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This is interesting research from Bersin on the current state of requirements for talent management (TM) systems. I worked in an organization that had separate global HR system renewal projects under development at the same time – a talent acquisition system, a performance management system, a learning management system, and a succession planning system.

Yes, we had existing systems that already covered the TM basics. The technical goal was to integrate the processes, data, and systems. The business goal was to introduce innovations that would help us excel at implementing our talent strategies. We had tools with basic features to:

• manage the talent acquisition process (post job ads, manage applicants etc). We wanted to improve the ability to reach out and widen the talent pool through our job site, leverage social recruiting, and within that expanded pool, and improve ways to identify the right talent for the job. Additionally, we wanted to improve our retention with better onboarding and induction practices.
• give us visibility to org structure and headcount. We wanted to plan initiatives in the workforce based on a better understanding of people’s experiences, capabilities, and connections in the organization vs headcount.
• assign and review individual performance goals. We wanted a better way to cascade organizational strategy and plans to team and individual goals and gain insight from performance measurement.
• create a development plan. We wanted manager’s to be able to see what talent could/could not achieve performance goals or looking at up and coming capability goals and take appropriate measures like development planning or recruitment. We wanted to give manager’s visibilty to gaps and the learning organization visibility to get the right learning to the right people at the right time.
• manage formal learning, content and administration. We wanted to expand the scope of informal learning opportunities and link learning to recruitment, performance and workforce planning.
• make general succession plans. We wanted those to tie into workforce planning and performance goals to have an organizational view of strengths and weaknesses.

Additionally, this organization had at the same time ongoing global IT renewal projects which included introduction of a social platform, portals, and apps. This included wikis, blogs, podcasting, a video portal, idea sourcing portals, and feasibility studies. The basis for the functional marriage between the two I would say was the strategic intent to renew the organizational design, the ways of working, and transform organizational capabilities.

However, the technical parts to this marriage seemed to have many bed partners. Keep in mind that these were for the most part renewal projects, meaning existing solutions were already in place. I can assure you that taking on migration and integration requirements for projects of this size will give anyone a headache so the intent was to ‘keep it simple’ out the gate.

A total talent management strategy is a must in my book. It is very important to really work out the strategy collectively and consider the end-to-end process. Prioritizing ‘the basics’ and how you’re going to get beyond the basics from this point of view is what works best.

Given the complexity to which these initiatives can grow, I’m not surprised that companies wish to stick to the basic feature sets. I’ve not spoken with a company yet that hasn’t had configuration and advanced search as common functionality requests. If your organization wants to keep it simple and get a solution up quickly, this is where Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) has it’s strengths. Many of the vendors are also getting more adept at providing industry-specific solutions vs selling applications.

That said, it’s quite clear to me that adding SEO and social networking capabilities would innovate talent management processes. The challenge I’ve seen is that many organizations introduce these tools and technologies through other parts of the business, not HR. The HR organization then needs to partner up with groups like IT or Corporate Communications to align efforts. If internal and external channels cannot be shared, the lessons learned and best practices certainly can be shared.

I believe this potential overlap has been one of the main reasons Talent Management vendors have been hesitant to expand their products into this space.  It now seems they are willing and able to make a development shift towards these priorities in their own product line or find technology partners who can add on these features.

Let the evolution continue.

The recruitment approach has relied mainly on public relations and social networking and is quite similar to an offer back in January by Tourism Queensland. The TQ job advertisement was a social media coup with the online video ad going viral around the world, even crashing the job opp site with 25k hits in 1hr. Word is TQ had to increase server capacity 10 fold in the first week to handle this kind of response.

After looking at watching the video glossy eyed, I even forwarded to a few friends I thought would be perfect fits. Candidates were asked to submit an online video application highlighting why they would be best suited for the job. Their new recruit would spend 6 months make a cool $150k and work for only 12 hours a month, feeding fish, collecting the island’s mail, and preparing a blog, photo diary, and videos about the Great Barrier Reef.

After careful consideration (which meant processing 34,684 applications – can you image!), Tourism Queensland would then shortlist the candidates down to the Top 50 and then decided to go for a Top 15 vs 10 plus the one wild card candidate chosen by the people. TQ hired extra staff for this effort and implemented training to ensure every application was assessed in the same way, using the same measures.

