Which came first; the job board or the e-recruitment system? The Monster Board was first created in 1994 with most of the early ATS vendors not appearing until 1998/9.

Since those exciting late 20th century days the market has ducked and weaved all over the place. I still remember Recruitsoft, Recruitmax, Brassring and many others that have since renamed, acquired or simply disappeared.

Some of the older products that still exist today are now in their 14th year. Imagine pulling a 14 year old mobile phone out of your pocket; assuming you could fit it in your pocket! Yet some organisations are still using an ATS that is of this ilk.

Back then it was all very much the Wild West and vendors had to pitch a missionary sales message as recruiters were not convinced that the Internet would ever become relevant for mainstream recruiting. IT jobs maybe, but your average shop worker or plumber would never apply for a job online.

Job boards continued to explode rapidly destroying the print media industry who clung on as long as they could but as recruitment advertising moved online it created a global platform for job advertising. This in turn forced the recruiter to look to the e-recruitment system to help automate the processing of all the (irrelevant) candidates. Many companies adopted a “screening out” approach to their online job application forms with branched screening questions becoming the de rigueur from 2005 onwards.

Whilst all the vendors continued to change their names the e-recruitment system also became known as an Applicant Tracking System or ATS which suited it well. Applicants were forced through a bureaucratic online process, inherited from an old paper based process that just didn’t work online. Candidate experience was hardly considered and ATS vendors provided a clunky experience that did nothing but frustrate everyone.

Arrival of Web 2.0

Then Web 2.0 came along followed shortly by social media and now mobile. Some industry commentators still like to proclaim that recruitment is (now) broken although I would argue it was never fixed. The basic premise of moving a paper based process online is not a fix; far from it. Yet some of the older ATS’s still follow this clunky route hence it is still broken for many organisations.

Candidate experience is on the agenda of most HR Directors. Social is a conversation piece at every recruitment conference and mobile is catching up fast. The candidate is more active online now than ever before due to the likes of Facebook (albeit not actively looking for a job on these channels). Social media has created a new way of using the Internet and most people involved in any business process is comfortable with sharing, commenting, liking etc. The market is way beyond the “end of the beginning” yet many of the ATS vendors are still peddling systems that may as well have been built 100 years ago as far as recruiters are concerned.

Meanwhile recruiters have been waiting patiently for social functionality to be added to their existing ATS yet still they wait. Posting a job to Twitter or adding share code to a job description is so far from what social really means. Social and mobile have placed a new imperative on the recruiter and they cannot and will not wait for the ATS vendor to catch-up. Why should they and what should they do now?

The next post in this short series “What is a social ATS” will cover how social is being weaved into the ATS.

In the meantime and in case you didn’t recognise the names:

1. Recruitsoft ~> Taleo ~> Oracle
2. Recruitmax ~> Vurv ~> Taleo
3. Brassring ~> Kenexa ~> IBM

Or if you remember any other ATS names from yesteryear please tell me.

This post was first published on the Cornerstone OnDemand blog.

Simon, can you give us a quick snapshot of the key HR challenges that you have faced in the past year or so in terms of recruitment, retention, engagement?

Telefónica Digital is now one year old.  This year has been a truly exciting one.  The company is now a genuinely multi-national entity with no one dominant culture and walking through the door in any of our offices we hear a variety of languages being spoken, friendships being made and teams learning from each other.  We now employ around 6,500 people from over 24 different nationalities across five main geographical centres.

We’re now clearer on where our priorities lie as a business and have a clear strategy and know how our people can make the biggest contribution.  Ensuring we have an effective, high performing culture is crucial.  We need to hang onto the good dynamics we see from various countries and subsidiaries and shed the less good.

Understanding what motivates our recruits is very important too.  Our key focus is on recruiting and developing high developing people throughout the entire business.  We have already attracted recruits from established companies in our sector including Google, Skype, Yahoo, Samsung and Microsoft.  These people have moved to Telefónica Digital because they are attracted to a culture where everything hasn’t already been invented and where they can continue to shape the future.  They were attracted to the opportunity to build something as well as work internationally.  It’s not about a free canteen for the people we want to employ – it’s much more than that.

What’s so special and unique about the Telefónica Digital culture and how do you plan to perpetuate it?

Our people all talk about being there from the beginning and how the ability to create the future is an inspiring factor.  In other digital businesses all the creating has already been done. Also, diversity.  The fact that we have so many nationalities makes this a truly unique culture.  Diversity also comes from the fact that we employ people from a range of companies from across the Telefonica group and o2, as well as many other companies.

Although of course this means there are differing workstyles across the business, everyone is incredibly collaborative.  The workforce is extremely proactive, creative and willing to respond to change.

Another aspect of the business which is very important is the versatility and flexibility which comes with working in a multinational business.  Teams are often virtual, based across different markets and geographies using various forms of technology every day to build virtual teams.  Flexible working is very real at Telefónica Digital – not something we like to talk about.

“Talent management is a solution looking for a problem to solve” – How would you respond to that statement?

Talent is an all-encompassing HR term we interpret as getting the best people into the roles they should be in as well as anticipating when and where they need to be recruited, as well as their development needs thereafter.  It may sound like jargon but it basically encourages the business to be strategic and look at our people in terms of real assets and take them and their potential contribution seriously from a very long term perspective.  In a business as diverse as Telefónica Digital which is growing at a very fast rate this is obviously exceptionally important.  Much of our business is based in Latin America, including the continent’s largest portal with 100 million unique users per month, so finding and creating the right future leaders presents us with a fascinating challenge.  If talent management is looking for a problem, it’s a nice problem to have.

Some say that talent is increasingly in control of its own career path, training and L & D, and therefore the role of HR in talent management increasingly redundant.  Would you agree with that and what’s your perspective?

Organisations are changing so frequently and radically that the days of a rigid career path are in the past and people now manage themselves according to what is happening around them.  Our view is that we want people to be in control of where they want to take things and that the role of HR should be one of partnership and finding ways to develop people, enabling them to work in the way they find the most productive.  HR is there to provide a strategic overview and give people a very different perspective and challenge their views if necessary.  Training, learning and development should be accessible to everyone and help to inspire people to think about other things they can do for themselves on their own career path – there is no one size that fits all.

