Month: February 2020

There’s a lot of buzz about bots for talent acquisition. People are excited about artificial intelligence and machine learning, for good reason, but we’re still in very early days. The companies that are using bots for TA right now are early adopters. That means that for all the buzz, bots are not about to replace humans. But they could save humans a lot of time, and let them focus on high-value work.

So, while you shouldn’t expect bots to bring cognitive powers to your Talent Acquisition process any time soon, I’m optimistic about where bot technology will take us. Let’s look at the promise of bots for talent acquisition: improving the candidate experience and creating a faster, scalable, data-rich recruitment process for hiring teams.
Improving the Candidate Experience
In the past, hiring organizations could talk to candidates through one-to-one phone calls and in-person meetings, or by collecting information through online forms. Bots make those conversations more engaging than submitting a resume online, and more scalable than talking one-on-one with a recruiter.

Candidates get a response in real time, without waiting for someone to follow up. In other words, bots can help create personalized interaction at scale.

While a chatbot on a career page might seem basic (and the technology is), the experience for candidates is pretty transformative. Drew Austin, CEO and co-founder of Wade & Wendy, says that even when candidates know they’re talking to a bot, they feel respected and cared for. “People humanize it,” he says. “They actually say things like ‘thank you for listening’ to a machine, because they like the opportunity to be heard. It’s giving job seekers a platform to actually be able to tell their story without being rushed off the phone.”
Collecting More Candidate Data and Freeing Up Recruiters’ Time
For the hiring organization, bots save massive amounts of time and supercharge candidate data collection. Instead of tasking recruiters with scheduling and completing individual candidate screens and interviews, a hiring organization can deploy a bot for a number of those initial candidate conversations.

When you remove repetitive, time-consuming administrative tasks like scheduling from recruiters’ plates, they’re free to spend more time on high-value recruiting activities like interviewing and building relationships. As a result, organizations can screen more quickly, schedule interviews more efficiently and, eventually, decrease time to hire and increase the output of recruiting teams.

“When you can bring people quicker from A to B to C to D, and eventually reduce the time to hire, that’s something companies can quantify,” says Luc Dudler, founder and CEO of jobpal. “That has a huge impact on their ability to hire great talent.”

The eventual goal of chatbot-powered recruiting? To create a platform that connects data from each stage of the candidate lifecycle to reveal new insights about ideal candidates and the recruiting process.

Source: https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/talent_acquisition/february_2020_talent_acquisition/why-everyone-is-talking-about-bots-for-talent-acqu_k6taanp6.html

Empowerment is a buzz term that we hear a lot about in leadership. A culture that embraces employee empowerment, understands the role workers have by taking care of the needs of the customers they serve.

Empowerment is defined as “the giving or delegation of power or authority; authorization; the giving of an ability; enablement or permission.”

Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability – and want to take on more responsibility.

Empowerment is a way to give employees greater authority and responsibility to take care of the needs of the customer and to provide employees with the means for making influential decisions.

Everyone within an organization should be involved in managing customer expectations and improving quality.

Empowered employees understand their role in supporting the vision by taking care of the needs of the customers they serve.

Joseph Juran (one of the early quality gurus) defined empowerment as “conferring the right to make decisions and take action.”

13 Examples Of Employee Empowerment

1. Management support
As with anything that is successful in business, management support of empowerment is critical to its success.

Top management needs to be committed to supporting an employee-empowered culture.

This includes developing an organizational definition of empowerment that may include well-defined boundaries and management training on how to coach empowered employees.

For instance, first-time supervisors may need to be trained on how to support and empower employees to respond to customers.
2. Focus on the customer
Successful organizations understand that it is the customer who pays the bills. A focus on this important group is what makes great organizations.

Employee empowerment should be centered on the needs of the customer.

When employees are empowered to make decisions that help the customer, they are contributing to the strategy and business objectives of the organization.

For instance, if an employee is dealing with an angry customer, they should have the tools and authority to make things right.
3. Front line decision making
Front-line employees get it. They deal with day-to-day issues and know what customers want.

Eliminate the “let me ask my boss” barrier by handing over a level of the decision making power to front-line employees.

This act of delegation may be something as simple as allowing an employee to make service recovery decisions.

For instance, the Ritz Carlton is a classic model for service recovery in that front desk employees are authorized to make things right with a customer up to a certain dollar amount. No questions asked.
4. Ongoing training
A culture of empowerment requires ongoing training.

Employees need to be trained to take on these new customer-focused responsibilities.

Empowered employees may be trained in the areas of customer service, problem-solving, negotiation and conflict resolution skills.

