Radio Show #15: Naomi Lee Bloom

I thought this podcast was pretty interesting (I've taken notes below so I can look back and reflect at some key points).

One thing that really resonated with me was the approach to evaluating vendors, clients etc by applying the same criteria that you would a candidate or a new hire for your company. Brilliant! "Start with the people" - a key concept to keep in mind no matter what you're evaluating. It all comes down to company culture, values and aligning what you're doing with the overall strategic goals of your company; technology provides yet another vehicle to efficiently do this.

I also really liked the emphasis on the power of networking. When we all come together to share ideas and experiences the opportunities are endless.
Jun, this really confirms the need to keep "our circle" going and growing to allow us to continue to share and learn from each other.


Notes from the podcast
HR Technology Strategy

Criteria and methods to evaluate products

• functionality (what the product is) and architecture - how it does it
• tells you what will be easy to use and not easy to use; develop scenarios so you can really see
• be sure to demo; reveal the things vendors don't want you to see (look under the covers)
• need to see what you can and can not configure
• ask a laundry list of questions (financial, ownership, road map etc.)
• understand what the product really does - does their approach match up with yours

how to evaluate - HR management

-start with the people

leadership team; (brain trust) attraction of talent; look at the team-the people behind the product (has seen a product from the beginning to the end)

corp culture- best and brightest; if they (vendors) don't have that then don't use them
apply same approach as you would a candidate/new hire to vendors

need for breadth and depth; pick areas and go deep
write well and quickly
speak well
be quick on your feet
be able to respond quickly and intelligently

When doing analysis
must be:
rich (really flesh out whats going on )
rigorous (method to really get at what is going on)
robust (going to stand up)

balance between what you know and don't know
do your homework
collision of HR and IT
keep up on things; rely on network and share knowledge
use technology to improve HR - push HR community to use technology
we have the capability to do what we need to do if we would only do it; take advantage of the technology that now exists

network of valued colleagues best opportunity

Social Technographics data - I clibmed the ladder

I was excited to see that in just two weeks I've climbed the ladder! Prior to joining this class I was barely a spectator and now I've climbed all over the place. I've joined, collected and created. I am really looking forward to learning more, practicing and becoming efficient so I can get to the point where I can incorporate this and utilize all these amazing tools daily; not only within an organization but in my personal life as well. Lists and flow charts for laundry....Jun, my husband isn't going to like this class!

HR's struggle with 2.0

This one really hit home. HR and marketing working together and using technology?? There is definitely a disconnect. Companies do spend all of their time marketing and selling their products but not the people/company. This really does need to change for companies to gain and have the competitive advantage. This article reminded me of the other one we read about facebook and linked in knowing more about our employees than we do.
Google is a good example of a company that does combine HR, technology and marketing and look at what they've done with branding their company to make it such an appealing place to work. I also got a chuckle over the article because I thought part of the reason HR doesn't use as much technology is because normally it isn't the strongest most emphasized skill set for HR people (which is why we are all taking this class!!).

2003 trends article

It was interesting to read an article about trends that was written five years ago. Some of the trend predictions were spot-on and some were way off.

for example:

#3- business goes kindergarten - I have definitely seen this happening in the schools with both my kids. Our HS recently implemented a "Work Academy" program where they have created partnerships with local businesses such as hospitals and law firms etc where students do an outside lab or internship in the field they are thinking of pursuing. This gives them an opportunity to try some fields (and get some hands on experience) before they start college.

# 11 - Consumer driven health care- This was definitely well predicted. As health care costs have increased companies are scrambling looking for ways to keep costs down. I think in the next five years almost every company that offers and pays for employee benefits will have this as an option. (Our company just moved to offering this as an option during open enrollment).

# 13 - talked about having a shortage of workers by 2010 based on simple math. Baby boomers would all be retired businesses growing so there would be more of a demand for workers than the supply. well here we are with the economy being challenged and employers looking for ways to cut costs. The UI rate has increased and it doesn't look like its going down any time soon. It just goes to show that some things you just can not predict even using what seems to be logical information. Markets fluctuate and things change..

