Win an Apple iPad in HRExaminer’s Blank Slate Challenge

Last modified on 2010-01-28 02:54:35 GMT. 9 comments. Top.

Win an Apple iPad on HRExaminer's Blank Slate Challenge

The news is in – Apple just released their amazing new product – the Apple iPad.

Technology evangelists and business experts are already heralding the iPad as a game-changing product. Here at HRExaminer that got us thinking about all that had to happen to bring the iPad to market.

We thought about the people who contributed to the user interface, the hardware development, the marketing and manufacturers, even the deals with the content partners. It took a whole company of people, in turn supported by many suppliers and partners. Amazing when you think of it.

It didn’t take long before we had moved on to thinking about the strategy and talent required to pull it all off.

We have a lot of ideas about what we think HR should be. Our internal customers have a list of their own…

Perhaps what is needed is some totally fresh thinking. So we’re launching a challenge – a contest of ideas.

Imagine an HR led strategy that could produce results in your organization like the iPhone and iPad have for Apple. How would you change the way you recruit, hire, develop and retain your employees so they could reach their full potential while keeping them engaged? (The proposal that you give them all iPhones and let them play with themselves has already been suggested.)

How would you change your company go-to-market strategy in areas like product, sales and marketing? Step in their shoes for a while and then come back to your expertise – people. Would you re-design one of your own internal HR functions like Recruiting to drive your game-changer?  What is it going to to take to produce a game-changer? Who is it going to take to produce a game changer?

Here’s your mission:

Submit a 200-1,000 word essay describing a game-changing HR led strategy that you could announce by February 28 in your company and begin implementation by the end of Q1 2010 – around the time the Apple iPad is set to ship.

See this as a way to re-challenge your own assumptions for 2010 and that of your organization – even what HR ‘does’. Assume that your CEO loves the idea, the CFO is cutting the check, and that you will get everything you need to make your plan happen. Tell us how HR will transform your company into a better place to work and work better.

Judging

Judging will be subjective and arbitrary, but will be conducted by experienced industry executives and consultants who know what they are talking about most of the time (aka the HRExaminer advisory board) We’ll choose the top three submissions we receive by February 28, 2010 by 11PM PST. The panel will consider the following areas in selecting their winners:

1. Originality
2. Communication of idea or strategy
3. Potential to redefine HR’s role & impact in the company

Prizes

• First Place: Apple iPad. (We’ll have a team camped out in line to get it on the first day they’re available*)
• Second Place: Apple iPod nano 8GB
• Third Place: Apple iTunes $75 Gift Card

All accepted entries will be published on HRExaminer.com. Contestants agree to allow HRExaminer to publish and re-use this content on its associated website/s, email, events, marketing and publications.

Deadline

Sunday February 28, 2010 11PM EST (GMT -5)

How to Submit your Entry

Please send an email titled “Blank Slate Challenge” containing the information noted below to blankslate@hrexaminer.com
along with your essay. Your essay can be included in the email text OR as an attachment in either Word, RTF, PDF, PowerPoint, etc.)

Your Email Must Include:

• Your Name
• Company Name
• Your Email address
• Your Phone Number
• Company Website Address
• Essay (in text or attachment)

If you have any other questions just send them to the email address blankslate@hrexaminer.com.

Thanks and good luck!

*If we aren’t able to purchase your iPad the day of release due to demand we’ll ship one to you as soon as they become available.

Top 100 v1.54 John Murabito

Last modified on 2010-01-28 21:34:08 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Top 100 v1.54 John Murabito

John Murabito credits his success to the fact that he got big jobs fast, ahead of his capacity. Development was a matter of people showing confidence in him when he was 22. Early identification as a leader coupled with great development programs helped him turn his raw talent into a finished product.

“I was out of the nest really early,” he says, “Leaving home in Chicago to chart my course forced me to become independent. That’s where maturity comes from. I worked in a number of different industries and developed a broad foundation rather than a limited view that comes from working in one company.”