The more tools you give employees the more confident they will be with making those off the cuff decisions that impact customers.
5. Access to data
Data is king and employees who understand company data are more equipped to influence those critical success factors.

Empower employees by giving them access to information and data that can be used in their decision-making process.

This information might include feedback from customer satisfaction surveys or customer comment cards that can help make informed customer-focused decisions.

For instance, if the comment cards share a consistent message that customers perceive employees as being rude, sharing this information will result in employees being more aware of how customers perceive their interactions.
6. Managers trust employees
Delegating decision making can be difficult, particularly for new managers.

However, managers need to have trust and confidence that their employees will make the right decision.

A manager that second-guesses an employee’s decisions can impact an employee’s confidence in their decision making ability.

The fact is employees won’t make the right call all of the time.

When they miss the mark, take the opportunity to coach and mentor them on a more appropriate response.
7. Boundaries are clearly defined
Employees need to understand the expectation and boundaries for decision making.

They should understand what that means in terms of their authority in any given situation.

For example, an employee may be given the authority and be empowered to correct a customer issue up to a certain dollar amount.
8. Employees have mentors
Mentors benefit everyone! Employees should be assigned a mentor to ask questions or give directions.

Mentors should be someone who has successfully done something that the employee is learning to do.

For example, if an employee is learning to be empowered to perform service recovery, their mentor should be someone who has learned the critical thinking skills to assess different situations and come to reasonable conclusions.
9. Employees receive positive reinforcement
We all make mistakes when we first begin making decisions so it is important to provide good coaching and positive reinforcement.

We have all been there and can relate to an employee who hesitates to make a decision for the first time.

As employees develop their decision-making skills, the coach with positive reinforcement as they maneuver the varying real-life scenarios.
10. Align compensation with customer needs
It is important for employees to understand how what they do is tied to their compensation.

Align performance expectations around customer requirements and use the performance appraisal process to tie it to employee compensation.

This reinforces an employee’s motivation to make the right decisions.
11. Consider social style
There are people who are good with people, and there are people who are better behind the scenes.

Use social style testing and make sure you have the right personalities doing the right jobs.

Assess social styles to match natural employee strengths with job responsibilities.

Use the DISC or Myers Briggs assessment tool to help identify employee strengths.

Then, put employees in roles that complement their strengths!
12. Give employees the tools they need
It is difficult for an employee to write on a piece of paper without a pen and it is difficult for employees to do data input if their computer is broken.

Some employees are very vocal about their needs but others will work with aging or broken equipment and never speak up.

Give employees the tools and equipment they need to do their job. Fix broken equipment as soon as possible and look for ways to improve what the employee has to work with.

A commitment to assessing changing technology and equipment should be part of an organization’s strategy to support empowered employees.
13. Plan for empowerment
As they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Creating an environment to empower employees requires focus and planning.

Create a plan to foster a culture of empowered employees.

Implementation should have a timeline and all aspects of the plan should be written so everyone understands the timing and process of implementation.

Organizations with strong empowerment models show that productivity and customer satisfaction improves as a result of an empowered culture. So why wouldn’t you empower employees?

Source: https://www.hr.com/en/magazines/recognition_engagement_excellence_essentials/february_rewards_recognition_employee_engagement/how-to-cultivate-an-employee-empowered-culture_k6hcl98l.html

Data has the power to transform customer relations. But isn’t it time it also transformed your relations with your own people?

Data-driven marketing is a concept that has been around for some time now. By harnessing the power of customer data – from transactional to lifestyle – you can unlock nuggets of pure insight that can then be harnessed to drive even closer customer engagement. The customer gets a better service, and you gain greater loyalty and increased value from every customer.

So here’s a question: do you know more about your customers than you know about your employees? The answer is very likely to be ‘yes’. In fact, 92% of HR leaders say they struggle to get the kind of strategic insights they need from their people data.

Yet there has never been a more critical time to be able to access that data. We’ll soon have six generations in employment; from the Baby Boomers to the Millennials. As well as the generations, workers are also increasingly self-employed or part time. Just as the competition for global talent reaches boiling point you are having to manage employees who are more diverse, mobile and technologically-savvy than ever. HR is no longer about transactions – it’s about knowledge and engagement.

It’s also about data security. All that data (customer and employee) needs to be well-protected, not least as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation has some pretty draconian penalties for compliance failure.

So how do you transform your organisation into one that has the capability to manage its workforce using data-driven insight? How can you achieve the ultimate goal of knowing your people as well as you know your customers?

