Talent Unconference

Future Tech Track

Before looking into the future, maybe we take a quick look at the present.  There are all types of applications, web sites, tools, and systems.  It appears that how they are used, depends on how each user decides to use them.  If fact, the future tech track could possibly touch every other track at the conference.

OPPORTUNITY

We’ll start off the morning opportunity session with a quick review of everyone’s favorite piece of technology…the one that you tell all your friends they should know about.  It can be something as simple as a website or something as big as a full blown application that you use.  It can be work related or non-work related….what ever you like.

It could be hardware like your blackberry or treo.  A website like Linkedin.com or Pagebites.com.  Or even an application like Anagram  or Infogist.

Look for an email going out that asks for your favorite, even if you won’t be attending this track…we want to know.

We’ll list out the names of everyone’s favorites, what they do and how they are used, and how we could possibly apply it to everyone’s daily job or lives.  From here, we’re hoping to stimulate “wouldn’t it be great if we could” type conversations that not only address current technology, but what could be done in the future that actually has half a shot and really being created and used.  Or even, what theories or strategies exist out there that some techno could enhance.

PROBLEMS

What problems does the use of technology present.  From legal matters and budgets to just plain getting it through IT Departments.  Let’s see if we can figure out some ways to either get around them or to solve them.

Sustainable Sourcing: Opening Pandora's Box

Introduction

Sustainable Sourcing is a topic that Kristi and I are both very passionate about and through our brainstorming for this track, we covered off many topics ranging from research & competitive intelligence, technology, tools, active vs. passive candidates, proactive vs. reactive sourcing, pipeline development, talent forecasting, influencing and partnering with stakeholders in your business and even the human capital market in general. Selecting any one of these topics would evoke a rich exchange of ideas, however they are all integral factors to a complex and ever evolving business and industry challenge. Therefore, we hope you join us to discuss these many topics and how the future of Sustainable Sourcing will be changed through evolving technology, tools, and strategy.

Opportunity

We think that in the fu ture of Sustainable Sourcing, Pandora ’s Box will open, where a cutting edge sourcing technology solution will one day intuitively reveal, source and capture all Leads, Competitive Intelligence and the Human Capital Market, ultimately automating and creating sustainable talent pipelines.

We think that the great talent acquisition technology minds of today should combine forces to create and unleash this solution.

Business Problem

We think that getting your business partners to understand, adopt and invest in sourcing strategies and models can only happen through shifting the internal mind-set in the organization from reactive to proactive sourcing.  We will lead the group in a discussion with the objective to find solutions on how to get long term organizational buy-in for proactive sourcing and talent pipelining. During the creation of a solution we will lead discussions around three pivots critical in supporting sustainable sourcing:

• Creating solutions to the inherent challenges of identifying, testing, selecting, hiring and retaining top sourcing talent which can make or break a sustainable sourcing effort.
• Ascertain methods to manage up and exercise influence without authority to establish a sound, long term proactive sourcing effort that takes into account talent forecasting, training, and interdepartmental business partnerships.
• Establish contingency strategies to implement during changes in leadership and similarly disruptive events in order to ensure that sourcing remains a going concern.

Process Excellence Direction

I am a big fan of process efficiency, in fact its one of my passions.  I have always struggled with inefficient processes and SOP’s.  When Jeff introduced me to Scott, I found someone who shared my passion for processes and recruiting efficiency. Scott and I hope that you’ll be compelled to join our session on Process Excellence.  As consultants, we have both seen clients and organizations mired in methodology that simply doesn’t work.

The Opportunity…

Imagine a world where you can get a university degree in talent acquisition and management and where there is no reason and has never been a reason to link recruiting to human resources.  We think that in the future of Talent Planning & Strategy, recruiting / staffing will separate from HR and become it’s own distinct business function where recruiters are compensated uniquely (although like sales).  The acquisition of talent will be as valuable and as much of a business function as sales. There will be real forecasts, real cost of talent acquired (cost of goods sold) and real stock market consequences for failing to staff the organization against the forecast. 

The opportunity is to a) understand what such business rigor does to the recruiting processes that you use today? B) Is it possible to have a common recruiting process language that transcends industry? 

The Problem...

To date, “recruiting” has been managed as more art than science. Recruiters have operated with a high degree of latitude and autonomy as they…

1. Interpret the needs of hiring managers

2. Develop a sourcing strategies

3. Screen applicants

The problem - how do you take a business function stocked with individual contributors accustomed to operating instinctively and migrate to more of a systemic, scaleable, transparent and repeatable set of business processes?

The Big Pipe Overview

(Written by Dennis Hunter, posted by JJ)

In the world that will be, the United States, and the businesses domiciled therein, will be severely challenged. Its supremacy will no longer be assured. In fact, it’s incredible success over the past half century will be one of the major obstacles to overcome. How it responds to, or better yet anticipates, the changed and ever-changing basis of competition will have substantial impact not just on the vitality of its economy, but on its social and political coherence. What should the U.S. do to maximize its chances of calling forth those capabilities that will result in a continuous, generative renewal? What role should the business community play in encouraging and nurturing the realization of the needed changes?

