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Knowledge Infuser

January 2008

 

 

 

As I sit in Las Vegas ready to kickoff Day 1 of "I am KI 2008", the first thing I see in the Wall Street Journal this morning deals with some of the major talent management issues we are hearing on a daily basis from Knowledge Infusion clients around the world; either our traditional on-premise consulting clients or our Center of Excellence On-Demand Consulting.

 

 

The Wall Street Journal points out a few highlights I wanted to call to your attention along with a link to the article.

 

  • Hiring Managers are preparing for a VERY uncertain year creating an even greater need for Talent Management tools and process enhancements

  • Companies haven't been grooming and developing talent for promotion purposes, causing a "talent mismatch"

  • In the coming months, we will see layoffs as well as CRIES for companies saying they cant find enough people.  I call this the "O'Hare Effect".  The number of times I have been Chicago O'Hare 'airport without a plan there is amazing.  Little blips in plans can cause misalignment across the whole system.  This isn't any different for Talent Management.

  • We CAN'T let people think they can be free agents.  WE NEED THEM!!

 

 

Our theme for our Las Vegas event this week is "I am KI"; the need to make sure our workforce is aligned and dedicated to similar passions.  This event is for our organization to realize that our goal and mission in this space is special and that only through innovation will this industry change now and forever.

 

 

Articles like this keep the need for Talent Management software, process and other technologies fueled.  Make sure you don't let your Talent Management slip away with other "NON-MISSION CRITICAL" business initiatives.

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to article

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: wall_street_journal, talent_management, i_am_ki

Recruiting Ain't Easy

Posted by Jason Averbook Jan 23, 2008

 

 

 

The number of organizations that Knowledge Infusion is working with early this year around the transforming space of Talent Acquisition is amazing.  This is as a result of many things such as:

 

  • Failed deployments of existing technologies

  • Downward economy making organizations think more about how to hire

  • Quality of hire and quality of data about hire continues to be in question

 

Jim Stroud posts an entertaining video that is meant to do nothing but take the edge off of the day.  Take a minute to watch and pass on  to your colleagues.  It is a great way to get them using and commenting within the Center of Excellence.  To do this, click on forward via email and ask you colleague to register.

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to video

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: recruiting, talent_acquisition, humor

 

 

 

BusinessWeek this morning calls to light an issue Knowledge Infusion sees HR dealing with more and more as the economy truly become global at its core - Global Workforce and Talent Management.  BusinessWeek highlights that organizations are moving more and more to outside firms such as Fragomen and Littler.  The firms have an interesting observation worth calling out:

 

 

Fragomen and Littler say that about 80% of their work involves getting workers into the US, which can be extremely frustrating.

 

 

Getting employees into other countries can be equally difficult requiring a series of tests, certifications and processes just to enter the country for work purposes.

 

 

HR has to change its focus from trying to do all of this by itself to working with firms such as Fragomen and Littler for assistance.  Where HR MUST focus is on the global workforce planning aspect of this problem. 

 

 

I, Jason Averbook, recently spoke at a Conference Board event for CEO's where I was quoted saying "in the future, HR is not just about getting the right people to the right place at the right time, but truly knowing what those people are good at, who is looking for career opportunities and how these people will continue to progress within the organization.  The days of find and drop into a job are over for HR, it is an ongoing, everliving process in today's global economy."

 

 

The other thing that is truly important about this issue is that for each of these people and to fulfill the future role of HR in a global economy, HR needs to have a solid GLOBAL FOUNDATION for its core HR solution and a GLOBAL talent management and workforce planning tool.  These are MUSTS as the world becomes flatter and an area that we at Knowledge Infusion continue to see growing interest in.

 

 

Take a read of this short, but informative article from BusinessWeek this morning.  Do you have a global view of your workforce besides employee number?

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to BusinessWeek article

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: global, talent_management, fragomen, littler, workforce_planning

 

 

Great piece this morning by Sarah Needleman of the Wall Street Journal.  Take a read.

 

Continued exposure for how technology can help organizations drive results if planned and tied back to business goals and needs.  A few examples in the article:

 

  • UPS and Career Management

  • Hilton Hotels - Succession and Career Planning - Finding the Best Manager at the Right Time

 

A great quote from the article which I completely agree with:

 

Advent Software Inc., an international technology company, is planning

to add talent-management software later this year for its roughly 1,000

workers. "Employees now tend to expect this," says John Brennan, vice

president of human resources at the San Francisco-based firm. "They

find easy access to information in all aspects of their lives and

expect the company they work for will provide the same."