Source : https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/how-well-do-you-really-know-your-people

There could be backlash from employees if businesses have to cut staff or reduce hours as a response to drops in business due to the coronavirus

The increasing number of reported coronavirus cases is extremely worrying. The greatest impact to date is in Asia. Drastic steps have been taken by the relevant governments to contain the outbreak and businesses have been forced to follow suit.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s leading airline, is temporarily cutting 90% of flights to mainland China and reducing flights worldwide by 30%.

This has forced it to implement hiring freezes, to seek supplier price reductions, postpone major projects and stop all non-critical spending.

It has also asked its 27,000 employees worldwide to take three weeks’ unpaid leave between 1 March and 30 June 2020 to help reduce the devastating impact on its finances caused by the significant drop in demand for flights.

So what employment law challenges could Cathay or businesses in similar positions face if employees are unwilling to co-operate?

Employer options

Redundancy

Both UK and Hong Kong law permits employers to implement redundancies where there is a reduced requirement for employees to carry out work of a particular kind.

In both jurisdictions staff are entitled to receive a statutory redundancy payment if they have more than two years’ complete service.

This is capped at HK$390,000 (£38,671) in Hong Kong and £15,750 in the UK. These payments could be even larger if there is an enhanced company redundancy scheme.

Employees will also be entitled to receive notice or a payment in lieu of notice.
Redundancy would be a drastic option because of the large short-term costs, the need to follow lengthy and time-consuming consultation processes (in the UK), and the impact on the business’ ability to meet demand once service returned to normal.

Temporary layoff

As an alternative, the employer could seek to implement a temporary layoff, which in effect permits it to keep employees on the books but on reduced terms.

To implement this process in both Hong Kong and the UK the employer must have an express right in the employment contract. Without this it is left relying upon employee consent.

In Hong Kong employees who have been laid off are entitled to a severance payment if the period of layoff exceeds 50% of their normal working days in any four consecutive weeks or a third of the total number of normal working days in any 26 consecutive weeks. Similar rules also apply in the UK. Layoff is helpful but only as a short-term solution.

Holiday

If employees are reluctant to take unpaid leave the business may instead opt to request that staff utilise their paid annual leave. Under UK law employers are permitted to direct employees to take holiday at designated times provided they give sufficient notice.

This could therefore be an attractive option, especially as statutory holiday allowance is fairly generous. In Hong Kong the statutory holiday entitlement is between seven and 14 days depending on length of service (in addition to public holidays), therefore this may be of less benefit.

Deferred pay

Finally, to encourage employees to take unpaid leave now, Cathay may consider offering back payment once flights resume and cash flow is restored.

What options do the employees have?

The request to take three weeks’ unpaid leave is voluntary and the employees can refuse to do so. Hypothetically, if the company were to impose unpaid leave on its employees, it could face claims for illegal deduction of wages, which is a criminal offence under Hong Kong law and a civil matter under UK law. It is therefore not surprising that the business’ ‘special unpaid leave scheme’ is presented on a voluntary basis only.

With the threat of the coronavirus affecting the UK on a larger scale it would be prudent to consider your contingency plans now.

Tatevik Grigorian is a lawyer at iGlobal Law – an international employment law subsidiary of Wedlake Bell

Source : https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/coronavirus-and-its-potential-impact-on-employee-rights

The words of the CEO have outsize impact on the team. If you’re a CEO, or in senior leadership, your words tell your people how they should feel about the business. I use the word “feel” very intentionally here. While the market analysts may want the numbers, your people need something more. The most effective CEOs use their time with their teams to infuse a sense of purpose and meaning into the organization. Here are six places CEOs and senior leaders can reinforce and accelerate your organization’s purpose:

Town halls. Nothing is more powerful than the CEO standing on stage telling a story about how your organization makes a difference to your customers. Instead of a deep dive on the earnings, provide a top line summary, then tell what we refer to as a Customer Impact Story: a short, specific story about how your solution improved life for a customer.

Steve Johnson, President and COO of Berkshire Grey, an AI and robotics firm, says, “It’s easy to say our product is XYZ, but the definition doesn’t tell the whole story. When you hear a story about achieving your purpose it closes the loop and makes everything much more understandable – and meaningful.” A Customer Impact Story gives your team the message: we’re more than a transactional organization. Our work matters.

Earnings calls. CEOs who frame their financial results around the organization’s purpose signals to investors: We’re a purpose-driven firm focused on customers.

When a CEO defines the Noble Purpose of the organization, and is clear about the impact the firm wants to have on customers, their conviction sends a statement to investors, and it creates a public record of the purpose.

