This year, I had the honor of attending the 12th Annual Human Resources (HR) Technology Conference held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois (US). While many of the events at the three-day conference piqued my interest, none did so more than the 2nd Annual Talent Management Shootout. This shootout reminded me of TEC’s very own shootouts and showdowns, done several times throughout the year. While our shootouts are a little less “extravagant” (in the sense that we don’t have the players live on stage), we still find them to be highly effective in allowing our readers make better-informed decisions about the software they choose.
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We’re seeking an additional HR software-focused research analyst to join our team at our Montreal headquarters. Please contact us if the following job description interests you. Read the rest of this entry »

“Come gather ’round people, wherever you roam, and admit that the waters around you have grown. And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth savin’ then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times they are a-changin’.” – Bob Dylan

The Global Recession

Re-ces-sion \ri-se-sh?n\ “a period of reduced economic activity”1

Recession: it’s an ugly word, but unfortunately a fact of life—especially these days. The current economic crisis not only affects individuals and businesses in North America, but those around the globe as well.

Nearly every day during the last six months when I’ve opened up the newspaper, there’s been some story about a company that has laid off its employees. The sad truth is that many of these layoffs are targeted toward individuals who have been working for the same company for many years and now are finding themselves looking for work in a job market for which they may not possess the skills required.

So what are these individuals and businesses doing to weather the storm? Well, I guess you could say it depends on the individual and what business he or she is in. Some industries have been harder hit than others (e.g., construction and manufacturing), but one thing is certain—the recession’s effect is being felt by everyone everywhere.

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Part 1 of this blog series introduced and analyzed some mixed feelings and doubts that we might still have about the noble concepts of talent management and human capital management (HCM), while Part 2 provided some definitions of these two software categories’ respective scopes.

No Laughing Matter, Indeed

The discussion so far has ascertained that talent management, as a strategy, requires both appropriate systems and an organizational commitment to attract, acquire, manage, and measure the talent needed to achieve a company’s business objectives. Without the alignment of business and talent management systems and processes, and without closing the gap between workforce strategy and execution, companies will sub-optimize their benefits and put their goals at risk.

Going hand in hand with strategic alignment is another significant trend in recent years, which is the recognition that automating transactions in silos (within only, e.g., recruitment, performance, compensation, succession) is not helping the human resources (HR) department. It is indeed difficult to expect any strategic alignment between business and the talent roster with fragmented data, applications, and talent pools, where data is often lost, and there is consequently no single view (or single version of truth). Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of this blog post introduced some mixed feelings and doubts that we might still have about the noble concepts of talent management and human capital management (HCM). This skepticism lingers in spite of the many indicators of the usefulness of these concepts in mitigating some imminent global workforce challenges, which were outlined in Part 1.

Accommodating “Generation Y”

Let us not forget about the looming demographic shifts, given that the baby boomers are on their way out. One group that has been receiving a lot of attention is the so-called Generation Y: the group mostly in their 20s that has recently entered or is about to enter the workforce. These dudes and dudettes haven’t just adopted the use of the Internet – they have grown up with it, and they rely (live and breathe) on it.

A key characteristic of basically all Gen Y candidates today (which might belong to earlier generations, like the Gen X) is that they are keen consumers of Internet technology. They are accustomed to using websites such as Amazon.com, Google, Facebook, Ask, LinkedIn, Twitter, Travelocity, and eBay (to name but a few), often on a daily basis, to buy what they want, go where they want, stay in touch with their friends and family, get their work done, and do it all and more with ease. Read the rest of this entry »

Sure, by now most of us have heard about the importance of strategically managing talent and human capital, but how many of us are convinced that companies truly buy into those lofty concepts in droves? Some of us will even have read McKinsey’s now classic study from the late 1990 that coined the term “the war for talent.”

In other words, now in the new millennium, we find ourselves in the talent age. The article’s authors claimed that in an environment where competition has become global and capital is abundant (well, at least it was 10 years ago, well before the recent collapse of banking investment giants, and the US and German government interventions), “…all that matters is talent. Talent wins.” Read the rest of this entry »