The “Big Pipe” track of the Unconference will focus on the educational component of this issue. It will start with the proposition that the role of education (a broader topic than the role of schools) is to maximize the development of human potential, the generation of capacity, as opposed to the current concept that its role is the delivery of specified capabilities (Ref., No Child Left Behind, and the success of centrally planned anything.) The second proposition will be that the maximization of the country’s success potential should start by recognizing, and building upon, its most fundamental existing strengths. The first of those being its diversity, and the capacities that foster tolerance and build mutual trust and respect, what some would call the creation of “Social Capital.” The second advantage is our relatively higher level of acceptance of failure. Both can be used to build on the country’s well-deserved reputation for creativity. And it’s competing on the basis of creativity that provides the best chance for sustainable economic leadership. But, unlike what has been true in the past, it’s a creativity that needs to be far more broadly distributed. We will no longer be living in a world where the contribution of the few can provide opportunity for the many.

We shall explore the validity and appropriateness of such propositions before moving on to investigating the dimensions of potential for contribution in these areas from the business community. Finally, we shall examine whether there is sufficient commonality of beliefs and interests among the participants to undertake an on-going commitment to collaboratively seek to bring into being at least a portion of the changes needed to prepare us to compete in the brave new world.

Overview - Value of Talent

That which can't be measured doesn't exist.

So how do we measure the value of talent? We talk about it all the time, but it's  an article of faith not hard science. If we can't prove that talent has value, how can we hope to prove that recruiting contributes anything of significance? In the absence of a useful answer, staffing cannot be a strategic function.  A survey by Accenture noted that Chief Executives stated the ability to acquire talent as their #1 priority, but they also rated staffing near the bottom among corporate functions for delivering on corporate goals. What does staffing need to do to prove that what it brings to a company has real value?

Morning
In the morning session we will work on clarifying the value of talent and measuring the contributions of staffing. We'll debate metrics and more fundamental questions such as “is staffing even worth evaluating?”

Afternoon
In the afternoon, we'll break up into groups of decision makers charged with determining whether to outsource recruiting or not. What can be done to make either choice more effective and likely to succeed (assuming we can define what success means). Are there opportunities for innovation that can help?

Meaningful Connections: An Opportunity and a Problem

The opportunity to sit around and discuss creating a business is something that I am ready to do 24 hours a day. David Manaster has displayed the same love of the game. It’s our plan to open up and engage those who join us in an out of the box open discussion on what the next 250 trillion dollar recruiting business will be. We are accepting blind offers of investment but only for the next hour.

The rise of citizen journalism has changed media consumption forever by placing publishing tools and at least the potential for a large audience at the disposal of every person with Internet access. Instead of three broadcast networks, hundreds of cable outlets, or thousands of magazines, we now have millions of individuals, all contributing in their own way, creating and consuming their own media.

(Which is not to say that they have stopped consuming the old media – according to Ad Age the combined revenue of the top five media companies in the United States was $98 billion in 2005.)

The Opportunity:

In an environment where people have more and more choices every day about where they can get their information about their lives, and specifically their careers, there is a real opportunity to utilize new technologies and patterns of media creation and consumption to build a business that:

1. Identifies all the people who have the skills to work for you.
2. Manages an ongoing relationship with each and every one of these people in order to make sure they are aware of your needs.
3. Delivers a real reason for these candidates (everyone is a candidate) to keep coming back which of course must be for reasons other than just new jobs.

We believe that there is an opportunity to build something real here.

The Problem:

Q: What’s worse than 100 resumes on your desk?
A: 1,000 of them.

The Internet has been a blessing and a curse for recruiters.

The blessing:  We now have an entire planet full of qualified professionals just a mouse click away.

The curse: We are also just a mouse click away from an entire planet full of unqualified individuals.

With a single click, any person anywhere can send us their resume. Hundreds, or even thousands of applications for a single position are not uncommon, and usually only a very few of those applicants are qualified for the position at hand.

It’s difficult to focus on the truly important tasks of building a workforce if we are constantly wading through a mountain of paperwork, and recruiters have consistently been unhappy with the existing solutions.

This sounds like it needs tackling doesn’t it?

Talent Planning and Strategy

Susan Burns and I now live about 200 miles away from each other - and I see her less than when we lived 2,000 miles away from each other. Yet we're more joined at the hip than ever on our Talent Strategy and Planning track. Today, we brainstormed about where we want to take our discussion, which will touch on the future of the talent management function; the essential talent, tools and information; and how we build, add to and measure business success.

The opportunity we see is:

There is a huge opportunity for talent management functions to raise their profile and importance in their organizations - not just to support business strategies but to help drive them.

The problem we see is:

We know how important talent is in our global, information-driven, innovation economy. Yet talent management departments are often called upon to fix the problems that are created vs. help avoid them in the first place. In the face of an increasingly complex global business and labor environment, how do we strategically use information and talent planning to turn this vicious cycle into a virtuous one?

As Jeff said in his mission statement for the conference, everyone will learn and everyone will teach. We're looking forward to learning from undoubtedly some of the brightest minds in the business (and cleaning house at the poker game).