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Marc Demerest is CEO and Principal of Noumenal Inc., an international management consultancy providing strategic and operational consulting services primarily in the information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and energy markets. Marc explains the unique challenges associated with leading organizations that provide complex, technology enabled solutions to customers. Being successful in knowledge intensive markets requires the confidence and commitment of employees possessing scarce and critical intellectual capital. Leaders in these markets often make fundamental errors when their organizations encounter duress, whether it is stalled growth, market contraction, disruptive change, poor productivity, or simply not executing to plan.

Learn how to get the most from your intellectual capital and avoid errors such as the point & preach dysfunction, they are me fallacy, spin city problem, Chappaquiddick syndrome, or plethora of avenues. Effective methods for managing duress:  this week on Business Execution Radio.

Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 96:

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Richard Donkin has studied the nature of work for over 20 years as a columnist for the Financial Times focusing on work and employment, and as a regular contributorto Human Resources Magazine.  Richard talks about his new book, The Future of Work.  He discusses how trends in workforce demographics, social networking, and performance measurement are turning employees into suppliers:  people who view work as something they do for themselves as much as they do it for others.  How is work changing and what does it mean for you – find out this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Todd Raphael is chief Editor in Chief at ERE Media, a leading provider of information on talent acquisition and recruiting.  Todd discusses what companies are doingto build the workforces required to support their business strategies, and explains four issues that are driving major changes in the world of recruiting:

·         The rise of social media.  Social media allows companies to fulfill the vision of maintaining external candidate pools.  But it poses challenges on how to differentiate your company’s message from the large amount of job information bombarding candidates.

·         Growing use of contingent workers.  Contingent and temporary workers have become a significant portion of many company’s workforce.  This poses challenges around how to effectively select and retain employees “who aren’t actually employees”.

·         The aging workforce.  We still aren’t getting any younger.  Companies have known about the aging workforce for more than a decade, but now that they are starting to retire companies are grappling with what it means to lose large numbers of your most skilled employees.

·         Greater need for skills translation.  As the economy shifts we are seeing surpluses of workers in certain sectors (e.g., construction) and shortages in others (e.g., healthcare).  Leading companies are finding ways to transition candidates from one sector of the economy to another.

Want insight into the next generation of recruiting techniques?   Listen to Todd Raphael, this week on BizX Radio!

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Dr. Steve Hunt, the host of Business Execution Radio provides a short recap of shows recorded in 2010.  He summarizes some of the topics addressed this year and specific shows worth revisiting.  This includes:

Using social media to drive business results: Suzy Tonini (episode 76) and Ross Fubini (86)

High performance work environments: Paul Limbrey (83)

Leveraging HRIS technology for Business Execution: Nick MacIlvane (81)

Decreasing biases in hiring, pay, and promotion decisions: Tony Greenwald (89)

Employee confidence and company performance: Jeffrey Saltzman (87) & Scott Brooks (84)

Getting from strategy to execution: Nilofer Merchant (88)

Workspaces, telecommuting and business performance: Glenn Dirks (78) & Georgia Perkey (80)

Influence of performance measurement on business execution: Dean Spitzer (77) & Jahn Ballard (79)

This is a just a small portion the valuable content in our archives.  We look forward to continuing this dialogue as we move into 2011.  Let us know if there are topics or guests or you would like hear on Business Execution Radio as we move into our 3rd year on the air.

Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 91:

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Brian Fieser, Partner at 3D Results discusses how companies are leveraging technology enabled talent management process to drive meaningful culture change. 3D Results is a consulting company that focuses on helping organizations define and create cultures that support their business strategies. Their approach emphasizes the use of systematic, scalable processes as tools for change.  They have a particularly strong area of expertise around the use of SuccessFactors business execution technology.

If you have ever wondered how to align company culture or “how we do things around here” with business strategies or “what we need to get done”, then you will enjoy listening to Brian Fieser, this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Peter Howes, Vice President at SuccessFactors shares insights about workforce planning and analytics and why it matters for business performance. As founder of Infohrm, the leading workforce analytics company in the world, Peter has extensive experience helping companies leverage data as a tool for increasing productivity and decreasing workforce costs. He provides several stories that illustrate the financial value of using data to better understand who is working for you, their level of performance, and what motivates them.

Here is an opportunity to learn about workforce planning and analytics from a person who in many ways created the field itself. Find out what it takes to transform static workforce data into insightful, business relevant results: this week on Business Execution Radio.

Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 85:

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Dr. Aarti Shyamsunder, Associate Principle at Infosys Leadership Institute compares business execution methods in India and the United States. Combining insights from her background as an industrial-organizational psychologist with personal experience     working and living in both countries, Aarti highlights how work practices in India may make the country better suited to excel in some industries than others. She explains the critical role of relationships in Indian business methods, discusses why Indian employees may have a greater levels of adaptability and flexibility than US employees, and gives advice on how to work effectively on an IFT schedule (Indian Flexible Time).

Whether you work in India or work with Indian companies, you will find this to be an interesting discussion about cultural differences and business practices – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Listen to Business Execution Radio Episode 84:

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Dr. Scott Brooks, Partner and Vice President of OrgVitality explains how evidence based management methods help drive business execution.   Scott discusses how data can prevent companies from succumbing to the “lies we tell ourselves” and focus on what truly impacts business results.  Drawing on extensive survey analytics experience, Scott emphasizes the value of going beyond employee engagement to measure things that more directly impact business outcomes.  He also shares his favorite three employee survey items having to do with resolving customer problems, trusting leadership, and feeling optimistic about the future.

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Paul Limbrey, president of Elkiem shares findings from a 15+ year study investigating the factors that create world class performance.  Elkiem has conducted hundreds of interviews with people who have achieved outstanding results ranging from Olympic athletes to Nobel Prize winners.  They have also studied organizations renown for creating world class performers in science, business, arts, the military, sports, and many other fields.

