#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!

#HRHappyHour LIVE Tonight - 'HR and Health Care Reform'

Now that 2013 is in full swing, your thoughts as an HR and Talent Pro can only be turning to one thing - Health Care Reform!

I kid, but only a little.  Whether you call it Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or just Health Care Reform, chances are it will impact your organization and your employees in 2013, and it might be equally likely you don't really know enough of what you need to know about these changes.

Well my friends, as you start your 2013 HR and Talent trip into the forest of Health Care Reform, you are not alone. The HR Happy Hour Show is back with you as well, with our latest live show of 2013, tonight, Thursday January 17th at 8:00PM ET.

You can listen to the show live tonight at 8:00PM on the show page here - on the listener line 646-378-1086, or on the widget player below. Also, you can participate on the show backchannel on Twitter - hashtag #HRHappyHour.

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And, if for some reason you miss the show live, you can always catch the replay on the show page, or on iTunes - just search the podcasts section for 'HR Happy Hour.'

Joining us to talk the about the upcoming changes and challenges presented by Health Care Reform will be returning guest and friend of the show Jennifer Benz, CEO of Benz Communications; and John Barkett of Extend Health, and one of the original authors and implementers of the legislation that became known as Obamacare.

And of course riding shotgun with me will be the HR Ringleader herself, HR executive Trish McFarlane.  

We will be taking about and taking your calls on:

What are the most important aspects of HCR that you as an HR pro need to know?

How does HCR and its implications and demands differ across company size?

What key communications messages and strategies do you need to consider when keeping your employees informed?

What does the medium and longer term look like in the world of employer-sponsored benefits?

Where can the HR and Talent pro go to learn more?

These questions and more will be answered on the next episode of the HR Happy Hour Show - LIVE tonight at 8:00PM.

I hope you can join us tonight, it should be a fun and informative show!

#HRHappyHour Tonight - 'The 2012 Wrap-Up Show'

Tonight at 8:00PM EST  the HR Happy Hour Show is back LIVE with Episode 152 - 'The 2012 Wrap-Up Show.'

You can catch the show live starting at 8PM on the listener call-in line 646-378-1086, on the show page here, or via the widget player embedded below.

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Our guest tonight will be HR executive, leading blogger, and industry thought leader Trish McFarlane from HR Ringleader.com, and the co-founder of HRevolution.

We will be taking a look back at the year in HR, Talent, and the workplace; kick around some ideas on how to make the most of the last part of the year, (HINT: It involves not getting blasted at the company holiday party and insulting your co-workers), and talk about what is coming up in 2013 in the HR and Talent space.

What was the HR highlight of 2012?

What was way over hyped in 2012?

What do we need to STOP talking about in 2013?

What SHOULD we be thinking about in 2013?

What are some of my most appealing qualities you'd like to share? 

As an HR, Talent, and Recruiting pro, I am sure you have an opinion about 2012, 2013, and how or if the upcoming year will be different than the one about to wind down. 

So tonight on the show, and on the Twitter backchannel (hashtag #HRHappyHour), we invite you to share your thoughts.

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

Drive Thru Technology

No - it's not a post about the technical magic that happens from the time you give your order into the clown's mouth and you stuff your face with that McRib - it's a post to talk about the Drive Thru HR show on BlogTalkRadio.Want fries with that? Sir? Sir?

This afternoon, (1:00 PM ET, 12 Noon Central, Mountain and Pacific figure it out on your own), I am a guest on the Drive Thru HR show on Blog Talk Radio.  Drive Thru HR is a daily (insanely hard to produce) talk show ably hosted by Bryan Wempen and William Tincup.  Two smart, interesting, and classy gentlemen.  It will be easy for you to tell me apart from them, I assure you. You can listen live on the show page here.

I appreciate the invitation to appear, especially in light of the fact that with the HR Happy Hour show, this blog, and occasional contributions on Fistful of Talent that the listeners of Drive Thru HR have to be this close to becoming completely tired of me. Perhaps many are already.  But if you do listen, and I hope you will at least to hear Bryan and William, here are some of the ideas I plan to talk about on the show.

