HR Strategy

Over the last few months, we’ve been watching tremendously troubling images come out of BP’s Gulf oil spill. We often think that when things go wrong, they can usually be corrected, but sometimes something goes wrong and it’s just catastrophic.  At the time of writing, the oil spill had recently overtaken the amount of...
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There has been so much publicity around e-readers and the Apple iPad lately. In truth, I’m totally captivated by both of these technologies, but have not jumped in the market yet. The iPad seems wonderful since it is basically the next evolution of the net book, or mini-laptop. It has a great user interface,...
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We’ve been doing a pretty good job with Talent Management in my opinion.  We have pretty much deployed our systems or are in the midst of doing so.  We have reengineered our core talent processes from talent acquisition to performance to succession to learning and compensation.  We have started to grow our talent thinking...
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A long (very long) time ago, I used to captain a cycling team.  I had a crew of about 6 people that raced every week, and we all had our objectives and our roles.  As part of our weekly training for races, we would drill the sprinter on sprinting exercises, have the guys who...
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In cycling, there is the concept of a pace line.  Just as in auto racing (if you’re a NASCAR person) if you inches are behind another cyclist, you’ll save in the neighborhood of 25 to 30% of your energy as the cyclist in front of you fights the wind for you.  That person in...
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It’s been a while since I was on a bike.  All for good reasons, I haven’t actually been home in about 3 weeks.  I mean, you do need to have a bike available to you and decent roads to go for a ride.  I’m not sure that 3 weeks in NYC qualify.  First, I’m...
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Just a few short years ago, it really seemed like the vendor space was leading the market with all sorts of great new functionality and new ways to think about the world.  After all, what would we have done if SoftScape had not coined the term “Talent Management”?  (I’m pretty sure it was them,...
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I write this in the usual place – the airplane.  I’m in a window seat, so I’m only surrounded on three sides.  The guy in front of me has decided that all the stuff he does not want should not go in front of him, but that “out of sight, out of mind” is...
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but pretty much every time I receive a notification about farmville or gangster wars on Facebook, I pretty want to shoot the senders.  If they are nieces or nephews, they get some allowances for being kids.  But when I get literally 5 or 6 notifications in...
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Many of the people I know have watched a film called “Up in the Air.”  Indeed, I suppose it was a popular file garnering several Oscar nominations.  (I have no idea if it won anything as I don’t watch the Oscars.)  Several people have told me how personal the film was, and other than...
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Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve been playing this on-line game.  It’s a MMORPG (I can’t believe I remembered that whole thing) and I play a priest in a guild of mages, fighters, archers, etc.  What I find entertaining about it is not the game-play, but the collaboration that is necessary to make the game...
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I love tennis.  I prefer to watch it than to play as I’m not really very good, and I seem to have a bum shoulder.  Each year, my wife and I record the coverage of every grand slam, and to be honest, we have missed the once omni-presence of Rafael Nadal in all the...
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Portal redesign is fun these days.  Creating widgets from our talent management systems and plugging in cool looking, drillable analytics from the business intelligence engine (also widgetized) is pretty cool.  The technology advances in the last few years that allow you to take a standard portal and natively configure and insert your widgets (portlets,...
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Why can’t we get along with payroll?  What makes them so different?  It really does not matter when Payroll reports up to HR and when they report up to Finance.  There always seems to be some friction.  Often we like to think that they are just “different” people.  HR people are strategic and nurturing...
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Data Encryption with business intelligence and reports has always been a problem.  Users are constantly requesting reports, and once data is in someone’s hands, it’s almost impossible to control data dissemination and what I’ll call data diaspora.  One must admit, especially in large organizations, that trying to put controls from a procedural perspective is...
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I’ll have to be honest – I’m having a really hard time with some of the new technology.  I’m supposed to be a technologist and be up on all the latest stuff.  But I find myself at odds with some of the theory and philosophy.  There seems to be an emerging sense of immediacy...
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Not Digital. We all love digital.  It makes our lives easier and faster.  But I’m not sure we all have an appropriate understanding of what digital and analog really mean.  The fact of the matter is that we don’t live in a digital world.  Our world is purely analog.  We just have digital processes...
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I’ve been writing a lot about gaming and being an advocate for the learning activities that it promotes.  In many cases and for many games, there is active online collaboration, leadership, decision-making, team building, and project management going on.  The participants don’t necessarily know it’s happening, but it is.  However, while the players may...
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I’ve been away for a little while.  No, I have not been on vacation, or away from the country.  I’ve just not been writing.  I don’t know if other bloggers have this problem, but I don’t bother writing if I’m not “inspired.”  To be honest, I’ve faced this a few times in my career,...
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I have a friend who happens to have a particular way of ordering steaks. This is interesting for a number of reasons. First, I’m not sure how many Indian guys order steaks. Perhaps Gautam can shed some light on this for me. (I think my friend lives in Goa if that makes a difference)....
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