Talent Partners

The Dance

Last week we delivered the keynote at the Kennedy Conference on Recruitment in NYC and served on a great panel of on-line recruitment professionals to close out the show.

The keynote was well received and affirmed the points we make in the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business

The panel discussed problems with contemporary sourcing and of the numerous conclusions found this one to be entertaining and to the point as to why the market desperately needs a solution that drives recruitment sourcing results.

Recruiting is a dance...it's the discussion with a working professional that when asked a question or presented an opportunity they pause...a sure sign the prospective candidate is giving serious consideration. This was easier before the Internet because we didn't have such a flow of data coming our way. Now the Internet has turned on the information fire-hose and most recruiters, especially corporate simply don't have time to establish and nurture relationships with working professionals. Posing questions at the appropriate time to gain interest or to solicit important data doesn't happen much anymore. Instead resume flow is the main channel of recruitment data and that is not enough.

The recruitment dance of old has turned into an ugly impersonal process.

Now, the Internet information flow is a good thing, and for recruitment will be a great thing for both recruiters and working professionals. Once the fire-hose is turned into a filtered and steady slow flow of quality data, recruiters can get back to the dance.

The market is more than ready for a solution that works - not job boards with unfiltered flow, not aggregators with dead links and not new promises that sound good but don't deliver. It's past time for a sourcing solution that works.

2017 - NACE

Hats off to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. This is the association of the College Career Services organization known on every College campus as the place to find jobs. Traditionally the group is responsible for attracting employers career fairs on campus helping students find jobs and companies quality talent. The fairs go on today and serve a purpose but as we all recognize with the Internet and compeition for talent and jobs, the companies are seeking out talent and the talent jobs through more efficient and reliable channels on the internet.

Recently, a friend responsible for the CSO at a major University and a member of NACE called with a proposal to describe what the future interaction and relationship would be between student and employer in 2017 and the role the CSO would play.

After writing the first paragraph describing the future it was apparent that ten years was too far out. The CSO world could dramatically change over the next three years, if not sooner.

So, would like your help with the following question. We will post our description of the future soon. In the meantime let us know your thoughts.

“As we look ahead to the world in 2017, how do you envision college students and graduates interacting and connecting with employers? Describe the players involved and the tools and processes that will be used. Specifically describe the roles that professionals in higher education and in employing organizations will play in this process.”

Interesting start to envisioning a needed change.

The Value of QTalent

In our book Talent Force, we take a look at the historical aspect of talent value. We write about the Chinese Talent Force that played a crucial role in building the US transcontinental railroad, how displaced farmers in Zimbabwe turned neighboring countries into agricultural breadbaskets almost overnight and how the need for skilled construction labor in New Zealand is changing the way that special country attracts and resources talent from around the world.

In other words, talent has played an important role throughout history. Nothing has changed – time for an update.

Iraq has access to one of the largest and richest oil fields in the world. The world from Maine to Chinaruns on oil…the world needs oil….a fact.

In the WSJ last week a story explains how there is a shift of a few hundred highly talented people that again, may shift and affect global balance.

It seems that Islamic fascists in Iraq have been killing their own, specifically targeting the people who are best suited and skilled to run the country’s wealthy oil production facilities. As a result of these murders, many of the remaining oil QTalent have chosen to take their skills elsewhere – like Jordan, resulting in an unsuccessful Iraq oil and gas production program. This represents a program that could and in the end probably will pay to help the ravaged worn-weary citizens of Iraq.

No political finger pointing – simply pointing out the fact that having the right QTalent in place at the right time is damned important….whether it’s a company providing call center services or an attempt to bring a country back to life.

Talent Matters…don’t forget it.

The Death of Arrogance

Arrogance to most of us was the attitude of that one clique in high school who had it all – knew it and acted it – arrogantly.

Arrogant people – arrogance in general is a drag…not pretty at all. Go away.

Sadly, arrogance still exist in many corners of our society and likely will for years to come…it’s one of those seven sins from Pandora’s Box…here to stay.

There is one place we might be able to make a change...Human Resources.

Simply put, the systems, methodologies, processes, thought, activities and attitudes in HR/Staffing today are based on at least four decades of a bloated Arrogance of Supply’. Plenty of people – lose a candidate or lose an employee – not a problem, just recruit and hire another.