These themes pepper Murabito’s narrative. “Risk builds confidence; Independence is the foundation of maturity; Breadth yields competence; search for risky opportunity; Take personal responsibility.” The simple slogan-like messaging seems essential to his trajectory.

Currently, Murabito is the Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Services at CIGNA. He’s been there for nearly seven years.

Prior to joining CIGNA, Murabito served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Services at Monsanto. His background includes more than 30 years of extensive related experience with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, Symbion, Inc., and The Trane Company.

This fall, he was named Human Resources Executive of the Year by Human Resources Executive magazine. The article describing his award details the work of a visionary HR Leader. Murabito integrated, streamlined, measured and made accountable the sprawling disconnected HR function he found at CIGNA. He moved, in fact, to be a part of the turnaround

The essential skills of great Human Resources Executive leadership are:

- Communication that Stays on Target and On Message
- Evidence Based Decision Making (driven by Workforce Analytics)
- Effective Outsourcing
- Program Management
- Contracts Administration
- Solid Leadership Development

Murabito excels in each area. Like Rusty Rueff and Brian (Skip) Schipper, Murabito is a graduate of the Pepsi HR Leadership development ‘laboratory’. In it’s time, the Pepsi system produced an enormous number of powerfully influential Human Resources Executives. The keys were:
- Bigger jobs than the leadership candidates merited based on age and experience (trust and confidence) and
- Job Rotation in rapid succession through different functions

The Pepsi approach taught these aspiring leaders how to rapidly adapt, find problems worth solving and feel good about moving on.

Murabito is exercising a kind of influence that only an Human Resources Executive can deliver. As a champion of data driven decisions and analytics, Murabito is one of the people who is actively changing the way HR is executed. To be influential in this sort of operational way requires that you:
- actually do the work and accomplish something and
- find ways to bring visibility to the arena.

At the bottom line, Murabito is a team player. For every compliment I volleyed his way, he returned some form of “you can only do that with a team.”

On The Go v2.04

Last modified on 2010-01-22 02:04:48 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

On The Go v2.04

On the Go, career moves charted on HRExaminer.com

Watching the careers of HR Executives for clues

• Arne Boudewyn joined the Wells Fargo Family Dynamics team as a family wealth consultant. Shewill engage with families to promote communication and financial literacy for future generations, and assist with clarifying family values and legacies for sustainable wealth. Previously, Boudewyn was vice president for Wells Fargo Corporate Human Resources, responsible for managing various human resource customer service and consulting groups. Prior to joining Wells Fargo in 2003, he served as regional manager for Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health education program.
• Constellation Energy Group Inc. appointed Jason Mullens as vice president of human resources for its merchant energy subsidiary, Constellation Energy Resources. In this role, Mullens will be responsible for leading the integrated human resources capability for the merchant organization of Constellation Energy. Most recently, Mullens served as senior vice president, west consumer division and national customer experience human resources executive at Bank of America. In this role, he was responsible for leading a team focused on delivering end-to-end human resource solutions for an approximately 30,000-person, multi-billion dollar retail banking operation for the western United States.
• Gary Dodds, is the new regional vice president of human resources for the Middle East & Africa for Marriott International. Previously, he was vice president of human resources for the United Kingdom & the Middle East & Africa based in London. During his tenure in that post, the region was awarded the prestigious Investors in People Award for 60 Marriott UK hotels in 2006 and ranked fourth in the highly-coveted “all industries” UK Sunday Times “Best 100 Companies” Award in 2009. Over the course of his career, Mr. Dodds has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America and is active in numerous industry and human resource groups.
• Alan Dreher joined AirTran Airways as director of corporate security, a newly created position. Reporting to Loral Blinde, senior vice president of human resources and administration, Dreher will oversee corporate security and compliance with all federal security regulations for AirTran Airways and will be based in Atlanta. Dreher, a native of California, brings more than 30 years of law enforcement, intelligence and security experience to AirTran Airways. He most recently worked for the Atlanta Police Department where he served as assistant chief of police and was appointed by former mayor Shirley Franklin and Chief Richard Pennington. In this role, Dreher was responsible for managing the daily operations of the police department, including operations at the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He also established the department’s first homeland security unit and served as the chairman of the city of Atlanta’s Homeland Security Council. While with the department, Dreher also oversaw security and law enforcement operations for several high-profile events, including the NBA All-Star game, Coretta Scott-King’s funeral and the SEC football championships.
• Natalie Estrella is now vice president of human resources at Noven Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Estrella’s professional career spans nearly 30 years, including 14 years with the Johnson & Johnson companies, where she served as director of worldwide human resources for DePuy Mitek, as vice president of human resources for The Spectacle Lens Group, as director of human resources for Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics.
• Dana I. Green was promoted from senior vice president to executive vice president and general counsel at Walgreen’s. Green, 60, joined Walgreens in 1974 as an attorney in employee relations and was promoted to director and, in 1998, divisional vice president of that department. She became corporate vice president of human resources in 2000, then senior vice president of human resources four years later. Green was named Walgreens general counsel in 2005. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a law degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., and a master’s of law in taxation from DePaul University, Chicago.