Want to know what enables people like Nelson Mandela, Sir Edmund Hilary, and Carl Lewis and organizations like Harvard, Juillard, US Military Special Forces, and the Australian Olympic swimming team to achieve amazing performance outcomes?  Find out by listening to Paul Limbrey this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Jim Kirkpatrick, President of Kirkpatrick Partners, discusses his recently published book “Training on trial: how workplace learning must reinvent itself to remain relevant”. Jim explains why training is frequently eliminated during a financial downturn. He argues that training professionals must be extremely proactive in demonstrating that training changes employee behaviors that drive business results. This requires rethinking training design and establishing a “chain of evidence” linking training outcomes to business results.

Most leaders don’t care about training, they care about results. Lean how to link the two together this week on Business Execution Radio.

Kirkpatrick Partners resources:

• Resource Library: Whitepapers, articles, diagrams and podcasts
• Training and Event calendar

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Nick MacIlvaine, Product Executive at SuccessFactors discusses a software as service offering called “Employee Central” that reinvigorates the role Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) play in driving business execution. Nick draws on more than a decade of experience implementing HRIS tools to contrast the traditional role of more transactional HRIS solutions with the more strategic, dynamic focus of Employee Central. He discusses how Employee Central balances support for more administrative tasks like payroll and benefits with more strategic applications that encourage stronger collaboration, insight and utilization within your company’s workforce.

Want to hear the future of HRIS technology? Listen to Nick MacIlvaine – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Georgia Perkey, Managing Partner for iNPOINT Advisors, explores how companies are changing their view of facilities and operations. Instead of emphasizing facilities as a cost to be controlled, companies are starting to discover the results that can be achieved through leveraging the space as a tool to increase performance through better collaboration, engagement, and communication.

Where you work influences what you achieve. Learn some of the ways to make your environment more impactful – this week on Business Execution Radio.

Build for Success with insights from Georgia’s Book:

• “Cut It Out! Save for Today and Build for Tomorrow”

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Jahn Ballard, founding director of Performance Management Institute discusses methods that integrate financial and operational data to align operating leaders and teams around the actions that drive business results. Jahn approaches business execution from the background of a person rooted in accounting and finance, emphasizing ways to make accounting data more meaningful and impactful for operations managers and employees.

Learn data driven techniques that link front line actions to bottom line results – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Glenn Dirks, Director at Teletrips Inc. discusses practices for leveraging the value of telecommuting to increase business performance. Telecommuting is a readily accessible and highly powerful method for impacting what Glenn refers to as a company’s “triple bottom line”: financial returns, environmental benefits, and social contributions. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience in facilities management and workspace design, Glenn explains key steps for setting up effective and productive telecommuting processes.

Find out how to increase the time employees spend on business results while shortening the time they spend stuck in traffic – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Dean Spitzer, author of “Transforming Performance Measurement” explains how to move performance measurement from a disjointed, backward looking exercise in data collection to a process that gives a company meaningful competitive advantage. He describes what a “transformative measure” is and how it can be used to re-orient an entire company around the things that matter for business execution.

It is well known that what gets measured is what gets managed. So what could be more important to measure than performance? Find out how to apply the concepts of focus, integration, interactivity, and context to improve your company’s performance management methods – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Suzy Tonini, Manager of Global Online Communication for Deloitte-Touche-Tomatsu discusses how companies are starting to leverage social networking technology to drive business results. Suzy discusses benefits that can be gained by proactively embracing social media as a tool to drive business execution. She also shares some problems that can occur if companies fail to recognize the growing role social media plays in shaping a company internal and external brand image.

Whether you twitter, yammer, link-in, facebook, or e-mail, you will find something new to share with your social network by listening to this week’s episode of Business Execution Radio.

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Jac Fitz-Enz, founder and CEO of Human Capital Source discusses the next evolution in the use of metrics to manage business execution. Jac discusses how companies are moving to integrative metrics strategies that combine data across different areas of the organization to develop more comprehensive and insightful business strategies. The answers to the really big questions do not come from looking at financial data, marketing data, operations data, or human resources data by themselves – they result from looking at how these different types of data influence one another.

If you collect business data but are not always sure how to interpret it, then listen to this week’s episode of Business Execution Radio for some tips on how to think about data in a more integrative fashion.

Mark Murphy is CEO of Leadership IQ, a company focused on researching, understanding, and communicating what makes leaders successful. Mark discusses what differentiates the top 10% of successful leaders. He explains the importance of setting goals that are not only well-defined, but that also challenge employees to learn new skills and capabilities. He also talks about what great leaders do differently from average managers when their employees fail to meet their goals.

This interview contains a wealth of insights about how to maximize the productivity of your employees. Are you doing all you can to get the most from your workforce? Find out by listening to Mark Murphy, this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Pravir Malik, is President of Aurosoorya, a company that specializes in helping organizations minimize the negative impact that stress has on productivity and performance. If untreated, stress can wreak havoc on an organization’s ability to focus energy on the things that matter. Pravir discusses web based tools that help employees to self-diagnose and effectively deal with sources of stress, anxiety and tension.

Related documents:

• Aurosoorya’s Stress Management Overview

As business conditions increasingly demand that employees do more with less, stress levels will only go up. Learn how to effectively deal with the realities of living in a high stress world – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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J.C. Herrera, VP of Compensation, Benefits and HRIS at McAfee describes how his organization uses quarterly goal reviews to drive a highly focused, pay for performance drive culture. J.C. emphasizes that there should not be any “surprises” during an employee’s performance review, and discusses what McAfee does to ensure employees always know where they stand when it comes to business execution.

Ever wonder what it takes to be a true pay for performance organization? Listen to stories from a company that lives it every quarter – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Robert Craven is former CEO of two high-growth, entrepreneurial companies. After taking these organizations from concept to reality, Robert was inspired to create Scale Passion, a company focused on helping entrepreneurs build companies. Robert shares challenges entrepreneurs must overcome to grow businesses beyond a certain size. Some of the biggest challenges are not a function of the business, but are based on an entrepreneur’s ability to understand and manage his/her own goals and beliefs.

