Talent Management Blog - Latest Comments

Re: External Hires Cost More and Perform Worse: The Case for Internal Mobility

Alex Watson — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:47:25 -0000

I've calmed down :) You provide a geat roadmap that organisations can learn from. I enjoyed your post, thanks.

Re: Talent Intelligence – Are You Investing in the Right Kinds of People Data?

Talent Analytics — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:42:24 -0000

Very good analysis. Couldn't agree more - it's so important to measure the RIGHT talent data.

Re: Developing Emerging Leaders at Magellan Health Services

Fabrice de Carné — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:38:16 -0000

Fantastic post and customer story about blended learning. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Re: A Social Recruiting Journey at Ministry Health Care

Thomas Stone — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:13:36 -0000

I'm glad you liked this post, and thanks for your insightful comment Stephen. I agree with your assessment and the items you've identified as key to success in this regard.

Re: A Social Recruiting Journey at Ministry Health Care

Stephen Turnock — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:38:33 -0000

Whilst a September post, this was a refreshing re-visit. Great example of smart thinking in social recruiting from Minstry Health Care and a shining example to all skeptics too! Important to note is the team effort where recruiters had responsible ownership and hence buy in which really made it work. Also backing from the top of course.

What is also great is the clear thinking behind the metrics and what to measure as so many recruiters cannot measure even traditional performance metrics or certainly not understand what is a key indicator. Putting these in early also help the skeptics in seeing benefit roi or even cost efficiencies as well of course, as actual performance in the networks. More difficult to measure is the longer term benefits to brand and the investment in actual time - a placement today may not be as a direct result of a post, tweet or seo or even current buzz, but as a result of relevance, transparency and trust over a passive period! Yes indeed we will have a way to go to measure such lag indicators not based on just activity - but is great to make a start.

As well as great use of Facebook, I noticed really interesting use of video and the ‘talking job’. Actually I started doing that many years ago with clunky equipment and giga bytes of videos on DVD.. but what are recruiters waiting for today with such easy access and means to post relevance to the followers and so easily?

Well one thing is for sure, without engagement, change and innovation recruiters inhouse or external, will not be attracting those great candidates.

@stephenturnock
Stephen Turnock MIRP CertRP

Re: External Hires Cost More and Perform Worse: The Case for Internal Mobility

Alex Watson — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:44:07 -0000

Organisations often source external talent and consultant, where they could develop internal capability, reduce costs and get a superior service in many cases. So why don't they do it?. I think there is a general lack of imagination within internal and external recruitment in general. People hire based on flawed criteria and their decisions can often be based on personal or political reasons, rather than organisational needs. Some people and are fearful of giving opportunities to bright internal candidates because they fear there own positions. Hiring externally allows an added element of control to the internal people that need resources, because they can more easily control a newbie. Just my opinion..and experience. Personally, I am sick to the back teeth of seeing people who look good on paper (often this paper has been diligently constructed to create the desired impression) then go into organisations complete a project or two, stay a year or so...just then move on to another more senior role in a new company, leaving poorly defined and executed projects in their wake. These are then tarted up for the next organisation. This is a personal bug bear of mine at the moment! Great article.

Re: Tea Leaves and Crystal Balls: Interpreting the Latest Jobs Data

spintreebob — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:53:05 -0000

Is there more than one interpretation of the numbers and of our society? The unemployment compensation system rewards unemployment. Some people pay into it; feel entitled to it; and feel like chumps if they don't take what is theirs. But other unemployed never register for it. They immediately look for, and find employment.

The unemployment situation reflects the larger society. More of society lacks the work ethic than previously. The work ethic is tied closely to supporting one's family. To be a MAN was to support one's family. But now the non-custodial parent does not even send money to his family. He sends it to the government and the government sends the child-support to his family. That relationship destroys the work ethic motivation.

The bullies in government keep putting their hand in my pocket and taking my money "for my own good". This further de-motivates one to work ...for the bullies.

Re: Talent Management and the Latest Television Commercials, Part 1

Christina Krenek — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:14:29 -0000

I love this article, I've never noticed the HR and talent management trends in commericals before now!

