The Talent Myth, Part V
Technology, Strategy and more on Technology Vendors

Thursday's post asked you to think about staffing strategy and how you develop it. The questions asked identified a simplified view of the basic components in developing a Staffing Strategy Plan. As an HR Executive or team, your strategy - like the strategy of every other functional team in your company, should be focused on helping the company meet it's revenue and operational goals. You may have other goals associated with staffing or HR, but they should fall FAR DOWN THE LIST from the core of helping your company be successful in developing and delivering it's product or service to market.

After following the roadmap which Thursday's question walk you through, you are left with clear priorities that will drive your tactical staffing and employer branding and marketing efforts - and all of this combined should drive the priorities for the selection of your Talent Management technology. If you walk through the roadmap in the context of not just 12 months but 36 or 60 months - EVEN BETTER! So many HR Execs and teams make the mistake of starting with the tactical - or even worse their existing systems and it's deficiencies to drive their priorities in drafting their requirements for talent management technology or vendors - then add insult to injury by not looking long term.

Now I'm not advocating that you get your head up in the vision clouds and forget that your feet are planted in the HR department, and not marketing. But I am saying that you should be doing everything you can to tie yourself to your company's strategy, and your company's lifeblood: revenue. We all know the company can't operate without the right talent and talent strategy, NO ONE would argue that - but even with this obvious condition most HR Executives can't seem to find a way to rise up to the challenge.

Based on today's post and Thursday's questions, do you feel HR is capable of rising to this challenge? I'd love to know what you think - email me here

Of everyone involved in confusing the HR Executives around their strategy and the technology needed to help realize it the worst offenders have been, OF COURSE, the Technology vendors themselves. As this industry has struggled over the last 20 years to seperate itself from it's staffing industry roots and it's cottage industry-like image, the technology and systems vendors in this space continue to fall short in their delivery. I have yet to see a vendor that comes close to realizing the vision it offered or even it's potential. So many vendors have come close to being leaders and seemed on the track to becoming a truly great company only to fall slightly further on the path than the vendor in front of them.

They all seem to make the same mistakes. But that is what the next post is about.

Feedback? Questions? email me here

The Talent Myth, Part IV continued
The Technology Vendors

Thanks to everyone for the recent feedback on this blog - specially to John Sumser at Interbiznet for mentioning the site in his column of yesterday. On again, off again? I agree I have been spotty with the postings, but I'm trying my best to post weekly at a minimum from here forward and attention from Interbiznet is just the thing to keep the pressure on me to do so.

Look for Part V of the Talent Myth tomorrow. In the meantime as a teaser to tomorrow's post, here are a few questions for you to think about:

When you draft your strategy for Talent Acquisition and Management do you:

- Sit down with line managers on the front line and check on what their key goals are for the year and how their teams are equipped to help acheive them?

- Discuss and define any skills gaps that exist and agree on a working contract of what service you will provide him/her to help fill the gaps and meet the goals, and how you will deliver it?

- Roll up the goals and skills gaps found across the organization and come up with a cohesive plan to address the issues and deliver back to the line organizations clear expectations of what will and can be delivered, gathering feedback and finalizing your strategy?

- Present your strategy and findings to the Executive team, identifying critical areas where talent, or a lack thereof, may have an impact on acheivement of key corporate goals that are revenue related?

I think that's enough to chew on before tomorrow....

Until then,

Talent.

Please send your feedback here.

The Talent Myth, Part IV
The Technology Vendors

Could HR executives be more confused about technology?

In some ways the challenges the HR executive has to deal with in terms of technology vendors are not unique to our little Talent Management sector. The selling of vapor-ware (promising technology that is yet to be delivered), the short shelf-life of technology standards and trends, vendor focus on sales with a fraction of that focus on support - these are a few things you have to look out for whether you're buying Talent Management software or financial software. The vendors in our little market-space have their own unique bag of challenges that the HR executive should be looking out for. The HR executive tends to also create a few very unique challenges for themselves in selecting and using technology.

Most all HR executives I've met are admittedly technology adverse, have had only rare technology experiences where a system actually delivered on it's promise, and have put tens - even hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultants pockets for assistance in selecting systems to be left with the same problem they started with just now they experience it through a different interface. Given that, you would think that after the first wave of vendors in Talent Management (Restrac/Webhire & Resumix) were displaced by the next wave (I-Search, HireSystems/BrassRing, PeopleClick, & Recruitsoft) that they would have gotten it right - and selected vendors that had more staying power, viability in addressing their issues, and vision for the future.

With the wave 2 vendors now either out of business (I-Search), struggling desperately (BrassRing, PeopleClick), or starting down the same path (Recruitsoft) the HR executive finds themselves on round 3 of trying to get it right.

So, how did we find ourselves here?

In the midst of FUNDAMENTAL problems with the talent acquisition and management process the HR executives and the vendors that sell to them continue to focus not on solving the basic issues and making their users (recruiters, hiring managers) lives easier, but rather because both parties struggle with the basic issue - they both blow visionary smoke at each other in the form of predicting the future of Talent Management and technology and trying to build and accomplish a more strategic vision. (MORE ON THIS IN NEXT WEEK'S POST)

While evaluating the selection and purchase of the system that fuels the company with the talent that builds the product, delivers the service, and drives the revenue, the HR executives farm out the process to consultants that are, with rare exception, mediocre. (See my Jan 20 post)

The vendors in this space continue to confuse the HR executives and teams with their failure to solve fundamental business problems, and clouding of that issue with the representation of future visions and capabilities that don't exist - or an over simplification of the complexity they are selling. (MORE ON THIS IN NEXT WEEK'S POST)

I will be posting again next week. In the mean time, please send your feedback, questions, or comments here.

Could I possibly come back after several months on hiatus and ask you to do some homework prior to reading my post? Yes.

To prepare for tomorrow's post ask yourself the following questions. Don't over analyze or over engineer your responses, answer them with your gut instinct. It will make tomorrow's content that much more interesting.

How many software applications - of any type - for your business or your personal use have met your expectations once you've used them for 3-6 months?

In your personal life do you let a third party buy your car or house, or do you rely on third parties for guidance and data since these are such critical and expensive purchases? When buying large HR systems do you apply the same logic to the way you buy?

When making a critical systems decision do you feel it's more effective to focus on the few key business drivers for that decision, or develop a list of drivers and metrics for your decision that compares in complexity to the system you are purchasing?

Thanks,

Talent

Feedback? Questions? Comments? email me here

Illness, travel, vacation, kids, family, and other distractions have kept me from my blog. I apologize, if you have been checking in and I haven't been writing. I have let us both down.... HOWEVER.... I'm back and I'm focused. The Talent Myth Part IV was originally planned to be about the Industry Press. While there is a lot to say about the industry press, with recent events (Oracle - JD Edwards - Peoplesoft) I've decided to switch this installment's topic to be about the HR Technology Vendors. Actually this may be the next few installments.

Check back tomorrow, and let me know what you think.

Feedback? Questions? Comments? email me here