There is a movement toward non-hierarchical management structures that goes hand-in-hand with the growth of greater transparency and more information sharing – effectively the breaking down of information silos.  Is this something you are embracing at Telefónica Digital?

Absolutely, yes.  We don’t have a traditional grade structure, don’t set annual objectives and have an agile process framework which we are working to.  We set 4-monthly KPIs and have introduced a very flexible approach to reward which is determined on two factors – market rates and personal performance rather than traditional salary bands or averages.  High performers are a strong focus and we believe this is how to incentivise them.

How do you see the role of top Human Resources executives changing in the coming few years, and what do you believe are the key factors behind that change?

HR is changing massively and in a multinational digital business we are probably ahead of the curve on some of the factors.   For example, recruitment and retention is changing.  Many of the people we recruit are innovators and entrepreneurs and this means they are inspired by a set of new factors and values that we have had to embrace.

Telefónica Digital has already attracted recruits from the established leviathans of the sector including Google, Skype, Yahoo, Samsung and Microsoft.  It has also been in the enviable position of being able to recruit the cream of talent across from the entire Telefónica group. Those recruits are moving to this business because they are attracted to a culture where everything has not already been thought about or invented, where they can be there from the beginning and can continue to shape the future.  Loyalty to any particular company can no longer be taken for granted.  These are people who need a culture and environment which is continually challenging and gives them opportunities for career development that they couldn’t get elsewhere.  We have to make sure that is a reality for them.

How important is technology in your HR strategy and what systems / applications have you been using?  How do you see technology changing the HR function in the coming years?

Technology is hugely important and is changing HR for the better, bringing about ever more agility.  The nature of our business demands that we adopt smart ways of working.    For instance, we are embracing cloud technologies which are reshaping the role of HR and impacting on our culture and speed of delivery. We have just brought together a number of systems to create one truly global system in partnership with Workday.  It’s called Aura24 and will include a new operating model with transparent organisational design and clear roles and responsibilities for all staff.  It can be accessed via any web enabled device, on the move, anywhere in the world and helps employees organise all aspects of their working life and reduce time spent on unnecessary administration.

But the challenge to be ahead of the game when it comes to technology will never diminish for HR.  We should always be looking for ways to improve our performance but stay focused on what technology can do for the line manager and the employee as opposed to the HR function itself.

What questions would you like to ask a room full of your counterparts if you were given the chance?

I would like to exchange ideas with them generally about all aspects of HR, but three questions spring to mind which every HR Director will always be thinking about:
How do you attract and retain the best people?
How do you adopt the best culture whilst acknowledging that it will always evolve organically?
How do you develop and reward people in a way that embraces their need for autonomy in their career?

Drawing on your own experience, what advice would give to top management and HR executives with regard to change management and HR transformation?

These are my top five pointers:

Alignment A business strategy is the HR strategy.  The minute you need a different strategy you are not aligned with the overall business strategy.

Accountability Have a clear plan, owned by the line.  What will you do, what will you deliver, by when and at what cost?  Aim to be as measurable and accountable as any other business person.

Change Be radical where you need change but don’t change what already works well and is fit for the next three years.

Measurement Celebrate success loudly, accept and learn from mistakes quickly.

Listen Trust feedback from line managers to determine what a success is and what is not.

Simon Linares was appointed to the Board of Telefonica Digital in September 2011, as Group HR Director. Prior to that Simon was on the Telefónica Europe plc Board, as Group HR Director, from 17 July 2008. Simon joined the company from Diageo, where he was HR Director, for the leading premium drinks company’s Africa region, and before that was based in Madrid as HR Director for diageos business across Spain, Portugal and Canaries islands. Simon has significant HR experience, especially in leadership and management development at an global level thanks to his previous roles as HR Director for Africa and Iberia regions at Diageo and global roles in leadership development and cultural change. Prior to Diageo, Simon worked for a number of major companies in the financial services and consumer goods industries, including Rothmans, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Grand Metropolitan.

]]> http://www.hrtecheurope.com/blog/2013/05/interview-telefonica/feed/ 1 http://www.hrtecheurope.com/blog/2013/05/irecruit-europes-talent-management-and-recruitment-conference/ http://www.hrtecheurope.com/blog/2013/05/irecruit-europes-talent-management-and-recruitment-conference/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 14:36:35 +0000 Marc Coleman http://www.hrtecheurope.com/blog/?p=5981 Finding the best people is as challenging now as it ever was, and today 57% of European Enterprises are struggling to recruit the talent they need despite record levels of unemployment.  An earth shaking 82% of European Enterprises cite talent acquisition as “extremely difficult”. In a world where skilled individuals feel they have the bargaining power to demand optimal work terms, the competition between employers for talent is as fierce as ever.

Talent management and recruiting is, today, so much more than just the lifeblood of your business, it is the way to give your business a chance, a way to inject adrenaline into your business strategy. Talent management and recruiting is shown to have the Highest Business Impact of any HR Function. The explosion in talent and recruiting technologies is clear and strong evidence of the health and importance of talent management and recruitment; the market grew 20% in 2012, and is expected to grow by 25% in 2013!

The Pan European HR Network, producers of many of World’s leading HR, Talent and Recruitment events over the past 3 years, have now focused our expertise and research in one talent event on June 20 – 21 in Amsterdam. iRecruit 2.013 is Europe’s foremost Talent Management and Recruitment Congress & Expo providing the market and our members with the best information, recommendations, technologies, tools and resources that your business and leadership teams need for success.

Network Legend, award-winner and futurist Matthew Jeffery – SAP’s new Global Head of Talent Strategy and Innovation will kick off this years show as our opening keynote with a provoking discussion on; Is it the end of Recruitment as we know it? Recruitment is broken. It’s time to throw away the rulebook and start again! Whilst many in the industry accept the status quo and cherish mediocrity, why should you? Tired of hearing the same old excuses? Tired of being a slave to a process that never delivers? In an era where you can drown in a sea of buzzwords like Social Media, Crowdsourcing, Big Data, Employment Branding, Augmented Reality, Mobile…. what works? What is spin? And more importantly, given the current recruitment model is bust, what should replace it? In this blunt, shockingly honest session, Jeffery calls for a Recruitment Revolution and a new model. Given Jeffery’s track history and powerful oratory, this promises to be an unmissable presentation.