Re: Another Job’s Report, Another Mixed Bag

David Wilkins — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:35:46 -0000

Thanks Jim for the kind comments. I think you suggest a really interesting angle with this comment: "We either need to level the competitive global market of manufacturing and selling goods, or we need to create an entirely new business model of revenue generation for all the U.S. folks who somewhere between a high school graduate and a college alum." I didn't consider new business models or sectors, but I suppose I should have. It provides a third option that wasn't in my list.

The really scary part is that if anything, things are trending in the opposite direction. I'll be writing a post over the next couple of weeks about BLS projections regarding fastest growing jobs. The basic gist? There will be lots of jobs growth for those with just a high school degree, but nearly all of the fastest growing jobs in this segment are "dead end" sort of jobs like "Home Health Aide" or "Retail Clerk" or "Construction Laborers." Anyway, more to come on this. Thanks for the great comment. Would love to hear more of your thoughts on future posts.

Re: Another Job’s Report, Another Mixed Bag

Jim — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:12:40 -0000

This is a great perspective on a complicated topic. I sympathize with "Shark Tank Donny", because on the face of it, his business interests go beyond making money, opting to help employ fellow U.S. citizens at the expense (or lack thereof) of hiring cheaper foreign labor. Donny is doomed before he begins. If I were in the market to buy a run-of-the-mill ink pen and found 2 'almost identical' products for sale at the SAME price with one made in China and one made in the U.S., I'd buy the one made here in the USofA. But because of a multitude of laws, regulations, and CFOs who are looking for ways to maximize profits, the chances of two functionally identical products being offered at the same price point with one being made off shore and one being made in the U.S. is almost, if not entirely impossible. Do we have able-bodied people in the U.S. who could manufacture those said ink pens? Yes! Are they willing to take that job and get off the unemployed list? Yes again. But the days of competitive U.S. manufacturing are fading into the national sunset as surely as the sun falls into the western sky every day. We either need to level the competitive global market of manufacturing and selling goods, or we need to create an entirely new business model of revenue generation for all the U.S. folks who somewhere between a high school graduate and a college alum.

Re: Salesforce and Rypple: Not HCM, Not Even Close

dgarella — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:37:09 -0000

David,
I couldn't resist reaching out to applaud your comments. I have many thoughts to agree with here. The "social" word is being hijacked and added everywhere to the point where it is now so diluted/distorted that we have lost touch with what it actually means. As you say, "social" is in the DNA of HCM, not a descriptor for a new type. Rypple is no performance management system; like you, I fail to see how "cool" goal management supported by random badges is really going to move the needle with performance. Finally, I appreciated your observation about Rypple's customer list of "fun, tech start-ups in the valley". Yes, innovations often start here, but adoption in the real world may be slow. Thanks for the post.

Re: Unemployment News: The Two Details the News Media Missed

Ty Cobb — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:20:14 -0000

Many of the news media outlets are very biased particularly with current Administration's views. As usual they intentially neglect small details such as seasonal hires when reporting the national unemployment rate going down.Appreciate your reality check and calling out the BS,

Re: Unemployment News: The Two Details the News Media Missed

Anthony Kripas — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:12:53 -0000

The retailers we're speaking of are seasonal workers NOT full time. Also, because of ATS such as Taleo's, candidates' skill set screening is poor. Software MUST be more inner-active. Your software is making the process longer, more expensive, and terribly ineffective. Keep up the great work so others can look forward to a long unemployment period.

Re: Ten Great Learning Quotations to Celebrate Employee Learning Week

Alan Camerer — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:01:55 -0000

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. - Winston Churchill

Re: Recap of Elliott Masie’s Learning 2011 Conference

b.deepinder dhanoabhia — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:29:24 -0000

nice post, its very informative and knowledgeable post regarding Conference Management for me thanks for sharing all this...

Re: Unemployment and Jobs By the Numbers

Don of Yes Shop — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:16:22 -0000

Government employment continued to trend down. Household Survey Data Both the number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) http://yesshop.yolasite.com/bl...

Re: Taleo Research Recommends (vol. 6)

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Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

Thomas Stone — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:55:57 -0000

Hi Josh,

Good to hear from you! I remember meeting at an eLearning Guild event in the past -- I hope all is going well.

