Job Titles of the Future #3 - Networking Wingman

First off you are probably asking just what exactly is a Networking Wingman?

The details you need can be found in this recent Fast Company piece, 'This Woman Wants To Be Your Networking Wingman' - a profile of Christine Hauer who as far as anyone can tell has invented a brand new category.  What does a Networking Wingman actually do?  Details from the Fast Company article:

For $28 you can take Christine Hauer for a walk in the park. For $165 you can bring her to a party and introduce her as your "assistant" or "friend" or "colleague"--"whatever you feel most comfortable with."

She isn’t offering what your dirty mind is imagining, though. She’s "confidence building" in the park and being a "networking sidekick" at the party. They’re micro-services that are usually small parts of the larger job of doing public relations, but now, thanks to the Internet, can be purchased as discrete components

"I’m like this personal legitimizer, that doesn’t do it awkwardly," she told me. "It’s like I’m a friend." She demonstrated how she would work the room, praising me effusively to other partygoers: "Ahhh! I love Stan! Oh my God, he’s crazy! Look at him! He’s like the best writer, and he’s here! You’ve got to meet him!”

'Networking Wingman' might not (yet) be a job in the classic sense, but as odd as it sounds it could be representative of how technology and crowdsourcing and crowdfunding concepts are combining to allow creative individuals to well, create brand new types of services and value.

But even more interesting than the technology, social networking, and micro-services platforms that are at play here, the networking wingman role and described services ask questions about the very nature of promotions, marketing, and PR.

Let's say an author has a new book to pitch - he or she might engage a PR firm to try and connect with press and bloggers to get the book reviewed and generate some buzz and interest. The PR person will send an email, typically describing what a smart or thought-provoking or leading-edge thinker the author is to try and pique the interest of the journalist or blogger.  And mostly, these PR pitches get ignored. We don't really care what a random PR person has to say about another random author.

But take that same pitch - what Ms. Hauer says is part of her bag of tricks as a networking wingman, and put it live, in person, and in a totally different context, then maybe, just maybe you will 'believe' that the author really is 'like the best writer', and 'You’ve got to meet him!'

When the networking wingman story first ran a week or so ago, I noticed several snarky and dismissive comments and tweets about the new 'job' that Ms. Hauer created. Many folks said it was the stupidest idea that they'd ever seen.

I don't think it's dumb at all. I think it is a genius mash-up of tech savvy, entrepreneurial thinking, and understanding of our incessant need to have other people talk about how fantastic we are. 

And it makes the Steve-approved 'Job Titles of the Future' list.

If you're going to drop some Yoda, then at least pick a better quote

Two things drove me to post about Yoda (or really three if you also count the fact that the weather turned incredibly gorgeous this past weekend in Western New York and I didn't want to spend that much of it inside writing blog posts).

First - Saturday was 'Star Wars Day' - May 4th - 'May the fourth be with you' and all that. And second with all the additional attention paid to the legendary entertainment franchise, I know I spotted that venerable old staple quote from our favorite warrior/teacher/philosopher Yoda bandied about more that a few times. Sure, there is a 'try'

You know the one I mean - the 'Do, or do not - there is no try' line that Yoda dropped on Luke Skywalker when young Luke was struggling with his confidence during his training. I know, Yoda must have been shocked that a kid about 2 years removed from working on a dirt farm with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru wasn't sure he could levitate a starfighter in the air using only his mind.

Regardless, that 'there is no try' line gets quoted constantly - and is also really stupid as well. Of course there is a 'try'. We all try things all the time. You have to 'try' things and experiment and explore in order to make life, work, pretty much anything actually interesting. If 'try' is not part of the equation, and you force the world into a black and white 'Do' or 'Do not' pair of choices then 'Do not' is going to win way more often than it should. I could go on for ages about how stupid that quote is, but as I said the sun is out for the first time since September and I want to go outside. 

So I will leave you with this - if must quote your pal Yoda (who is, I might remind you, a fictional character, that doesn't actually exist), then go with this one:

“If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are ... a different game you should play.”