Think you have what it takes to be a highly successful entrepreneur? Test your assumptions by listening to Robert Craven – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Jim Ware, Executive Producer for the Work Design Collaborative shares insights gained from helping organizations leverage the use of distributed offices and telecommuting. He explains that productivity should be based on what people do, not where they do it. Yet many organizations waste money and time by forcing employees to commute to expensive central office locations.

Learn how to increase the productivity of your employees by changing where they work – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Tom Zigray, Labor Relationship Strategist for The Alignment Group discusses legislation that will significantly increase the speed of unionization in the United States and the impact it will have on companies’ ability to swiftly execute business decisions. Companies that take proactive steps now to ensure managers communicate decisions in a manner that emphasizes respect, fairness, and honesty will be in a much stronger position to manage the growing risk of union drives over the coming years.

If the National Labor Relations Board does what it is expected to do, unions will soon be able to execute their organizing strategies much faster than they could in the past. Find out what your company can do now to prepare for these changes – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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This episode marks our transition from “People Performance Radio” to “Business Execution Radio”. The name change reflects SuccessFactors’ position as the market leader in the area of Business Execution Software. Host Dr. Steve Hunt discusses the psychological reasons why business execution software is critical for maximizing workforce productivity. Bruce Richardson, of AMR Research then explains the role Business Execution Software plays in driving company success.

You cannot succeed if you cannot execute. Learn why business execution software is crucial for consistently translating high level strategies into tangible results – this week on Business Execution Radio.

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Laura Pratt, Manager of People for Elevations Credit Union shares experiences creating and deploying an integrated set of competency models to align different talent management practices across the company. She tells how what started out as a project focused primarily on integrating staffing, performance management, and succession planning has led to major changes in how employees see their careers and how managers make decisions about talent. By using competences to more accurately defining and measuring what “good” performance looks like, Elevations Credit Union is seeing significant improvements in engagement, development, and placement of organizational talent.

Learn about the challenges and benefits associated with creating a competency based organization. Listen to Laura Pratt, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Leslie Neitzel, Director of SuccessFactors University discusses elements that characterize successful and impactful deployments of talent management technology. Leslie explains what is required to drive adoption and effective system use beyond simply training people on how to use the technology. She highlights three key things that need to be considered when developing communication and change management programs to support new talent management processes.

Tips for creating world class technology deployments from someone who has implemented these systems across the globe – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Patrick Casseday, Manager of Training & Development for Schneider Electric describes how they leveraged 360 surveys to increase sales performance among independent distributors. Schneider Electric was faced with the challenge of relying on the sales performance of individuals who are not formally part of the company. To address this challenge they created a set of tools that allowed distributors to assess and develop the capabilities of individual sales people. Although the solution initially met resistance, the clear impact it has on the bottom line led several distribution companies to now make its use mandatory.

Gain insight into how to improve the performance of the people who sell your products, even if you do not formally manage them – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Kevin Wheeler, Chairman of the Future of Talent Institute provides an overview of demographic, technological, and cultural shifts impacting workforce productivity and performance. Drawing on extensive experience working with companies around the globe, Kevin discusses how companies are adapting to a workforce that is becoming more creative, autonomous, and heterogeneous.

What is the key to building and sustaining a highly adaptive, creative organization? What role does peer-pressure play in organizational productivity? What can leaders learn from honey bees about structuring an organization? Hear answers to these questions and much more by listening to Kevin Wheeler – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Jacqueline Moyse, Head of Organisational Development for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group discusses challenges of maintaining a distinctive and common brand of customer across hotels operating in multiple countries and cultures. Focusing on a key theme of “humility”, Mandarin Oriental invests considerable resources into ensuring leaders fully understand and embrace the unique nature of service that drives Mandarin Oriental’s successful reputation within the hospitality industry.

Learn how Mandarin Oriental has applied concepts rooted in Asian leadership and service practices across diverse cultures ranging from London to Las Vegas – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Vince Racioppo, Talent Management expert for Aldridge Electric discusses methods for identifying and developing critical competencies that drive success in pivotal organizational roles. Faced with a growing shortage of highly influential project managers, Aldridge Electric analyzed these pivotal jobs to determine what differentiated the successful performers. This information was used to create a development program to systematically build competencies of less experienced staff to accelerate their ability to take on high impact project manager responsibilities.

Learn how to polish those talent “diamonds in the rough” and turn them into precious high performers – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Robert (Bob) Lewis, Director of APT Inc. discusses the role job descriptions play for guiding employee performance and ensuring effective and legally compliant staffing and compensation practices. As jobs increasingly focus on intangible concepts like “service” and “knowledge work”, it can be difficult to capture and define specific job requirements. This ambiguity creates confusion and legal risk within companies. But there are ways to address this through appropriate job analytics methods.

Job descriptions can be a critical tool for ensuring employees are doing what is expected of them and are being treated appropriately. If knowing what your workforce is supposed to be doing is important to you, then you will enjoy hearing Dr. Bob Lewis – this week no People Performance Radio.

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Jennifer Pierce, Vice President of Talent Management and Sandra Murray-Leduc, National Success and Performance Manager for Hudson’s Bay Company discuss talent management challenges and successes they have experienced working in one of the oldest continually operating companies in the world. Jennifer and Sandra discuss how Hudson’s Bay Company leverages its frontline workforce as a source of future leadership talent. They explain how the necessity to save costs led to decentralizing succession management in a way that actually led to larger and better quality pools of high potential leadership candidates.