Prepare to be shocked…. For evidence of change look around and see how LinkedIn have successfully disrupted the marketplace: today LinkedIn know more about your employees than your company knows! Each year network research with our enterprise members often feels like the movie Groundhog Day: we are going through a major transformation (AGAIN!), we have a new CEO therefore we have new talent strategy (AGAIN!), and so forth. Add to this the pain of austerity and the rise of two speed economies and it is not surprising there is record unemployment coupled with talent and skills shortages. But, one thing is sure, the Pain of Talent Management and Recruitment is not going away.

iRecruit 2.013 looks to cut through the pain by focusing on what is Better, Faster and More Cost Effective! Centered around the need to put strategy first and technology second, the event will discuss innovations in social, mobile, cloud, SaaS and that overarching issue that requires a global sized cataflam – ATS. In our research we have hit a 100% – not one of our members expressed happiness with their ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and we invite anyone who has, to make use of the comments section below. As such we have asked one of the industry’s key innovators and influencers Jerome Ternynck to moderate a user panel with James Purvis (CERN), Colin Minto (G4S) and Eric Van Delden (Education First) whom collectively have worked with +40 ATS solutions.

The Talent Pond – iRecruit presents the “Best of” Europe (Complicated Market) and North America (Homogenous Market)! From both sides of the Atlantic, many months of research, planning and ultimately timely recommendations on industry’s game changers and influences, the network has once again created a speaker program unparalleled in Europe. No nonsense – the event will inform so that you will instinctively know if your Global Talent Strategy is working, allowing you and your team to take intelligent action when you return to the office. Emerging markets – China, South America, India, Africa will also be showcase in how our global experts are facing up to the challenges of global talent management.

Featured speakers below and to learn more CLICK HERE for agenda by time/topic/speaker.

• Matthew Jeffery Global Head of Talent Strategy and Innovation SAP
• Sarah White CEO & Principal Advisor Sarah White & Associates
• Jennifer Candee Head of Global Talent Acquisition SAB Miller
• Josh Bersin CEO Bersin by Deloitte
• John Vlastelica Founder & Managing Director Recruiting Toolbox
• April Samulewicz Global Head of Talent Zurich Insurance Company Ltd.
• Arie Ball Vice President Talent Acquisition Sodexo
• Jerome Ternynck Founder & CEO Smart Recruiters
• Chris Hoyt Director – Global Head of Talent Engagement & Marketing PepsiCo
• Nelly Riggenbach Hasler Vice President Talent Strategy & Employer Branding Universum
• Lisa Scales CEO & Co-Founder Tribepad
• Scott Pitasky Global VP Talent & OD Microsoft
• James Purvis Group Leader – Talent Acquisition & HR CERN
• Bill Boorman Founder #tru
• Sari Lehkonen Head of Unit European Union
• Annemarie Malchow Organizational Development Expert Maersk Drilling
• Eric Van Delden Global Development & Recruitment Director EF Education First
• Ryan Cook Global Recruitment Leader CH2M Hill
• James Rule Head of HR Talent Systems Thomson Reuters
• Fernando Delgado Head of Global Talent Acquisition, Standards & Tools Siemens
• Will Staney Director of Recruiting,Strategic Programs SuccessFactors
• Colin Minto Global Head of Resourcing G4S Plc
• William Tincup CEO Tincup & Co
• John Sumser Principal Analyst HR Examiner & HRxAnalysts
• Ben Van Stekelenburg VP HR International Groupon
• Matt Alder Digital, Social and Mobile Strategist Metashift
• Peter Gold CEO Hire Strategies Limited
• Antoine Lhosmot Employer Branding and HR Communication expert Potentialpark
• Lucian Tarnowski Founder & CEO BraveNewTalent
• David Martin Co-Founder Pocket Recruit
• Lennart Sloof Manager online marketing and social business engineering Deloitte
• Thomas Waldman Manager Talent Acquisition Vistaprint

Are you a hamster or hero?

Scott Pitasky, Microsoft’s Global VP of Talent joins forces with John Vlastelica Founder of Recruitment Toolbox on stage and both will find out who in our audience are Hamsters and who are Hero’s. We all say we want to drive business results. We all say we want to influence leaders. We all say we want to be at the table. So, are you? This session will explore the opportunities we have as HR and Talent leaders to drive change, innovation and growth. We will discuss models, strategies and real life examples of how to do this … the good, the bad and the ugly. Join Chris Hoyt as he shares the evolution of PepsiCo’s awareness of candidate data and its influence on business decisions as they relate to recruitment marketing and vendor selection and accountability. Learn how the talent acquisition & development teams at PepsiCo are evolving their own internal data analysis center of excellence within the HR & Recruiting function and how this helps them to make more informed business decisions both internally and externally. The learning will be a review of both traditional and nontraditional analytics that can and should be tracked when looking at candidate engagement, recruiting strategies and recruitment marketing.

Bersin by Deloitte’s complete yearlong research effort to understand the new roles, skills, and technologies driving high-impact talent acquisition today will also be exclusively presented at this years’s iRecruit. Josh Bersin, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will unveil their research and describe how the role of the recruiter has changed, how Big Data and Social tools are transforming recruiting, and describe how employment brand and global talent acquisition have come together. Asides from the Keynotes there will be 8 streams, workshops, ask the expert sessions and an UnConference, all premised and formulated on research, partnerships and client recommendations allowing for delegates to voice their experiences, challenges and ideas. Do you and your team need new solutions?

Look no further than iRecruit 2.013. Deals will be done at this event where practitioners will use the occasion to pack in a year’s worth of meetings and demos, and source new technologies and solutions for their business. Complementing the conferencing and learning, delegates will enjoy meeting with a who’s who in HR, Talent Management and recruitment.