Today In: Leadership
Executive team meetings. One CEO I know reads her firm’s purpose statement at the start of the monthly executive team meeting. When the purpose is short and reflects your highest aspirations for customers, it centers people.

This particular CEO’s executive team says, “It’s like the bell at school or the gong at church, it calls people into the space and reminds us why we’re here.” Leadership teams come into meetings with their minds on their own functional areas, repeating a customer-focused purpose increases alignment, and puts a customer lens on all the functions.
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Strategy and budget sessions. When the boss asks, “How will this choice impact our purpose?” you change the frame. New initiatives should further your purpose. When you budget with an eye towards achieving your purpose you make better strategic decisions. Consider the difference between asking, “How will this impact our budget” vs. “How will this impact our customers, and our larger purpose?” The first question is transactional. The second question is strategic and will help you create a more differentiated organization.

One-on-one updates. It’s often challenging to get non-customer facing teams aligned around the impact they have on customers. When the CEO says, “How is your team delivering on our purpose?” it can help non-customer facing teams connect the dots. Asking about your purpose in 1-1’s also helps leaders stay strategic, with their eyes on long-term goals.

Casual hallway conversations. It’s awkward to run into the CEO. People get nervous. Make it easy and fun. One of our CEO clients loves to say, “Another day of changing lives, got any good customer stories for me?” He’s always looking for stories about how their firm made a difference to a customer. And if his team doesn’t have a story, he is always ready to tell one. His team may roll their eyes in jest, but they sure know what’s important to him.

Words create worlds. These everyday moments in the cadence of normal business are how you as a leader build belief with your team, belief in your company and belief that your work has deeper meaning. If you want to create a tribe of true believers, bring your purpose into daily conversations. Your words matter, let your team know, you’re a purpose-driven leader worth following.

Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaearlemcleod/2020/02/24/six-ways-ceos-can-accelerate-purpose/#790abb2d20aa

An office’s purpose is to create a comfortable and safe working environment that encourages people to collaborate and be productive. It can be a challenge — but fear not, smart office IoT technology is up to the task.

Here’s how repurposing smart home strategies along with a security infrastructure can save your workers’ time and efforts on daily tasks like managing spaces, visitors and assets.

Multi-location office management
Even though office management through security cameras and electronic badges us not considered that innovative, there are ways IoT development can enhance it.

For example, you can always know what happens in any of your offices across the world in real time — by using computer vision-enabled cameras, motion sensors, and other multipurpose trackers. They track all the activities inside during open hours and keep a record of arriving deliveries, as well as visitors. All data is available for viewing in a single interface that supports your PC or smartphone.

Such a system of interconnected touchpoints enables you to make informed decisions on the go. It raises your awareness regarding pending office management issues like lack of supplies, unplanned visitors or broken inventory. Even if you are away on vacation, you can deal with it immediately —- be it a motion detector capturing unusual activity at night, or a smart coffee machine running out of beans.

Employee onboarding
Another daily office task that frequently requires personal presence is welcoming newcomers. Usually, everything they need to know about their workplace may be put onto a web page or in a mobile app. An obligatory guided tour can also become self-sustained.

To enable up-to-date info and navigation capabilities, a geofencing or a beacon-based hardware solution can be used. Both solutions create a connected environment around the office, using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to transmit data.

When passing by a kitchen area for the first time, for instance, a new employee receives a push notification indicating it. If there is a need to find a colleague in a huge open space, there will be a seating map with a real-time navigated route.

Later, an employee continues to benefit from IoT-driven office: the hardware picks up location and personnel changes instantly, and the collected data always stays relevant, saving time on search.

Room booking, availability, and management
IoT enhances meeting planning and schedule visibility by making conference rooms smart. It means that employees can schedule a meeting in the most suitable room remotely, book the equipment required, and confirm one’s presence or absence — all without a verbal agreement. For managers, it means seeing and monitoring rooms availability and equipment workload in real time.

Such connectivity can be achieved with lights, motion, and energy consumption sensors. They send a signal with their current status to a cloud server once in a while — reporting light and motion intensity, computer’s usage, etc. Then, this signal is decoded, and the info about people present is displayed on the scheduling panel. It prevents double-booking and collects historical data for usage analysis.

In the long run, this technology can help in energy saving and predictive maintenance of the meeting room assets. Detailed statistics on how and when employees use rooms and corporate AV devices serves as a guide for future investments in office upgrading.

Restricted access and control
If there is a need for advanced security and employee-only access on-premises, like in a banking or a military facility, there are IoT solutions that don’t interfere with the workflow. For secure authentication in the restricted areas, there are biometric-based methods involving fingerprints, retina, voice and face recognition.