Learn state of the art succession management ideas from a company with over 300 years of talent management experience by listening to Jennifer Pierce and Sandra Murray-Leduc – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Scott Powers, Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal discusses the role of talent management in corporate turn-arounds. Specializing in stabilizing and improving company performance, Alvarez & Marsal helps firms manage promising but underperforming organizations. Scott often acts as interim CEO for newly acquired company and has been instrumental in several major corporate turn-arounds. Scott discusses the role of talent management in his work, with an emphasis on the importance of goal management in ensuring companies stay focused when they are fighting for their very survival.

Find out what it takes to recapture momentum and rebuild the “winning attitude” that is often lost when companies run into financial crises. If you work with companies facing financial strain then you will definitely want to listen to Scott Powers – this week on People Performance Radio.

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John Ambrose, Senior Vice President of Strategy for Skillsoft discusses how technology is facilitating knowledge sharing among employees both within and across organizations. John discusses the difference between effective knowledge management search engines versus more common “Google” type internet search tools. He also provides insights into leveraging social networking tools such as “Twitter” to rapidly locate the information you need when you need it.

Whether you are a “twitter master” or don’t know a tweet from a twerp, learn from John Ambrose about how to more effectively manage your knowledge – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Thomas Britt, psychology professor at Clemson University shares insights from research studying potential limitations and downsides of employee engagement. Thomas explains that highly engaged employees tend to have much more demanding expectations from employers in terms of the resources they expect from employers. The more employees care about performance the less they tolerate work conditions that do not allow them to perform at an optimal level. Highly engaged employees even become physically more stressed when companies set them up for what they perceive to be failure.

Documents referenced in this episode:

• Self-Engagement, Stressors, and Health: A Longitudinal Study
• Self-Engagement at Work

Learn about the caring, nurturing and feeding of highly engaged employees: this week on People Performance Radio.

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Susan Burns, Chief Talent Strategist at Talent Synchronicity explains how staffing and recruiting functions are changing to create more adaptive and sustainable workforce strategies. The rate of change in business is rendering more static, position based workforce planning and staffing models obsolete. Susan discusses how this is changing the nature of recruiting from “filling positions” to “maintaining candidate relationships”. This includes relationships with both external candidates and existing employees who are looking to advance their careers.

Learn what someone who has long been on the forefront of employment branding and staffing is forecasting for the coming years. Start building your relationship with the future of talent management: this week on People Performance Radio.

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Nigel Bristow, President and Founder of Targeted Learning shares insights gained from his 20+ year career helping companies maximize the performance of knowledge workers. Nigel shares five key stages of knowledge work: acquiring, applying, creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge. He discusses the role each stage plays in workforce productivity and the challenges and unique issues associated with moving from one stage to another.

Whether you are a knowledge worker, manage knowledge workers, or just wish you had more knowledge, you will benefit from Nigel’s insights on knowledge work: this week on People Performance Radio.

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Tom Mahan, President and CEO of The Work Institute discusses the concept of “workforce intelligence” and what it takes to truly understand the issues impacting employee retention and performance. Tom discusses what it means to move from making investments in talent management based on HR budgets to investing based on financial operating returns. He then share examples of highly involved talent management practices that go well beyond the typical employee survey to actively engage with employees at personal level to determine exactly what it is they need to be more productive.

Do you truly know what factors are limiting the performance and retention of your employees and how to resolve them? Find out one creative method for doing this by listening to Tom Mahan, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Jeff Hunter, Senior Director of EA University discusses the unique challenges of performing talent management in the interactive entertainment industry. Emphasizing the need to “monetize creativity”, Jeff discusses methods to maintain the productive levels of creative tension that are required to build highly innovative, engaging, and fun electronic games and applications. Recognizing the limitations of past talent management practices for this fast changing industry and employee population, EA is pushing the boundaries of what it means to build and maintain a steady supply of high performing talent.

Wonder what talent management may look like in 10 years. Get a sneak peak of how one company is seeking to redefine talent management practices by listening to Jeff Hunter: this week on People Performance Radio.

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This episode marks one year of People Performance Radio.

During this episode I encourage you to look in our archives and listen to some past shows. We avoid reruns here at People Performance Radio, but we do have a lot of interviews that are worth hearing more than once! Reflections on one year of talent management knowledge and insight: this week on People Performance Radio.

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Jim Matheson, Director of Web Operations for SuccessFactors discusses EasyReviews, a new and FREE online tool to help managers conduct performance evaluations. Available at EasyReviews, this tool contains some of SuccessFactors most popular performance management features including the competency library, performance rating tool, and online writing and coaching assistant.

Jim explains why SuccessFactors decided to give this tool away for free. He discusses why SuccessFactors believes there is value in helping managers maximize the performance of their teams without requiring there organization to purchase the SuccessFactors system. Its free, its cool, and its all about talent management – Jim Matheson this week on People Performance Radio.

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Jim Irvine, Manager of Talent Management for Nissan North America describes how Nissan is increasing workforce productivity during what is probably the largest downturn in the history of the automotive industry. Operating under extreme financial pressure, Nissan has developed highly innovative methods to build talent through engaging employees at both a rational and emotional level. By rethinking what performance management should be, Nissan has increased productivity without increasing talent management costs. Highlights include moving from a once a year performance management event to an integrated series of 6 separate performance dialogues, providing managers with feedback on the quality of their feedback, and engaging managers to view performance management as an enabling process and not an administrative constraint.

Want to shift your talent management methods into overdrive? Listen to Jim Irvine from Nissan North America this week on People Performance Radio.

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Tess Reinhard, Director of Organizational Capability for CDW discusses methods to maximize the productivity and engagement of technology employees. CDW is a multibillion dollar technology company with a workforce largely comprised of recent college graduates with strong technical skills. Tess shares techniques CDW uses to develop mentoring relationships between these relatively new employees and more tenured company experts. She also discusses some of the benefits, challenges, and realities associated with managing a workforce filled with “generation Y” workers.

If you want to maximize the performance of ambitious, technology savvy, but relatively inexperienced employees then get some ideas from someone who has done it. Listen to Tess Reinhard this week on People Performance Radio.