Consumerization of Enterprise Technology

This is not new, at least conceptually, since many enterprise web applications have made strides to design interfaces that are more user-friendly, more intuitive, and certainly easier to adopt by casual users in the enterprise.  But while interfaces and design have adapted to the expectations of the internet and Web 2.0 age, very little else in ‘big technology’ has. Lengthy deployment and upgrade cycles, little transparency in price and deployment costs, and an appalling lack of unbiased information on technology options for the small and mid-market customer.

Finding, evaluating, purchasing, and deploying HR technology is about as painful a process as a root canal.  Think about the very best companies that you deal with as a consumer, I’m not talking about the UI on the web or their ‘quirky but approachable’ Twitter account, but the best ones in terms of the entire buying and owning experience.  Easy to find the initial information on my own, without handing over contact information or being badgered on the phone. Multiple ways to interact with the organization depending on my preference and style.  A simple, transparent, and clean sales process, that doesn’t require a Dream Team of lawyers to vet.  Works when you need it to, and when it doesn't obtaining support is fast, simple, and effective. Enterprise Tech doesn’t need to just look like the best consumer tech, it needs to act more like it too.

Keeping Secrets

So many technology decisions operate from a basic position of fear.  Fear ‘company secrets’ will get leaked, fear employees can’t be trusted to create passwords that aren’t hackable, fear that if anyone outside the organization had a glimpse of what really goes on around here that the company would lose the plot and ideas would be breached, great employees would flee, and dirty little secrets would no longer be secret.  So we hide behind firewalls, pretend our ideas and processes are sacred and special, and pretend not to notice the speed of change and progress being made by smaller, adaptable, and organizations that are simply not afraid of honesty, openness, collaboration, and co-creation.  I’ll bet 90% of what most companies sell is also sold, in almost exactly the same way, in the same package, using the same processes as their competitors. Just what in the heck needs to be ‘secret’ about any of that?

Miscellany

What do people mean when they say - ‘It’s not about the technology’
Why does it seem that vendors building bigger and more integrated HR Technology suites looks a lot like the old, massive, monolithic ERP suites everyone know hates?
Why do so many great HR pros still appear to not give a hoot about technology?
Are my eyes really brown?

I think that’s it. Actually it is way too much content for a half-hour show.  Maybe if I don’t bomb Bryan and William can come on the HR Happy Hour to continue the conversation.

Smarter than you

Yesterday Shauna Moerke, the HR Minion, posted a thought provoking and really interesting piece about the nature of the online HR community, and examined whether or not this community (like pretty much every community from middle school, to sports teams, to the workplace) possesses its own share of cliques or sub-communities.

It is an excellent post, and if you are at all interested in taking a closer look at this (still tiny) micro-community of Human Resources folks that travel, circle, and populate this space it is very illuminating. The many comments as well shed some light on what some of the most active and well-regarded folks in the space feel about the discussion.

The inspiration for the piece seems to be the idea that some people, especially people new to the world of blogging, tweeting, attending the seemingly limitless conferences that are in turn live-blogged and live-tweeted, can find the notion of getting involved, in participating, in contributing very intimidating.

And I guess in some ways it is.

To some of the many HR professionals just getting their feet wet in this whole online blogging/social media world it can be kind of disarming.  And I think there will be many, many more great HR pros getting involved.  Look at pretty much every HR conference from SHRM National, to state SHRM councils, to HR Technology - all of them are bringing in 'HR/social media' types to help educate and spread the message. Dive in, participate, engage, etc. - that is the gist of the message being carried far and wide.

For someone new to the space it can be easy to look at 'Blogger XYZ' and see that they have years worth of posts racked up, scores of comments, hundreds of Facebook fans and thousands of Twitter followers, and feel a bit intimidated, and even uncertain about their own ability to make an impact.

But to let fear or uncertainty, or shyness hold anyone back from diving in, adding their unique and personal perspective, and contributing to the community (such as it is), is exactly the worst possible outcome of all.  We can't have a growing, vibrant, interesting, and valuable community without a constant influx of new voices and ideas.

To anyone, seasoned pros, recent grads, or students - you know who is smarter than you?  No one.

And everyone.  

Everyone has something to offer and it would be sad to think that anyone, be design or by accident holds you back from joining in.