talent edge solutions

The term ‘Web 2.0′ was first adopted in 2004 to give a name to the increasing list of websites and web technologies which aimed to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. Since then, it has continued to evolve and has become a combination of communication tools, entertainment mediums, and a searchable human database that is revolutionizing the way that people connect and interact. This so-called ’second wave of the Internet’ is now big business, with social networking site Facebook recently valued at $2 billion and its competitor MySpace attracting 200 million users.

For marketing and human resources functions, those companies who have utilized Web 2.0 sites have quickly realized the use of social networking to foster staff and client relationships. This has been accomplished via internal company sites, public sites hosted by companies such as Ning and MySpace or a combination of both, that allow team members or clients to interact across departments or locations. On another level, sites like LinkedIn and Xing provide a platform for business contacts to connect, as well as allow HR professionals and recruiters another avenue to identify and recruit talent. Sites like Facebook can also prove to be valuable networking and recruiting tools as more and more personal detail is added to potential candidate’s profiles. This information will often include employer information as well as a person’s current position and location. Many employers are embracing the technology and encouraging its use. Employers large and small are seeing the value, influence and reach of Web 2.0 apps like blogs, widgets, wiki’s, and social networks and they are looking for ways to effectively represent themselves in this new virtual space.

In order to successfully manage this new and far reaching social technology, companies will need to implement a comprehensive Web 2.0 strategy. Where will you be represented online? How much employee interaction will you encourage, and in what format? How will you administer your web presence? Will you have your team actively recruit through social networking and media? For many employers this is where the train comes off the rails. The fact is that in order to maintain an effective and proactive web presence, a significant time investment must be made. The engine that drives the new internet is interaction, and unlike search engine optimization, this web footprint is very difficult to automate. The key to any successful web strategy will be creativity and responsive social interaction.

From online employee referral programs and contests, to Facebook Friday’s and employee alumni groups, organizations are finding ways maintain a positive position in the new internet landscape. For many large corporations like McDonalds, internal social networking platforms have been the answer. These custom designed sites have provided the companies an effective way to control its web exposure and connect with customers and employees. With the external approach, companies create and manage groups and sites using popular or industry specific applications.

Whichever direction you chose, your web presence will increasingly define your company. As the technology continues to evolve, and users around the world continue to shape the future of the internet, your level of interaction, and online social footprint will be your first point of contact for new business, customer interaction, employee engagement, and potential new candidates. A web strategy that is tailor made to your business needs can help ensure the continued growth and success of any sized company.

Dave Hick

Some of the more common challenges facing today’s HR professional include: sourcing better recruits, streamlining training to decrease lost productivity and the retention of key knowledge workers.

In the current knowledge-driven economy, organizations must know how to develop and implement knowledge-based strategies. This means knowing how to apply knowledge management (KM) concepts to your talent management strategy to drive measurable business results. HR can harness the power of KM to help achieve results.

What is Knowledge Management?

What exactly is KM? While there are many definitions out there, simply put, KM allows organizations to maximize their return and generate value from intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves capturing what employees know and sharing that information to drive a competitive advantage. It’s important to note that KM is often seen as a technology project or an IT responsibility. While KM is often facilitated by technology, by itself it is not KM. KM is all about strategy, culture and people.

What are the Drivers of Knowledge Management?

According to wikipedia.org, there are a number of “drivers”, or motivations, leading organizations to undertake a knowledge management program. Some common objectives include gaining a sustainable competitive advantage through people, increasing organizational effectiveness, improved or faster learning, new knowledge creation, greater innovation, better customer experiences and knowledge access across global organizations, just to name a few. If HR can apply KM skills to drive the previous results, its role can shift into a new value delivery model and be seen as a more value added, strategic resource.

Some of the most common considerations driving a KM strategy include:

- Reducing the risk associated with knowledge loss (retirement, turnover etc.)
- Facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning
- Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization
- Increasing collaboration, the sharing of best practices and lessons learned

How Can HR use Knowledge Management?