With Special Thanks to our 2013 Sponsors: Exclusive Lead Category Sponsor: Oracle (www.oracle.com) Exclusive Diamond Sponsor: Cornerstone OnDemand (www.cornerstoneondemand.com) Platinum Sponsors: PageUpPeople (www.pageuppeople.com) and Lumesse (www.lumesse.com) Gold Sponsor: Broadbean (www.broadbean.com Silver Sponsors: SHL (www.shl.com) and HireVue (www.hirevue.com) and Rexx Systems (www.rexx-systems.com) Other Sponsors include: KeneXa, Cammio, Undutchables, Recruiter XL, TextKernel, Talentsoft, Actonomy.

Modernize and rethink the way you recruit. Discover new ways to lead, develop, predict, and engage your people. Learn how by marking your diary for Thursday – Friday June 20-21 in Amsterdam!

For further information please visit or follow: Website: (www.irecruitexpo.com) Twitter: (http://twitter.com/iRecruitExpo) #iRecruitExpo LinkedIn Group: (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3930182) Contacts: Marketing, Press - Viktoria Puskas, Tel. +36-70-331-3431 Research - Peter Russell, Tel. +33-64-89-23-260 Speakers,  Social Media - Dorin Satran, Tel. +36-70-932-8130

Like it’s predecessor our flagship event in Amsterdam, a full house registered leaving some souls disappointed in the run up (with one speculator arriving unannounced from Saudi Arabia!) I had to refund an army of vendors who wanted to cheekily attend as delegates! The success? More references, testimonials and importantly valuable hands-on feedback on what to improve & great ideas that will help fuel the network’s research arm and events business for the rest of this year!

Strategically placing an event in the early part of the year, allow’s us to take this learning forward for #HRTechEurope in Amsterdam this October. It was our first time back in London for 2 yrs, (unfortunately I didn’t get to go …), nothing new to Peter and I, the team discovered first hand how saturated London actually is with HR events (they counted no less than 6 HR Events on in London on those same dates). I reckon, it’s got to be a good sign when the sponsors of other events are calling their partners sponsoring HR Tech Europe Spring Warm Up in London to find out how things are going? …. our Ops team overheard one of our sponsors on the phone saying - I told you this was the one to come to!

The stable of champions!

UK is a tough market if you’ve not been there for a while – for me the toughest part of the project was positioning the opportunity of BIG Data for HR and taking that anywhere in the world. Largely because HR are often last to the table on such opportunities – Marketing, IT, Recruitment, Supply Chain, etc are the usual front runners (why you see the US HR Guru’s Cappelli, Boudreau, Ulrich et al, using existing Supply Chain/Logistic methodologies in much of their work on talent, processes, etc).

Last October in Amsterdam we integrated Big Data as a running theme based on our research, the London event was the first event I believe globally to showcase the Big Data for HR opportunity. Different to much of what HR has been pitched to death on when it comes to standardisation of Metrics, Benchmarking and Measurement. I did have an assumption for a while as I did my research, that our American partners were well ahead of the game. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered really interesting cases (some as old as 2-3 yrs) on the use of Big Data for HR in Global 500 Companies in Germany, Denmark and Switzerland – how and ever not one of them were prepared to take the stage (just yet!) and share that hard earned Intel with the world. I am held hostage to confidentiality agreements! C’est la vie!

I spent some of my research time focused on the sporting arena last December and January, speaking to some of the people changing that world and evolving sports science area with some amazing results. I focused some of my attention on team sports and clubs like Leicester Tigers (Rugby), Paris Saint-Germain (Football) and Chelsea FC (Football) to discover what kind of trouble they’ve been getting into. For years, I have used sporting analogies for business where and when relevant (I have a past career in sports industry – football, rugby, horse racing sailing, etc.). I saw Usain Bolt at IMD last year after the Olympics and found the occasion hilarious – he was surrounded by suits – felt like a room full of vultures ready to eat him up, the context of discussion really felt embarrassing sometimes and so far removed from the workplace.

I read from a tweet that Moneyball was highlighted once again at the London event – I have been waiting for John Henry (Boston Red Sox) to use similar ideas at Liverpool (The club he now owns and that I have followed since I’ve been able to walk!). Henry was briefly portrayed by Arliss Howard in the 2011 film Moneyball which follows Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane and his quest to build a winning team in 2002. Towards the end of the film, Beane travels to Boston’s Fenway Park where he meets with Henry, who wants Beane to become the new GM of the Red Sox. The film notes that Beane turned down a $12.5-million per year contract with Boston and returned to Oakland but adds that the Red Sox did use many of the “Moneyball” ideas and soon won two World Series, including their 2004 title which was the first Red Sox championship in 86 years. Oakland Athletics baseball team’s 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane’s (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise’s unfavorable financial situation, take a sophisticated sabermetric (analytics) approach towards scouting and analyzing players/talent, acquiring ”submarine” pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond) and former catcher Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt), and winning 20 consecutive games, an American League record.

I have touched on this in the past and pleasantly surprised to see this in my Inbox this morning from my Liverpool membership – seems Mr. Henry is at work – we can only speculate on what is missing. Luis Suarez this year is the top scorer in the Premier League!

Wouldn’t it be fan-tastic if the world of HR/HCM Management had similar people analytic’s in place tied in to business goals with a social and tech wrap-around that keeps everything alive in one place (people changing jobs/company, performance reviews that do not reflect the performance, etc.), in a changing world that is more mobile, more social, more collaborative, more 24/7, more in need of leadership and direction.

HR Tech Europe London Spring Warm-Up as the 1st event to showcase Big Data HR, it has inspired a spate of media posts over the past few weeks – here is a short video from our friends at the Economist on Dehumanizing the HR Function.

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or via LinkedIn. Recent productions include: HR Tech Europe, iRecruit Expo, iHR Awards. Build good-smart connections by joining Europe’s largest Corporate HR Network – Please feel free to visit the Pan European HR Network’s Groups on LinkedIn.

