakeholders and develop new champions. Work closely with your business partners and some influential managers to ensure that your talent plan meets their needs. In addition, encourage them to be “champions” of your plan and to spread the word among their colleagues and team members about its relevance and impact.

3. Reduce the bottom line to increase the top. This is the ideal time to evaluate your existing HR technology portfolio and processes and determine how to get the most mileage from existing investments. This may include re-tooling of processes to drive further efficiencies and deeper leverage of inherent product features and functions to advance talent management initiatives. Often times, strategic programs can be ‘self-funded’ by redirected the efficiency savings to finance new initiatives.

4. Seize the moment. Use this downturn to weed out below average performers. Now is a vital time to partner with managers by conducting critical skills assessments and by educating them on effective performance management processes and rating of employees as we enter the year-end cycle. There will likely be some highly skilled candidates that become available in the labor pool, and you may need to free up positions in the case of hiring freezes.

5. Communicate and motivate. Seventy-one percent of workers think that their company leaders should be more forthcoming in discussing the current economic situation and its impact on their company, according to new research from Weber Shandwick. This is a pivotal time to be focused on retaining your top performers and improving productivity through such tactics as expanded training, non-monetary incentives and redeployment of key workers to high impact initiatives. By being more forthcoming and proactive, employers can win more loyalty from their employees.

Have you ever walked out of a meeting and said to your colleague: “I wish I had said/done…” or "Why didn't I..." If so, chances are you’re female……

lisa.burton — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:53:54 GMT

I was having an interesting conversation with an HR friend of mine last night over a nice glass of wine… She had recently led her business leaders through a Talent Review process and had a noteworthy realization after reviewing all of the top leaders within the team. It seems that every female leader was given developmental feedback that related back to a lack of confidence. That said, there were no male leaders who were given similar feedback. And, as much as she hated to agree with what appeared on the surface to be gender-biased feedback, she followed their line of logic and felt compelled to agree…

In general, there was more of a tendency for women to outwardly question or react – positively and negatively – to their actions after an event, meeting, etc. This appeared to baffle their male counterparts and was noted as lack of confidence by both males and females as they considered the performance of these women. This lack of confidence was a key factor taken into consideration in assessing these women’s future potential. And, my friend and I recognized – not surprisingly - that this phenomenon did not appear to be limited to the top business leaders within my friend’s team.

This, of course, got us thinking… We first considered our own experiences and both immediately recalled examples when we walked out of meetings and verbally engaged in the “I wish I had…” dialogue (As for my own example, I can even recall the look on my male counterpart’s face, who seemed confused and felt compelled to give me positive feedback – to try to ‘pump me up’. Although I wasn’t excited about the reaction, in truth, I’m not sure what alternative reaction I expected from him…)

Now, in this world of information, we all know that there have been many studies of male / female differences, many of which focus on this topic of confidence. And, my point is not to turn this into a research paper (I did lots – maybe too much – of that in graduate school). Rather, my point is to offer up some questions for consideration…
1. Is there a reality to the idea that lack of confidence is a characteristic to which women are more prone in the leadership ranks?
2. What are the implications from a developmental perspective? Is this an example of ‘perception is reality’ and the solution is primarily educational in nature?
3. How does the idea of emotional maturity factor into this conversation? It is interesting to note that realism and self-analysis are characteristics of emotional maturity, whereas denial and avoidance indicate emotional immaturity. Are these two ideas in conflict? Where is the balance?

I’m curious what others think and have experienced on this topic… Thoughts?

It's Time For Talent Management To Grow Up!

andy.gebavi — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:20:40 GMT

How "Mature" Are Your Organization's Talent Management Processes?

Many organizations we engage with view Talent Management like it's some kind of exotic new discipline. The reality is that the functions usually associated with Talent Management (Recruitment, Performance Management, Learning and Development, Career Planning, Workforce Planning, Succession Management, Compensation) have been around for a long time. New technologies are allowing organizations to tie all these processes together and get true visibility into the business impacts of these functions.

We can usually tell how "grown up" our client's are by asking some key questions around the following areas for each of their Talent Management processes:

What are the business drivers of the process? We're often met with a blank stare here.
How frequently do you perform the process? Once per year or is it a constant, ongoing process?
How standardized is the process across your organization?
What kind of visibility does the process provide into key measures and organizational trends?
Who owns the process? HR or the business - or both?
What technologies support the process? Technology is an enabler of increased standardization, visibility, and process integration
How integrated is the process with other talent management processes?
What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness and business impacts of your process? Often, another blank stare here.

Obviously, in depth analysis is required to determine how to improve your organization's processes. But by asking key questions you can learn quite a bit about where your organization is now, and where you want it to be in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years.

So what is your organization? Toddler? Kindergartener? Adolescent? Adult?

Stating the Obvious on Software Evaluations – Final Installment

david.barron — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:13:48 GMT

Contributed by David Barron – david.barron@knowledge-infusion.com, Principal Consultant, Knowledge Infusion

This final installment is dedicated to a good friend of mine, Jim Durham.

In this installment, we will conclude the investigation on the six steps that I believe will lead companies to value in their software selections. The six steps are:

1. Define Desired Business Outcomes

2. Define the Decision Criteria

3. Assess the Potential Providers

4. Engage the Providers

5. Conduct Software Demonstrations

6. Selection

Final step – Selection

Once demonstrations are complete, there may or may not be a clear “winner”. There will probably be follow up items for most, if not all of the providers. Some follow up items may include: reference checks, parking lot items from the actual presentations, technology documentation, and maybe even a “sandbox” working environment. Remember the work (Define the Decision Criteria) done early in the process and don’t stray from it. The tendency is to see a product that “looks good” and start the decision process from a selection with backward validation. Don’t fall into that hole. Regroup as a team and make your decision based on your key criteria. Comparing providers side-by-side for each criterion through a slideshow and/or document are effective ways to ensure an objective and transparent decision.