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Dr. Kirk Hallowell, principal at Matchpoint Coaching, is a talent management expert with extensive experience in leadership development, succession planning, and workforce analytics. Kirk and Steve discuss the challenge of engaging executives and line managers in meaningful dialogue around complex talent management issues. Kirk draws on his experiences working with senior, line level leaders to explain the power of using illustrative stories to capture executives’ attention around important talent management issues.

If you want to matter to the people that matter, listen to what Kirk Hallowell has to say this week on People Performance Radio.

If you ever wondered what is it that CFO’s “care about” when it comes to talent management here is your chance to find out. Listen to Bruce Felt provide a wealth of tips on maximizing profit, people, and performance – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 47:

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Dr. Mike Hudy is a principal at Shaker Consulting, a company specializing in web-enabled employee recruitment and selection methods. Mike describes the Virtual Job Tryout (VJT), a staffing tool that has been called one of the most innovative selection systems on the market. Currently used by several well known national companies, the VJT allows candidates to experience a job before they are ever interviewed. It integrates job simulations with psychometric assessments to create a staffing process that candidates and recruiters have described as efficient, entertaining, and accurate.

If you are looking for a selection tool that goes beyond traditional personality measures, ability tests or screening questionnaires, then listen to Mike Hudy describe a new staffing method designed to simultaneously educate, entice and evaluate candidates all at the same time – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Nicholas Garbis, Senior Consultant at Infohrm, shares insights and tips for diagnosing, forecasting and planning to address current and future workforce trending. He explains what workforce analytics is and how it helps companies make more intelligent decisions around managing their most expensive asset, their employees. Nick also discusses “data heroics” and some of the other challenges to developing effective workforce plans that will stand up over time.

Learn data driven techniques to ensure you have the talent you need when you need it – this week on People Performance Radio.

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Steve Venokur, Managing Partner of People Sciences, has over 20 years of experience developing skills management systems for large corporations in a range of industries. Steve explains what skills management is and why it is critical to maintaining a steady supply of qualified talent to support business needs. Steve explains the differences between skills that define “what you know” and competencies that describe “how you use it”. The labor shortage is not a shortage of people, it is a shortage of people who possess the knowledge and expertise required to perform critical business tasks. This shortage continues in many industries and functions despite the current economic landscape.

Competencies don’t matter if employees don’t have the technical skills needed to perform the work to begin with. Make sure you have the skills to pay the bills, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Ron Adler is president of Laurdan Associates, Inc., a management training company with a focus on helping companies avoid problems associated with illegal or otherwise improper talent management practices. Ron discuss the Employee Labor Law Audit (ELLA), a tool that allows companies to evaluate, identify, and proactively address human resource practices that could expose them to legal risk. He highlights the five major legal risk areas for companies and shares methods on how to guard against decisions and actions that could expose a company to costly litigation.

The current economic downturn is creating significant workforce reductions and growing unemployment rates. These factors increase both the opportunity and likelihood for employment litigation. Learn what you can do now to your talent management practices so you won’t end up paying for them later, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Anita Rosen is president of the online training company ReadyGo Inc. and author of multiple books on eCommerce including “eLearning 2.0: proven practices and emerging technologies to achieve results.” Anita provides a balanced overview of the strengths and limitation of eLearning methods. She discusses when it makes sense to move from in-person to web-based training, and shares tips on how to do it effectively. She describes the ideal length of eLearning courses, techniques to increase engagement of training participants, and how to make online training fun yet still keep it informative. She even tells us what make a podcast effective, but you will have to listen to find out if we meet the criteria!

If you use online training, design online training, or simply wonder whether this training works as well as more traditional training methods, then you will find Anita’s comments to be both practical and enlightening. An e-radio show about e-Learning, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Talya Bauer is the Cameron Professor of Management at Portland State University and the editor of the Journal of Management, one of the top research journals focused on studying effective management and leadership techniques. Professor Bauer shares insights from over 15 years of onboarding research studying how organizations can help new employees master the technical aspects of their jobs while also increasing their commitment toward the company as a whole. She provides a variety of examples of what leading edge companies do differently to increase the productivity and engagement of newly hired employees, and explains why these techniques work.

If you want to maximize the value of the people you hire then learn how from Professor Talya Bauer, a world expert in the topic of employee onboarding this week on People Performance Radio.

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Russell Klosk, HR Line of Business Director for RGS Associates is a talent management professional with extensive experience working with different branches of the federal government. Russell discusses actions and proposals being taken in the first 100 days of the new Executive and Legislative branches of the US Government that have major talent management implications. Learn how the Obama administration is seeking to change talent management within the government itself, and how legislation proposed by congress could fundamentally change what it means to be a full-time employee in the United States.

Whether you support or oppose the recent changes in the US government, you are likely to be affected by its actions. Find out how these actions may impact you and what you can do to influence them this week on People Performance Radio.

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Charles Handler, Ph.D., PHR is president and founder of Rocket-Hire, a company that helps organization leverage online staffing and assessment tools to improve their hiring processes. Charles discusses different types of online assessments and what is required to effectively leverage these powerful but often poorly understood tools. He shares critical questions to ask when exploring the use of assessment tools and calls out common problems companies encounter when deploying personality measures, ability tests, and other forms of assessments to improve hiring effectiveness.

The most important decision a company ever makes about an employee is the decision to hire them. Learn how to leverage advanced scientific tools to increase the accuracy of this decision by listening to Charles Handler, this week on People Performance Radio.

If you are looking for Employee Assessment books, don’t forget to check out our Thought Leader Bookstore.

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Bob Phillips is president of RW & Associates, a consulting company that leverages in-depth experience in finance and human resources to help companies achieve their business goals. With a history in human resource management dating back to the 1970s, Bob knows first-hand the challenges, difficulties and risks associated with leading organizations through massive restructurings and large scale layoffs that accompany recessions. Bob shares hard-earned lessons on what is required to successfully lead organizations through the difficult decisions that are often required in a down economy.