According to the APQC, HR can use a four-step knowledge management strategy to drive results in their organizations as follows:

- Identify: Determine what knowledge is critical for the success of the organization.
- Capture: Collect critical knowledge using techniques such as interviews and best practices submissions.
- Retain: Store the captured knowledge in a format where it can be easily retrieved for use at a later time.
- Transfer: Transfer through training, apprenticeships, mentoring, and other opportunities.

Specific Examples

Here are some of the more common and hands on examples of ways HR can use KM to drive value in their organizations:

- Workforce planning: Identify skill/knowledge gaps in the organization and source new external talent pools
- Exit interviews: Identify and capture key knowledge, processes and contacts upon exit of the organization
- Succession planning: Plan to reduce the risk of knowledge loss by grooming internal and external successors
- Mentoring: Implement mentoring programs to transfer hands on experience and knowledge
- Apprenticeship programs: Support formal apprenticeship programs through the ITA and other ITO’s
- Training and development: Conduct training need assessments to identify key knowledge/skill gaps and implement strategies to close the gaps
- Career planning: Give employees the opportunity to learn and grow within the organization to retain knowledge and experience

Final Thoughts

With the challenges to recruit and retain top talent at an all time high, now is the time for HR to embrace a new skill set to add more value. If your people are the only true source of sustainable competitive advantage, who better than HR to lead the charge in the development of well-rounded KM strategies to add value?

In order to be an effective advocate for my clients, it is not necessary for me to be an expert in all of the disciplines I am recruiting for. It is only necessary that I know how to recognize excellence and read people. It is simple enough to work with your client to design a framework of hard skills, experience and transferable skills that can become your litmus test for screening candidates. The next step is effectively matching your client’s needs and business culture with a qualified candidate. This is where it gets tricky folks; keep your eye on the ball! An experienced recruiter will know their clients business culture and vision inside and out. I accomplish this by meeting with as many company “stars” as possible. In essence, I will interview the company on behalf of my candidates. I will have done my homework and designed my questions around the concerns of the target labour market for that employer. This data can easily be obtained through social networking communities, labour market studies, and most effectively, through dialogue with local candidates. When I have a solid understanding of what my client is offering. I can then design a litmus test for culture. Can this candidate inspire? Is this candidate able to bring a unique attribute to the company? How well defined are the candidates instincts and can they be taught? The combination of these two simple litmus tests will surely evolve as you continue to forward candidates into a company. You will get to know your client even better and refine your process based on the positions you fill and the continued feedback you receive.

Let me know what you think…please feel free to contact me at dhick@talentedgesolutions.com

Let’s face it, there’s a reason my boss doesn’t like me referring to myself as a headhunter… There are so many negatives associated with the term and the profession that you can’t blame him for preferring I use the kinder, gentler term “recruiter” instead. A profession which has decided to grab its name from such a horrid past, certainly is not one to be trusted. Companies, I think, have done an excellent job of distancing themselves from this connotation by transitioning towards the term “recruiters” and, more recently, going instead with such terms as “Talent Acquisition Managers.” I think this is for good reason. There are those among us in the business world who feel the world is becoming a smaller, more interconnected place. I cannot disagree. The implication of this, of course, is that people and businesses are relying more and more upon contacts external to their organization or social groups for assistance in a variety of avenues. We certainly aren’t seeing widespread, vertical integration and I hesitantly presume going forward that we never will. While companies may not necessarily align themselves and become information sharing allies with their immediate competitors, it certainly isn’t unreasonable to expect that, if you aren’t already, you certainly may at some point have to call upon someone in your competitors vertical supply network for assistance. Consider the implications then, of the retail company which has an immediate need for an experienced Executive Assistant within their organization. Certainly this person would need to have the EA and Personal Assistant background, but also would be responsible for various other projects as they came about. This requires, then, a background in retail operations and strong knowledge of the industry. As “Talent Acquisition Managers” there are certain restrictions on acceptable activities and reasonably expected results.
First, given the fact that you are likely looking for the best possible candidate available, it is reasonable to expect that this person’s current employer would never consider letting him or her leave the organization; therefore, job postings likely won’t work because they are, at the very least, not checking the job boards often enough to consider that they would notice and respond to your advertisement. Basically, your ideal candidate isn’t scouring the job boards because, instead, they’re actually working.
Second, given the fact that you probably aren’t members of the same social circles, you likely aren’t aware of who may be ever so slightly interested in moving on to another organization. Want proof? How many people in your organization do you know that might be willing to leave? How many people do you think there actually are?
Which leads to the third point, if you were quietly considering in the very back of your mind moving to another organization, would you really be inclined to send your resume to an ad you saw on some job board? Remember, we’re talking about a position in the same market as the one you’re currently in. I don’t think so. The interconnectedness of today’s market simply makes it impossible to ensure enough privacy to remain confident in your own job security. Loose lips sink careers, after all.
For this reason, despite the negative connotations associated with the profession, recruiters *ahem headhunters ahem* will continue to provide a valuable external resource to even the best HR department. The ability to provide a candidate with information on a job that is currently available, and offer complete privacy throughout the process is a powerful tool. Add to this the fact that I can keep the company name private during these phone calls and there is a virtually complete avoidance of negativity surrounding the infringing company.
Are there negative aspects to the process? Sure. But I can deal with those counseling expenses on my own time. In the meantime you can remain XYZ Company who just landed the incredible resume of Jane Doe. No really, that’s her real name…