 

This is a great article as you continue to make the case in your organization as to what the competition is doing.  Knowledge Infusion sees this everyday, and those organizations that are not optimizing processes to leverage technology, will clearly be at a competitive disadvantage.

 

Talent is an issue.  The time is now to start planning.

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

Link to Sarah's article in the WSJ

1 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: wsj, wall_street_journal, talent_management_software

 

 

 

Over the last 24 hours, the number of blogs and press clippings on the latest release of SuccessFactors named ULTRA has caught many people's attention in the industry.  I would like to congratulate SuccessFactors on their release, but more importantly, helping to bring the reality of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 to the forefront of the minds of the HR audience. 

 

 

ZDNet does a great job of ushering in the new features of ULTRA, all of which are attractive to many individuals - the question now is "Is HR ready to use them?"  This is something that Knowledge Infusion has been working with our clients on for the last 18 months and have more active relationships looking to deploy tools like this than we could have ever imagined at the beginning of 2007.  The HR, HCM and Talent Management space now has the opportunity to make a difference to the workforce, not the HR department, like never before.

 

 

During 2008, one of the things that we will see MUCH more of is organizations actually learning to use, which includes developing processes and deploying excellent change management tools in their organization to leverage investments that they have already made in tools like this and others.  This is no small task as enterprises are asked to change processes that have existed for 50 years and for no real reason except to give a small merit increase.  Will be interesting to watch.

 

 

The other callout for this article is that HR (along with CRM) are being called out as the leaders in bringing these new technologies to the enterprise (WHAT? - Did I just say that).  Yes I did, and it is  time now more than ever, for HR to realize that they have a GOLDEN opportunity to be the ones that shepard these new technologies into the organization and take the leadership position in driving a collaborative, engaged workforce.

 

 

Congratulations to the vendors in the space for developing products that give HR an opportunity to jump to this position.  Now as HR professionals, lets take advantage of it and change our role forever.

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to ZDNet blog posting

 

 

3 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: enterprise_2.0, hr, innovation, technology, successfactors

The 2008 CIO

Posted by Jason Averbook Jan 14, 2008

 

 

 

At Knowledge Infusion, in every client engagement we work on we work with the CIO of the enterprise jointly with the leads from HR, various talent organizations and of course, the line of business.

 

 

InformationWeek had an interesting blog post last week that caught my eye as we were meeting with a number of CIO's last week from Fortune 100 organizations.  An excerpt that I found extremely telling is:

 

 

The pace of technology change -- and therefore

business expectations and IT culture -- is accelerating, fueled by

three things: IT's *_brief but turbulent history, a crush of external

forces that reset IT spending and user attitudes, and the strength and

resourcefulness of CIOs themselves_*. To survive in tomorrow's context, a

CIO will need to disperse staff and capability out to business units at

the same time as they acquire capacity from a supply grid. Meanwhile,

the +_CIO must switch focus from efficiency and cost to enabling greater experimentation and iteration of new ways of competing for the firm._+

The best will take over their firms' operational services, run P&L

lines, become COOs, and in tech services firms, aim sights on becoming

CEOs.

 

 

What i found very valuable about this was that the CIO will be looking to experiment more with technology going forward to drive competitive advantage.  This is opposite of what most CIO's were doing the past 10 years while focusing on efficiencies.

 

 

From a people perspective, the services economy will always be driven by people.  The knowledge of those people make up the competitive advantage of an organization and the CIO will begin to look for ways to leverage that knowledge more into the future.  The question for HR is "are you ready?"

 

 

HR must continue to learn about new technologies such as social networking, Web 2.0, and other tools to insure that when the CIO does come knocking (hopefully this will happen); HR is prepared with open arms to say YES and experiment with IT.

 

 

2008 - an interesting year as technology matures, the business asks for more and HR continues to have a larger seat at the table.

 

 

BE READY

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to Blog Posting

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: cio, 2008

 

Made you look....Thought this was funny.  Hope you had a great weekend from all of us at Knowledge Infusion!

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: web_2.0, performance_management

 

The Knowledge Infuser and we at Knowledge Infusion do not infuse our political views into our blogging and this Sunday blog is not meant to do that either, but as I was watching the Barack Obama concession speech the other night in a hotel room, it made me realize even more the power of communication.

 

 

One of the amazing things about this speech was what you walk away from it thinking and knowing about what Obama stands for and what he is trying to get across.  The art of repetition, something that anyone communicating anything on any given day, I would recommend practicing.