Our sponsor Pinstripe, Inc. designs, builds and delivers high-performance talent acquisition and management solutions. Pinstripe’s innovative approach to Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) integrates sourcing, recruiting, hiring, on-boarding, and engagement into a complete, end-to-end solution. Pinstripe on-demand hiring solutions are tailored for specific clients across a spectrum of industries including financial services, healthcare, technology, telecommunications and other major industries. For healthcare organizations, Pinstripe Healthcare works with clients to attract the best available talent so they can deliver high quality patient care and reduce overall labor costs.

Learn More about Pinstripe

In The Know v 1.04

Last modified on 2010-01-28 21:23:36 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Tom Coates of PlasticBag.org writes on Shirky

In The Know v 1.04 Links to help you rethink

• Should We Encourage Self Promotion and Lies
  This is Tom Coates eloquent response to Clay Shirky (a hyper influential professor at Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU) who recently wrote a piece called
  A Rant About Women. He argued that not enough women have what it takes to behave like arrogant self-aggrandizing jerks. This trait, Shirky says, is the essence of great project management and powerful careers. Here’s Shirky’s conclusion:
  “What I do know is this: it would be good if more women see interesting opportunities that they might not be qualified for, opportunities which they might in fact screw up if they try to take them on, and then try to take them on. It would be good if more women got in the habit of raising their hands and saying “I can do that. Sign me up. My work is awesome,” no matter how many people that behavior upsets.“
• The Future of HR According to a non-HR Guy
  Short and sweet, Dr. Dewett sez “There are 3 types of folks in most HR groups: compliance people (did everyone complete the training yet?), administration people (they, for example, are kind enough to ensure we are all paid correctly), and, finally, people people (who work on improving individual and group performance, organizational development, talent management, leadership training, etc.). The compliance people are all about CYA. The administration people are about facilitating the status quo. The people people are addicted to shaking things up and creating various types of positive change. My idea in a nutshell: get the compliance and administration people the hell away from the people people immediately. The people people will only start to cause massive improvement when they are operationally removed from the stigmatized “personnel” past.”
• Talent Attraction Expert Joe Cortright
  The Talent question is much larger than an HR or Recruiting Department. Regional dynamics, urban planning, economic development, reproductive tendency and employment branding are all a part of a large stew. This piece, critical of Cortright’s approach to solving the Talent problem in Akron, is a part of an amazing blog about the talent problems of Middle America…Burgh Diaspora.
• Twitter Reconsidered
  Scott Berkun is fast becoming a central commentator on work, projects, public speaking and social media. He’s one of the new high profile next-gen business writers at O’Reilly media. In this piece, he shifts his view of twitter from the widely held ‘what a waste of time’ to a more thoughtful ‘hmm, people are using it, there must be something there.’ Worth your time if Twitter still doesn’t make sense to you.
• If Your Kids are Awake, They’re Probably Online
  NYT article on a new study of kids media habits. Online is the new literacy.

Five Scenarios 3: The Marketplace

Last modified on 2010-01-28 23:47:27 GMT. 4 comments. Top.