No more.

There aren’t enough for one thing and for another - act this way and the blogosphere/facebook/myspace/every-social-network-in-the world will become the toilet wall where the disgruntled pen thier discontent.

Don’t believe it? – take some time to check it out…Google any company name, add blog and viola you have the truth – maybe perceived by one or a few and absolutely one-sided but public perception nonetheless.

And what about managerial attitude…you know, the people who developed careers and attitudes regarding talent over those decades – well they’re in charge and its hurting companies in a big way.

For instance, the Sr. VP of HR for a huge, well known technology company is known for his lack of interest and concern in recruiting….WHAT?

The company is flying high today on good news – but sustaining that good news requires really qualified quality talent – happy in their work. Spend some time with the execs and managers of this firm and the picture ain’t so rosy.

Until arrogance is beaten – killed – expunged – from the HR approach to recruiting, staffing and retention, companies are going to have problems competing. Period.

The Two Company Towns that Could Have…

In the last few months The New York Times has reported on company towns and their demise.  In particular, they called out Rouses Point, NY where Wyeth Pharmaceuticals was pulling out and leaving behind 1,250 jobs (of the population of 2.350).  Another is Scotia, California where the logging company, Pacific Lumber Company, is abandoning their ownership of the town after 140 years. 

We ask the question, “why?”

We are in a time where we fret over the loss of manufacturing and information technology jobs to overseas and many times now to overseas companies, who our corporations now just pay for the labor.  Why are we not seeing the beginning of a new trend where states and local governments are not working hard to keep those jobs here and expand even further our skill and talent base?

We do see examples of where it is happening such as in Indiana, which we detailed last week.  We also see it in North Dakota, where as Wired reported in their February issue, the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering had been created in Fargo. The NDSU’s ResearchPark founder states that the talent among the farming and machinist communities lends itself to the creation and design of new machinery.  Add the self-proclaimed strong work Midwest work ethic and NDSU thinks they have a winning combination.   The state government is stepping up with a quarter of a billion dollars in funding to promote the creation and research in radio frequency identification technology.  The funding and focus is working as Alien Technologies (a silicon valley tech company) is building a plant in Fargo with the commensurate amount of hiring to make North Dakota the global capital of RFID manufacturing.  That’s a great story.  Talent, plus the funding by corporations to create a new footing for a local economy.

Now what if  North Dakota went one step further (further than the incentives that most states see, like Indiana) and created a set of Talent incentives or “Talent Credits” around the state RFID manufacturing initiatives.  We will follow the taxonomy of government and introduce our own program acronyms.

·         TRI – Talent Relocation Incentive – all existing residents and new talent who come to North Dakota to work in the RFID sector would pay no incomes taxes for the first three years of their employment.  Nor would the company be required to match any of those income taxes for payroll tax purposes.

·         THIRST – Talent Housing Incentives, Reductions, Stipends and Tax reductions – All employees within the RFID sector would receive a reduction of a third of their real estate taxes on owned properties for the first five years of their employment.  Companies and Talent together would have great incentives to bring new talent and businesses to the state.  What a recruiting tool.

·         TED – Talent Education Degrees – Any state resident who takes a state certified course for the training of RFID technology would be able to do this at state funded institutions with a 50% fee and book reduction.

Let’s go one step further and see what this could mean to Talent and to the Companies who recruit that Talent.

Let’s say that the employee was moving to North Dakota and was going to be an engineer who would make $85,000 and would be buying a $300,000 house.

Here is the math:

            Base Salary:                                                     $85,000

                                    State Income Tax – 7%              ($5958)

                                    Real Estate Taxes

                                    (on a $300K home) @ 1%           ($3000)

                        Net Income after State Taxes =               $76,042

After Talent Credits:

            Base Salary:                                                     $85,000

                                    State Income Tax – 0%              

                                    Real Estate Taxes

                                    (on a $300K home) @ .033%      ($1000)

                       Net Income after State Taxes =               $84,000

That’s a $7952 positive difference or out another way – a 9.3% income differential to the positive that the employee would receive by making the move or changing employers.

That’s a heck of a recruiting tool for the best Talent.

