I admit it, I'm a tree hugger. I love to be outside and hike and bike and enjoy all that nature has to offer. I like to take my family, get out of the city, and seek out the "green" spaces. Given this passion in my life, I've also gotten keenly aware of the global climate crisis that is creeping up upon us. I've started to research alternative energy sources such as solar and wind and now follow them as they mature and begin to make a dent in the foot hold that coal and oil have on this country.

A good friend of mine sent me an article from the Seattle Times talking about wind energy and the growing talent crisis the industry is starting to face. In his article, "Wind Energy Hasn't Blown in Enough Workers," David Twiddy describes the talent challenges occurring in wind energy.

"Wind-power officials see a much larger obstacle coming in the form of its own work force, a highly specialized group of technicians that combines working knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, computers and meteorology with the willingness to climb 200 feet in the air in all kinds of weather. That work force isn't keeping up with the future demand, partly because the industry is so new that the oldest independent training programs are less than five years old. The American Wind Energy Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, estimates the industry employs about 20,000 people, not including those making turbines or other equipment. Future need is harder to quantify, given the uncertainties of the industry's growth. But with two-man teams generally responsible for seven to 10 turbines, the industry would need up to 800 technicians to serve the turbines expected to be installed this year alone."

This article emphases the point that the talent crisis goes beyond the retirement of the "boomers" and also extends into new technologies and the workforce needed to make them flourish. Employers today must understand that the talent pipeline can and should extend far beyond the recruiting portal or job boards. No longer is it simply enough to sit back and wait for workers to come to you. Employers must start to reach out much earlier in the process and work with colleges, trade schools, and other training organizations to influence the talent pool coming into the industry. Partnering with these organizations can have a profound effect on the quality and volume of candidates to choose from.

Link to article: Wind Energy Hasn't Blown in Enough Workers

I spent the last several days working with a client to select a Talent Acquisition solution that will enable and fuel their pipeline of external talent. The two days of evaluation covering multiple vendors was a tough slog filled with equal amounts of delight and disappointment. As in any vendor evaluation, the client was able to get a first hand look at each vendor's ability to fulfill their business outcomes and determine what gaps may exist between stated requirements and product capability.

At the end of the two days, the team of evaluators launched into a spontaneous review of career websites across multiple industries. Taking advantage of the projection system, we looked on screen and walked though the candidate experience as they made their way through the career website, reviewed job openings and finally applied online. Needless to say, the exercise was eye opening.

Short of a few bright spots, the sites that were viewed offered an overall candidate experience that was down right awful. You could tell that little attention was paid to the candidate during the implementation. Instead of being top of mind and the primary driver, the candidate experience was an afterthought that resulted in confusing steps, circular navigation, and no compelling reason to continue with the process.

Given the talent crisis that has been much publicized, corporations must take the necessary steps to ensure the process to apply for a job online is simple and easy. As the war for talent heats up, candidates will have little patience with sites that are confusing and don't follow an intuitive path. They'll also make decisions about that prospective employer simply based on the experience they have on the careers site. Those companies that pay close attention to the candidate experience and make it simple and easy to apply online will produce a significant advantage in attracting and hiring top quality talent.

Is Your Organization Habitable By Humans?

The immense popularity of the comic strip "Dilbert," "The Office" television series, and movies like "Office Space" reflect an undercurrent of cynicism that is present in many of the organizations we all work in. Creating a workplace that is "habitable by humans" - so to speak - is one aspect of HCM and even Talent Management that is seldom addressed. Within much of the work we here at Knowledge Infusion do, the HCM and Talent Management disciplines are most often seen through the lense of how talent can best be used to meet organizational goals. But if your organization is barely habitable by humans, how will you attract and retain high quality talent to help you achieve your business goals?

To help us undersand how to make our organizations "habitable by humans" we need look no further than Psychology 101. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs serves as an excellent template to measure whether our organizations are habitable by humans. It can serve as a Human Habitability Model for organizations. We can determine just how "habitable by humans" organizations are by taking a pop psychology approach to Maslow's groundbreaking work:

Making Your Organization Habitable By Humans: Maslow Revisited

1. Physiological needs: Food, Shelter, Comfort

These are the most basic human needs. In most modern organizations these needs translate into compensation.

• Are you paying your employees a living wage?

• Are you paying market based compensation rates?

• Is your total rewards package competitive?

• Is compensation fairly distributed?

2. Safety Needs: Security, Order

• Are expectations and goals clearly defined for your workforce?

• Are reasonable boundaries respected and honored?

• Is your workplace a meritocracy, where individual or group achievement is recognized or rewarded?

3. Need to Belong

• Does your organization have structures or systems in place that allow people to interact, exchange ideas, collaborate?

• If you are a virtual organization, do you have a virtual "water cooler" so people can share the daily chit-chat and other interaction required by humans?

• Do you have a culture or talent management brand that binds your workforce to an overarching concept of what the values of your organization are? Does this "brand" permeate all corners of your organization?

4. Esteem Needs

• Do you allow physical or virtual space within your organization where people can express their "individual brand" and share with others in the organization?

• Do you have processes in place to identify people's strengths and allow them to thrive within those areas rather than developing areas of weakness?

• Is respect for individual viewpoints implicit in your culture?

5. Self Actualization

• Is self-direction and career exploration encouraged within your talent management brand?