Talk about personal branding. Candidates used TV, radio, press interviews, blogs, forums, websites and organising media stunts to push their way through the top 50. Needless to say, Tourism Queensland ended up with thousands of job seekers running to their site. In the end more than 34,000 hopefuls from 200 countries applied for the dream job and the shortlisting netted 50 high potentials. This was followed up with a wild card candidate selected by the people.

TQ eventually worked their way down to a Top 16 and invited all to the 3-day final selection process that took place in May. There was plenty of diversity in the ranks. The top 16 came from 15 countries, ranged in age from 20 to 38, included 10 men and six women, and prior experience as a student, journalist, TV presenter, photographer, receptionist, radio DJ, teacher, charity event manager and an actress. A four-person selection panel led the final selection process which included tasks, tours, and plenty of observation by the panel and the media. The panel monitored their ability to deal with the media interviews, the fast-paced fully loaded schedule, creativity and organization skills to come up with promotions, and the strength of their blog posts to develop followers. What more could any employer want but an opportunity to see that a candidate can demonstrated they have the skills to perform the job.

After a 6-month recruitment process, it was the 60 second video application and of 34 year-old Briton, Ben Southall, that netted the ‘Best Job in the World’. His prior experience
working as a charity fundraiser and events project manager and tour guide in Africa were solid contributors to his success I am sure. He also manages a music festival and run marathons. In his own words, Ben said that the most important thing to him in life was to have an exciting job that makes him happy, puts smiles on peoples’ faces and achieves challenging goals. It seems his ideas, initiative and abilities have landed him just that!

He started work July 1 and as a continuation to the job campaign, TQ has been following his induction and onboarding. You can join me and thousands of others as we follow TQ’s Island Caretaker at the Island Reef Job Blog as well as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

The “best job in the world” campaign made an international list for the top 50 public relations stunts in the world and earned TQ $100 million worth of free publicity. The idea was to convert all this interest into bookings and profit and so far that seems to be working out nicely. How’s that for ROI.

So back to A Really Goode Job. Murphy Goode held an event in San Francisco back in April to allow candidates to meet the boss, receive job tips and get a 24-hr head start on the application process. Then once again the job was marketed online and a 6-week windows was opened for all candidates to create a 60 second video and apply online.

They since reviewed the applicants and shortlisted to a Top 50 in June. They are now down to the Top 10 and the new Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent will be announced July 21. There have been at least 700 applicants and this process also seems to really engage the public. Some of the videos have as many as 22K views. You can check out all the applicant videos. I’ll give a special promo for Texas’ candidate, Adam Beaugh.

What do I like about all this? I think it’s an effective and innovative method for recruitment and it has a proven ability to build the brand, both employer and product, at the same time. As a candidate, I’d love to hear your version of the story on your organization or product. I’ve read many a job description and been left thinking WTH is this job really! I think this is an excellent way to communicate the job requirements and expected performance outcomes. Not to mention it gives the candidate the opportunity to present themselves beyond words on a piece of paper. Still one challenge for candidates seems to be not letting their technical or social media savvy overshadow their interest or knowledge about the company, product, or region. That’s a lot to pack into 60 seconds!

Granted there are many challenges with this approach but I expect to see more of this in future.

I’d like to hear what you think? Have you tried these recruitment approaches? Or have some other innovative solutions?

Thanks to Go Red for Women on Facebook I came across the Pocket First Aid & CPR Guide for Apple iPhone/iPod Touch. This mobile app includes up-to-date information from the American Heart Association that you can access anytime, anywhere.

It includes step-by-step illustrations, detailed videos, checklists and  articles which are updated as any changes in standards or instruction are implemented. You can also store your own medical and insurance information, and look up your doctor or emergency contacts.

I think it no substitute for proper CPR certification, but I can see where it could be an excellent just-in-time learning resource or job aid for an EMT. Easy to learn and easy to use, the content in this mobile app is certainly an excellent way to be prepared before or during an emergency.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

They also covered the geographic dispersion of higher eds on Facebook. It’s no surprise to me that the South is leading the North here. I suppose I should disclose that I live in Texas when making this comment. On the other hand it seems Texas A&M Aggie Fans, there are some 40K+, ‘Like’ just about anything posted on Fan Pages. No more digs at Aggies, I promise.

It seems Higher Ed is no different from other segmentations on Facebook. There are some highly successful Pages, like the LSU Tigers with over 50K Fans, and then there are those that startup Pages but then don’t follow through with posts. Still even those pages seem to increase in fans.

