We are thrilled to welcome another team member to the KI family!

Scott Schmidt joins Knowledge Infusion as the Director of Advisory Services for KI OnDemand. In this role he will lead the product, content, and strategy for KI OnDemand services. With this great addition to the team you'll see fresh content, tools, and resources on KI OnDemand to help drive your HR and talent management initiatives.

Scott comes to Knowledge Infusion most recently from Boyd Gaming where he was the Director of Talent Acquisition. At Boyd, Scott led the talent planning process, participated on the technology committee that evaluated software vendors for core HR, talent acquisition, and time & attendance system, and oversaw the deployment of many of their talent acquisition technologies. Previous to Boyd Gaming, Scott has also held various HR and staffing roles at Echelon Resorts and Wynn Resorts.

You can reach out directly to Scott  via his KI OnDemand profile.

Welcome Scott, You are KI!

We are very happy to introduce and welcome Brett Addis to the Knowledge Infusion family.

Brett joins Knowledge Infusion as a Consultant, bringing rich functional expertise in talent acquisition, organizational design, performance management, workforce planning, and employment branding.

Prior to joining Knowledge Infusion Brett spent several years consulting with Bernard HODES and The Newman Group/Futurestep, helping clients with talent management functional, technical and branding strategies. Brett also has practitioner experience, working as a recruiting lead at Washington Mutual Bank and as an HR generalist at Assurant Solutions and Healthcare.

You can connect with Brett through his KI OnDemand profileBrett Addis

Welcome Brett!  YOU are KI!

On June 23-24, 2010 in Dallas, Texas, we will be hosting our first executive event, the 2010 Knowledge Infusion Summer Executive Forum.  This is an exclusive educational forum and networking opportunity for Knowledge Infusion's premier enterprise clients and prospects.  This event is sure to be a sell-out!  If you have been pushing off your registration for the event, here are some top reasons why you should attend.

Why should you attend?

1. Gain insightful knowledge from our keynote speakers including Doug Ulman, President and CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Libby Sartain, author and former CHRO of Southwest Airlines and Yahoo!.
   

Doug Ulman, President and CEO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, will discuss LIVESTRONG’s progressive and innovative collaboration strategy and how they are effectively using it to fight on behalf of the 28 million people living with cancer today.

Libby Sartain, author and former CHRO of Southwest Airlines and Yahoo!, who based on her recent book, Brand for Talent, will highlight how organizations must build a talent brand in order to attract their most critical talent segments to come to work.

2. Experience a real, live HR Shared Services Delivery Center.
   

Executive Forum host, Northrop Grumman, has been on a multi-year journey to build one of the leading HR shared services centers in the world. Currently supporting over 75,000 employees, Northrop Grumman has deployed an innovative service center with a foundation around employee service.

Judy McFarland, Vice President of HR Shared Services at Northrop Grumman, will speak about the strategy behind building and deploying Northrop Grumman’s state-of-the-art HR Shared Services Delivery Center, followed by a tour of the center.

3. Learn best practices from Dell and Nike.
   

The NIKE brand has become synonymous with high-performance and innovation. In this session, John Schroeder, Director of IT Infrastructure and Strategy at NIKE, will share the innovative culture of NIKE and what NIKE is doing to develop its future leaders. From developing global talent pools to identifying and nurturing high performers, NIKE is truly on the leading edge of leveraging technology to deploy and cultivate new talent within their global workforce.

In September 2009, Dell acquired Perot Systems, one of the largest and most notable acquisitions in its history. The acquisition comes with inherent challenges in blending unique cultures, work styles and talent. In this session, Andy Valenzuela, Senior Director of HR Technology at Dell, will discuss how Dell is integrating its workforce following the Perot Systems acquisition. You will learn how to establish and follow a successful workforce integration plan including critical elements and processes that include an integration methodology, cultural integration plans and a change management plan.

4. Learn how to get the most from your core HR solution.
   

In the Evolving Your Core HR Strategy pre-conference workshop session on June 23rd, Jason Averbook, CEO of Knowledge Infusion, will be walking participants through the necessary steps to understand how to get the most from your Core HR solution. We’ll discuss optimization and how to determine whether your existing Core HR solution meets the needs of your organization.

5. Learn what social media and social collaboration mean for your organization.
   

In the Nurturing Enterprise Collaboration Now pre-conference workshop session on June 23rd, Jason Corsello, Vice President of Knowledge Infusion, will explain what social media and social collaboration mean for a company, its products and its employees, and discuss how to begin the dialogue with actionable steps to begin preparing a strategy that is right for your organization.

Click here to see the full conference agenda. If you have any questions or would like to request event registration information, visit the conference site or contact us.

A special thank you to our employees and customers in advance for making this a successful first event!  YOU are all KI! See you in Dallas this June!