Inside the office corridors, there might be full HD cameras that capture people’s faces, and a processing system that sorts out regulars from visitors. Similar technology can be applied to solve parking lot issues outside: sensors determine free and taken spots, and who uses them.

All these locations, including their door transit counts and alarm controls, can be added to the same IoT ecosystem. Thanks to on-the-fly video streaming possible in the cloud, such a system monitors multiple security cam streams at once —- and can automatically deny or request access, based on 99%-accurate face recognition.

The moderation of the system is available to facility managers through a unified platform. All data streams get analyzed, visualized into statistics, and complemented with options. For an instant

Well-being: lighting and climate control
To make the daily life of your employees more comfortable and prevent disputes and complaints, IoT offers precise control over mechanisms and electric appliances around the office. One can open a window to a certain degree, or dim the lights simply by a tap on a screen, without leaving one’s chair.

Most kitchen and home appliances like air conditioners, fridges, humidifiers, lamps already come in a ‘smart’ form and can be connected to the apps via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Window and door locks require installing hardware like beacons or sensors to track their position in space.

As well as for security monitoring, all of those office items can be aligned in the same control dashboard. From there, any user can set time periods for daily ventilation, or make sure all office doors are locked after 5 PM.

The second benefit of smart office after comfort is smart consumption. Office managers can put devices in sleep mode at night, prepare the office in the morning by adjusting temperature and CO2 levels, and checking battery levels in electronics. These procedures result in cut costs on excessive use of electricity, water and heating, and of course, happy and productive workers.

IoT makes your office self-sustained
Smart IoT-driven office means more time for business and less for office-keeping chores and bureaucratic procedures like ordering maintenance. Your employees get distracted less and save time on organizing their workspace.

Smart office IoT systems are totally scalable and modular. They may include any number of trackable parameters in any combinations to deal with day-to-day tasks. From as simple as in-building navigation, to managing security, inventory, consumption, supplies, and visitors at the same time.

Source : https://www.humanresourcestoday.com/?source=get-hppy&open-article-id=12981521&article-title=smart-office–how-iot-can-improve-the-day-to-day-life-of-your-employees&blog-domain=gethppy.com&blog-title=get-hppy

Every HR professional knows the job is not an easy one. In most cases, practitioners rely heavily on past experiences to carry-out their daily responsibilities. But as the world continues to change and the HR space takes on an entirely different feel than it once had, professionals are constantly looking for the best skills to list on their resume. Honing those abilities is important to both their future and the future of the organization.

So what are those skills every HR professional needs to possess?

There are seven listed below. The list is not exhaustive by any means, but it gives HR a guide to follow and a recommendation on the things they need to have has they continue serving their organizations.

Essential HR Skills
Communication
When HR professionals are looking at new opportunities, no doubt the one skill most-often requested is communication. And with good reason. Communication is paramount to the job. HR practitioners are the link between the business and the employee. That is not an easy role to play in that practitioners must support employees and represent the employer, two sides sometimes at odds.

Data Analysis
Behind communication, HR professionals need to possess the ability to read an analyze data. It’s imperative because practitioners are expected to leverage data to make better decisions. It’s also increasingly being used to predict potential outcomes. For instance, some companies are using data has a way to predict turnover within the organization.

Recruitment
While this skill is important regardless of the times, it is particularly essential right now given the reality in which human resources finds itself. Most organizations are struggling to find talent to fill, not just critical roles, but also day-to-day openings across the organization. Companies are actively engaging in the War for Talent. Sometimes that means attracting talent from organizations within the same industry. Sometimes that means attracting talent from completely different industries. Being able to find qualified candidates and select the best for the organization can make the difference between a company that succeeds and a company that just scratches by.

HR Technology
Human resources is well into its digital age. More and more process are being automated or augmented by technology. HR professionals need to have a basic understanding of technology, how it can help the company and how to implement it. HR technology is a strong predictor of who has the competitive advantage in the industry/market.

PODCAST: The HR Automation Journey

Emotional Intelligence
This is essential because potential and current employees in today’s working environment allow emotion to be a large part of their decision-making process when it comes to their employer and their daily lives. There are lots of examples where emotional intelligence plays a part whether realized or unrealized. One such example is the candidate experience. There is a push to make sure potential employees have a good experience or maintain a good feeling about the company. Another example would be the expectations that exist between leaders/managers and employees. This is often referred to as the psychological contract.