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The laws of the current economy – Better, Faster, Cheaper are long at play which has meant businesses and HR are now quick to make investments in the Next Generation of HR Technology for competitive advantage. From the elements, better, faster, cheaper  ….. the big data buzz is for me one of the key game changers for HR ( …… despite the occasional flatulence from the silver surfing management gurus whom have past their sell by date), offering unique insights, projections and patterns into your people business (rather than copying, perhaps plagiarizing, benchmarking or following competitors/what everyone else is doing in the marketplace).

Pumping new DNA into your HR Function doesn’t start with a bunch of the best HR people in the World – its where they come from ….. who puts them in the room ….. the diversity of viewpoints …… putting the right people with the right experiences, competencies and aspirations in that room that will allow for the what next ……. and projecting talent into the right areas of your business at the right time!

In light of the massive disruption and momentum taking place in the HR industry, I am really looking forward to Jeremy Shapiro’s keynote at HR Tech Europe Spring Warm-Up.  Jeremy is Group Executive Director of Talent Intelligence at Morgan Stanley’s office in New York. Jeremy joins us in London on the 19-20 March for an update on his October 2010 HBR Article written 2.5 years ago with Big Data Guru – Tom Davenport - Competing on Talent Analytics.

The question I have of all of this – are HR really going to up-skill on measurement, metrics, big data, people analytic’s or is it a case of what I have mentioned above? The careful engineering and splicing of data scientists, mathematicians, strategic finance, process and change skills, etc. into the HR gene pool? I think so, I hope we’ve learned our lessons, the HR Business Partner adoption of the last 20 years still has less than 15% adoption across Europe – the idea that old school HR will go to a sales meetings with sales directors to better understand the business has not worked so well (the opposite has – sales leaders moving into HR) mostly it has been a change of job title on the new business cards, which have also become redundant. What has worked particularly well is the splicing DNA in from other parts of the business and also giving the global function the diversity needed to innovate, change and transform.

The past decade was ….. the HR Function being designed by HR, the current decade, the HR Function is being designed by the business and its employees.

We heard Thomas Otter from Gartner last year, highlighting some of their research on procurement working alongside HR, that when procurement are involved in signing HR Technology contracts, it saves employers on average 30%. Imagine, a massive (or complex) hiring campaign in your business and a data scientist being able to tell what job complexities and costs are across 50 European countries …. the level of competition for those skills in those countries ….. average time to hire … what your competitors are doing ……  recruitment capabilities in those countries x languages ….. projected skills needed further into the project/job ….. – how much better, faster and cheaper would the hiring and decision making process be if you had these real time insights? In the short term and long term. Word on the street is that LinkedIn is quietly developing software for some time now, a software that understands companies employees better than their employers - behaviors, learning, performance hot spots, high attrition rates, engagement levels, interests, skills and competencies, experiences v jobs being advertised, etc.

Additionally, one of our growing observations as a networker, researcher and event organizer is that benchmarking risks making companies more alike and more ordinary ( … this is “oh so true” of Europe) . Everyone is looking for the innovators, the marketeers, the Sales Superstars …. HR Departments need to look and feel like their business, they also need to understand what differentiates, innovates and drives the business forward – one size does not fit all. The reality today is that in a world of increasing transparency and democracy, HR has to know the answers to the bigger people questions linked to the business – that means having the right data, and having the right analysis/insight of that information in real-time at the leadership table.

I have developed some level of immunity now and so it doesn’t surprise me on research calls anymore, what we have coined HR = Hardly Relevant’s (we are HR’s biggest supporters but do find occasion to join the bashing), when asking a question as simple as what are the biggest opportunities (or challenges) facing your HR function right now … if they can’t be rattled off, they shouldn’t be there …. the same applies to all functions. The laws of nature tend to take their place over time.

It is our experience that its not just the changing technologies that are driving our industry for change, rather business leaders’ shifting perceptions and experience with the HR Function. Change has been the only constant since the recession began, we see more and more HR Functions being resourced as once imagined, enabling HR to really impact the bottom line.

Big Data is here to stay. On scale of 1-10 (10 being excellent), most HR departments in Europe are sitting on 1, that means you have time to strategize and plan about how to make the most effective use of the people data in your business, you shouldn’t buzzword around with it though, because if, and when your competitors do get ahead they are likely to stay ahead for some time – it shouldn’t be too difficult to imagine with such capabilities that they will probably know more about your business and talent than your company knows, LinkedIn already do!

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or via LinkedIn. Recent productions include: HR Tech Europe, iRecruit, Next Gen Talent, iHR Awards and Social Enterprise. Build good-smart connections by joining Europe’s largest Corporate HR Network – Please feel free to visit the Pan European HR Network’s Groups on LinkedIn.

• Pan European HR Network
• iRecruit
• HR Tech Europe
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Big Data HR

It pops up quite frequently in my research that members of our corporate network are working with new technologies and vendors, only to discover 6 months later the technology they’ve invested in doesn’t do what it said it would do on the tin (…..and lets be fair to the vendors, in some cases customers can be fairly dreamy on what technology can do). Then there is the opposing argument from the technology naysayers – Product Advertising v SLA …..but then, people do still buy from people!  As a corporate network we are of course sourcing the success stories, and along the way we hear the horror stories, so its an interesting position we find ourselves in – sitting on the fence in some respects. Last week, I spoke with an HR Leader of one of the world’s biggest investors in HR Technology, he was quite frank about his situation, looking at his global HR Strategy for the coming years – he felt none of the big players in HR are giving him the answers he needs – so there is this big void in the market which we need to address this year through our events.

To do this end, to get the ball rolling we are working with one of the best from our 2012 gatherings – Jason Averbook. Legendary on the HR circuit in the US, we are hoping he gains cult status here in Europe! Next month in London, Jason will discuss how to build a true intelligence strategy in your organization that isn’t a reporting function, but a true intelligence capability to understand the past, but more importantly the present and the future makeup of your workforce, its engagement and its ability to align itself to the number one focus in organizations worldwide, the goals and objectives of the business.  As part of the conversation, Jason will apply a people, process and technology lens to data to ensure that technology is not just the enabler, but a true driver in how people and processes are aligned to where work happens, and how consumers of data can benefit from a aligned people, process and technology intelligence strategy.