Five Scenarios 3: The Marketplace

This article is the third in a series of pieces designed for a conversation at ERE’s Spring Expo.

When change comes to Recruiting, it comes in a variety of forms. In the search for the candidate who will deliver the best value for the money, companies are continuously innovating and seeking competitive advantage in the employment marketplace. Trends, fads and idiosyncratic procedures are commonplace.

Again, change comes in a variety of forms:

• New Technologies (like job boards or Applicant Tracking Systems) can shift the relationship balance between employer and employee
• New Techniques (like behavioral interviewing and internet sourcing) can change the selection process
• New Ways of Doing Business (like outsourcing) can change the volume and complexity of recruiting relationships
• Shifting Economics can change the demand equations making some skills more valuable than others
• Demographics can alter communications goals and processes
• New Information Management Ideas (like open source, wikis or public resume databases) change the competitive intelligence aspects of the game.
• Technology Disruption can eradicate an industry creating a surplus of potential employees who don’t quite fit
• Fads and Voodoo (handwriting analysis is a popular assessment tool in some places) shape some companies perspective

There is a darwinian process for figuring out which technologies work and which fail. The team that fields the best technology, marketing and sales combination gets to fight the next battle. Market dominance is rarely evidence of product quality alone. It’s usually a blend of of a pretty good product, super marketing and relentless sales that distinguishes the winners.

As we start to look at the ways in which Recruiting might change, it’s important to have a shared perspective of the market. The following map is one way of looking at all of the possible recruiting entities in the Domestic American Economy. It’s a grid representing all of the establishments in the United States that hire people. There are about 7.5 Million of them. (The number is somewhat smaller due to the downturn so I’ve used percentages)

The Vertical Axis is marked at the 80%, and 95% points. 80% of all companies have fewer than 100 Employees, 15% have between 100 and 500 employees and 5% have more than 500 employees. If you squinted, you could see the 1,800 companies with more than 5,000 employees. Each of these groups handles recruiting in relatively different ways.

The sub 100 crowd rarely uses formal systems to recruit. For many, it’s not really very likely that there’s an HR System much beyond payroll and benefits. Word of mouth and local referrals dominate the hiring process. This is one of the arenas in which Craigslist is very strong.

The sub 500 group is where formal systems start to matter. The Recruiters are as likely to be an HR Generalist as they are to be a competent professional recruiter. Much of the mom and pop contingent search business operates in this sector.

Above 500 employees begins to be enterprisey. As companies get larger, procurement processes become more formal, HR gains authority and credibility and IT infrastructure begins to be a serious investment. The squint level (5,000 and above) companies are a rarified environment.


The horizontal axis is marked at 60% and 90%.

60% of all companies (more or less) use reactive street level HR structures that are designed to solve crises. Almost perfectly administrative, these operations are the holdouts from the era of the personnel department. HR is for payroll, absolute minimum regulatory compliance, time keeping, benefits administration and old fashioned hiring methods. The bottom left hand corner of the matrix is darkened for two reasons. First of all, this is where most job creation happens. Second, recruiting, as it is described in any sort of professional literature basically doesn’t happen here. Hiring is done by word of mouth, local bulletin board advertising, Craigslist (maybe), and asking around (the low level referral system).

30% of all companies have SHRM members. HR and Recruiting work hard to be proactive and strategic. This is the world where the HR person aspires to a seat at the table. In the sub 100 companies, recruiting is done by the executive team and HR means a good work environment and great benefits. For the smallest HR operations in this category, SHRM is the HR training department. Above 100, the HR department is earnest and hard working with a new found tendency to focus on measuring and improving their processes.

The final 10% on the horizontal axis are the places where the Human Capital function is transformative. The recruiting and other HR functions deliver business results and impact. They expect to be involved in executive decision making and wonder what the all that fuss about the table is about. They do their work in the golf cart. In this segment, analytics is catching on and people are starting to wrestle with data driven, evidence based systems. Below 100 employees, much of the HR function is outsourced and key hires are handled, with a good chunk of analysis by the executives. Between 100 and 500 employees, the systems formalize and, again, resources are expended to make sure that the best systems and tools are used. Above 500 employees in this sector, things get really interesting. When Human Capital is seen and used as a business weapon, remarkable things happen.