So, why aren’t states thinking this way?  Honestly, we don’t know other than once a good idea gets going in government, there are plenty of special interest reasons why it just shouldn’t work or happen.

We are calling on those who can make this difference, to just give it a try.

If more incentive is needed – we have taken our own shot at the obvious that each state could do to differentiate themselves and get going.  And imagine what strength we would have if we got this level of focus on very important issues at hand.

Alabama –

Alaska –  Clean and green oil exploration and refinemen

Arizona –

Arkansas –

California – Stem Cell Research

Colorado –

Connecticut –

Delaware –

Florida – Oceanic Food 

Georgia –

Hawaii – Tidal Power systems

Idaho –

Illinois –

Indiana –  Efficient Manufacturing and Production

Iowa –

Kansas –  Energy from the wind

Kentucky –

Louisiana –

Maine –

Maryland –

Massachusetts – Nanotechnology

Michigan –  Clean and Green Transportation Systems

Minnesota –

Mississippi –

Missouri-

Montana –

Nebraska-

Nevada –

New Jersey –

New Mexico – Solar Energy

North Carolina –

North Dakota – Radio Frequency ID Tags

Ohio –

Oklahoma-

Oregon –

Pennsylvania –

Rhode Island –

South Carolina –

South Dakota –

Tennessee –  Hydropower next generation

Texas – Energy, Alt Energy, Agriculture

Utah –

Vermont –

Washington –

West Virginia – Clean uses of Coal

Wisconsin –   Dairy efficiency

Wyoming

We hope you have your own ideas as well and we start to see Free Talent Zones emerge and the beginning of the next generation of Talent Towns!

Follow the Talent

Since February’s publishing of Talent Force, we have been fortunate enough to have seen many examples surface of what we have written about in the book.

One of those concepts is the partnership with companies and municipalities to recreate the modern-day version of the “Company Town”.  Hank likes to say that with 40 acres and a wi-fi, anything is possible.

Earlier this year, we wrote a blog that gave some ideas for the Governors of the United States.  We would like to go further with that topic here.

The week before last, Google made the announcement that they would hire 1,000 people in Michigan.  For Google, a thousand people is still a lot, but it is not enormous. What is significant is that Google looked in a most unusual place for a Silicon Valley based company.  They reached to a state where without a retooling of The Talent Force is facing an economic and Talent crisis.  I can only imagine the smiles that crossed the faces of every state university in Michigan when they read the announcement; a second chance for Michigan with a long-term attractive employment prospect for future students.

You can read about the announcement here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060711/ap_on_hi_te/google_michigan_7

It is great that Google (and a founder with ties to the state) were able to make this commitment.  But states need to do more if they are to make these opportunities even that more attractive to companies and more importantly to the talent that are necessary to make the ventures successful.

I recently received a letter from the Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, asking me as a Hoosier and a supporter of my university, Purdue, to consider bringing my business and jobs to Indiana.  I quote from the letter: “Indiana is transforming its economic landscape by undertaking bold and aggressive initiatives to make it easier to conduct business. We have long been a low cost business state, and now we are making it even easier to start, expand and relocate businesses.”  The letter goes on to describe the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), which was created in 2005 to solely assist businesses to grow and prosper in Indiana.  And so far, with good results with over 140 deals done and 18,000 jobs committed to Indiana.  The letter attached a set of incentives that the IEDC has created for businesses:

·         EDGE – Economic Development for a Growing Economy – a refundable tax credit program created to reward companies creating new jobs with a percentage of payroll taxes credits passed back to the Company

·         HBITC – The Hoosier Business Investment Tax Credit – credits against Indianataxes for capital spending

·         SBIR – Small Business Innovation Research – matching funds for R&D efforts

·         SEF – Skills Enhancement Fund – financial assistance to companies for training (note trainees must be Indianaresidents so they don’t apply to imported talent)

·         21^st Century Research and Technology Funds – more funding for R&D

·         Industrial Recovery Tax Credit – incentives for investing in facilities requiring rehabilitiation

·         The Industrial Development Grant Fund – infrastructure funding for expansion of businesses and new jobs into Indiana

·         TECH Fund – The Technology Enhancement Certification Program – a corporation reimbursement grant for training employees in the information technology sector

·         VCI – Tax Credit program established to provide individual and company investors an incentive to invest in Indianaearly stage companies.