Whether this is your first experience with a major recession or if you remember the last widespread US recession that occurred in the 1980s, you will benefit from Bob’s thoughts and advice. Learn from someone with over 30 years of experience in 30 minutes by listening to Bob Phillips, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Mel Kleiman is the President and Founder of Humetrics, a company that helps organizations maximize the productivity of hourly workforces. Mel notes that hourly employees represent over 60% of the workforce in the United States yet receive surprisingly little attention from the talent management community in general. He calls attention to problems that result when companies view hourly employees as “temporary workers” even though these employees often represent the face of the company to the customer. Mel shares examples showing how companies can achieve much higher levels of retention and productivity simply by treating hourly employees with the similar levels of respect and attention commonly given to salaried employees.

If you manage hourly employees or work with organizations that have significant hourly workforces then you will benefit from listening to Mel’s observations, recommendations, and insights regarding hourly workforce management this week on People Performance Radio.

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Palle Elleman (LinkedIn profile) is Managing Director of the Great Place to Work Institute Europe, a company that helps organizations increase employee engagement and productivity through assessing and improving the quality of the workplace. This is the company that does the research underlying the famous “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For” list along with similar studies in more than 30 other countries. Palle shares insights gained from his experience studying employee engagement and satisfaction across dozens of countries, drawing on more than 10 years of empirical research data to back up his observations. He emphasizes the universal role trust, pride, and camaraderie play in creating great workplaces. But he also notes that how these are established can vary across countries and discusses how their relative importance may change as the economy shifts.

If you are interested in building a great workplace no matter where or when you work, then you will want to listen to the insights shared by Palle Ellement, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Dr. Steven Hunt (pictured) and Jim Matheson check in for one last show in 2008. Steve gives us an update on the status of Talent Management in these times of uncertainty, and gives us a preview of what we can expect for People Performance Radio in 2009!

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Jim Newman is President of HRizons, a company that helps organizations define and implement talent management processes and technology. Jim shares insights gained from years of experience using, designing, and deploying different talent management processes in a range of organizations. He provides tips for ensuring a successful deployment, advice on how to enlist line leadership support for talent management initiatives, and guidance on where talent management experts may want to focus their energy during the current economic downturn.

If you currently have talent management technology or are planning to adopt it to drive workforce productivity and decrease workforce costs over the coming year, the gain some knowledge from someone who has done it before by listening to Jim Newman this week on People Performance Radio.

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Rich Moran (profile) is a partner at the venture capital firm Venrock and a social scientist, bestselling author and evangelist for organization effectiveness. Rich combines a unique blend of financial business savvy, understanding of human nature, and strong sense of humor to provide insights into people’s behavior and how we are often the enemies of our own success. Covering topics ranging from strategies for dealing with the economic downturn to fundamental shifts in employee attitudes, Rich’s experiences and observations are far ranging, relevant to business, and personally meaningful.

If you are interested in adapting to the current economy, leading a more fulfilling worklife, or why smoking dope in parking lots isn’t a good business strategy then check out Rich Moran, this week on People Performance radio.

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Eric Lesser (profile) is an Associate Partner at IBM Global Business Services. Eric shares results from a recent study examining how company’s can effectively manage talent in a poor economy. He provides examples from current and past companies that have not only weathered, but actually prospered during economic downturns. Key findings include the need to more effectively manage workforce expertise, using technology to promote more efficient collaboration and knowledge sharing, and using analytics to ensure maximize the effective utilization of talent resources. While companies in down economy often need to reduce human capital costs in certain areas, they must also strategically investing in other areas to ensure sustained survival and long-term profitability.

If you want to cut costs without cutting profits, check out Eric Lesser this week on People Performance Radio.

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Lexy Martin (profile) is Director of Research and Analytics at CedarCrestone. We spoke with Lexi about CedarCrestone’s 11 year study of the state of talent management technology. This study involves surveying over 800 organizations around the globe about how they use technology to address workforce needs. Lexi shares intriguing observations about how talent management technology is evolving from a focus on automation and consistency to a slowly growing focus on transformation and strategic change. She notes how some of the major innovations in the use of technology may come from companies outside of the US that are not wedded to older talent management processes rooted in outdated “paper based” methods. A former “futurist”, Lexi also provides some great observations about the world of talent management in general.

Whether you are an early adopter, lagging indicator, or firmly in the middle of the pack you will still be affected by technology. Find out how talent management technology may impact you and your company now and five years from now, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Paul Falcone (profile) is VP of Human Resources for Nickelodeon and author of several best-selling books on talent management including “101 tough conversations to have with employees: a manager’s guide to addressing performance, conduct, and discipline challenges”. Paul shares techniques for dealing with difficult performance issues in ways that increase the chance of turning around underperforming employees while simultaneously decreasing the potential of putting a company at legal risk due to making inappropriate or questionable termination decisions. Providing stories and methods rooted in extensive applied experience dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly of talent management, Paul offers up rich information about how to deal with even the most troublesome performance issues.

Wisdom from 20 years of HR experience distilled into a 20 minute interview. If you crave this sort of high grade talent management information then do yourself a favor and listen to Paul Falcone this week on People Performance Radio.

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Josh Bersin (profile) is president of Bersin & Associates, a company focused on helping companies understand and maximize the value of enterprise learning and talent management technology. A highly regarded expert on the use and business impact of talent management methods, Josh shares insights about how companies can maximize the value of technology enabled talent management practices. He draws on his personal experience combined with Bersin & Associates vast research base to provides a variety of illustrative stories and data-based observations about the current and future state of talent management.

What talent management tools tend to provide the most value for companies, regardless of their industry? Do forced ranking talent management methods work better than methods that focus on more objective, developmental feedback? What is the first step companies should take when exploring the use of talent management technology? Hear the answers to these and other questions from someone who has probably thought about them far more than you, this week on People Performance Radio.

