Recruiter Chicks

It was an honor to speak at Cornerstone OnDemand’s Talent Leadership Breakfast meeting last week in Atlanta.  It was a great event that was dedicated to providing best practices in change management and a plan to implement an integrated talent management strategy.

My session was entitled, “Aligning Employee Engagement to Organizational Strategy” and primarily focused on the Three Key Drivers of Employee Engagement: (1) Recognition (2) Career Development and (3) Influence.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint presentation and slides:

I attended the SHRM-Atlanta conference last week and it was all about community and “Working for a Better Atlanta.  It was quite evident as soon as anyone hit the door that people were there to learn, network and grow as professionals over the two-day conference period.

As with other conferences, there were several sessions tracks from Business Acumen to Total Rewards to Talent Management so an attendee could attend sessions based on their current role, projects or future aspirations.  Most of sessions I attended were along with HR Leveraging Technology and Business Acumen tracks.

One of the best sessions of the conference was led by Cathy Missildine-Martin of Intellectual Capital Consulting.  Her session was titled, “Using Data to Make the Right HR Investments.”  Cathy had a room full and it was clear that HR professionals needed to sit in her session to learn more about HR Analytics, which Cathy so happens to be very passionate about.  Cathy discussed HR Analytics and its importance to the overall business strategy.  She started the session by referencing an Accenture study stating that “89% of CFOs have experienced an increase in their workload and 39% of that was taking over the Human Resources function.”  That was an immediate wake-up call for HR practitioners in the room.  She then asked a question to the audience, “How many metrics is your HR department currently tracking?”  There were blank stares all over the room…few knew the answer to this question.  And, we wonder why CFOs are managing and taking over the HR function!

She went through an HR Analytics model using an example of a company with a call center and she nailed down sales training cost along with rewards and recognition cost and tied those two pieces directly to customer satisfaction, turnover and engagement.  She laid out the cost/benefit analysis for an organization against the cost of training and rewards programs to help make the case for such programs and tie them to the bottom line.

Finally, Cathy ended her session by guiding the audience on how they should share recommendations with organizational leaders.  The key point that she drove home is…do not bring your leadership team pages and pages of data and sit it down for them to read.  She suggested using the “killer slide” concept, keep it simple and astound them with the overview of information not all of the details.  The point…you don’t have to prove to the C-level executives that you’re good at HR and math, just bring the information they need and use the language of the business.  Last but not least, she suggested you tie all recommendations and observations back to the overall business strategy.

To close, Cathy challenged us all to go out and be the HR Rockstars we all are!

This was one great session of many at the SHRM-Atlanta Conference.  You can find Cathy Missildine-Martin at www.intellectual-capital.net.

“I love my job!”

I have seen or heard that statement at least ten times in the span of a week.  I love my job too.  I have the good fortune to be blessed with great projects –and amazing clients who care deeply about the talent in their organizations.  Maybe the fact that I am starting to hear more of “I love my job”,  instead of complaints or more studies talking about the high percentage of employee dissatisfaction, means companies are finally paying attention?

I hope it means:

* CEO’s really do believe managing talent is the number one priority on their agenda — and are championing the idea to their leadership and HR teams that attracting, developing and retaining top talent is now more important than ever.

* People have taken more ownership of their work lives – and making sure they work for a company (or boss, or in a role) where their skills/value are appropriately utilized or valued — and simply a better fit.

* Companies are realizing recruiting is not a solution to their attrition problems.  They are understanding people aren’t just a set of skills that can be quickly swapped in/out — and that the “tribal knowledge” of their key employees is not easily replaced.  Nor is it easy overcoming a bad employer brand or a corporate culture in a downward spiral.

* Recruiters are working closer now more than ever with their hiring teams to really profile each position AND then helping them find, assess, and select great candidates that meet this criteria.

* Companies are encouraging their teams that their number one source of hire should be their internal employee base — that providing growth opportunities is key in keeping their strong performers challenged and engaged.

* Employees are becoming more proactive in their own career progression by being an advocate for themselves, being dedicated to continuous improvement and professional development, and of course, continually building and nurturing their networks.

Please help inspire and share with us if you love your job and why — and if not, what is the one thing your company or your boss could do to help change how you feel?