When I read through the brochure, I was both impressed and depressed at the incentives and programs. Impressed that the state is taking a stand to continue to build the economy, but depressed in that once again,  we see another set of programs which miss the most critical ingredient of business and economic success – the Talent to do the work.

While training is great, the reimbursement of training dollars to already state citizens will not provide incentives for new talent to flow into the state, nor will it create a great incentive for new businesses to move to the state only to have to retrain the current talent force.

There must be bolder moves by our legislators if we are to truly break through with innovation and the creation of new types of workers in our country.

Again, we call on our legislators to think outside the box.  Next week – we will give examples of what we think can be done.

Free Talent Zones

This is the first of a series of posts regarding a concept we developed in our book ‘Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business’.

In today’s post we posit the problem, in the second the solution and in the third a study and review of a State with the problem and suggestions to solve.

Local, State and Federal Governments in the United States and throughout the world are beginning to understand the simple fact that there are fewer people in the world available for work and thus input to the economy. Mortality rates have slowed to zero or zero negative in so many countries that now populating areas to keep commerce and tax rates up are becoming a question and strategy.

In a way, the US over the past 40 years has created what we define in our book Talent Force as a “Free Talent Zone” for our friends and neighbors from the south. The results have been positive and negative and thus the war of words has started and will likely continue for some time.

But there may be a different and unique way to think about attracting talent and the periphery commerce and tax base they can bring to an area. And that is what we introduce and explore here.

Historically, attracting and settling talent was the 40 acres and a mule offer post the Civil War. For most, that process worked. Land was provided with the tools to make the land a valued asset.

In the recent past at least two towns in the Midwest have attempted to attract people to their area in order to secure a depleting tax base as people died and children moved to the city. In these instances free land was offered….but no mule or tractor or work. As a result both attempts failed.

But the efforts caused us to consider just what these towns had to offer and what they could have done to make their efforts successful.

Next week we explore our solution.

Value Proposition

It is getting harder to attract and retain talent. We are at the precipice of Job Boom 2.0 according to the May cover of Business 2.0 while John Sumser continues the drum beat of facts and figures at his Interbiznet site. Bottom line: there is not enough technical talent in this part of the world to go around. The company who gets the talent and keeps the talent wins...period.

The Scramble Is On!

Companies ranging from Fortune 500 to start ups are looking for the secret recruiting sauce and the right person to lead the effort. There have never been so many searches on the market for Chief Talent Officers spurned by CEOs and CFOs scratching their heads wondering how we get the Talent Force we need to compete.

Here's the first hint. Tie your talent need to your company's value proposition in ways that are understandable and measurable. Consider the talent imperative a strategic asset and invest just as you would any other asset vital to the success of your organization.

For instance, a company positions their value proposition in the market as "unbelievable service". They are fanatical about the service they provide and are much better than their competitors. As a result of their value proposition they acquire customers rapidly and are able to extract premium dollars for their value. (Isn't it amazing that customers will pay extra for great service!). The company's success is tied directly to their ability to hire and retain talent capable of delivering over the top service. The company understands and invests in the talent by providing a culture of success where each understands their value to the company direction, growth and success. And it's not just about salary...people will work at a company where they are highly valued.

A simple, direct and real example. But what about the company known for rapid growth, outsourcing and has a history of layoffs? Talent is a cost to be managed in order to beat the street. Everyone knows the culture, hates it but has to work there for lack of options. This is the company in trouble - times have changed - talent has options...lots of options. This company has the tough, if not impossible job. Their value prop of the past may have been better, faster, cheaper and thus all the outsourcing - do whatever it takes to cut cost. No more - won't work.

Companies will have to take their value proposition and add the imperative that it takes great QTalent to create, deliver and maintain. The requirement will be investment in QTalent and positioned correctly, customers will be willing to pay premium dollars.

It is a new world!

Social Engineering

Here is a hint for all you Talent Leaders in the technology field who feel your executive management team just don’t quite get the Talent problem we all face today.

Get the Wall Street Journal editorial page 4.19.06 and read the op-ed by Robert J. Stevens Chairman, President and CEO of Lockheed Martin entitled 'Social Engineering'. Read it 5 times, commit the numbers and assessments to heart and share the article with your executive staff as quickly as possible.