Adaptability & Agility
HR practitioners must be agile in today’s working world. They must quickly be able to assess a trend or situation and plan accordingly. It’s also a necessity in trying to prepare the workforce for the future of work. That naturally leads to adaptability. As new innovations or strategies make themselves known, HR is often at the forefront of making sure the organization can adapt these for its own purposes.

HR and the Future of Work 2020

A new era of HR dawns. Where once HR ruled with the “one-size-fits-all” mentality, younger employees are rebuking the idea. Ideas like development, flexible scheduling, gig markets and remote work are the building blocks of their mission. This FREE online event will help HR professionals once again find their footing in these changing times while bringing together HR professionals who are successfully addressing the issues of diversity, personalization, and adapting to the future of work.

Administrative Skills
No matter how HR professionals approach their job nor the level of technology, administrative tasks are still a major part of the job. Even with the amount of technology available, a lot of companies still expect HR to handle duties such as employee leave, payroll and compliance.

Conclusion
Again, it’s worth stating the skills listen above are not exhaustive. There are any number of skills that could be and should be deemed essential for the modern HR professional. Others might include multitasking, conflict management or coaching. The reality is this: each HR professional must determine what skills are essential to their professional lives. It has to be personalized. Choosing those skills and learning to execute them without fail goes a long way to being an successful HR professional.

Source : https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/articles/essential-skills-for-the-modern-hr-practitioner

It’s hard to put a value on talent. While talent is technically a renewable resource (when an employee leaves, they can be replaced), there is no guarantee the new hire will be as strong a contributor to the organization (of course, they could bring even more to the table!). That is why most companies focus on retaining the employees they have.

Still, employee turnover is unavoidable, especially in periods of low unemployment and when jobs are plentiful. As such, it is important to have a viable talent sourcing / recruiting process in place. This brings to mind a question about the differences between talent acquisition and recruitment, which are often confused with each other. Let’s take a look at the subtle differences between the two processes that are both key to finding top talent and building out the best possible team for your organization:

A difference of vision
The biggest distinction between talent acquisition and recruitment is the role each plays in the short and long term development of your workforce strategy. Recruitment is more focused on the processes necessary to fill an immediate need – posting requisitions; screening and interviewing candidates; finding the right talent; extending an offer; and, onboarding new hires. It also can involve stopgap measures such as working with a staffing agency to temporarily fill vacancies and not necessarily looking for “perfect” candidates. Recruitment is more suitable for the “how” to get employees hired for open positions in the short term.

Understanding talent acquisition vs. recruitment in 2020Recruitment and talent acquisition largely differ in terms of their respective value to short- and long-term company needs.
On the other hand, talent acquisition is more concerned with the “why” of hiring and a more in-depth evaluation of “who:” A talent acquisition specialist might ask questions like:

Who is the most ideal candidate for a crucial or high-level position? What educational background and experience should they possess?
Why do these qualities matter? Should they be prerequisites across the board that hiring managers don’t budge on? Or is there some wiggle room for an exceptional candidate who doesn’t fit all the criteria but is too intriguing to ignore based on something showcased in a cover letter or interview?
Will projected changes to the company’s industry, revenue or size make a difference in how it should pursue talent in the future, and/or who it should search for?
Careful consideration of questions like these is why talent acquisition is essential to a companies’ long-term goals. Talent acquisition is a strategic, ongoing process designed to ensure an organization continuously hires the best possible talent.

Key components of talent acquisition
Like most programs that are focused on benefiting a company on a long-term basis, talent acquisition strategies involve distinct phases. Recruitment is one of them, but there are several steps that must come before:

Developing a strategy: This step is largely conversational and hypothetical. Acquisition specialists and other HR team members look at the business as a whole, projecting both its short- and long-term prospects in terms of revenue and growth. Broader predictions of the industry are also involved.
Workforce segmentation: HR and talent specialists look at what departments are most in need of staff now and which of them will most likely need new talent in the near future (as well as in what order, for prioritization purposes). According to HR Technologist, collecting data and closely analyzing relevant key performance indicators will be pivotal to this step.
Employer branding: In collaboration with the organization’s marketing or communications staff, the talent acquisition team devises a brand identity for the organization specifically for use in recruiting materials, as LinkedIn noted. All employer branding efforts and materials, especially those circulated through social media, should emphasize the company culture and attributes that make it unique aside from its standing in the industry – for example, evidence of a commitment to reducing the business’s carbon footprint.
Recruitment: This phase and its associated processes represent the raw mechanical steps of bringing in talent: lead nurturing, candidate sourcing, candidate selection, interviewing and onboarding.
Candidate relationship management: It’s critical to start and maintain a robust dialogue between all worthwhile candidates. For one, the hiring process for managerial and C-level roles will often take some time as high-level stakeholders across the business consider different options, so HR must keep in touch with them to ensure they don’t lose interest and pursue other opportunities. Also, it’ll be wise to stay in contact with applicants who weren’t perfect for one role but could be just right for another down the line.
Creating an effective talent strategy
There will be times when recruitment alone can serve you well, such as when hiring for entry-level positions, or roles that will be temporarily vacant and require competent coverage. But more often than not, it’s best to run your hiring efforts according to a more detailed talent acquisition strategy that is carefully calibrated to attract the best people. HR and HCM tools are central to these efforts, but every department can play a role in perfecting them.

