What is the Future of Work? Good Question...

Tonight on the HR Happy Hour Show, I will be joined by Human Resources Technology legend Naomi Bloom to talk about work, the future of work, and have an open and participatory conversation about how the massive changes in the nature and notion of work will affect us in our careers, and certainly our children and grandchildren in the coming years.

You can listen to the show live tonight at 8:00 PM ET on the show page here, or by calling in to the listener/guest line - 646-378-1086. 

There has been no shortage of attention and energy spent in the last few years by various experts, authors, corporate leaders, and lowly bloggers attempting to make sense of the massive changes in work and industry brought on by worldwide recession, the emergence of high-speed internet connectivity, the prevalence of super-powered smartphones, and rise of social networks. While there might not be consensus among the experts and pundits about what the true 'future of work' will look like; one thing seems certain - it won't look or feel like anything we have known before.

No, with technology and robotics capable of automating and improving even more higher value functions and processes, with the rise of what is for many industries and professions a truly global competition for capital and opportunity, and the continuing 're-thinking' of the modern organization; it seems a given that work, the nature of 'employment', and the skills and capabilities required to remain relevant and successful simply have to change to meet these new challenges.

But while it is easy to say that work is changing,and the old 'employer contract' is long dead, it is quite a bit more challenging to determine what strategies and actions should be pursued by workers today, and the ones to follow, to best prepare and brace themselves for these changing conditions.

Is it the pursuit of entrepreneurship?

The willingness to embrace a series of consecutive or even simultaneous short-term gigs?

Acceptance of the fact that where you are now in your career is not at all likely to be a good predictor of where you will end up?

Or realization that in today's do-more-with-less-always-connected-smartphone-enabled world that you had better be prepared to work ridiculous hours, be always available, and give up what passes for your pathetic social life in order to not just get ahead, but to fend off the robot that wants your job?

Or something else entirely?

Tonight on the HR Happy Hour Show we plan to have an open and honest discussion about work, and what work might look like in the future, and talk about some ideas around how best to prepare for and survive.

Sure, we don't profess to have all the answers, but maybe you do, and I hope you will listen in and even consider offering some of your insight and advice as well.

It should be a fun and lively show, and I hope you can join us tonight!

Lucky and Grateful: Notes from ERE Expo

Today is the final day of the ERE Expo recruiting conference in beautiful Hollywood, Florida (the picture to the right is the view from my room at about 6:15 this morning), and I will be spending another day hosting the HR Happy Hour Live Show on the conference's web stream.  If you are interested at all in the recruiting/workplace/talent management space, you should try and tune in to the web stream today to catch not only some of the conversations we will be having with industry leaders and experts (Eric Winegardner from Monster.com, Heather Flynn from Nike, Ryan Healy from Brazen Careerist, to name just a few); but to also see and learn from the ERE keynote and general sessions.View from the 30th floor

One session, at about 9:15 AM, will be presented by United States Navy Commander Brent Phillips, about the Navy's recruiting strategies and approaches to engaging its community using social media and networking, as well as other more traditional techniques. I was fortunate to get a chance to meet and talk with Commander Phillips yesterday as part of the HR Happy Hour Live stream yesterday, and I can assure you based on the engaging and interesting conversation and preview of his session today that we had on the Happy Hour, that you will not want to miss the Commander's presentation.

Aside - I almost asked the Commander if we were far enough away from Cuba for him to be wearing the 'dress whites', but I thought the better of it.  Seriously though, the Commander was a super guest and genuinely nice guy, so I be he would have let me slide.

When you talk to men and women like the Commander that have made the decision to serve their country, and who often and unfailingly place themselves at personal risk to safeguard and protect their country and their fellow citizens you realize (at least I did), that their service and commitment is too rare and incredible to take for granted. Whether it is military servicemen and women, local police, firefighters, and other emergency responders, heck, even the dedicated people that teach in our children's schools and drive the school buses; their collective concern and dedication to something bigger and more important to themselves is something we just can't recognize as much as we should.

With the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in just two days, we will see, hear, and think about these brave and noble men and women much more than we typically do. We will remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice on that day, and in the ensuing years, and we will honor those who continue to serve today.  I hope that we will continue to honor and support them long after this anniversary on Sunday has passed, and we have returned our focus to our own busy jobs, lives, and families.

I have had a fantastic couple of days here at the ERE Expo in Florida. The venue is wonderful. The people are welcoming, intelligent, and engaging. I've learned a lot.

I am really lucky to be able to be here. And I'm also grateful to everyone who works in service to our country and our communities that I'm able to stare out at the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on an impossibly beautiful September morning.

This Week: Catch the HR Happy Hour Live From ERE Expo

This week I am at the ERE Expo in Hollywood, Florida to attend and host the event's live stream on the HR Happy Hour Live on Thursday September 8th, and Friday September 9th. The HR Happy Hour Show - Live from ERE Expo will be a fun and hopefully informative supplement to ERE's live session coverage from the event.

ERE has long been a leader in making conference content more accessible to community members that are not able to attend its events in person, by live streaming keynote speeches, general sessions, panel discussions, and more. The HR Happy Hour Live from ERE is another innovative idea and service supported by the team at ERE to make the virtual conference experience more informative and valuable.

So how does it all work and how can you catch the live stream from ERE Expo?

Here are the details from the HR Happy Hour - Live from ERE Expo home page:

To provide our virtual attendees a world class experience this year, we have once again teamed up with Steve Boese and his popular HR Happy Hour online radio show to do just that.

