#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'.

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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!