Perfectly played Master Yoda. And actually good advice for after you have ignored his 'Do not try' nonsense and spent some time actually trying new things. Sometimes you have to move on - even if you have done everything right, and even when it doesn't seem fair.

So there you go - a lesser known but infinitely more valuable piece of wisdom from the movies most famous 800 year-old, three foot Jedi.

Have a great week all - May the 4th be with you too, (two days late).

#HRHappyHour 161 PODCAST - 'Building a Smarter Workforce'

This week the HR Happy Hour Show/Podcast is back with a fresh episode recorded earlier this week - 'Building a Smarter Workforce' with guest Jonathan Ferrar, VP, Smarter Workforce from IBM (you can follow Jonathan on Twitter as well - @jaferrar).

It was a fascinating conversation with Jonathan - a leader with over 20 years of Human Resources experience across the globe - about the changing nature of technology, expectations, and how HR and organizations are starting to react to those challenges. 

You can listen to the show on the show page here, using the widget player below, and of course on iTunes - just search the podcasts area for 'HR Happy Hour'.

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

The Smarter Workforce is certainly more than just a marketing angle, it really is a concept that reflects the way that organizations are starting to combine things like existing investments in Talent Management technology and programs, new initiatives in social collaboration tools, and finally incorporating Big Data and analytics in order to produce better results, and create more opportunities for innovation.

We talked about some of the opportunities for HR in leveraging these tools and approaches in new areas - like turning recruitment into a high-functioning marketing operation and how mobile and social technologies can transform employees into on-demand learners and teachers.

Thanks to Jonathan and the folks at IBM for taking the time this week - and a a shout-out to HR Happy Hour Show co-host Trish McFarlane, who was a little under the weather this week and could not make the show.

Finally, for listeners of the show an announcment of sorts. For the next little while anyway, Trish and I will be doing the HR Happy Hour Shows more as a traditional podcast - recorded in advance, perhaps a little shorter than the live shows were, and hopefully posted to the site every other week. With our schedules and lots of travel on the horizon this year, doing the shows 'live' on Thursday nights has become increasingly challenging. Trish and I hope that by changing how the shows are produced it will allow us the opportunity to continue doing the show/podcast in a way that will work with our schedules as well as our future guests.

Have a great weekend!

The Applicant Tracking Number

Last week I had a post about the limited differential and competitive advantage that most companies can realize from the implementation of commercial off the shelf software solutions that are readily available (and often implemented) by their rivals as well. The premise was (and still is) that if and when all the largest firms in an industry segment implement the same ERP or Supply Chain or Applicant Tracking System, then it is generally likely that none of them will have executed so much better than their competitors that they gain a meaningful advantage.  What would an application history look like?

The point of the piece was that real and lasting advantage and long-term value comes from actually using technology to create something entirely new and not easily reproducible by competitors or by the software companies themselves, that would just try and sell this innovation to all the firms in the space. The example I used to try and make this point was the FedEx shipment tracking number - the concept, the associated software and hardware, and the popularization as both an internally and externally valuable data point that was pioneered by the shipping firm over the last few decades. With the package tracking number suddenly the shipping business was transformed - every concerned stakeholder could know the current status and history of every package at all times. Amazing.

Why revisit last week's post? 

Because in the comments the Recruiting Animal made a tremendous observation, (repeated below)

Steve, are you saying that big companies should give applicants a tracking number for their resumes? Sounds like a great idea.

I actually wasn't thinking about a tracking number for applicants, similar to the FedEx shipment tracking number, but it is an obviously great idea from Animal. Sure, most ATS at this point provide a way for applicants to log in and get a 'status' about the state of their application, and some even provide email notifications about status changes, but these are almost never as detailed and informative as they could be. They will let an applicant now their application is 'received' or they are in 'first interview' status or if it is 'no longer being considered', but those statuses or stages can be pretty broad and vague.

But what actually happens to an application is much more rich, detailed, and nuanced. Applicants are screened, they are reviewed by potentially a dozen people, and for varying amounts of time. Their details are forwarded, they are classified or tagged. Then if they interview, notes are taken about them and shared. References may be called and a background check might be done. These processes will sometimes kick off more notes, tags, and internal conversations. An offer could be extended, a counter offer made, and additional data points created.  You get the idea, in an active and thorough process lots more data is created than what is shared (and not even always shared), with applicants.