Jason is also going to run a more interactive session on Aligning People, Process & Technology Intelligence Strategy which will help our members to look at the how to develop an intelligence strategy and capability, and look at how to overcome challenges that will arise during the creation and execution of a strategy.

How to define your intelligence strategy and gain business buy-in

-Determine what to measure and who the consumers of these measures will be (attendees will receive sample metrics).

-Build a process and technology action plan to ensure success aligned to the overall business and intelligence strategy (will receive sample action plans).

-How to ensure that your existing systems will support your overall intelligence strategy (attendees will receive sample systems strategy).

-The capabilities that will be needed to deliver on your intelligence strategy (attendees will receive list of capabilities and how to screen for them).

-Build a marketing and adoption plan of your intelligence strategy (attendees will receive sample marketing plan).

Our growing experience is that some of the great practitioners in HR are coming from outside the function – Finance, Operations, Marketing, etc – HR Tech Europe Spring Warm-up in London involves a number of game changers in HR, hand-picking some of the most exciting success stories from both sides of the Atlantic.

Proud and delighted with the SPEAKER line-up we have managed to secure for our return to London!

Jonathan Farrer Global VP Smarter Workforce from IBM will share what IBM are doing to develop a Smarter Workforce. IBM has been on a journey for several years to use social business tools and to apply analytic s to better inform decisions regarding its workforce, such as: What skills are needed to realise the business strategy, How to retain key skills, What metrics to use, What predictive models must be built to focus on retention of talent.

Jeremy Shapiro Group Executive Director of Talent Intelligence at Morgan Stanley will use real-world examples to highlight which companies are successfully using data and analytic’s to understand how to leverage their teams more effectively than their competitors. Jeremy will share how these organizations are increasing innovation, understanding the employee value proposition and managing their talent more effectively.

John Sumser CEO of HRAnaylsts will explore the techniques and methods HR Departments must master to harness the value in the data generated by and about our people …. where and how HR ideas are born …. possibilities that HR have never imagined!

Also involved in the program the Award winning Google Team are represented, as are HSBC Bank, Dachis Group, Direct Line Insurance, Workday and many more. What happens in Vegas stays in …… comes to London! Brad Warga former Global Head of Talent and Recruitment at Salesforce.com and Caesars Palace where he founded the “MBA Poker Championship” – now one of the largest MBA recruitment events in the country attracting over 1000 top 10 MBA’s each year to Caesars Palace. Brad features in our Big Data HR Showcase on Day 2.

I am really looking forward to the HR innovation, measurement, big data and people analytic’s elements of the program. I was first made aware of this years ago by the ex Irish CEO of one of the worlds largest supermarkets , their profits have fallen since he left – you might have guessed who he is by now! One of the big data projects they worked on back then was in trying predict customer behavior, which ultimately affected the whole layout, supply chain, incentives and customer service at the supermarket. Trolleys with GPS tracking (yeah really!), coupled with the customer loyalty cards from millions of customers =? There is a world of opportunities in this space that I could list, this project was a key enabler and one of the reasons why that supermarket giant realized phenomenal growth and profits. The CEO subsequently turned around at the end of this project and asked his Head of HR if they had the same insights and predictive capabilities about their employees as they did for their customers? HA! I have also spoken to 2 major European banks whom are working on producing “a people information audit” of their top leadership to give confidence to both investors and credit agencies like Moody’s …. it is no longer sufficient to provide information on customers, profits, etc.

I would like to mention a Special Thanks to our Lead Sponsor Workday whom enjoyed another very successful year in 2012, in addition to a very successful IPO and confirmation of some of their biggest clients to date! As one of our founding partners we have enjoyed a great 2 year history together on HR Tech Europe. 2013 will be a bigger and I believe a much more exciting year for all involved in HR Technology. A year where SaaS, Mobile, Learning, Recognition, Social Enterprise, Predictive and Social Analytic’s, Big Data, the Cloud and much more come to life!

CLICK HERE to visit our London event and learn more!

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or via LinkedIn. Recent productions include: HR Tech Europe, Next Gen Talent, iHR Awards and Social Enterprise. Build good-smart connections by joining Europe’s largest Corporate HR Network – Please feel free to visit the Pan European HR Network’s Groups on Linkedin

• EMEA HR Directors & Managers
• Pan European HR Network
• Strategic Talent Management
• HR Tech Europe

Do you have Facebook App on your smartphone? Like our Facebook Page for HR news updates, read them on the commute to work!

Twitter Session summary!

• Duration : 48 hours
• Tweets per hour : 275
• Total users : 1242
• Total reach : 3 170 354 people
• Impressions: 19,754,349

Event Numbers!

• Truck to send all our equipment to Amsterdam: 1
• HR Tech Europe Team Size: 15
• Number of Countries Represented: 39
• Sponsors: 45
• Speakers: 71
• Final Attendee Headcount (After Cancellations): 898
• Number of Employees represented +8,797,381

Other interesting numbers!

220kph at 10am Day 1, is the speed at which I drove the Ferrari Testarossa (apparently keeps going faster after clock speed 290kph!) BIG THANKS Infor and Gert for the spin! If I wasn’t awake at the morning registration, I was after this! The question I find myself asking – what will happen next year?!!

I think the best number for me is 8,797,381 – this is the number of employees represented by leaders/companies attending HR Tech Europe 2012.  So lets for arguments sake, call the number 9 million. Our cause is motivated by promoting and finding the best information on the future of work, democratization, transparency, transformation, enabled (-ment), optimization, etc., my realization is that the more companies we can influence through our network, our network is not only different in look and feel, this is a number that truly has the power to change, make a difference and disrupt the HR marketplace in Europe forever. I only really considered the number when browsing the delegate list before the event. It’s a provocative number, a call to action to all in our community. It’s also very exciting when you consider our plans for 2013! I mentioned to a few people at the conference this year – we are all together very fortunate to be in this exciting space, when you look around at everything else happening in Europe, its also our collective responsibility to stand up, lead the way and truly make a difference!

Most retweets from HR Tech Europe 2012? Josh Bersin Wins with 25! (Last year’s highest number of retweets was 8!)