And what do they share on these Fan Pages? Well Fan Pages appear to be an effective tool for marketing the institution, recruiting new students, and engaging with existing students and alumni.

Check out the presentation and let me know what you think. You can follow Blue Fuego on Twitter @bluefuego and read their blog at http://bluefuego.com/blog.

Outside of my daily staples, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitterific, and Gmail, I am finding more and more possibilities for mobile learning. I’ll start with five I’ve been using regularly.

1. Podcasts on iTunes.

I spend a lot of time on the go, as I am sure you do too, so listening to podcasts and audiobooks on my iPod Touch fits in perfectly. I find iTunes audiobooks a bit pricey so I usually defer to my Audible purchases and subscriptions. But let’s say you have an hour commute and every month you want to catch up on the latest Technology Review from MIT. You can download it on iTunes and listen on your iPod.

Another option here is Apple’s own contribution to mobile learning, iTunes U. What’s hot here? Science Talks with Malcolm Gladwell, public lectures, and courses galore from schools and universities around the world. I’ve recently gone through:

• Stanford’s Introduction to iPhone Application Programming
• CollabTech – Track 1:  Faculty Innovation – Virtual Reality and Learning with Second Life
• A Brief History of the Future from Open University
• Edutopia’s Project Learning: A New Day for Learning

And then there are what I consider to be traditonal podcasts like Apple Quick Tips videos or Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand: iPod Podcast. There is actually a sizeable offering of podcasts in the Educational Technology category.

2. Safari.

Safari is the default browser that launches when I click on links from email or other apps on the iPod. This mobile browser means I can leave the notebook and the netbook at home as long as I have Wi-Fi access. I mentioned Technology Review podcasts earlier but a more common approach would be to fire up the mobile browser and go to: mobile.technologyreview.com. Mobile sites make it that much easier to navigate content and with the latest iPhone OS 3.0 copy-paste feature I have even more use for the next application.

3.Evernote.

I am always jotting down notes. Simply put, Evernote is what I use for brainstorming blog posts, capturing notes at a meeting or conference and to remember information from webpages. It’s also quite easy to sync up to those notes I’ve added while on my laptop versus my iPod or smartphone.

4.Wide Web with Twitter.

When I want to search on my iPod, I use the Wide Web app. It’s a full screen browser and the key advantages I find in doing say a google search from Wide Web over Safari are:

• my search history is saved and readily accessible
• I can setup multiple search engines to use as a default and toggle between them
• I can set URL shortcuts and quickly access from the main screen
• I can share my results by email or from my linked Twitter account and it automatically shortens URLs

5.Kindle for iPhone

I decided some time ago that I liked the Kindle but wasn’t ready for the purchase. Then, along came Kindle for the iPhone. The app allows you to transfer your Kindle book purchases from Amazon to your iPhone, or in my case iPod Touch.

I’ve got a library of sorts going on at the moment. I can agree it’s not the best option for consuming books or even eBooks for that matter, but it can get the job done. I’m certain one of the reasons the small screen is not a deterrent for me is that I am a speedreader. My dad was in the U.S. Air Force and I thought the cute little machine with stories on the scrolls was the toy of the century. Needless to say, the format then ends up being quite conducive to my reading style. At any case, it saves me the backache of hauling books around with me.

Some other benefits – making notes, bookmarking content and being the freak that I am to read several books at the same time, ‘retrieving furtherest page read” so I have a clue where I was in my reading.

Well that is five, but I will leave you with one to grow on.

6.BYKI Spanish

Before You Know It offers over 70 languages and has been a long time favorite app of mine for language learning. The Rosetta Stone folks may want to stone me for saying this but I think BYKI can stand toe to toe. The iPhone app is offered in 11 languages. It has been a great help to my son when learning words, phrases and trying to master the pronunciation. He can also build his own lists to study for tests.

This is a good starting point but honestly there are many more that I’ll try and cover in other posts like:

• joining a webinar or virtual meeting with Webex Meeting for iPhone
• learning and discovering new places on a virtual fieldtrip with Google Earth
• sprucing up your cooking skills with iFood Assistant videos
• watching, listening and sharing video and audio from TEDTalks
• using Wikipanion or Dictionary to research or write your next paper

There is much to learn folks, much to learn…from your iPod.