Taleo Research Recommends postings describe and link to some of the best content – articles, blog posts, research, and more – that we have come across in recent weeks. We focus of course on Talent Management and its particular practice areas, but at times also include items of more general interest to HR professionals and technologists. This edition has a focus on strategic HR and talent management’s role, followed by a series of “quick hit” items of interest.
The first TRR posting focused on the shift from traditional HR to strategic HR, and the role that talent management practices and systems have in that evolution. Since then we’ve seen continued emphasis on this subject, from various angles.
Sharon Daniels and Robert Vulpis over at Talent Management magazine recently wrote a short article titled “Three Industry Trends You Need to Know.” The first trend is career pathing, whereby organizations offer structured progression paths that are particularly enticing to Millennials who increasingly make up a greater portion of the workforce. The second trend was the continuing importance of technology, with a special emphasis on social and mobile technologies — both from the perspective of internal use to engage employees and better share knowledge, and external use to help organization better manage their reputation and brand. These two trends actually align well with the third trend, the one that really caught our eye, which is: executive buy-in for talent management. On this the authors wrote: “Since the financial crisis, partnerships between HR and the executive team have increased as organizations have engaged them to help drive business results. Executive support makes that kind of program happen more quickly and robustly. Today, there’s much more C-level focus on the value that people bring to an organization and its overall success.”
Jason Averbook, CEO of Knowledge Infusion, recently wrote a series of blog postings in this area, focusing on helping HR leaders make a better HR technology business case. He started by providing “5 Rules for HR’s New Business Case,” and then followed with detailed posts focused on building the business case for consideration by the CMO and CFO, respectively.
Another perspective on strategic HR was shared by Mike Prokopeak, Editorial Director for Talent Management magazine, in his recent article “Talent Management for Talent Managers.” He begins by framing a challenge facing HR professionals:
“As HR moves up the corporate food chain, demand for effective talent management — and talent managers — has risen along with it. But in many organizations, HR is like the cobbler whose children have no shoes. All its time, energy and resources are spent furnishing the rest of the organization with well-fitting people, practices and processes. Comparatively little is spent on developing the next generation of talent within the HR department. That problem is increasingly critical as talent management becomes pivotal to organizational success. HR has excelled in traditional functional areas such as recruiting and training, but creating top-shelf HR talent requires building broader business skills and a passion for the business they’re in.”
Prokopeak then stresses that general leadership ability is important for HR professionals to develop, requiring a broad understanding of business beyond functional HR expertise and experience. It also requires the development of various soft-skills that operational executives typically possess, such as diplomatic negotiation and relationship-building, which Prokopeak stresses are just as important for talent managers as they are for business line leaders.
The article draws on the experience and wisdom of Chris Raia, Vice President of Organization Effectiveness for Unilever Americas and Kevin Wilde, Vice President of Organization Effectiveness and Chief Learning Officer at General Mills. The latter noted “There are two broad categories of talent managers: those who have passion for their business, and those who have a passion solely for their own practice.” He also noted that “Taking the time to build relationships with business leaders outside HR and studying and reading the company’s financial statements allows talent managers to see the bigger perspective of what the company is doing and how the practice of talent management fits into it.” Wilde’s view of himself and his role are particularly insightful: “I don’t consider myself an HR person. I consider myself a business person who happens to work on HR-related subjects. It’s a subtle nuance perhaps, but an important one. … Ultimately, you’re not in the company to do HR work. You’re in the company to help the company win.”
And that is a key difference between focusing only traditional, operational HR and evolving and stepping up to the challenge of strategic HR.
Quick Hits
Here are some other items that recently came across the radar of Taleo Research, that we think are worth your time:
The Real Succession Plan For Steve Jobs: Apple Thinks Different with Apple University
Last Friday I wrote about the big news regarding Steve Jobs’ announcement, using that opportunity to stress that succession planning is not only important at the top (something Apple has clearly done well), but is also important for any key positions and roles in an organization. Josh Bersin of Bersin & Associates also blogged last Friday in relation to the Jobs’ announcement, by noting the role that Apple University is apparently (still a well-kept secret) trying to play in broader succession planning at Apple, by passing on aspects of Steve Jobs’ business philosophies to others within Apple.
Exiting Employees Are More Disgruntled Than Ever
In TRR vol. 3 we focused on the issue of employee engagement, but since then we learned of some striking data from the Corporate Executive Board. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, “More than three-quarters of departing employees say they wouldn’t recommend their employer to others, the worst percentage in at least five years.” Compare that especially with the 42% figure from 2008, just as the official recession began. This implies continuing challenges for both recruiting efforts and retention of top talent. Read the article for some examples of organizations with innovative approaches to staying in touch with alumni.
Discovering and Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
Jocelyn Berard from Global Knowledge pinpoints important factors in finding high-potential leaders. He also provides a great analogy for organizations that are not focusing on developing emerging leaders because the impending baby boomer retirement wave has been slowed by economic realities: such organizations are like the frog in the water that is slowly heating to a boil — when they realize what has happened, it will be too late!
How Social Learning is Like Gravity
Dennis Callahan often shares intriguing ideas, quotes, and links on Twitter (@denniscallahan). He also blogs at Learnstreaming.com, and recently described the many ways that social learning conversations are like gravity: they both are happening all around you, you notice when they are missing, they both bring objects together, weight is the force of both, and they both initiate the birth of new things. Read the post for his explanation of this enlightening analogy!
Related Posts
Taleo Research Recommends (vol. 3)
Taleo Research Recommends (vol. 2)
Taleo Research Recommends (vol. 1)