Thanks for your insights on ePUB3 and the work being done on that.

And I agree with you regarding not blaming "the industry for being gun shy on mobile development". I've been one of many out there at conferences, webinars, blogging etc. trying to educate, open minds, plant seeds, and encourage progress on mobile learning -- but I've always recognized the range of challenges, concerns, questions, etc. that organizations have. Sometimes I wish progress were *much* faster over the past few years, but in many cases I'm sympathetic with the challenges (including competing priorities and budget issues, that sometimes legitimately trump moving faster on innovation areas like mobile learning).

I like and agree with your list of other factors that could drive faster Mobile Learning in 2012... all good stuff, and I think several of them are closely related to and will be enabled or speeded up by the removal of the Flash uncertainty.

Thanks again for chiming in here!

Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

JoshCav — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:04:12 -0000

Thomas,

Excellent insight on this issue.

I have been involved with eLearning development since 1994 and I have never experienced such a disruption of content creation and consumption. There are more variables in play currently than just Flash and HTML5. One of those is ePUB3. The IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) has pushed through the standardization of this format in one year. Compared to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and HTML5 - this is a blazing fast pace. ePUB3 is based on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript and will allow interactive publishing experiences on tablets. I'm starting to see a pattern here and I think Adobe connected the same dots. HTML5 will rule the day. The echo of Flash will remain with us for years to come, but all the money now is on HTML5.

I don't blame the industry for being gun shy on mobile development. Who in there right mind is going to take the risk on something that may not be viable moving forward? Case in point: I was teaching a jQuery Mobile class this week and the framework was updated twice in one week (R3 and finally 1.0). How can you decide on a technology when it changes that rapidly?

Other factors in play:
- Massive adoption of tablets in the next 24 months
- Tool vendors moving from desktop based development software to "apps", cloud services and subscription models
- New HTML5 development tools coming online in 2012
- Empowerment of content creation

At the end of the day - our job is to create a communication piece that will effective transfer knowledge. How do we do that? Well, heck - I don't know... the rules changed last week. One thing is clear: HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript development is going to accelerate.

Josh Cavalier
Lodestone Digital

Re: What’s Really Going On With Unemployment

David Wilkins — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:55:51 -0000

Hi Laura,

I completely agree with your thesis. In fact, I'd also suggest that our lack of investment in education and retraining of our workforces is fueling the move to contingency. If an employee has to fend for herself in terms of re-skilling, training, and development and increasingly finds herself bouncing from project to project internally, it's not a big leap for her to start wondering about consulting, particularly with individual mandates on the way. Against this backdrop, I think businesses can realize competitive advantage by investing more in L&D and talent mobility strategies. I agree that it's a stretch, but hopefully one worth trying.

Dave

Re: What’s Really Going On With Unemployment

Laura — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:34:45 -0000

David, this is an excellent article. However, American business has gone into a "risk avoidance" mode, and simply refuses to spend money unless a competitor spends money first and creates a "win" by doing so. I believe we are in the midst of an "employment revolution" that will see fewer and fewer "regular employees" and more and more contingent workers and contingent project teams filling an immediate and specific need for a business.

Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

David Wilkins — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:27:39 -0000

Great piece. Fantastic comments from Steve as well. I think you raise a lot of interesting points here. I particularly like you assertion that the slow migration to mobile learning may actually have been a good thing since, had it been easy, content providers and less informed or budget constrained L&D teams would have just ported what they had to mobile. All I could think of was the "shovelware wave" in the late 90's / early 2000's when people just converted PPT's into Flash and called it web-based training or when they did a conversion of docs or instructor-led material but never designed for the new capabilities of the web thereby creating "page turner" content that did nothing to engage the learner.

I think that the points both you and Steve made about designing for the new capabilities of mobile are critical. I personally take the position that higher-end mobile platforms are already superior to laptops and desktops if only because their affordances and unique capabilities -- touch, accelerometers, GPS and thus also proximity, mobile audio, mobile two way video, mobile internet access. Combine all that with decent processing power and it quickly becomes obvious that you can create far more interactive, engaging learning with higher-end mobile devices. Ubiquity and access of course are issues, but purely on a head-to-head, I think mobile wins on most fronts, save as Steve noted, for areas like simulation where higher processing power or larger screen size may be required.