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Andrea Wieland (profile) is CEO of the International Center for Performance and Health (ICPH), a company that helps leaders and their companies develop health-based cultures that increase employee productivity while decreasing health care costs. A former Olympic athlete, Andrea and ICPH integrate methods drawn from the business world with knowledge and techniques from psychological research, nutrition, and health to help companies ensure employees show up for work fully engaged and motivated to drive business results. Andrea shares several useful tips for creating a more healthy organization including how to manage energy instead of time and how to make major improvements in organizational health through small changes to your company’s lifestyle.

If you want both a healthy heart and a healthy revenue stream or are simply looking to grow your bottom line while shrinking your waistline, then do something good for your ears and listen to Andrea Wieland this week on People Performance Radio.

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Rob Bernshteyn (profile) is Vice President of Global Product Management and Product Marketing at SuccessFactors. Since the recent economic downturn, Rob has been actively working with clients and colleagues at SuccessFactors to take a critical look at how companies need to shift their talent management strategies to deal with a time of scarce financial resources. Rob shares some interesting and occasionally counterintuitive observations about talent management strategies in uncertain economic market. This includes techniques for optimizing workforce productivity, retaining your high performers when you most need them, and effectively and fairly managing organizational restructuring.

You may not be able to change the economy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t profit from it. Learn how this week on People Performance Radio.

Winning Through Talent in Uncertain Times

• Sign up for the Webinar
• Download the Whitepaper
• Investigate Resources & Tools to Help You Win in Uncertain Times

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Catharine Larkin (profile) is Senior Partner at MICA Consulting Partners, a company that provides clients with assessment driven processes to attract, engage and develop successful leadership at all levels of the organization. Catharine shares stories from over 25 years of experience working one-on-one with C-level leaders to help them achieve business success. She provides insight into the reasons many high potential leaders derail and how to create an environment that promotes leadership success. This interview contains a variety of highly useful insights into leadership performance , including Catharine’s fascinating theory of the “Terrible 33s” and how to manage them.

If you are a senior leader, aspire to become a senior leader, or simply work with senior leaders then you will gain value from learning from Catharine Larkin about why leaders fail and how to help them succeed this week on People Performance Radio.

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Ken Scarlett (profile) is CEO of Scarlett Surveys International, a company that has been conducting employee surveys for over 35 years. Ken shares a variety of insights gained from his extensive experience measuring and analyzing employee attitudes. Of particular interest are his comments about companies need to expand their concept of employee engagement to include providing assistance to help people deal with issues outside of work that can influence their on-the-job behavior. As Ken explains, the goal is to have employees fully engaged while at work – and sometimes this requires helping them deal with challenges they may be facing outside of the workplace.

Employee engagement is a lot like losing weight – it is easier to talk about than to actually do, and it requires using accurate measures to keep your efforts on track. Learn more about creating a healthy and vibrant workforce by listening to Ken Scarlett this week on People Performance Radio.

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Bruno Aziza (profile) and Joey Fitts (profile) discuss their new book “Drive Business Performance: Enabling a Culture of Intelligent Execution”. The book combines the authors’ extensive personal experience working in global companies with in-depth case studies of multiple businesses to explore what it takes to create a culture built around performance execution. The authors share several stories illustrating key concepts to consider when creating a goal-based, pay-for-performance culture.

Want people to do what you want them to do? Find out how this week on People Performance Radio.

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David Sirota (profile), David Sirota, Chairman Emeritus of Sirota Survey Intelligence discusses research from his new book “The Enthusiastic Employee: how companies profit by giving employees what they want”. David shares insights from over 35 years of experience working with companies to assess, diagnose, and increase employee morale. He highlights the three fundamental things that all employees want from a job. Hear Dr. Sirota and Dr. Steve rally against the questionable validity of claims made in the popular press that kids these days are somehow qualitatively different from kids twenty years ago. You just can’t get this kind of stuff on FM radio.

If what you want is useful knowledge, then educate and illuminate your mind by listening to Dr. David Sirota this week on People Performance Radio.

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Jac Fitz-Enz (profile) is widely recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in the development of human resource metrics. Author of multiple books on workforce analytics, Dr. Jac gives us a sneak preview into the “next big thing” in talent management measurement: predictive modeling. Jac and Erik tell us about a new tool being launched by Human Capital Source in partnership with SuccessFactors, Oracle, Target Stores, and several other major organizations that will fundamentally change the nature of workforce planning and human capital metrics.

Stop staring at the past and start listening to the future, only at People Performance Radio.

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Professor Andrew Mayo of the London Business School and Mayo Learning International (profile)

discusses the difference between people related measures and HR metrics. Professor Mayo calls attention to critical things affecting a company’s ability to accurately evaluate the productivity of its workforce. This includes understanding how people actually spend their time and leveraging multiple measurement methods to accurately evaluate performance and potential. He also emphasizes the need to examine performance from multiple perspectives. People do not possess a single talent, they have different talents that they apply in different ways. Fully understanding and leveraging the capabilities of your workforce requires looking at talent from multiple angles.

Time is money, so learn how to spend your time more wisely by listening to Andrew Mayo this week on People Performance Radio.

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Kim Ruyle (profile), Vice President of Product Development for Lominger International explores what it means to be a high potential performer. Ever wonder why some people can effectively move from one challenge to another while others struggle with even the smallest changes? In this interview, Kim explains the meaning of leadership agility and why it is so critical to leadership success. He peels back the onion on vague terms like “high potential” and shares the key characteristics companies need to consider with identifying and developing future leaders. He discusses the concept of leadership agility and describes the three main types of agility that make or break leadership performance.

Do you have what it takes to be a great leader? Do you want to find out? Demonstrate some learning agility and listen to Kim Ruyle this week on People Performance Radio.

