Five Scenarios for the Future of Recruiting: VIII The Games

Last modified on 2011-03-18 19:56:19 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

Five Scenarios for the Future of Recruiting: VIII The Games

Up at 6am. 15 points. Hit the snoozebar once. Minus 5 points. Brush your teeth for three full minutes. 50 Points (with a bonus from the toothpaste maker). Right sized healthy breakfast. 25 points.

Arrive at work on time. 25 points. Attend all meetings on time. 75 points. Make meeting contributions recognized by peers. 100 points. Return all emails and phone calls. 25 points. Healthy lunch. 30 Points. Walk after lunch. 50 Points. Make five calls (or widgets or requisitions or whatever) as described in objectives. 40 points. Stay 1/2 hour later than usual. 25 points.

Take public transit home. 70 Points. Watch TV (an enormous point bonanza). Bush teeth for three full minutes. 50 Points (with a bonus from the toothpaste maker). Get in bed early enough to earn the well-rested points bonus in the morning.
- Adapted from Design Outside The Box

It’s the logical extension of performance management programs. By coupling frequent flyer style points systems, game design and performance management, the world has become points crazed. Work performance is ranked along with every other aspect of life.

The points system allows companies to identify and harvest their true fans. They compete in every aspect of life for the opportunity to build an ‘authentic’ relationship calibrated by measurement. Payment for the consumption of advertising, which in 2010 is already somewhat expected, has exploded into a global preoccupation.

Rather than an Orwellian ‘Big Brother’, life is an interaction with a storm of ‘little sisters’ who measure us and offer incentives for performance. Like Life In Public, our hunger for recognition, achievement and progress increasingly makes our lives public and transparent.

As each individual becomes a monetizable data stream, first the marketers join in. Sooner or later, the employers begin to understand that you can mine the point system as a cross check on employee potential and performance. Ultimately, the point system becomes a combination of pipeline and reference.

It’s as if MeritBuilder‘s wildest fantasy took shape. As the point system expands, there’s little reason for employers not to make it a part of compensation. After all, if you can use the Frequent Flyer miles and the company gives them to you for a bit more than they got them wholesale, why wouldn’t you take them?

And so, we are entering a post-national currency system. With points available for barter across product and company lines, the ATM of the future is likely to allow access and movement between monetary and non-monetary point systems. After all, Money Wants To Be Free.

It’s the all gaming all the time future.

The keys to mastery of career, manpower, staffing, workforce planning, compensation and a host of other issues are the same for all sides. Knowing what you want, with extreme specificity, is the core capability required to navigate the all points universe. With incentives and compensation for every increment of behavior, the ability to alter specifications on demand and align compensation systems accordingly is where competitive advantage lies.

This implies a deeper and more robust connection between HR, Recruiting and Line Management. The fine tuning of job offers and delivery of novel compensation structures requires a constant collaboration amongst the three groups.

You can easily imagine workforce planning becoming an exchange. You can, as easily imagine this as the structure for all all-contracting economy.

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At the Spring ERE Expo, on Wednesday the 17th, at 3:15, I’m giving a presentation called Recruiting Disruption. The session will be a conversation based on this series of articles. My goal in developing the series has been to try to provide all of the content that might normally be associated with a typical conference presentation in advance. I hope to engage in a lively conversation at ERE that barely resembles a typical conference session as a result.

The traditional conference model makes this sort of weird assumption that the split between “person on the stage” and “audience” is somehow normal and appropriate. In the age of the Internet, it is rarely true that the distance between speaker and participants is as great as it once was.

We all have access to the same content. That wasn’t the status quo even five years ago. I am constantly astonished by how well read, smart and experienced my colleagues are. In this experiment, I hope to create a collegial atmosphere for conversation.

If you come and are so inclined, I’m happy to run the conversation about the Future of Recruiting and the coming disruptions well into the evening.

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To read the rest of the series:

• Five Scenarios: I Introduction
• Five Scenarios: II The Trends
• Five Scenarios : III The Marketplace
• Five Scenarios: IV The Future Matters
• Five Scenarios: V Guild Cities
• Five Scenarios VI: Invasion of the Shallybots
• Five Scenarios VII: The Pandemic

Also, Peter Clayton’s Total Picture Radio has a podcast that gives a good overview. Here’s the transcript.

Thank You: Pinstripe Talent. Without their visionary support, this project would not have been possible.

Review: SHRM Standards Development

Last modified on 2011-03-18 19:57:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Review: SHRM Standards Development

Standards are: “Documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be uses (sic) consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics, to ensure that materials, products, products, processes, and services are fit for their purpose.” – International Standards Organization, FAQ

Okay, this is not going to be as dry as that start, I promise.

Just over a year ago, SHRM announced its initiative to develop HR Standards. At that time, Lee Webster, the West Point grad in charge of the project at SHRM, noted the following objectives:

• Setting the agenda on what the standards are for HR organizational success within the profession.
• Elevating the view of HR practitioners as a vital, learned group of business professionals.
• Overseeing the [HR] standards across the globe

” Once these standards are created, local HR leaders can use them to manage their practices more effectively in their workplaces, and [the standards] will be connected to what we do with certification,” Webster said. “Having operating standards rather than using an ad hoc approach to manage HR operations will allow HR to act in a manner similar to other professionals. It can lead to SHRM becoming “the arbiter of HR standards not only for the domestic U.S. marketplace but also across the globe. Those standards can cover a range of topics.It’s really only limited by what the profession says is necessary or not necessary to be a standard. The resulting document can be a few pages to an entire manual.”

It’s an interesting initiative and we’ve been treating it like any other product demo. You may recall that Gerry Crispin is deeply involved in this process. The discussion about HR Standards and the need for them is already very global in scope. There is an academic initiative in Australia, a commercial initiative in the Pan Asian world (remember Neil McCormick?), InformImpact has published a formal set of about 2,500 standards used by its members (the Metrics Standard). There is a Canadian Initiative as well.

Of course, there’s little attempt to dodge competitive wheel reinvention. (And it’s extremely interesting to note the importance of Australia in the global standards development process with three of the six initiatives)

In the domestic American marketplace, there are roughly, 7,000,000 firms that have some form of HR process (payroll is the foundation of HR), 50,000 vendors who deliver services to those 7,000,000 firms and roughly 1,000,000 HR professionals (depending on how you define the term). The single largest problem faced by SHRM’s initiative is developing credibility and relevance in the market.

A search on “hr standards” getting involved shows Australia’s Talent2 (Neil’s organization) as the primary link. There are no obvious mentions of the SHRM program.

Currently, there are only 156 places on the net that even mention the initiative. 86 of those are SEO stubs pointing to Gerry’s article on the subject. The remainder are the result of a single press release announcing the initiative. It appears that ‘getting the word out’ isn’t really a part of the current game.

The great challenges in the establishment of industry standards are:

• Figuring out how to get anyone to care in the first place
• Organizing a credible public process
• Coming to Agreement on whether a standard is useful
• Coming to an Agreement on the standard
• Figuring out how to get anyone other than the people who created the standard to care.

The SHRM initiative runs significant risk because it is not well promoted. When asked, the project principals all had high hopes for adoption of the standards, once crafted. None seemed to have any idea how that might be accomplished. “Maybe the government will adopt them as standards,” said one. With barely 30% of all HR professionals represented, SHRM will have to aggressively reach beyond its boundaries to have serious traction.

It’s easy to dismiss this endeavor. HR has a number of particularly regional characteristics. It’s different between industries. The legal framework is an international maze. Who is on which side of the organizational fence is getting murkier as HROutsouricing and Recruitment Process Outsourcing take firm root. And, those definitions vary by country and region. The problems are big and the potential for dismal outcome is high.

That said, we are moving into a time of increasing measurement. Every aspect of everything will be measured, scored, assessed and processed. The intra-organizational definition problems (getting all divisions on the same page in the songbook) are as large or larger than the inter-organizitional issues (comparing apples to apples results between companies for best practices reasons). The emerging demand for silo specific metrics and analytics will drive the creation and adoption of standards whether or not there is a centralized body doing so.

I spoke with Lee Webster at some length last week. He is an amazingly smart, soft spoken, insightful and patiently determined fellow. As SHRM’s point man for the standards initiative, , he is able to deliver the story smoothly (even though I must have been the 10,000th person to ask). He is both proud of the effort to date and open to the idea that he may deliver the narrowest of victories.

One pont he made really caught my attention. “With standards, you allow organizations to focus on the places where they can really differentiate. In other words, standards define the minimum necessary for performance. Rather than wasting resources trying to emulate best practice across the board, the use of standards suggest that some arenas are worth no more than the bare minimum.”

In other words, standards offer a performance floor. Noting that everything does not have to be the pinnacle of achievement is a welcome addition of commonsense.