The employment marketplace is vast. Over seven million firms employ 120 Million people (the rest of the workforce works for the government). The black square represents the 24 Million people in about 4 Million companies who don’t use Recruiting per se. The rest of the market is the ‘formal’ recruiting market.

So, how’s the picture? Do you think this is an accurate picture? Is there another way to portray the market?

I find the picture useful as a way of explaining how some things work. Economic pressure bears down on the top of the matrix. One way of thinking about the economy is that the thin strata of big companies are where money flows from into the smaller establishments in the food chain.

Technology adoption is a different story. It comes into our market from the right. The companies with Transformative HR are almost always early technology adopters. The next 30% follow the best practices of the innovators. The remaining 60% buy technology when there is a rational dollars and sense argument.

Make sense?

I hope you’re enjoying this build up to the ERE conference. Pinstripetalent has been kind enough to sponsor the work and research that makes the project possible.

Top 100 v1.53 Dave Shadovitz

Last modified on 2010-01-28 21:37:00 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Top 100 v1.53 Dave Shadovitz

16 Times a year, over 75,000 decision makers in the HR universe receive their copy of Human Resources Executive Magazine. In an era that is supposed to be the death of print periodicals, this foundational industry publication just keeps on trucking.

According to their PR. “Human Resource Executive® was established in 1987 and continues today as the premier publication focused on strategic issues in HR. Written primarily for vice presidents and directors of human resources, the magazine provides these key decision-makers with news, profiles of HR visionaries and success stories of human resource innovators. Stories cover all areas of human resource management, including personnel, benefits, training and development, HR information systems, relocation, retirement planning, workplace security, and health care.”

While some competitors my quibble with the characterization, there is no doubt that Human Resources Executive Magazine has had a strong hand in shaping the industry.

Most of readers will be familiar with the HR Technology conference put on by the company behind the magazine, LRP Publications. Human Resources Executive Magazine. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. LRP produces a handful of conferences including HRWeek and (returning this year) The HR Executive Forum. Always one of the top 3 online HR offerings, LRP’s online properties are diffused. A little late to the web game, LRP focuses on webinars, mailing lists, direct marketing and the vastly more profitable print advertising.

At the editorial helm of this industry standard is David Shadovitz. A career journalist, Shadovitz has run the show at
Human Resources Executive Magazine since its birth in 1986. After nearly a decade in B2B publishing, Shadovitz found a permanent home. He’s a journalist and a publisher at heart.

Somehow, you believe him when he says, “We never publish the same thing twice. We’re always looking for the new angle, the fresh way to tell the story.” 23 years later, David remains passionate about keeping his audience engaged and informed.

Things are very different now.

In the beginning, the publication was small and HR was more personnel than HR. The idea that the function should have executives and be strategic was not quite mainstream. With support, encouragement and inspiration from LRP’s founder Kenneth Kahn, who was once a practicing employment law attorney), Shadovitz dug into the assignment.

Today, HR increasingly plays a strategic role, spends huge dollars on technology and programs and is moving closer to business issues. “It’s been fun watching the community grow and evolve,” he says.

In trying to keep the content fresh, Shadovitz is the consummate networker. He talks with industry executives, vendor leaders, consultants and academics during most of his day. A team of seven editors and a stable of freelance writers (here’s how to get in print) power a content engine that produces rich, high quality journalistic material every 3 weeks.

In David’s case, stamina is a large part of his influence. The magazine and conference deadlines are relentless. So while he appears to be a mild mannered and very gracious fellow, there’s always a crisis brewing somewhere. Deadlines are just like that. Shadovitz makes his mark by staying smooth in the storm.

One way of thinking about influence is the way we’re measuring it in the digital influencer project: Reach, Resonance and Relevance. Shadovitz is the embodiment of all three.