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Tom Olivo (profile) of Success Profiles discusses how companies can gain greater insight into the performance levels of the their people. He tells us about the importance of using multiple measures to dial in on the true performance of people at all levels of an organization. He also shares innovative ideas on how to graphically display performance management data so business leaders can effectively use it to make strategic talent decisions. He caps off the interview with stories about how performance management is helping drive higher levels of productivity in health care and other industries struggling to get the right people in the right jobs.

If you care about accurately measuring workforce performance (and who doesn’t?), then do yourself a favor and listen to Tom Olivo this week on People Performance Radio.

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In this episode we talk to the Erik Berggren, the head of SuccessFactors Research. Erik discusses what SuccessFactors is doing to increase our understanding of the critical role talent management plays in driving business results. He describes how SuccessFactors is working with talent management thought leaders around the globe to conduct research and share information to help companies maximize workforce productivity.

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Jim Matheson and Dr. Steve Hunt announce some changes in the show!

The show is going to take a turn starting next week. For the next few months the show is going to focus exclusively on interviews of Thought Leaders in the Talent Management industry!

Also a quick chat with James Hendy from Driven Systems about a great new Social Network for Talent Management professionals called Talent Social. Surf on over and sign up today!

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Interview with Julius Schillinger from Health Net. Health Net deals with a quickly growing and vastly distributed workforce. They also work in employee assistance and counseling for the united states military. Don’t miss this interview!

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Dr. Steve announces that he will be writing a new book next year plus an interview with Mark Rutherford (from Baypoint Partners) from Kelly Bluebook.

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Interview: Teresa Fearis from SHL

In a follow up to last week’s show on competencies with Lominger, Dr. Steve and Jim chat with Teresa Fearis from SHL about assessments and how they help a company gauge behavioral competencies. SHL helps companies maximize talent and improve recruiting. Predicting future behavior, especially across the many cultures of a global company can be tricky. You can maximize productivity of your workforce by conducting behavioral assessments. You just need to make sure the assessments have enough statistics behind it to mathematically predict the actual future performance.

Don’t forget to stick around after the interview as Dr. Steve gives us some additional food for thought!

About SHL Group Limited

SHL is a world-leading provider of objective employment assessment and development solutions. The company supports organizations in the selection, recruitment, promotion, succession planning and development of talented people at all levels and across all sectors. Operating in 40 countries and more than 30 languages, the SHL Group devises innovative approaches to help organizations increase productivity and gain competitive advantage through the more effective use of their human capital. SHL has over 15,500 organizations as clients, including many of the Global and Times Top 1000, and is recognized as the foremost provider of objective assessment products in the world. For more information, please visit www.shl.com.

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Interview: Zoe Hruby from Lominger

This week’s topic is competency development. Dr. Steve sat down with Zoe Hruby from Lominger and discuss how performance challenges are often around behavioral competencies as well as the need to identify and develop future leaders based upon competency assessment.

Founded in 1991, Lominger Limited, Inc., developers of the internationally recognized LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT Suite, equips executives, managers, and human resource professionals in the world’s leading organizations with the tools, research and expertise they need to transform their organizations into best practice centers of leadership. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lominger markets its suite of research-based products in 56 countries using internal experts, an international network of associates, a professional consulting division, Lominger Consulting, Inc., and a comprehensive network of strategic alliance and technology partners.

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No big news stories this week, but Dr. Steve finally learns the the phone number to our feedback line 206-203-4521. They discussed on social networking continues to creep into the future of Talent Management including a new commercial around the future of work (video version).

Interview: Marylin Hendrics from PDI

PDI is best known for work in assessment, but they also have a strong leadership development practice, which was the focus of our discussion today.

Marylin reminds us that making decisions in talent is a combination of art and science. It is really important to focus on reducing the risk of failure, especially in the C level.

In today’s day and age there many high level execs and managers retiring, subsequently there is a big push to focus on the development of future leaders. Are those following in the footsteps ready for the challenge?

When it comes to identifying and developing future leaders you really need to have a technology system like SuccessFactors to gain visibility into the talent pool and who these individuals will be.

Don’t forget, the metrics that matters most is performance. For example in retail, the business results that you can achieve between an A player and a C player can be astronomical. Always keep in mind how much your talent strategy plays a part in your business success.

PDI is a one of SuccessFactors Consulting Partners
About PDI
Personnel Decisions International (PDI) is a global human resources consulting firm with distinctive expertise in building leadership talent that provides real competitive advantage. With over 700 team members in 28 offices around the globe, we partner with the world’s leading organizations, enabling them to make consistently effective decisions about leaders.

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With the Independence Day holiday here in the US, Dr. Steve and the Mad Dog kept this week’s episode short and sweet.

Interview: Troy Heinritz from CDW

In his first interview (it shows), Jim caught up with Troy Heinritz, Senior HRIS Analyst at CDW Corporation to talk about their implementation of SuccessFactors. Initially CDW focused on Succession (press release), but have subsequently expanded into the rest of the product suite.

If you are looking to implement a Talent Management System there are a few key points to look for in this interview.

1) CDW started out with a focus on automation, but over time they saw so many more benefits to having an integrated SaaS Talent Management Solution.

2) You need to have realistic expectations around ROI. It is achievable (read study, listen to Episode 6), but it will take a bit of time.

3) Getting high adoption rates is a key factor to success.

4) You can learn from new clients too! – With SuccessFactors on-demand technology, you can upgrade when you
are ready. New clients can teach you the ropes through the SuccessFactors Customer Community.

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In The News

70% of ERP solutions are a failure. Several reasons why this happen include:

1. Not meeting the requirements.
2. Not on time.
3. Not on budget.
4. For any reason, resistance to use the new system within the company.

Interview: Kristen from Birchbark

Dr. Steve caught up with Kristen Frykman (LinkedIn Profile) from Birchbark Consulting. One of the pillars in a good organization is Talent Management. Kristen is typically brought in during the implementation stage to help with successful deployments with HR solutions.

A few rules to success in implementation include: