Best of breed.
Seamless.
Integrated suite.

The first phrase used to pertain only to cat and dog shows! Now you’re more likely to hear it when a software vendor does their dog and pony show. The second word sounds better describing a pair of slacks than a computing process. And phrase number three works best when it describes having one room in a hotel for you and your partner and an adjoining room for the kids.

Unfortunately, these buzzwords are here to stay. But they bring up practical questions as well. How do you evaluate the most effective integrated talent management platform? What’s the difference between native integration and less direct forms of integration? Native integration and true platform interoperability certainly have production performance, reliability, and upgrade advantages. This is especially important when it comes to the more technically demanding operating environment of on demand software as a service. We believe that long term value comes from investing in what you believe is the best platform.

For an amusing perspective that rings of truth in the buyer beware department, read Bill Kutik’s column in Human Resources Executive Online titled A Cynic's Six Steps to Application Integration. He will take you on a tour of some of the less direct forms of integration.

The winners of the 2007 Recruiting Excellence Awards were recently announced at ERE Expo in San Diego. Once again, our customers who power their career sites and talent management with Taleo are well represented by these leading organizations:

Congratulations to:
• Starbucks - Best Corporate Careers Website winner and Best Employer Brand finalist.
• Citigroup - Best Corporate Careers Website finalist.
• Tenet Healthcare - Most Innovative Employee Referral Program winner.
• Merck & Co., Inc. - Best Employer Brand finalist.
• Whirlpool Corporation - Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Structure winner.
• Ernst & Young LLP - Best College Recruiting Program winner.

As a company in 2006, Taleo won ten industry awards for our innovative products, leading technology, and business performance. But we are even more pleased when our customers achieve this kind of recognition and success.

Here is an interesting situation that reminds us of the commercials with people pitching their skills and dream jobs. Vault.com is promoting the idea of video resumes with a report that states 89% of employers revealed that they would watch a video resume even though only 17% have actually viewed one. There’s even a contest being promoted called Vault's Wall Street Big Break Video Resume Contest.

CareerBuilder.com also announced that it will launch a video resume service in the second quarter of 2007. However, Dice.com lists some pros and cons of using the faddish technology popularized by web surfing YouTubers with the bottom line of video being a potential complement but not a replacement for the traditional resume.

While we applaud innovative use of technology, we think using video resumes presents some backfire realities for applicants and potential legal risk for organizations on the basis of discrimination regulations (OFCCP/EEOC). If one candidate was hired based on their video and another was declined, even though they both seemingly had equivalent skills, it would be a difficult position to defend.

Our position is that promoting skills in a consistently structured format is the basis for making the best match between candidate and employer. Once a short list is defined, video can be introduced at the interview stage as an offsite option instead of flying someone in for a face-to-face interview. At that point, the candidate short list would need to be defensible based solely on qualifications for the position.

Thanks to Bryan Baldwin, Assessment Consultant with the Washington Department of Personnel for adding this info to the post on More Boomer Californians Working:

…BLS data indicates it's not just California that's seeing increased labor participation from those 55+: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/10/art3full.pdf (see Table 14 on page 52).

You can tap into this valuable and desirable talent pool:

Consider where you are advertising your job opportunities. Given the rise in Internet usage by older candidates, one of the most effective ways to reach a large audience of older candidates is on the Internet.

Word your job opportunities carefully. Focus on the nature of the job and the skills required. Job descriptions can seek enthusiastic and dynamic people, but they can be enthusiastic and dynamic at any age.

Drive the selection process based on skills. Analyze the role to define the skills and capabilities and drive your selection process off them, rather than career history.

Consider reskilling or upskilling employees. Exploit the potential to train people in mid career into new positions.

Right in the middle of the discussion about baby boomers retiring and the resulting talent shortages, here’s a study by the California Budget Project.

• The number of Californians ages 55 to 64 who are working has grown from 54.2 percent in 1995 to 61.6 percent in 2006.

• The number of Californians ages 65 to 69 who are working increased from 19.6 percent in 1995 to 26.5 percent in 2006.

As goes California goes the nation? As one of the top ten economies in the world, this trend bears watching.

A recent BusinessWeek slideshow feature demonstrates once again how important talent management strategies are to organizational success.

On the minus side, The Ten Worst Corporate Practices lists poor recruiting practices as a losing proposition. How you treat job applicants is important. After all, if you give them the cold shoulder when they apply, you risk losing them as a customer. Your careers site and candidate relationship management practices are key elements of your brand image. But they are only as effective as your talent management solutions.

On the positive side, The Ten Best Corporate Practices include emphasizing employee referrals and internal mobility. This comes as no surprise. If you look at sources of hire, referrals consistently make up a large percentage, followed closely by the company website. Workforce mobility programs formalize your process to address the growing importance of retention in your war for talent.