When it comes to choosing a provider, keep in mind there is not always a perfectly right answer. In fact, oftentimes there is more than one viable solution available. Do not wait for the “silver bullet” and avoid “analysis paralysis” because you have multiple options. It’s easy to become overly concerned about making the wrong decision and waste time trying to find a single element that makes one better than the other, when both solutions are suitable to your needs.

Tip: If two providers are dead-even on most value-based criteria, focus on price as a differentiating factor and negotiate with both.

Thanks for reading this series and I look forward to providing more information in the future!

SaaS Vendors (and Customers) Missing the Boat on Web Services.

andy.gebavi — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:38:23 GMT

Of the dozens of customers Knowledge Infusion has helped plan and execute their Talent Management initiatives, not one - ZERO - have chosen to use web services to integrate their Talent Management applications with their HRIS or other internal apllications. They all use flat-file feeds to pass data back and forth between HRIS databases and the vendor datacenters on a scheduled basis. Part of the reason for this is because although most vendors claim to support web-services, few try to convince clients of the value of this technology. On the customer side, many corporate IT departments are not convinced they can use web services to send data securely through their corporate firewalls to an external datacenter. This, despite the fact that companies like eBay and Amazon have conducted billions of dollars of business using web-services.

For the technically challenged among us, the term "web services" describes a standardized way of integrating web-based applications. Web services enable small chunks of data to be transmitted in real-time when a transaction is performed, rather than in a huge file with other transaction data on a scheduled basis. Web-services has been over-shadowed lately in the Web 2.0 world by social media (social networks, wikis, blogs), but folks, without web-services, Web 2.0 is much more static.

To put the use of web services in a talent management context, let's say your company wants to hire a candidate that has cleared the interview process. The hire can be executed in your onboarding system and instantaneously transmitted to your HRIS or other applications to begin all the tasks that are required to onboard an employee (schedule orientation, arrange equipment and office space, provide building and system access, etc...). By avoiding the usual 24 hour lag time for each time transaction data is transmitted between systems, the entire employee onboarding experience is improved. It could make a huge difference in the length of time it takes a new employee to become fully productive - not to mention creating a positive experience in general for the new employee when they show up on their first day and are all set to go.

We're curious why more vendors or their customers aren't taking advantage of web services. So if you're out there, whether you're a software provider or a customer, if you're using web-services through a corporate firewall for talent management processes, we would love to hear from you. Let us know what you're doing!

In support of working mothers

neil.jensen — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:33:31 GMT

Working Mother magazine today named MetLife as a 2007 Working Mother Best Company. This is the ninth consecutive time MetLife has been honored with this distinction. As a current customer of Knowledge Infusion, and one of my primary clients, I've had first hand experience working with the wonderful individuals at MetLife - many of them working mothers (and fathers). MetLife truly is an organization that embodies and promotes the talent management programs that make it possible for working mothers to have a positive work/life balance and get the most out of a fulfilling career and a robust family life.

As we get deeper into the much publicized ‘war for talent,' programs such as the ones utilized by MetLife will be increasingly more important to fuel the talent pipeline. MetLife is demonstrating early in the game that by utilizing creative talent programs such as telecommuting, compressed work week, emergency child care, and flextime, you can tap talent-rich segments of the workforce and enable them to become a catalyst in fulfilling your business objectives and strategy.

Congratulations to MetLife and the entire HR team on this much deserved distinction.

Another infusion of knowledge...

Swim. Bike. Run. Shoot. Kill?

neil.jensen — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 22:20:21 GMT

On a recent flight home to Phoenix from the east coast, I picked up a copy of Outside Magazine to help pass the time and to help fuel my passion of the outdoors. To my pleasure, the issue showcased an article about a Navy SEAL and his pursuit of the sport of Triathlon. To my surprise, this same article also emphasized one of the talent management principles that I continually work with clients on - critical roles.

The article highlighted the US Navy's efforts to recruit qualified candidates for its SEAL program. You see, the US Navy has identified the SEAL as a critical role that enables success in modern warfare and is making special efforts to recruit candidates that stand an increased chance of success in that role. To recruit for SEALs, the Navy has broken away from their traditional recruiting methods such as high school fairs and strip mall recruiting offices, and has gotten out into the environments that contain the talent that can excel at what they will ask them to do. They've taken the notion of critical roles and applied it in a way that ensures a higher rate of success. By focusing recruiting efforts in talent rich environments such as triathlon events, surfing competitions, water-polo matches, and lifeguard competitions, the Navy has increased it success rate from 26% to over 40% for candidates that can make it through their insanely difficult qualifying school (BUD/S).

As the US Navy has shown, the ‘peanut butter' approach to HR process and practice just isn't working anymore. Applying the same processes and level of effort to all jobs and roles within your organization ends up inflating costs and inevitably wasting precious time that could have been dedicated to the critical roles that differentiate your business in the market. By focusing on critical roles and applying special handling to these roles, you increase your success rate and enable a critical component of your talent pipeline.

Knowledge Infusion works with client's everyday to define their Talent Management strategy focusing on critical roles and the integrated Talent Management technologies that support them.

Link to Outside article