Now what? That’s a good question. Lockheed as well as a number of other technical firms have assessed the numbers of technical talent needed over the next few years as 'boomers' retire. The bottom line is that there are not enough educated in the US to satisfy the need and it appears we are doing little about it. Lockheed alone plans to hire over 140,000 graduates in the next 10 years and we currently graduate 62,000 science and technical students a year in the US. Considering all the other companies with the same problem as Lockheed the numbers don't work.

Do we outsource more of our technical work requirements? What does our economy become if we do? Are we going to remain satisfied with our low rating when our high school and college students are compared to others around the world? Our high school students rank near the bottom.

NEAR THE BOTTOM! How did we let this happen? Recently high school students in the Netherlands were tested and compared to students in the US who took the same test. The students were all interviewed and the students in the Netherlands tested so much higher they laughed. They stated, the US will decline because if we can't compete at that level we won't at the professional level in the future. Are they right?

Well, the past is past. We end the book 'Talent Force' with a Chinese proverb, 'the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago - the next best time is now'. We can not wait and need to take action now. Mr. Stevens has some very interesting ideas- beginning with paying our teachers a competitive and desirous wage. We would add accountability to that as the lack of it - (thank the NEA) has lead to our current spot at the bottom of the heap. It is time for change and time for action.

Maybe leaders like Mr. Stevens will motivate some of to wake up and do something!

Let's hope - time's a wasting...

Q Definitions - 1

Talent used to be in their office working receiving the occasional call from a recruiter or friend about a job. They might take a look - they might not. They were happy, working and not in the market. It was up to the recruiter to compel the prospect to become interested and hopefully the recruiter caught them at that right serendipitous moment with the right opportunity to get interest.

These were passive candidates. Times are changing. Prospective candidates are no longer 'working, dumb and happy'...they're knowledgeable, aware, have data at their fingertips, are members of public or private networks...they have a better handle on what's going on than the 'passive' candidates we defined for the Internet in the late 90's.

Quiet.

Most prospects today are quiet...not compelled to search a job board or participate in a network - they watch, they listen and at times explore. But they don't and won't make any moves until they see good reason. They remain quiet.

The untapped source of talent.

John Sumser has a great series of articles at Interbiznet and today's is spot on. A quarter of the talent force or prospective candidates use job boards. Use boards and reach 25% - great. But what about the other 75% or the quiet source of talent?

We can source this talent through a number of means from traditional to 'relationship and nurturing' activities managed over the Internet. Use what is best for your organization - but do something.

Try:

·      Having 10 of the best people managers in your Company give you 10 people who they will contact in the next 90 days and share something good/great about your company and invite them to be sure and let them know first if the ever consider a job change.

Invest - these activities will take real dollars...not trivial. Treat talent acquisition as an investment not a cost. Talent is likely your most important asset. Treat them as such.

Try:

·      Quantifying the value of one great person who works within your competition and then convince everyone who will listen that your people, like the competitions are just as valuable, if not more so. Then go and get the new person too!

Marketing - create a marketing program for talent sourcing and acquisition. Messages...Positioning...Delivery...Measure Effectiveness...Change as Necessary! Has your marketing department ever launched product or service without these efforts? Why would we not do same in the most competitive environment for Q Talent of the past 40 years?

Try:

·      Go buy your Chief Marketing Officer dinner and ask her/him to give you someone as an extracurricular project to evaluate and then recreate the Talent brand so it holds up just as well as your consumer brand.  If you can’t do it yourself, you have to be Tom Sawyer and get others to help paint your fence for you.

Get Executive Support or Die - find the highest level executive in the company (preferably the CEO) who cares and understands the value of talent and get them to support you in all your efforts. Do this and win...don't and the company fails.

Try:

·      Get your CEO to send a message about Talent like she/he has never done. Convince him/her to send every hiring manager/recruiter a copy of Talent Force (our shameless plug) or some other book that tells it like is about the importance of Talent.  Then ask her/him to inspect what they expect by putting one key Talent acquisition measure in their dashboard for their Board.  That will send a strong message.  Go influence – it’s what you have to do!

The talent is out there...they are quietly watching and listening

If they are quiet – why aren’t you being loud?