 

 

I had the opportunity to watch four vendor demonstrations this week from software providers in the HR and Talent Management space and each of them at various points had a very hard time getting across the true meaning and point of their software.  The software that is being built today is better than ever, the positioning and the way it is being presented to enterprise clients is not.  It is very "wishy-washy" leaving clients asking for more.  The exact quote from a client this week was "Now what, nothing seems right".

 

 

Once again, whether you are deploying a new piece of software, making a business case to your executives or presenting the latest and greatest version of your software, please remember the art of repetition and simplicity.  Take a listen to the key part of this speech from the link below.

 

 

Can we all get better at this and in turn, continue to change the HR space forever..  YES WE CAN

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

Link to Speech....Art of repetition

 

 

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: communication, deployment_excellence, repetition

At Knowledge Infusion one of our main goals is to continue to transform the HCM and Talent Management community to be prepared for a continually changing workforce and everchanging economy.  One of our friends and futurist, Jim Carroll has an interesting article in CA magazine that we had to link to today.

 

Jim does a great job in this article coining a phrase "Gen-Connect", a phrase I believe is perfect for the upcoming entrants into the workforce and will be a true challenge for HR and Talent Management vendors to step up their game and embed collaborative technologies into their solutions.

 

 

 

Jim points out some very interesting statistics that are very important for any organization doing anything with talent management strategy today.

 

 

 

  • More than 50% of US graduates believe self-employment is more secure than a full-time job.

  • Nine out of 10 Gen Y staff within a customer-service-focused industry indicated that they planned on
               leaving their current position within two years.

  • By 2010, 60% of US engineers will be contingent workers, i.e., contract workers or self-employed.

  • In 2010, three people will leave the workforce for every person who enters it; by 2012, four will leave.
               By 2016, six people will leave for every new worker that joins.

  • An Irish survey indicates 67% of people are already looking for a new job on their first day on a new
               job.

 

These statistics once again are not meant to scare, but to make sure you are ready.  This is like Y2K or as Knowledge Infusion has coined "Y2K+10" - The Upcoming Talent Tsunami.

 

 

 

I love Jim's quote:

 

 

 

“Organizations that can

attract, engage, retain and +amuse +an increasingly complex workforce will be the ones who find success in the

rapidly evolving global economy.”

 

 

 

As an HR function, are you prepared to amuse since this is what this generation of worker will be looking for?  Hmmm.  Can you say Social Networking?

 

 

 

Take a read of Jim's article and be sure to include it in the thinking behind your early 08 strategy planning as we do everyday.

 

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

 

Link to Jim Carroll's article in CA magazine

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: jim_carroll, future, talent_management

 

At Knowledge Infusion, our mission as an organization is simple:

 

"Continue to change the way that organizations around the world value their workforce by leveraging emerging technologies to transform processes, deliver information to the workforce to allow data driven decisions to be made and finally, show the impact that people (yes, the most important asset kind) can have on true business results and outcomes".

 

 

 

 

 

While this is our mission, and we are showing our success each day with clients on a global basis, Bill Gates had a mission in founding Microsoft.  While we all have mixed opinions on Microsoft, they did and continue to change the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to watch this video as Bill Gates last day as CEO approaches

What are you doing today to deserve a video in the HR, Talent Management, HCM space?

 

 

 

 

 

Another infusion of knowledge...

 

 

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: microsoft, changing_the_world

At Knowledge Infusion, we spend our time with our clients working to make them "HR Technology Insiders".  We feel that by working to create more "Insiders" in the industry, better business decisions will be made that will continue to drive the direction of the industry and create innovations that change the HR and Talent Management space forever.  Don't miss this first special event of the season to help you and others in your organization to create, prioritize and execute your plans for 2008.

 

Trend Watch 2008: be an HR technology insider this year

 

Register now for the 2008 Trends Webinar:

 

 

 

http://www.knowledgeinfusion.com/news/webinars_view.php?id=78

 

Join us for a unique opportunity to learn from industry expertsHeidi Spirgi and Jason Averbookand ask your own questions on what is going to be hot in 2008 and how you should create your plan of attack. You'll learn how you can position yourself for success as we discuss:

 

Business Process Transformation

Talent Intelligence

Disruptive Technologies

How to buy software in 2008

and more!

 

Don't miss this opportunity to join your peers and start the year with a dose of knowledge on how to successfully execute in 2008!

0 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: 2008, trends_2008, hr_technology

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