If you aren’t planning to be in South Florida for the Expo, we invite you to join the ERE Expo live stream for‘HR Happy Hour Live from ERE Expo’ with host Steve Boese as he welcomes conference speakers, recruiting industry leaders, and some special guests for discussion, commentary, and ‘web-only’ exclusive programming. The special live stream HR Happy Hour broadcast will give the viewer a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look into the ERE Expo, and will complement the numerous keynotes, sessions, and panels that will also be streamed live. The ‘HR Happy Hour live from ERE Expo’ stream kicks off on Thursday, September 8 at 8:30 a.m. ET and runs through the conclusion of ERE Expo on Friday, September 9 at 5:00 p.m. ET, so make sure to block your schedule for those days.

Some of the guests that will be featured on the live web stream over the next two days include Elaine Orler, Gerry Crispin, Linda Brenner, Jason Warner, and more to come. So once the conference kicks off tomorrow, Thursday September 8th, head over to the ERE site and click the 'live stream' link to get dialed in. And of cource you can follow the back channel conversations on Twitter - just follow hashtags #EREexpo and #HRHappyHour.

I hope you can spend some time catching up on all the happenings from ERE Expo, even if you can't be here in person enjoying the event (and the sunshine and the beach.).

Thanks again to my friends at ERE for asking the HR Happy Hour Show to be a part of their event. It should be a fantastic two days of information and education.

HR Happy Hour Show Tonight: Work and what it means to you

Tonight on the HR Happy Hour Show (8PM ET/5PM PT), we are going to change it up a bit from the more formal, guest-driven interview style shows we have been doing, and open up the phones (and the Twitter backchannel on #HRHappyHour), to simply talk about work.

Yep, it is that simple. Just an hour of open and loosely structured conversation, in honor of the upcoming Labor Day holiday in the USA, to share observations, stories, critiques, and congratulations about our experiences with work and in our careers.

What was your first 'real' job? 

What was the best job you ever had? The worst one?

What were some of the early experiences in your career that have shaped and helped determine what you are today? 

Who was influential to you as you got your start and deserves a thank you? Who influences you now?

And finally, if you are currently looking for work, or are just looking for a change - what is it you'd really like to do? What's your dream job?

We hope many of the loyal HR Happy Hour Show listeners will call in tonight to share their stories, experiences, and insights about work.

But wait - there's more!

As an added bonus longtime HR Happy Hour Show co-host Shauna Moerke, the HR Minion will make a special guest appearance on the show to climb back in the co-pilot seat tonight. And you know she will have some great stories.

Here's how to listen and participate tonight:

The show starts at 8:00PM ET tonight, Sept. 1, 2011.

Listen live from the show page here - HR Happy Hour - Episode 116- 'The Labor Day Show'

Or using the widget player embedded here:

Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

Call in to get on the air using - 646-378-1086 and Press '1' once you are connected and you will be on!

And finally, follow the backchannel conversation on Twitter - hashtag #HRHappyHour

It should be a really fun show and I hope you can join us!

PageRank for People

Last night on the HR Happy Hour Show we had an interesting discussion with Megan Berry from Klout, Jennifer McClure, and Dawn Hrdlica-Burke about online or digital influence, and its potential effect and use in the recruiting and hiring process. We also talked about some of the implications that relying on these kinds of new algorithms might have in the future. It was a fascinating conversation, and I encourage you to check out the replay of the show here, (or drop it into your fancy iPad, just search the iTunes store for 'HR Happy Hour').

My favorite line of the night was from Megan, when she described one of Klout's goals is to have the Klout score be perceived as the 'PageRank for people', a comparison to the famous search breakthrough invented at Stanford by the founders of Google, which sorted and presented web search results not simply by the amount and location of keywords in web page content, but rather by an evaluation of the number and quality of other sites that linked to the site in question. More simply put, if lots of other sites on the web, that were judged to be of good quality linked back to a particular site, then that destination site was assessed at a higher relative quality, and thus its 'PageRank' would improve.  

It is a concept as simple and as fundamental to any evaluation we'd make of the quality, reliability, and trustworthiness of any person, business, or service - if enough (or even just one if it is the 'right' person), people that we respect and value their judgment indicate that Candidate 'X' would make a good hire for a specific role, or that Jimbo's Plumbing Service can be trusted not to rip you off, then we are far more likely to heed that advice than we would from simply doing a cursory analysis of online 'presence' or marketing material.

So when Megan from Klout told us on the show last night that Klout's new '+K' feature, where users can log in to Klout.com to 'award' other users a '+K' to indicate their explicit agreement to the Klout assessment of topical influence, did not directly factor into the person's actual score due to concerns about potential gaming of this process, I was a little surprised. Because to me, at least once Klout can sort out the correct way to control to remove the element of potential gaming the system, then the +K component would stand to be a fundamental aspect that would support the 'PageRank for People' idea. 

It's really not that not different from Angie's List, or Amazon book reviews, or the consumer product ratings that pop up on pretty much every electronics retailer website.  For some reason we don't seem to worry too much about Jimbo the plumber 'gaming' the system, but when we get to discussing Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and such, the conversation about 'influence' starts to get a little funky.

Again, I am not sure Klout has the answer to all this yet, or if some one else will figure out a better way to come up with that just right blend of algorithm, evaluation, and personal touch that will result in a measurement or score that will become more universally accepted, but I am fairly confident someone will.

And I am also fairly confident that soon after some other disruptive technology will emerge that will make us reconsider 'influence' once again.

Anyway, I am done talking/writing about this for a while, unless my Klout score keeps tanking!

Have a great weekend!