The great thing about Lee Webster is that he views the SHRM Standards Development process as an opportunity for everyone involved to learn. He shrugs away critique about the utility of standards by saying, roughly, “this process will be good at determining whether or not the industry wants a standard. If it doesn’t we may end up with a small body of product.”

After all is said and done, the SHRM standards initiative is a good thing. If you’re interested in tracking down Lee to get involved, you can reach him at SHRM.

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 v1.09

Last modified on 2011-03-18 19:56:46 GMT. 1 comment. Top.

In The Know v 1.09

Five Links to expand your view of HR. Measurement and Games edition

• Digital Influencer mapping: Who do you need to know online?
  Our digital influence mapping project uses Traackr, a Boston firm, looking to help HR harness online influece for sourcing, community development and referral projects. This article looks at a range of alternative sources and methods.
  “According to Flemming Madsen, founder of online research firm Onalytica, the main reason for measuring the influence of online voices is to find out the key people with which an organisation should be engaging. The key, he points out, is to ensure influence is not mistaken for popularity. ‘Popularity is a measure of how well known someone is,’ says Madsen. ‘Influence is a measure of their ability to move market share.’“
• How HR Can Use Social Media
  Gautam Ghosh, an organizational development specialist in India is a social media pioneer who started blogging eight years ago. This slide share presentation is a marketing/education piece from his new company 2020 Social. Indian culture is, in some ways, much better suited to the use of social media as a way of getting things done. The fact that this startup is in Mumbai, working for Indian clients should shatter one or two of your stereotypes.
• On Karma: Top-line Lessons on User Reputation Design
  Ultimately, reputation systems will emerge in enterprise settings. It’s where the battle for the heart of HR will be waged. Reputation systems will be the direct descendants of today’s primitive performance management tools. Keeping your eye on the emergence of reputation management and measurement tools will give you a head start. This article explains the idea of measuring ‘karma’, its uses and limitations.
• Futures Thinking: Writing Scenarios
  Jamais Cascio, one of the real stars of the scenario development set, explains how to write a scenario. If you are following the Five Scenarios For The Future of Recruiting Project
  and want to know how to build your own. This is the best place to start.
• Digital Business Tools Surpass the Web
  You’ll see this more and more. The web is over. The next generation of technology is coming fast and very few people see it. It doesn’t look like social technology. It looks like stuff built on the technology that carries social.
  “Social CRM is an emerging discipline that recognizes that the traditional two-way channel of communication between business and customer should include interactions among customers themselves. Numerous start ups including Bantam Live and established vendors such as Salesforce offer solutions to make that possible.”

Bonus Links

• JESS3 / The State of The Internet on Vimeo. Just watch it.
• Design Outside The Box: Want to know the future? You’ll never believe what this one. Points for everything.

On The Go v2.09

Last modified on 2011-03-18 19:59:24 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

On the Go v 2.09

Very short pieces about HR executives in transition. Designed to illuminate HR Careers (LinkedIN where available in bold)

• Brian Fraser has been promoted to senior vice president of People Services at Regency Centers where he will continue to oversee the company’s human resources function. He is responsible for the creation and implementation of all human resources policies, systems and practices that attract and retain high potential real estate professionals. Previously, Fraser held the position of Vice President of People Services. Fraser has been instrumental in leading Regency to be twice certified as the only “Employer of Choice” in its business sector, according to Quantum Workplace. He is based in the company’s Jacksonville headquarters and has been with Regency for nine years. Fraser is a graduate of Penn State University in University Park, Pa. Previously, he served as senior vice president of Human Resources for Homestead Guest Studios. He also worked with Blockbuster Entertainment and Foot Locker Corporation as a human resources consultant in operational management for more than thirteen years.
• Great Wolf Resorts Inc., Madison, named Kim Reese corporate vice president of human resources.
• The Navy compensation policy chief has been promoted to the Pentagon’s No. 1 military pay and allowances official. Jerilyn Busch has been appointed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates as the Defense Department director of military compensation, a Senior Executive Service position that falls under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Military Personnel Policy. Busch’s predecessor, Virginia “Vee” Penrod, was reassigned last summer as the Pentagon’s principal director for military personnel policy — the No. 2 job in that office — but concurrently served as acting director of military compensation. Busch previously served as head of the Navy’s Military Pay and Compensation Policy Branch.
• RSC Holdings Inc., one of the largest equipment rental providers in North America, announced today that it has appointed Mark W. Krivoruchka to the position of Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Mr. Krivoruchka is expected to assume his duties on March 8, 2010, and succeeds Bob Fox, who has agreed to resign and will pursue other opportunities.
• Dan Tompkins has been appointed to the position of vice president of human resourcesof Electrolux Home Care Products, Tompkins has been with Electrolux Central Vacuum Systems (formerly Beam Industries), most recently as senior vice president of operations and finance. He first joined Electrolux in 1995 at the Electrolux Laundry Products facility in Webster City. Tompkins received his BBA in accounting from the University of Iowa and his CPA license soon after. Prior to joining Electrolux, Tompkins worked in public accounting for several years and then held various positions in finance and human resources at two different divisions of HON Industries in Mt. Pleasant.