While the steps outlined above will be important to build your acquisition plan, it is important to adjust each to best fit your organization. For example, what appealed to the financial staff you hired last year may not be as interesting to the information security team you need this year, so you may have to change things up. You can also vary branding by the recruiting channel; emphasize the company’s stability on job-search sites used by older applicants, while showcasing efforts at assuming greater corporate responsibility to the local environment on your social media channels. And if you rank on any “Best Places to Work” lists, be sure to tout that everyone as a huge win for your brand identity.

Once you get into the recruitment phase of acquisition, you can focus on more tangible perks of your organization, like competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package. These – particularly the latter – have obvious appeal across all applicant demographics.

Source : https://www.peoplestrategy.com/talent-acquisition-vs-recruitment/

 

An estimated 375 million workers may need to switch jobs by 2030 due to the effects of AI and automation.

While these changes will surely reshape the working world, it’s not all doom and gloom.  Companies can take some control by proactively training their workforce: “In the new world of work, we may not know for sure which jobs will be destroyed and what will be created, but one thing is clear: Everyone, whatever their age, will at some point have to spend time either reskilling (learning new skills for a new position) or upskilling (learning current tasks more deeply),” the MIT Sloan Management Review reports.

Although business leaders are well aware of the impending digital revolution, they have either not started the process (a recent survey indicates 67 percent of executives think it’s important to learn new skills to work with AI, but only 3 percent plan on investing in training and reskilling programs) or are simply getting it wrong.

We asked Vikita Poindexter, owner of the Poindexter Consulting Group, a full-service human resource consulting firm in Temecula, California, to explain the crucial missteps that organizations are taking and how they can get it right.

They Don’t Identify their Needs

How, exactly, can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re at skills-wise? Poindexter says the number one thing companies get wrong when attempting to reskill is that they don’t know what their specific needs are.

“Oftentimes we forget that the employees already have a considerable amount of knowledge,” says Poindexter. “So, before you just jump into [reskilling], you really need to identify: What is the need, what is the goal and how do we get there?”

One effective way companies can identify their needs involves using technology-based tools to take an inventory of what skills their employees currently have, which will, in turn, help employers identify what gaps need to be addressed. And these gaps may not always be obvious: Many organizations think they need to improve their workers’ technological capabilities when, in reality, they should be prioritizing critical-thinking skills (a vital human skill in an era when AI will be replacing repetitive, predictable tasks).

Employers can also use these tools to provide individual “learning journeys” to help workers prepare for a shifting role or a completely different job.

They Wait Until They See a Decline in Skills

Another way companies miss the mark is waiting until they see a decline or a large gap that needs to be filled as opposed to being proactive, Poindexter says. When this happens, it’s usually a function of not remaining engaged with employees at every level.

“When we’re at a point where we must retrain or reskill, it’s often because we haven’t done our due diligence and taken an analysis of what’s going wrong,” she says.

So how do you get ahead of potential setbacks? One way is to move toward a continuous review process (or tune-up an existing one) to open up the lines of communication. Poindexter also suggests sending out company-wide questionnaires to candidly ask employees where they think they are in terms of skill sets and what areas the company needs to address.

It’s also a smart idea for companies to invest in AI-based learning systems to create personalized lessons, coaching and feedback that will allow their workforce to be far more agile in the future. This iterative process of continuously discovering and learning skills is a practice known as “new skilling.”

They Fail to Get Employees Involved

Lastly, companies make a big mistake when they don’t get employees involved in the process from the beginning, Poindexter says.

“Companies are [reskilling] and then telling workers ‘this is what the expectation is’ without soliciting their buy-in,” she says. “Oftentimes, it’ll backfire because you’ll start getting resentment from employees.”

To gain their trust, Poindexter suggests convening focus groups to weigh in on the strategic process of retraining before the implementation piece begins. The makeup of the groups will depend on how large the company is but should reflect the interests of every team. To do this, include a representative from each department (one from marketing, one from IT, etc.) and ensure that all positions and pay grades—from minimum wage workers to mid-level team leaders to senior-level managers—are represented.