These two quotes in a recent article should make any HR person revisit their approach to preventing workplace violence with a solid plan and the use of background screening.

1. “A USA Today analysis last year indicated that an average of 25 people per week are injured and one person per week dies from workplace violence.”

2. "In virtually every case there were signs beforehand which were ignored." –Chris McGoey, an expert and consultant on workplace violence

Read the online article: How to Prepare for Workplace Violence by Scott Berinato in CSO The Resource for Security Executives. He lists nine steps suggested by Chris McGoey that can help you proactively take steps to minimize your risk.

Then read the Taleo Research white paper: Background Checking: Uncovering the Facts. You will learn how new methodologies and technology mitigate compliance issues, fraud, workplace violence, and negligent hiring—along with potential personal liability. Make these process improvements and you will get higher quality screening results faster to reduce your cost and risk.

Innovation is a hot topic these days. What creates an innovative culture; one that drives your next blockbuster product or service? How do you identify the talent and set the stage to foster innovation? The IndustryWeek article titled Where Is Your Company's Next Big Idea Coming From? focuses primarily on driving innovation in a manufacturing setting. The article, though, presents a view of talent management that I think applies broadly:

Looking at how people 'flow' through an organization there are three stages; recruiting and integration (now being called onboarding), development and retention. During each stage people can contribute -- from fresh perspectives during recruiting -- to a better understanding of customer needs during retention.

In the retention stage, create an environment where supervisors catch people doing something right, rather than focusing only on catching mistakes. Make idea implementation part of every leader's role. It should involve building an environment that encourages ideas, helps employees develop knowledge and sharpens employees’ problem-solving skills to increase the quality and impact of their ideas.

Online advertised job vacancies were up 18% from March 2006 through March 2007 according to The Conference Board Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series™. The report dices the data by year, months, nation, regions, states, and functions.

This chart is interesting…

…especially in light of Manpower’s 2007 Talent Shortage Survey results:

The top 10 jobs that employers in the United States are having difficulty filling are (ranked in order):

Total number of respondents: 2,407
Employers indicating difficulty filling positions: 41%
Employers indicating no difficulty filling positions: 59%
Margin of error: +/- 2.0%

Once again, we are seeing a nice surface metaphor for another argument where everyone agrees become popular enough to sell books, hit the blogosphere, and even become a marketing theme.

Do you remember I’m OK, You’re OK? Similar wave. Different decade. But the more things change, the more you see old ideas repackaged.

You can have a look at the ideas in the article that spawned it all in 2004 called Nasty People. Read the book and learn something about surviving psychological abuse and building a more civilized workplace. Then read this interesting article entitled Boss Science. You may be amused by the alignment in the authors’ thinking on fitting personality traits with roles and “the psychopathology of the modern American corporate leader”.

What much of this approach comes down to is really quite simple: cultural fit. But how do you measure it well? Many Taleo customers have used our structured assessment platform to develop their own assessments or use custom assessments developed by our industrial/occupational psychologists. Learn how to use a pre-hire assessment to find if there is a cultural fit between candidates, roles, and your organization.

The Internet has made worldwide communication nearly instantaneous. How has that affected the global labor market?

The network power of the Internet has shifted time and space for employers. Cycle times are shorter. Additional silos of information connect every day. Technology moves tasks across the globe. Outsourcing cuts expenses. Connectivity shifts the workplace from office to home. Labor supply chain velocity increases.

The question is where will this lead us? To a single global labor market? McKinsey has weighed in on this topic with The coming global labor market.

With baby boomers headed towards retirement in record numbers, a rapidly growing tech economy, and lack of computer science graduates, it’s no wonder that finding good IT managers is getting harder. This lagoon in the big talent pool is drying up.

In CIOs Play Waiting Game When Hiring, Robert Half reports that “CIOs polled said it takes an average of 56 days to fill a staff-level position and 87 days to bring a new manager on board.” This US study surveyed more than 1,400 CIOs from companies with more than 100 employees.

How important is employee retention? Is it a more significant business driver than cost control? Read the article about the MetLife study that says “keeping key workers happy, challenged and motivated is becoming more important to U.S businesses than controlling costs.”

The 5th annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends highlights this important challenge: “the need to recruit and retain the best talent in an increasingly competitive labor market.”

Interestingly, the study found retaining employees is the most important benefits objective of employers.

Employee retention was described as important by more than half of employers with retailers (62%) and services (59%) coming in higher on retention.

However theindustryradar.com reports that Salary.com found pay and title rather than benefits as the prime motivators for retention.

At Taleo, we take a more holistic view. We see the symptoms, but instead focus on transforming your culture to improve retention rates by enabling workforce mobility. Keep employees looking internally at opportunities within your organization and you will improve your employee retention rates. Use this approach to retention and win your war for talent.

You can also read about the Four Factors to Watch in the War for Talent and keep in touch with industry trends when you subscribe to TalentTalk.