Top 100 v1.59 Jeremy Shapiro

Last modified on 2011-03-18 19:57:11 GMT. 2 comments. Top.

Top 100 v1.59 Jeremy Shapiro

In yesterday’s review of the SHRM HR Standards project, we looked at the interesting effort the professional association is generating. Standards, analytics and metrics are an integral part of the emerging world of global commerce. Jeremy Shapiro, the Bernard Hodes Group (Hodes) senior Vice President at HodesIQ, is on top of that question. He might be the most effective proponent of HR analytics in the business.

Shapiro has been a driving force in the Online Recruiting business for 14 years, the majority of that time at Hodes. He’s been central to the development of the only Applicant Tracking System owned by an advertising agency (that we know of). Managing technology development within the loving confines of an ad firm is no small challenge.

HodesIQ is a fully features SaaS system that provides soup to nuts recruiting technology including ATS, onboarding, job posting, sourcing and media metrics, succession planning and performance management. The solution is configurable and scalable. The interesting thing about being housed in an advertising agency is that it makes the HodesIQ emphasis on employment branding and career-site development all the more credible.

One measure of influence might be the number of press releases that mention you.

Continuing Bernard Hodes Group’s long-standing history of working to advance the field of human capital management, Hodes iQ’s Senior Vice President Jeremy Shapiro will lead an HR metrics workgroup for the innovative Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) initiative to help develop standards certified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which “oversees the creation, promulgation and use of thousands of norms and guidelines that directly impact businesses in nearly every sector”.

Shapiro, an author and expert in human resource metrics and talent management technology, will lead a cross-functional team of volunteers to create a standard for the frequently used HR metric, “cost per hire.” This workgroup is one of three initial efforts by SHRM to help HR teams better define common HR functions and measurements. “This is an exciting time in the field of HR metrics; executives are more interested in maximizing human capital potential, and are looking to HR for answers, but we need to get the basics down first,” said Shapiro.

“Efforts such as this one, which helps better define what cost per hire means, allows the HR function to move on to more challenging analytics. I’m excited to lead a strong team of HR professionals to submit our recommendation on a standard for cost per hire to ANSI.” A well-known expert in the world of talent management solutions, Shapiro oversees the development and management of Hodes iQ, Bernard Hodes Group’s award-winning talent acquisition and management software solution, and is co-author of the HR metrics book Ultimate Performance.

The Hodes iQ talent management system provides users with a robust business intelligence tool to report on HR metrics, in addition to access to Hodes iQ experts in talent acquisition measurement through seminars, webinars and direct consultation. – From the press release

Shapiro was a geek from day one.

Always hustling to make money, Shapiro’s youth might be better characterized as mis-saved rather than mis-spent. He loving tells the story of his first computer, a Tandy 1000. At 10, he computerized the town directory and sold it to the local politicians. He simply loved the intersection of technology and commerce.

A life long learner, Shapiro continued his education after undergraduate school picking up a degree that combined an MBA and a Computer Science Degree from Stern. The more he watches HR, the more he is sure it’s about data.

It’s easy to get at Jeremy’s passion. Just ask him about analytics. An association with Nick Burkholder got him started. Increasingly he is placing his energies and presentations into the Analytics world.

From here, it looks visionary. Of course the next generation of recruitment advertising client will be metrics (evidence) driven. Shapiro is setting the stage for Hodes’ emergence as a next level player.

We talked for a while about how HR Departments learn to use data. He repeatedly cited the following maturity scale proposed in the book he coauthored with Burkholder.

In the beginning, the use of analytics involves non-standard spreadsheets. In the end, the tool set shifts from predefined dashboards and into the issues that make talent management strategic.

In a separate piece, we’ll tell you about the conversations we had about trends beyond analytics. Meanwhile, keep your eye on Shapiro. His influence will be seen in the rate that analytics are adopted in HR.