Joined up HR systems

There is a lot of buz around the subject of 'Talent Management', with any number of seminars, workshops and white papers available. As ever, the software world has latched onto this potentially huge market place and solutions are available from many vendors.

What I don't understand though, is that this new breed of system seems to be being implemented independently from an organisations HR system. This leads to an organisation having two (or more) silos of employee related information that may or may not speak to each other. Surely the business world knows that this is a bad idea so why is it happening?

The problem seems to lie somewhere between a lack of clarity as to what a talent management system (TMS) should look like and a lack of flexibility in many HR systems. Gartner have identified that many organisations implementing TMS, are doing so as a toe in the water effort to replace spreadsheets or Word Docs ('Unlocking the Strategic Value From Talent Management Application Investments' - Dec 2007). It is also well known in the HR world that traditional HR systems are cumbersome (aka expensive) to adapt so are not being tailored to handle TM.

Organisations are spending vast amounts of money joining up business systems, removing silos and sharing information. Lets hope we don't have to go through the whole process again combining HR data. HR and talent management systems must not be separated - information about the employee should be held in one place.

An organisation adopting talent management strategies is making an important investment but lets not forget that the ideas are not completely new - they draw on lessons from the past. In that same spirit, lets not forget the great IT lesson of the 90s not to create data silos.

Age discrimination

I met a contact at the Employers Forum on Age today and he shared with me the idea that the debate over retirement ages could be solved by having three dates:

• State pension age
• Work scheme pension age
• Actual retirement age

This approach would then allow the employer and employee maximum flexibility instead of the state dictated retirement age.

CRM and short term memory

There seem to be two types of CRM users - those that use it to manage transactions and others that use it to organise their business lives.

I unashamedly fall into the latter group - I use my CRM system to manage my every move. In looking at ways to release more time for thinking and planning it came to me that I use CRM as the system equivalent of my long term memory - memory stored as meaning that can fade over time if it is not recalled on a number of occasions. CRM for me has become a memory store. With smart use of reminders and triggers I can get the system to recall information over time. The problem with this is that reminders can interrupt and overwrite what users are currently thinking, ie what is going on in short term memory. Smart use of CRM takes this into account but in this respect a system is only as good as its user.

Succession planning - inside outsiders

Whilst researching succession planning I came across the idea of 'inside outsiders'. These are employees that have managed to keep an open mind and haven't been sucked in by company think. The argument is that they make excellent future leaders as they have an outside view of the business and its world. Listen to Harvard Business Online Episode 68

Once again, a great contact base is cited as essential. More evidence that, to succeed, a business must have a strategy to manage its relationships. See also Darren Shirlaw's article

Education / Business partnership

I have just come back from speaking at a Surrey Education Business Partnership event near Dorking about using data to help develop client relationships. The audience was a group of Business Studies teachers and the aim of the event was to give them some some insight into areas of the business world. A really great bunch of people and a relief to know that future entrepreneurs are in good hands.

I had the pleasure of meeting Justin Urquhart Stewart from Seven Investment Management (http://www.7im.co.uk/) who was also presenting. You may have heard him on the TV or radio and he is well worth meeting if you ever get the chance.

His view on the economy? - have a look at http://www.7im.co.uk/InvestmentLibrarySubMenu.aspx

Linkedin

I have been working on my Linkedin profile recently and am starting to see some interesting results.



Having played with Linkedin and ecademy I decided to concentrate on growing my Linkedin network. ecademy just seemed to be too hard to navigate and sent me too many 'update' emails.

It is taking a while but I am now making contact with past colleagues, clients and contacts. Starting with a view that quality of contact is far better than quantity, I am engaging with some really interesting people. For me it is essential that you know why you want to make contact with a person - business, personal or maybe just to say hi - but collecting names is not for me. For each person I link to, I am trying to find a way to engage with them outside of Linkedin. There seem to be some real 'professional' Linkedin'ers who have hundreds of contacts and it must be a full time job to keep in touch.

Some interesting tips at http://www.linkedinhelp.com/

If we are heading into a recession then business is going to become even more focused on who you know and I see Linkedin as being a great getting to know tool.

Apple iPhone - a generational thing?

Had an interesting exchange with a colleague at the end of last week about the iPhone. It was prompted by an article on the web http://www.b2bm.biz/news/?groupId=&articleId=28579

To me, the iPhone is a personal phone that has an uphill struggle to be accepted as a mainstream business tool. Cool but useless for business was my view.

My colleagues is gen 'Y' and his take is that the iPhone interface is the way forward and the rest had better watch out. I was taking a thinking approach and he was taking a feeling approach - seems like a classic generation divide. Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of the argument it will be his generation in charge of corporate purchasing soon! Need I say more?

Talent Management

I went to a seminar last week that was all about talent management. One of the talks was on managing 'troublesome talent' and that sparked quite some debate.

Questions from the audience included:
Are talented employees, by their very nature, troublesome?
Shouldn't all troublesome employees be moved on - whether talented or not?
Is troublesome the worng word?
Are all gen Y employees troublesome?

The test seemes to be to focus on the talented bit first - is an employee talented? If so, then you should spend more time and effort on accomodating them. The alternative approach being suggested was to work with a troublesome employee just in case they are talented!