Congratulations to the entire KI team for an amazing Q1!  The full press release is available here:

Highlights include:

• 200% increase in sales over the same period last year
  
• 25% increase in employees
  
• Early success of KI OnDemand
  
• Expanding the global footprint
  

Commentary includes:

“While the market was in a decline in 2009, Knowledge Infusion took the advice we gave all our clients: to focus on innovation, optimization and expansion to position us for success in 2010,” said Cassie Fireman-Barajas, Chief Performance Officer. “We have been able to add the best talent, grow our service offerings and continue to provide unmatched service delivery to some of the world’s largest global organizations, and are well positioned to continue this success.”

“As we enter our fifth year of service to the community, Knowledge Infusion once again shows the industry that the best talent and the best services will lead to the best results,” said Jason Averbook, Chief Executive Officer, “I cannot be more proud of the entire KI family, including our employees, our customers, and  the community that continues to drive the success of our team and our customers.  With an aggressive business strategy, we are looking forward to continuing this momentum throughout 2010.”

Thank you to our employees, customers, and the support of the HCM Community!  YOU are all KI!

The Knowledge Infusion consulting team continues to grow!

We are thrilled to "officially" welcome Amy O'Leary to the KI family. Amy is not a new comer to Knowledge Infusion as we have been working together for several years as both client and part-time consultant. This week we take another step forward and welcome her as an official employee.

Amy has over 20 years experience in training, change management, communication, sales, and learning and performance management, with companies such as Amtrak, Aetna, Fleet, and Bank of America and Commerce Bank. She most recently helped Lincoln Financial Group and Independence Blue Cross through the transformation of their talent management processes, in conjunction with the implementation of SuccessFactors.

We are excited that Amy has joined the Knowledge Infusion team, and look forward to the immediate impact she'll be making.

Welcome Amy:  YOU are KI!

The Friday Factoid has been a regular feature at KI since the inception of the company.

We have people here on the Friday Factoid staff that post to twitter 10, 15, 20 times a day.  I don't think I've tweeted 20 times in my lifetime!  Most of their tweets are generally useless, with a nugget thrown in occasionally.  I find myself trolling through hundreds of posts to dredge up those with any value.  Many of you know that in the past I've been skeptical of Twitter's value to the typical curious person (not somehow involved in self-promotion).  I've recently discovered how to get the best use out of Twitter - without joining the ranks of the self-absorbed.

Factoid:   Twitter users write 50 million tweets a day.  One-fifth of posts and 57% of retweets contain links.

1.  Use Twitter as a Custom News Feed:  By zeroing in on those users that have a shared common interest and quality posts, and filtering out those that are telling you they just arrived at Chili's, you can use Twitter to feed you news in the area of your choice - whether it be pop culture, business, tech topics, or any other interest you can think of.  Sites that can help you find posters in your area of interest are We Follow and Just Tweet It.  These sites organize Twitter users into their area of interest - making it easier to find and follow quality posters than the search function on the Twitter website.  Twitter will give you much more immediate updates than any other news feeds you may be using.

2. The Power of the List:  If you don't want to keep track of individuals you can follow an existing Twitter list, or create your own if necessary. A site called Listorious has already done much of this work for you.  Listorious has organized Twitter lists by subject area to allow to to tap directly into an existing stream of users in your area of interest.   Much better than hunting and gathering individuals.

3.  Think Local:   On the Twitter website you can now view trending topics by city.  A quick scan for Chicago today shows these topics (among others): ibelieve (reference to the Chicago Cubs), Sunshine (it is a beautiful day here), and Peppers and Manumaluena (two players fans are hoping the Bears will draft).  These websites/apps offer ways to zero in on local Twitter posts in your area: Tweetie, TwitterLocal, and Happn.in.

So remember, if you don't tweet, don't worry:  It's not all about you!

Hmmm.....Food for thought...

Have a Great Weekend Everyone!!!

We often get great comments from our customer and prospects and wanted to share this one with you from a global company headquartered in Paris.

“We never agree on anything in Group HR, but we agree on Perrier and Knowledge Infusion. We know we will all drink Perrier and we have found the right consultancy.”

Cheers to Perrier and Knowledge Infusion!

We are proud to welcome Beth Rivchin to the unmatched team of KI Consultants and the Knowledge Infusion family.

Beth has over 14 years of experience in the HR industry, and was most recently at Destination Hotels & Resorts as a Corporate HR Technology Manager. She began her career at Time Warner Cable where she was promoted to various HR positions over a nine-year period.  Some of those positions included People Development Consultant/Project Manager, Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) Trainer, HRIS Administrator and Human Resources Generalist. Beth was also a consultant for SPECTRUM where she managed client implementations.

Beth has hit the ground running, already making a significant impact in client engagements.

Welcome Beth!  YOU are KI!