But if as Recruiting Animal suggests, a job application had a tracking number similar to the FedEx shipment number, and the organization was brave enough to make the applicant tracking data visible and available to applicants, then questions, doubt, and the basics of candidate feedback would be solved. Just like you know where your books from Amazon are at any point in the process, and who participated in the process, and how long it took for each step, an applicant tracking number could let the applicant know when their resume was opened and reviewed and forwarded. The applicant would now truly know how long from the time of resume submission to when their credentials were even assessed, and how long after that the first critical 'Yes/No' decision was taken by the recruiter.

Remember the famous 'recruiters look at a resume for 6 seconds' story? Well with an applicant tracking number potentially we'd really know how true that was.

They would know just about everything they would want to about the process. And all it would take would be a clever application of a new kind of tracking number technology - meant for candidates and not just stuff bought online.

What do you think? Does anyone actually do something like this today?

Or is it too transparent for most organizations to consider?

Which 'Breakthrough Technology' might actually break through?

Later on this year at the HR Florida Conference and Expo Trish McFarlane and I will be co-presenting a session titled "Thinking Outside the (In)box - What These ‘Big Trends’ Mean for HR and Recruiting", what will be (hopefully) a fun and challenging look at what some of the big tech, demographic, and economic trends will mean for HR and Talent Management.  I have been a big believer in the importance and need for HR and Talent pros to think more expansively about how things like wearable technology, the shrinking (and aging) workforce, and (see yesterday's post), massive and rising levels of student loan debt will impact their organizations and talent programs. So I'm always on the lookout for what's new, what's next, and trying to think about whether the latest piece of high-tech gadgetry might change the way we find, align, collaborate, and coach in the workplace.

Recently, the MIT Technology Review (thanks MIT!), posted it's list of '10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2013', an interesting collection of new and new-ish innovations that they think will move past niche status and enter (or at least approach) the mainstream in 2013. Some of the items on the list - Baxter the Industrial Robot, 3D printing, and smart watches are probably familiar sounding. But some of the others like memory implants or deep learning represent some of the latest in technology innovation. Taken together the 10 technologies will certainly have some impact on work and the workplace this year and beyond. The challenge is, as always, for you as a Talent pro to think about developments like these and try and assess which ones might matter for your organization and your approach to talent.

One way to make sense of these kinds of lists is to try and put the technolgies into buckets or categories - something to help you prioritize and allocate your already limited time and ability to even attempt to process these kinds of innovations. I like to use three buckets (see below), and I'll offer my shot on whether or not the 'breakthrough technologies' on the MIT list should be on your radar in 2013.

I'll save the rationale for these categorizations for now, but you can come hear Trish and I talk about them at HR Florida!

Get on it - These are potentially important right now - you should be not just aware of these trends, but should be actively assessing how they will change either the workplace, the nature of work, or how you will engage talent.

From the MIT List - Baxter, Big Data from Cheap Phones, Additive Manufacturing, Temporary Social Media

On the come - Probably not going to hit you in 2013, (or maybe even 2014), but if you have your act toghether enough to be able to talk about talent needs in say 2015 and beyond, then this trend will probably come into play. Only talk about these with the C-suite if you have some serious internal credibility.

From the MIT List - Deep Learning, Smart Watches, Ultra-Efficient Solar Power

Discovery Channel - These are fun to talk or think about, but you probably don't need to give them more than 5 seconds of consideration unles your business is directly related to the technology in question. If not, then be content with catching up on them on the Discovery Channel in a few years and re-evaluate then.

From the MIT List - Prenatal DNA Sequencing, Memory Implants, Supergrids

That's my take on this latest list, and how to attempt to evaluate whether or not you need to spend time thinking about and planning for any of these new technology innovations as they pop-up. I'd love to get your take on these, or any other potentially disruptive technologies that are going to or are already changing your workplace and your talent game.