Day 1 (HR Tech Europe on twitter)

25 RT @Josh_Bersin: #hrtecheurope +850 guests expected at 2nd Annual HR tech Europe. 9 million employees represented

14 RT @hrmagazine: If you want to change your culture you must empower your manager says directline HRD @markmartin #hr #hrtecheurope

11 RT @hrmagazine: A linkedin profile contains more info on you than your own HR system says @thomasotter @thomasnewcombe  #hrtecheurope #hr

10 RT @bduperrin: Human capital is like financial capital: can increase or decrease depending on how it’s leveraged. #hrtecheurope

9 RT @talemetry: “There won’t be ‘mobile technology’ in three years…there will just be ‘technology.” @imsosarah #fact #HRTechEurope

Day 2 (HR Tech Europe on twitter)

18 RT @HRBuilders_be: Companies do not need org charts anymore, they need network behaviour! #hrtecheurope @hinssen http://t.co/FgQtxMJp

16 RT @elsua: V.U.C.A. = Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity = the new reality of the business world & societies #hrtecheurope

11 RT @bduperrin: @elsua: “I’m declaring war on email, powerpoint, meetings and everything that does not make me productive” #hrtecheurope

9 RT @hrmagazine: Work is no longer a physical team or a physical place: It’s a state of mind @elsua #HR #hrtecheurope

9 RT @James_Mayes: “Innovation is more about mindset than technology” #hrtecheurope

iHR 2012 Award for HR Tech Start-ups was won by TalentBin a search tool that helps you find candidates where they’re active online, based on their skills, interests, and actions – which is pretty cool because it offers a time stamp on interests, influence ( …. and of course there is the very real issue that most people don’t fill in their LinkedIn profile or Facebook correctly/fully – which is why LinkedIn is chasing you for skills and endorsements currently!) TalentBin has great potential going forward and the deserved winner in my opinion and well done to the other 5 finalists for putting the challenge up; Sciomino, Small Improvements, GooodJob, Hunite and Intunex. Revenge for our American Audience? The Judging Panel was mostly European – seemed sweet revenge for Thomas Otter’s remarks much earlier in the morning session (I think he gave an 8 to TalentBin, a Zero would have won it over for Europe again!). So, the competition in it’s second year and now stands at Europe 1: America 1. In the meantime, someone’s suggested we should keep it European, keen to get others views on this, my personal view is that we should be chasing the best start-ups in the world.

BIG THANKS to all our 2012 Sponsors with Special Thanks to Oracle, Workday, NorthgateArinso, SuccessFactors, Raet, ADP and IBM all of whom offered us fantastic support, allowing us to fulfil our goals and objectives for 2012. I also received overwhelming feedback from our buyers and delegates onsite that the sponsors booth’s, staff, service and live demo’s were very impressive. Next year, there will only be two networking floors (Ground Floor = Exhibition only and on the 1st Floor branded one on one meeting areas. This was welcome news at the event last week – the event will take place in the RAI Auditorium (The Building Next Door to 2012) which has triple the capacity and scope of this year’s event, again it will take place on the 3rd Week of Oct, so mark your diaries! Some people have asked for a change of location – for this reason you can enjoy London Spring Warm up in March. However, do note that this our flagship event  HR Tech Europe 2013 will remain in Amsterdam (Week 3 October) for the foreseeable future – overwhelming feedback from the network wishes it to stay put.

BIG THANKS to our 2012 Speakers – Our blog squad and media have done all the reporting here and led by Jon Ingham on stage as MC for the second year running – I think everyone will agree being MC is a tough Job for 1 day and Jon’s managed to keep it together for 2!  Well done Jon, great job! I didn’t see all of the sessions as my role at the event is to try and keep the networking floor happy. I did grab a few sessions and have been in this business long enough to know that Naomi Bloom, Peter Hinssen, Thomas Otter et al. grabbed enough cats by the tail to keep the place awake! Naomi even beat up the CIO of one of our major customers! Click on the speaker names above to get an interesting mind-map of thoughts from David Wilson (thanks David)! or if you wish to see a harvest of the social enterprise event take a look here. Apologies to all people who could not get into those sessions. We did receive complaints on bigger room needed, it must be said though we did advertise beforehand limited seating available, and the idea was think tank and interactive. SOLD OUT plus everyone squishing in doorway obviously takes that away. Next year, I think we need to take the next step, our members need to be more diligent in which speaking sessions they book (if you book late – you snooze and you lose!). I will put a big butch scary fellow (scarier looking than me) on the door, the kind who will not be argued with, if the session is full and you are not registered in advance. Might be interesting to put a spy-cam outside the door!

BIG THANKS to our 2012 Blog Squad! My personal apologies to our bloggers for losing your blog room to one of our partners and thanks so much for making do with the sound proof booths. I promise you the difference in 2013 – watch this space!

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS! You know who you are – you are the special ones, who have helped us build this network – you cannot be named, otherwise our competitors will continue to hound you with calls!

I met another special person at the event this year Heather Bussing, thanks so much Heather! She took some fantastic photographs for us, CLICK HERE for some of the happy faces at HR Tech Europe 2012.

So we promised to double up and we promised to put on more of a show, I think the team and our sponsors achieved a fantastic result, given the fact that we are surrounded by a never-ending Euro-crisis, makes it extra special. I have had overwhelming feedback from my team on conversations they’ve had and found myself saying “no way” to nearly all of them. It seems a long ways back but only 2 years ago (exactly in a couple of weeks) at Chelsea Football Club (am a Liverpool Fan) in London when the HR Tech Europe idea was born before coming to life in January of last year.

We have a long list of things to improve, a long list of new ideas, a long list of new friends to work with … I think we picked up on most feedback from the exhibition floors, speaker programs, registration, social, meeting rooms, competition, badges, breakouts and we invite your feedback to help us with 2013.

Plans for 2013? Venue’s are all long booked and we are currently hatching new plans and exciting ideas, please come back here in 3-4 weeks, all will be revealed! Sincere thanks from all the HR Tech Europe Team, we hope you all got home safe & sound, and not missing us too much!