Foreign recruitment has got to be the hottest trend in hospitality staffing right now. With the added support that the Canadian federal and provincial governments have lent to the process through programs like the Expedited Labour Market Opinion and Provincial Nominee Program, many employers are embracing overseas recruiting as the answer to all of their front line staffing concerns. While this solution certainly has its benefits, it does not address the primary issues of a declining Canadian workforce, or the fact that hospitality and tourism operators are facing a giant challenge in remaining competitive with other industries in the areas of recruitment and retention of entry level and front line staff. In addition, foreign recruitment brings to the industry the added challenges of ensuring that workplaces do not become stratified, and that the integration of foreign workers into those workplaces is accomplished effectively. The Canadian landscape has been shaped by immigration, and I believe that it will continue to be an integral and important facet of Canada`s growth and success. I also know that it is very easy to lean on a quick fix solution to a complex and ongoing issue, and to not investigate long term solutions would be quite short sighted.

So what are some other solutions? Can hospitality and tourism operators become competitive with other industry niches? On a purely financial level, the answer is no. As most restaurant owners will tell you, this is a business of nickels, and sometimes pennies. This mantra is also true for tourism operators, and a whole spectrum of other hospitality based operations. There is no way that these types of companies are ever going to be able to match the wage packages being offered to entry level staff in the construction, or natural resources sector. It simply can’t be done economically. That being true, many hospitality operators are starting to effectively market their strengths to prospective employees. Lifestyle, work/life balance, and flexible scheduling are just a few of the benefits that these employers can offer, without adversely impacting their bottom lines. Finding ways to match what they are offering as employers, with what the modern workforce is asking fo,r is what organizations need to be considering. I have many clients who are actively improving their recruitment and retention strategies to reflect these values, with great success. In addition programs like www.worktoplay.ca are giving employers the chance to tap into a traditional source of candidates in a more effective way, by facilitating the movement of staff around seasonal resorts in British Columbia.

I am sure that foreign recruitment is a valuable tool for employers in our industry. I believe that in some cases, this solution is the most effective way to respond to our labour crisis. I also believe that if employers do not get a little more creative in how they are attracting Canadian workers to their industry, that that same industry is going to change forever. Let’s not forget that one of the first responses visitors to Canada give, when asked what stood out about their experience, is the people, the Canadian staff who helped to make their visit memorable. I would call that a natural resource that we need to develop.

Dave Hick is the Hospitality Accounts Manager for Talent Edge Solutions, and has been a manager in the hospitality industry for 15 years. If you would like to find some creative, effective ways to market your business to prospective employees please visit, www.talentedgesolutions.com, or if you are a seasonal operator, please visit www.worktoplay.ca, and find your seasonal stars today.