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The Weekly HRExaminer 1.31

By John Sumser | Published: September 3, 2010

Read The Weekly HRExaminer v1.31 Now

Human Machines | Feature
The hangover from the industrial revolution still exists in the HR department. Humans are machines to be procured (hired), programmed (trained), controlled (managed), optimized (incented) and terminated (fired) to produce our desired output (profit).

Editorial Advisory Board Member Paul Hebert says a whole new operating manual must be written to help today’s human machine. Names like Airely, Tversky and Kahneman should roll off the tongues of new HR professionals as easily as EFCA and COBRA do today. Read more in our Feature by Paul Hebert Maintaining Human Machines……Re-program Me Now

Review: WorkForUs
You know all of that fuss about social Recruiting? Everyone is so busy trying to figure out the meaning of life that they seem to have overlooked the simplest thing. WorkForUs hasn’t….Read More

Review: New Tools
Much of what passes for social recruiting is neither social nor recruiting. The high value pieces of the recruiting process involve judgment, assessment, selection, evaluation, interaction and conversation. Most internet recruiting tools don’t do much more than publicize opportunity and collect data. Emerging companies are part of a new wave that imagines work as an auction, reputation process or focuses on relationships in small batches…Read More

Virtual HR
It won’t be long before the Virtual Recruiter makes its way to your iPad. Want to remain in the queue for that promising career opportunity? Be a good candidate and keep doing nice things for your Virtual Recruiter. There will be points for referrals, connections to gate keepers, updating your resume. Win enough good candidate points and you’ll make the short list….Read More

In The Know v 1.31: Future of Work
Five links for thinking about the Future of Work: Steve Jobs In Concert, Maintaining Human Machines (yeah, we’re putting it in twice just in case), Best and Worst Jobs: 2010, PWC on the Future of Work, The New York Times on Gartner’s View of The Future of Work….Read More

That’s it for this week’s HRExaminer.

Have a fantastic weekend!

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Posted in Editorial Advisory Board, HRExaminer, Paul Hebert, Weekly | Leave a comment

Virtual HR

By John Sumser | Published: September 2, 2010

Virtual HR

Unique is the new normal. Each and everyone of us is somehow persuaded that we are the ones who are living outside the mainstream. Our little customized universes are separate from and better than.

This is the new universe. Even though it is still primitive, we are able to radically customize huge swaths of our experience. This cements the notion that we’re special and unique.

The surprising paradox is that we’re being fed this diet of content through remarkably identical pieces of hardware, software and libraries of content.

And, in that universe, single guys go on vacation to reenact their virtual getaways with their virtual girlfriends. The worlds we used to imagine as separate, virtual and real, are merging. Social Media Addicts are busily forecasting a future where everyone joins them. Lots of people, late to the last revolution, jump in line in order to avoid being last again.

The weirdness of an important time in cultural transformation is that it just like this. Headscratchingly strange. You think there’s something there and there is and then there isn’t.

I can’t be the only one who is simultaneously awed, confused, threatened, invigorated and overwhelmed.

It’s worth reading the article about the Japanese guys who are going on vacations to memorialize the virtual trip they took with their virtual girlfriend. Creepy? Pretty much. A portent of the future? Pretty much.

Played on a Nintendo DS, the virtual girlfriend thing is like the earlier virtual pets. Behaving along certain lines gets you boyfriend points and keeps the relationship alive.

Recruiting systems of the future will make candidates feel unique, just like an iPod.

It won’t be long before the Virtual Recruiter makes its way to your iPad. Want to remain in the queue for that promising career opportunity? Be a good candidate and keep doing nice things for your Virtual Recruiter. There will be points for referrals, connections to gate keepers, updating your resume. Win enough good candidate points and you’ll make the short list.

The rest of HR will follow rapidly. Need training? Send your avatar to good employee college. Visit the virtual benefits clerk to get benefits management points. Get more points for setting your goals and even more points for making them.

Welcome to Virtual HR.

Posted in More2Know | Leave a comment

In The Know v 1.31: Future of Work

By John Sumser | Published: September 1, 2010

In The Know v1.31

Five links for thinking about the Future of Work

  • Steve Jobs In Concert
    Rental, Streaming, Subscription. That’s the model for digital rights management unveiled by Steve Jobs yesterday. It’s the future of music, video, books and other content. It’s the future of hirer-worker relationships. Some compensation, some variable pay, some licensing, some retainer. No more insidious ownership of the employee.
  • Maintaining Human Machines
    Paul Hebert’s amazing piece is a must read. “The key today, and in the future, is to understand how to maintain and get the most out of humans in order to drive business results.” In a world where work is about brains, the structures we use to manage it are changing.
  • Best and Worst Jobs: 2010
    One of the things you never see in the workforce planning stuff is the relative attractiveness of the job. The relative coolness of a job is a critical factor in the availability of workers in the medium and long term. Great workforce planning involves understanding social trends as well as the demands of the organization. Labor supply remains misunderstood.
  • PWC on the Future of Work
    A starter library for the big consulting firm view. Don’t miss the world’s least interesting use of graphics to describe scenarios. In spite of the misguided graphic, the library is a good starting point.
  • The New York Times on Gartner’s View of The Future of Work
    If you get beyond the futuristic jargon (swarming work is another way of saying ‘project), this is a nice cluster of topics. Work is going to change from a variety of pressures, demographic, economic, technical. Gartner has a good bead on the process.

Posted in The Go/The-Know | Leave a comment