Presentation DOWNLOADS can be found on our social network. If you have forgotten your password you can retrieve a new one on the network (not from us). See below some screen-grabs on what to do or simply visit  ”Schedule” -> “Materials”-> select session(s)-> download Click on schedule sessions or materials – most sessions are there, some sessions are missing – they need further approval or in very few cases cannot be shared publicly. As soon as we have them, we will make an announcement each time we add a new session/ppt.

HR Tech Europe 2012 Social Network – Powered by ADP

The Swag at HR Tech Europe 2012!

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or via LinkedIn. Recent productions include: HR Tech Europe, Next Gen Talent, iHR Awards and Social Enterprise. Build good-smart connections by joining Europe’s largest Corporate HR Network – Please feel free to visit the Pan European HR Network’s Groups on Linkedin

• EMEA HR Directors & Managers
• Pan European HR Network
• Strategic Talent Management
• HR Tech Europe

Do you have Facebook App on your smartphone? Like our Facebook Page for HR news updates, read them on the commute to work!

Across The Pond – HR Tech Europe

While the jury’s still out if “consumerization” is an actual word (although dictionaries can’t possibly keep pace with Moore’s Law, after all), it was a recurring theme throughout the conference – and the industry dialogue in general.

Of course, Hinnson, unlike so many industry circuit speakers, admitted that he doesn’t “know much about HR,” which is something that few “HR thought leaders” would openly admit – although most, in fact, have never actually worked as practitioners.

That’s probably one of the reasons that Hinnson’s presentation was so interesting – although the material he presented was effectively the same messaging that’s resonated throughout our industry for the past few years.

But it was his technologist’s perspective – and impeccably rehearsed, highly polished presentation – that made concepts like ‘consumerization’ and ‘big data’ seem, well, relevant beyond the narrow constructs of the HR silo.

There’s a maxim in film that content is only 20% of the product – the other 80% is in the presentation, and Hinnson definitely reinforced this concept.  But then again, so too did the entire HR Technology Europe conference.

While there was nothing particularly new about the material (at least to those of us who pay attention to the mundane, geeky world of HR Tech), the conference itself came as a breath of fresh air at the tail end of a whirlwind conference season – for me, at least.

I’m often really cynical about our industry (and the obtuse consultant speak that passes for “thought leadership”), I came away from HR Tech Europe feeling a little like I did after my first HR Evolution: actually excited about this whole talent thing, the direction of the industry, and most importantly, humbled by the brilliant minds who are doing nothing less than changing the world of work.

And it’s a very big world.

So, in constrast to the jaded, pessimistic wrap-up I wrote of the domestic conference season, here, for me, were the highlights/takeaways of a conference that left me, well, optimistic and a little geeked out.

HR Tech Europe 2012: Top 3 Takeaways

1. Social Media Can’t Replace Face to Face: This was my first time in Europe, like, ever, which means that unlike, say, Vegas or Atlanta, I met long standing contacts, colleagues and collaborators for the first time in real life.  The result was validation that social media can create real, impactful relationships (and a reminder that there are real people behind those Twitter avatars), but also, that there’s no replacement for in real life.

While the relationships might have been initiated over social media, the real engagement (and meaningful conversation) can really only happen offline – and that’s where they’re cemented.

Which is why I probably go to so many damn conferences in the first place – and have so many professional colleagues I consider close friends.  Although, if Steve Boese’s theory is correct, all of them secretly hate me and are out to get me.  It’s a solid theory, given most of them are in HR.

But to get to meet so many for the first time was awesome – because, well, for once, it didn’t feel like same stuff, different hashtag.  Even if the content was pretty much the same as it always was, it was the presentation (and perspectives), which made this event, for me, so dramatically different.

Plus, terms like “SaaS” and “social sourcing” sound so much sexier when uttered in a Continental accent – or so much smarter when said in a British one.  Even if it’s utter fluff.

2. A Time Zone Ahead: Many of the conference’s speakers stressed the need for simplicity in technology, of choosing usability over specious features.

And while recurring themes involved such forward looking trends as predictive analytics (if we ever get past this “big data” problem we seem to be having) and augmented reality (with the Layar to prove it), everyone came back to the pretty much the same point: technology will make us more efficient at our jobs and effective as HR professionals, but it’s not the tools that really matter – it’s the mindset.

That mindset does, in Europe at least, seem to be changing.  Here, there weren’t conversations about whether or not to get involved in social media, but rather, about how to best optimize it.

There was little conversation about blocking employees’ access to social, but rather, how best to aggregate those efforts in building a social enterprise (which merited a separate track, unlike in the US, where it rarely scores even a separate session).  And best of all, no one was talking about getting a seat at the table, but rather, how to best align talent strategy and business strategy.

In short, while in the US we talk a lot about our problems, the conversation seemed largely focused on solutions, or at least, how to create success instead of basically building a business case.  Which was appreciated.

3. Culture Does Matter: I’ve worked for a lot of multinational companies (Monster, Warner Bros., Disney, Amgen), and recruited for a lot of internationally based roles.  That said, it’s easy to forget that behind that EMEA acronym we in America like so much, there’s a huge amount of nuance behind the differing cultures, customs and customers in each country that conglomerate represents.

While the European Union may exist as a political entity, that’s not necessarily reflected in the world of work, or in the business of people.

Location, in recruiting, is everything – far easier (although more competitive) to find a software engineer in San Jose than, say, Sarasota.  Talent is compensated, and competed for, based on the forces of highly localized labor supply and demand.

While technology has somewhat eroded these borders, it also reinforces the fact that there are divides in expectations, norms and best practices that are unique to every nation, which profoundly impacts things like employer branding, recruitment marketing messaging, internal communications and, for multinationals, the very possibility of a truly unified “corporate culture.”

It’s a good reminder that while we may be on the brink of building a truly collaborative, and truly social, global enterprise, the real value in these tools and technologies is not only in that we’re able to work together, but also, to help us understand how to adapt, and celebrate, the differences that make each market completely unique, helping us to better understand, and serve, our the internal and external customers, existing and future employees, colleagues, managers and counterparts.

Because, you know, diversity is more than a good faith effort.  It’s crucial to driving both innovation – and a truly global business community.

Originally published on the Talent Technology Blog