Anyway, great piece and equally great comments. Steve, do you have a blog somewhere we could check out? Seems like you know Flash and mobile pretty well. I'd love to see more of your thoughts.

Dave

Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

arossett — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:29:10 -0000

really appreciate your discussion of FLASH to HTML5 and implications for platforms and delivery. Great update. And I like Flowers' responses and yours to him. Very useful.

And of course, appreciate your kind words about my piece on mobile learning and support and their halting progress within L&D. Maybe 2012. Why not?

Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

Thomas Stone — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:27:58 -0000

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your thoughtful comment -- I'm glad you liked my posting. And I think we agree on most points you raised, here are a few responses:

1. I agree with you that the "sky isn't falling" with regard to Flash for e-Learning. For now and the forseeable future, a lot of e-Learning courses and other content will continue to be targeted only at desktop or laptop PCs. For all of those initiatives, nothing has changed -- Flash will be as popular as ever.

I think off-the-shelf providers might make some forward-looking architectural shifts to HTML5 -- even given the browser deployment/compatibility issues you mentioned. I'm thinking here of courses that they want to be available both to laptops/desktops and to the iPad (I'll leave smartphones out for now, because like you I think a lot of redesign of content is needed for smartphones for a variety of reasons anyway). In such a laptop+iPad scenario, the course wrapper could be made to be simple HTML rather than Flash (and so not use robust HTML5 features unsupported by old browsers). Then the internal components -- animations, interactive pages, video, etc. -- could for a while be created as both HTML5 and Flash. Rapid Intake's mLearning Studio is one tool that supports publishing to both, and no doubt there are others and will be more soon. Then a simple browser/device sniffer could be used so that the user gets a version of the course that will work on their device. In time, as fewer and fewer people need the Flash versions, then all aspects could be made HTML5.

2. One of your quibbles was with my wording of "Focusing on talent management software in general, it would seem likely that if an existing Flash-based application or interface is desired for mobile browser deployment, it will now need to be redeveloped in HTML5." I certainly understand that many orgs have older browsers still, and I'm sympathetic. So I don't disagree with you -- what I meant was that if a software provider wants to make their browser-based application available for smartphone or tablet users, the strategy for doing so is now clear -- it will be HTML5, not Flash. That could mean supporting *two versions* for a while, because existing customers with older browsers on laptops and desktops will still need support. As above, in time, the Flash version of the application/features could be retired -- but that likely will take years. My point was just that by eliminating the *uncertainty* we have removed a significant barrier for organizations to move ahead.

3. Regarding the uncertainty of Flash being the "root cause" of the slow evolution of mobile learning -- I didn't meant to imply that. I agree with you that there have been many causes -- that is why I closed the article as follows: "I’ll admit that there are many reasons for the slow, gradual pace of development of mobile learning – see the recent, detailed article “If Mobile Learning and Support are Wonderful, Why aren’t They Everywhere?” by the always insightful Allison Rosset at eLearn Magazine. But at a certain point, when the industry has experienced gradual improvement and development along multiple dimensions over several years (it has), and when several barriers have been reduced or eliminated (they have), then all that is needed is the elimination of one major uncertainty factor for a tipping point to be reached and things to really take off."

I think a few years ago there were probably several significant issues holding back mobile learning and support. It has been complicated, so I'm reluctant to pick any one issue as the "root cause". But many of those issues have been resolved or at least greatly lessened by now -- through technology improvements, through the first few waves of successful deployments and case studies, and through several years of education for L&D professionals via product demos, conferences, webinars, magazine and blog articles, books from Clark Quinn, Gary Woodill, etc.

While a few challenges linger (when isn't that true?), I just think that this Flash uncertainty was one of the final big issues for many organizations, such that now that it is resolved, we might be at a tipping point in the industry... I hope I am right!

4. I agree with you that instructional designers and others need to think about mobile learning and support differently than they have been thinking about e-Learning and desktop-based performance support. And for all the reasons you give. That said, I do think there is a place for providing simple, PPT-like information via mobile devices -- I've already seen companies have success with doing that. That kind of approach is useful for providing learning content for "stolen moments" of time at airports, on planes/trains, etc. But I certainly don't think that is or should be the dominant kind of mobile learning/support content that will get created -- I think we need to far more heavily shift the balance to short video and audio, and all manner of performance support that makes sense for people while they are mobile.