#17 - I've definitely noticed a shift in many using contractors and consultants especially for projects. They are not only used as a means of cutting costs but as technology has rapidly increased, it has created a need to have specific knowledge (specialists and subject matter experts) in areas that most employees don't have. For example when our company was doing the SAP implementation we had to hire SAP experts with specialized skills(that were just beyond the scope of our IT department) to manage the project.

#24 - -universal health care - we just had an interesting debate about this in the benefits class that ended a couple of weeks ago. One interesting thing is that we actually do have two current models of universal health care being used in the us...medicare and Veterans programs. They are both free (paid by the government) when certain conditions are met.

#25- the end of HR as we know it...a common statement. We better all make sure we are adding this to our "tool kits" if we want to add value to our companies and ensure keeping our jobs. This is one trend I don't think is going away!

The Machine is Us/ing Us Video - Hello World!

I thought this video was very interesting. A blog is born every 1/2 second?! Wow and to think I just go on the blog wagon!

The internet is infinite. It definitely does more than just linking data; it links people. There is just so much access to anything and everything it is mind boggling. This video really gives some perspective as to how much information and access there is to virtually anything and everything. With technology you have so much functionality and flexibility. You can search, contact, create, organize...the options are endless. After seeing this it makes me wonder how much longer paper will be around.

In class assignment - Tags

I figured now that I've entered the blogging world I'd add the class assignment to the blog as well!

Tags:

Definition : Organizing or labeling your data by using key words that are relevant to what you want to view. Tagging was made popular by websites associated with Web 2.0used extensively by Youtube ( for tagging videos ), Netflix and Flickr

What Problem is it designed to solve : It helps in searching the same data across different categories

For example :

On your deskop

You have a tax document for your car, so you would tag is tax and car and you would be able to find it which ever way you search.

If you are browsing through movies in Netflix, through the process of tagging Netflix will show the other movies that you might be interested in, based on your choices.

Comparable technology: Delicious, Geotagging

Advantages : Flexibility to classify collections of items differently.

Disadvantages : There is no information about each tag, lack of semantic knowledge can lead to inappropriate connections between items. A Tag "Orange" can be a fruit and colour.

Both single and plural words can be used as tags. Which can make finding similar objects more difficult.

Podcast 13

interesting podcast...some key points:
people are the most important asset
skills are the largest competitive differentiators
technology:
new call to action
we need tools and tech to interact with the orginization
buy software to engage workforce
its manager and ee software, business software NOT HR software
how do I leverage technology; refresh and update
how to automate back office functions, using technology to drive business results
web 2.0: digital HR - next phase of internet
knowledge infusion
colleberate
information seeker
strategy team: look at where business and HR intersect
facebook and linked in know more about ee profiles than CEOs do...leverage that internally to create that "google type" search
combo of internal and external view, use that to drive talent initatives
have the ability to scan, find and search for in specific areas
show and tell..teach people how to use the tools to combine business and industry issues and not count on vendors etc to drive them

Web 2.o as a solution

This would be a place to manage all the data. It would be great to learn how to create a site for new hires to go and have all the info they need before they start.

a problem to solve....

I loved the idea of having all the onboarding forms in one place for new hires. Having somewhere organized to access all the information in advance would be so useful and helpful for both the new hire and HR.

first class

The first class was very interesting! I learned what a tag was and some other technical terms as well...passport wallet, what Twitter is and the five D's.
Discover
Define
Design
Develop
Deploy/Deliver
Follow up..how about "Depict" for the fifth D?!? Does that count for extra credit?!

Web 2.0

Ok well, I have to admit, not nearly as interesting to read as the HR article...very long and technical. BUT I am starting to learn what web 2.0 is...hyperlinking, users adding new content, user engagement, web platforms and applications, Netscape vs Google....so many new concepts and so much to think about!

Why I Hate HR article

I loved this article...very interesting. There really is so much truth in the article. HR spends way too much time pushing papers around. I cant even tell you how many complaints I hear about how everyone HATES performance appraisals. "They are way too time consuming and have nothing to do with the business. A complete waste of time." Everyone across the board says they spend so much time filling out forms when everyone knows the increases are pretty much set and capped. This is definitely and example of HR placing Moe importance on activities than on outcomes. In order for an organization to truly be successful HR needs to think outside of the box and link metrics to business performance. Really great article.

My first blog page!

Decisions decisions! Which template color and font...what fun!