These employees should be discussing goals and what the processes of reskilling should look like with those who are in charge of managing this task, Poindexter says. Focus group members should feel free to speak out and communicate what each department’s concerns are and provide suggestions for moving forward.

As for those in upper management and the C-suite, it’s crucial they regularly check in with every department once the reskilling or upskilling process starts so that all employees feel visible and valued.

Once they have a plan and employee buy-in, Poindexter says, companies should keep workers engaged by offering a combination of both classroom-style training as well as independent online courses to appeal to different learning styles.

Source : https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/rework/what-companies-get-wrong-about-reskilling-and-why-new-skilling-could-be-answer

Both Millennials and Generation Z can be categorized as digital natives. The way in which they learn reflects that reality. From a learning perspective, a company’s learning programs must reflect that also.

Utilizing technologies such as microlearning, which is usually delivered with mobile technology, or machine learning to can engage these individuals in the way they are accustomed to consuming information.

Microlearning
The Definition
Microlearning is delivering learning in bite-sized pieces. It can take many different forms such an animation or a video. In either case, the information is delivered in a short amount of time; in as little as two to three minutes. In most cases, micro-learning happens on a mobile device or tablet.

When should micro-learning be used?

Think of it as a way to engage employees already on the job. It can be used to deliver quick bits of information that will become immediately relevant to their daily responsibilities. To be more pointed, microlearning is the bridge between formal training and application. At least one study shows after six weeks following a formal training, 85% of the content consumed will have been lost. Microlearning can deliver that information in the interim and can be used at the moment of application.

Microlearning shouldn’t be used to replace formal training, but rather as a compliment which makes it perfect for developing and retaining high-quality talent.

Case Studies
Amnesty International piloted a microlearning strategy to launch its global campaign on Human Rights Defenders. The program used the learning approached to build a culture of human rights. It allowed Amnesty to discuss human rights issues in a quick, relevant, and creative manner. As such, learners were taught how to talk to people in everyday life about human rights and human rights defenders.

WEBINAR: L&D’s Role in Enabling the Future of Work with a Skills Focused Strategy

Dell has also used the strategy to implement a digital campaign to encourage 14,000 sales representatives around the world to implement elements of its ‘Net Promoter Score’ methodology. Using mobile technology and personal computers, the company was able to achieve 11% to 19% uptake in desire among sales reps globally.

Machine Learning
The Definition
Machine learning can also be used as a strategy. Machine learning, which is a branch of artificial intelligence, is an application that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being programmed to do so.

For the purpose of explanation, the example of an AI-controlled multiple-choice test is relevant. If a person taking the test marked an incorrect answer, AI would then give them a question a bit easier to answer. If the question was answered wrong again, AI would follow with a question lower in difficulty level. When the student began to answer questions correctly, the difficulty of the questions would increase. Similarly, a person answering questions correctly would continue to get more difficult questions. This allows the AI to determine what topics the student understands least. In doing so, learning becomes personalized and specific for the student.

Experience Learning
But technology isn’t the sole basis for disseminating information. Learning programs should also focus on creating more experience opportunities that offer development in either leadership or talent. Those programs should also prioritize retention. Programs such as mentoring and coaching are great examples.

Dipankar Bandyopadhyay led this charge when he was the Vice President of HR – Global R&D and Integration Planning Lead – Culture & Change Management for the Monsanto Company. Monsanto achieved this through its Global Leadership Program For Experienced Hires.

“A couple of years ago, we realized we had a need to supplement our talent pipeline, essentially in our commercial organization and businesses globally – really building talent for key leadership roles within the business, which play really critical influence roles and help drive organizational strategy in these areas. With this intention, we created Global Commercial Emerging Leaders Program,” Bandyopadhyay said. “Essentially, what it does is focus on getting external talent into Monsanto through different industry segments. This allows us to broaden our talent pipeline, bringing in diverse points of view from very different industry segments (i.e., consumer goods, investment banking, the technology space, etc.) The program selects, onboards, assimilates and develops external talent to come into Monsanto.”

In Summation
Microlearning and machine learning are valuable in developing the workforce, but they are not the only ones available. Additionally, it’s important to note an organization can’t simply provide development and walk away. There has to be data and analysis that tracks employee learning success. There also needs to be strategies in place to make sure workers are retaining that knowledge. Otherwise, it is a waste of money.

Source : https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/learning/articles/learning-that-targets-millennial-and-generation-z