5. I also agree with you regarding people hopefully being able to leverage some of the massive Flash e-Learning content that is out there. One example would be using individual instructional Flash animations, stripped out of long e-Learning courses and provided as short videos that will play on all device types. We did that at Element K -- works great!

Again, thanks for engaging with me on this with your comments.

Re: Adobe’s Flash Announcement: A Tipping Point for Mobile Learning in 2012?

Steve Flowers — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:10:47 -0000

Thomas,

Thank you for writing a sensible article. There are far too many "the sky is falling and Flash is dead" articles out there at the moment. I'm profoundly disappointed in many folks I respect because of the unrealistic stance being taken and the filthy rhetoric used to imply that Flash is Dead for eLearning. I find it ridiculous, even if the idea and the heart is in the right place...

A few minor quibbles. You state:

"Flash-based applications or interface is desired for mobile browser deployment, it will now need to be redeveloped in HTML5"

Given that many organizations are still stuck with IE6 and IE7 (up to 25% of the market at this point by some metrics) and iOS is clocked at around 4% of reported agents, I find it odd that we're jumping straight to HTML5. Perhaps this should have been:

"Flash-based applications or interface is desired for mobile browser deployment, it will now need to be redeveloped in some level of HTML markup (HTML4 or HTML5 depending on audience browser statistics)"

This article also implies that Flash is the main root cause of the failure of mobile learning to reach the tipping point. I think we'll find many root causes, not the least of which is what people say they would like to do with a leisure or communication device and what they actually do are two entirely different things. Add to this the obvious statistical problems with legacy browser positions and the statistics of organizational funding to buy devices (IT shops in large organizations are crazy if they buy tablet devices - for governance AND business value reasons). Studies have also shown some reluctance to use personal gear for formal workplace learning purposes.

Compound this with models for instructional and performance support messaging that are trapped in unimaginative dogmas. Most folks I talk to think the same content destined for the desktop will do the trick, if only there's a player to Willy Wonka that 19" screen into a 2x3" space. The experience is different. The capability is different. The context is different. We need to design those experiences for those capabilities and contexts. I believe the dogmatic patterning of slide / presentation based elearning products needs to shift to enable mLearning and improve desktop learning solutions. The point is, there are many reasons for mLearning not to have gained steam. Flash issues are a nice red herring... but I'm not biting :)

This is an opportunity. If we can STOP thinking about this in an either / or mindset, I believe we can leverage some of the Flash content already built while building sensible frameworks that accommodate 100% of the performance support needs of most performers while meeting most of the base learning needs of a mobile audience. For the rest, why not consider enhancements that are offered on the desktop launched packages. So if it's HTML4/5 for the bottom 80%, let the enhancements at the top end of the package do things on the desktop that are neither comfortable nor possible in the mobile environment. Practice activities, simulations, etc.. If you want that stuff, dock your phone and hit a workstation. For 80-100% of everything else, pattern for mobile support and build to adapt up to any resolution! Best of both worlds and no silly arguments. We still have the opportunity to exercise choice without sacrificing the tools and talent we ALREADY have.

This means we need to take a hard look at the methods we use to transport learning content and reshape the decision making process to provide a more consistent standard for messaging. For example, with the increase in broadband access, video has become a strong contender. But we don't have strong models for selection of video for performance support and learning message support. There are great examples (Kahn Academy) but these aren't common. So where can we stop using Flash (lots of opportunity here)? And where can Flash (or another Rich media platform like Unity) still provide benefits that are difficult to attain using markup (lots of opportunity here too)?

Heck... you could even build some enhancements into Apps for things that aren't well supported in the browser. The Adobe Air runtime does a great job packaging stuff that is supported in the Flash Player to iOS compatible runtimes.

We need a smarter model. I believe by looking at the way we compose learning solutions AND the way we provide enhancements, we will be able to move towards the promise of mLearning. Or... we could keep arguing the merits of one imperfect technology over another...