• Are individual differences and authenticity celebrated and encouraged in your culture?

• Is your organization structure flexible enough to allow individuals to set their own paths?

• Do you facilitate opportunities for people to engage in charitable activities?

Our experience at Knowledge Infusion has been that most organizations spend the majority of their effort shoring up level one - which is the most basic of human needs. The downside of focusing so much attention on compensation is you'll attract and retain only the most cynical employees.

While Talent Management technology is not the magic ingredient in making organizations more habitable, it's interesting to note how many of the more advanced levels can be enabled by these technologies. Technology can help organizations set, align and track goals; create collaborative spaces; reward employees based on merit; assess employees and guide them in career exploration; and help create and market an internal and external "talent brand."

Career management is to the individual as talent management is to the organization. Are you applying this logic to your talent management technology strategy? Are the needs of the employees and managers top-of-mind for the HR subcommittee at your organization in charge of turning the market buzz around integrated talent management into reality? If not, then I urge you to take a read.

Despite the threat of an economic slowdown, the demand for people with exceptional abilities and transferable skills will exceed the supply for years to come, particularly in today's dynamic and increasingly global business environment. The same macroeconomic trends driving the talent shortage are also producing unprecedented career opportunities. Think about it. The retirement of Baby Boomers means job openings. The globalization driving many organizations' top line growth means promotions and lateral assignments overseas for high potentials.

If your employees cannot find or do not feel they are being prepared by the organization to take on such roles, they will likely look elsewhere. A survey conducted by NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies in 2006 showed that New York professionals - while not a global sample, certainly a representative microcosm - expected, on average, to change careers - not jobs - three times in their lifetimes, and only 28 percent expected lifelong careers. Therefore, it is incumbent upon HR professionals and their business partners to create and manage career paths that help employees match their expertise and interests with the needs of the organization. However, the vast majority of these career paths will not resemble the linear tracks of our parents' generation. Gone are the days of checking in climbing a vertical ladder for 30 years to get that gold watch.

There are several reasons for this. For one, organizations have flattened over the past few decades, pushing responsibilities outward rather than simply up the management hierarchy. In addition, today's multi-generational workforce knows they cannot count on defined pensions when they retire. Couple this with longer life spans and work lives, and you have a employees who are more independent-minded than every. In addition, they have at their fingertips technologies that enable self-directed career exploration.

These dynamics should be a consideration to any HR professional or hopefully, team of professionals seeking to integrate their goals, systems, and processes developing a talent management technology strategy. Consider the end user employee who is less interested in automating what (s)he considers to be off-putting processes (e.g., performance reviews) and more about working in an environment that provides the tools that facilitate career management.

Given that more and more organizations these days are looking to help mobilize their key talent internally rather than let their most valuable assets walk out the door, it is incumbent upon employers to provide employees with user-friendly access to information and tools that enable them make well informed decisions to manage their careers. But what does the term, 'career management' actually mean? And what goals for helping the individual employee manage his or her career should an organization investing in new talent management systems (i.e., processes and technologies) have?

Let's start with a context and a working definition of what career management is before answering these questions. Career management within an organization is built on the premise that job security and advancement are based on experience, goal achievement and competencies (i.e., skills, knowledge and behaviors) rather than simply length of service. It entails an individual consciously taking stock of their strengths, interests, life events and development opportunities and applying them to possible future job roles inside the organization.

So what should a 'career management environment' have in order to make the experience a rich one for the employee?

First, it should have a single access point, for instance, some prominent real estate on an employee subportal with a career management brand. There should be a simple front page with instructions on how one can leverage the site to develop themselves. This front page should also provide access to possible career paths within the organization if there are any common ones - or even not-so-common ones with which some employees have found success. Employees should have the ability to search jobs in which they're interested as well.

Employees should also have access to their talent management applications from this page - performance management, learning management, etc. - from the place where they manage their careers as well. For instance, each of the jobs plotted along a career path or found in a search should have access to the following, all of which can be enabled through talent management systems:

• Access to a clearly defined job description - the level within the organization in which it resides, functional responsibilities, competencies needed, etc.

• Sample profiles of people actually in the job, perhaps with contact info for these people or HR representatives who can speak to the position further to see if it aligns with an employee's interests and skill sets.

• Job level (to indicate lateral and upward moves as well as pay scale).

• Links to competency assessments where someone interested can better evaluate their fit.

• Access to training and development opportunities associated with preparing someone for that job role.

• Links to apply for openings with this position description.

Career management is to the individual as talent management is to the organization. Are you applying this logic to your talent management strategy?

I've always been a firm believer that just about anything can be outsourced. If there's a function that you can't or don't do well, there always seems to be someone out there that can do it for you for a small fee.

Inc.com recently reporting on a new spin in the outsourcing market - the notion of the outsourced termination. While outsourcing some functions may make good business sense, the concept of outsourcing terminations takes the game to a whole new level. With the talent shortage that is quickly becoming more and more of a reality, the image you present as a company to future and even past employees has never been more important. As talent becomes scarce, you may just find yourself in a situation where you are recycling the same people you let go just a few months prior. By outsourcing terminations and leaving talent with a negative impression, the job of future talent acquisition only becomes harder.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20071101/meet-rebecca-shes-here-to-fire-you.html