Summarized in 4 bullets by our network a couple of years back ;o)

If good employees are leaving, it is bad.

If bad employees are leaving, it is good.

If good employees are replacing the bad employees who left, it is good.

If bad employees are replacing the good employees who left, it is bad.

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or connect directly via LinkedIn. To connect with like minded professionals, the latest news and views please visit our online groups: Pan European HR Network on LinkedIn or HR Tech Europe on LinkedIn

Infographic by Mercer Insights

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or connect directly via LinkedIn. To connect with like minded professionals, the latest news and views please visit our online groups: Pan European HR Network on LinkedIn or HR Tech Europe on LinkedIn or Strategic Talent Management on LinkedIn

For the past several years, talk about innovation has permeated news stories, corporate board rooms and government forums. This is so true that the term “innovation” itself has become a buzzword of the 21st century, especially as companies and nations grapple with a shifting global economy, financial crises of unprecedented proportions and a desire to create the next era of opportunity for future generations.

Top 100 Innovators/Pioneers - HRN Europe

These factors, in conjunction with the awareness at Thomson Reuters of the powerful insights that can be gleaned from studying patent information, prompted us to seize the moment and develop a program that measures innovation from an unbiased and scientific perspective.

Patent activity has always been an indicator of innovation. However, innovation comprises much more than mere patent filing volume. As such, we developed a range of metrics based on various facets of innovation that relate to patenting and science. The Thomson Reuters 2011 Top 100 Global InnovatorsSM are companies that invent on a significant scale; are working on developments which are acknowledged as innovative by patent offices across the world, and by their peers; and, whose inventions are so important that they seek global protection for them.

This award acknowledges innovation in its purest form. Being recognized as a Top 100 Global Innovator is a prestigious distinction. It confirms an organization’s commitment to progressing innovation globally, to the protection of ideas and to the commercialization of inventions. Global patenting is costly and signals a company’s belief that an invention is commercially important. The award also emphasizes the recent success a company has at obtaining granted patents from the number of published applications it files, a quality that more closely reflects the degree of originality.

Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators are the world leaders in innovation.

Download full version (top100innovators.com): Tomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or connect directly via LinkedIn. To connect with like minded professionals, the latest news and views please visit our online groups: Pan European HR Network on LinkedIn or HR Tech Europe on LinkedIn or Strategic Talent Management on LinkedIn

However, this talent is increasingly hard to find, as a lack of development routes, changing roles and responsibilities and decreased training have led to a leadership gap that cannot be easily defined or filled. With businesses constantly evolving to compete in the market, what they need in terms of leadership is also changing. So how do you source this talent and what exactly do you look for?

Grundfos: Developing a Talent Centre

A&DC worked with Grundfos Group to design and implement a robust talent management process to support the company broaden their scope and develop a more dynamic organisation. Grundfos recognised that to meet the challenges of developing energy efficient, sustainable technology to support the growing population and increasingly scarce water resources, they would need employees with local and global potential as leaders, innovators and specialists.

In order to do this, A&DC developed a ‘Talent’ identification strategy alongside a Talent Centre concept, both of which were driven by the clear objective of creating a fair and defensible process that had the acceptance and buy in from all participants. Grundfos also made clear that the Talent Centre itself was an energising and stretching event from which people would emerge with positive experiences and learning for the future.

Delivering against these objectives required five steps:

• A&DC consulted with key stakeholders across the globe to establish the criteria for what identified an individual as global ‘talent’

• A  Talent Centre was designed on ‘Day in the Life’ principles that provided comprehensive and reliable information for use in assessment and development

• The Talent Centre process involved a three day centre which included a number of scenarios for all participants including a crisis management exercise and comprehensive feedback

• The elements from the crisis exercise enabled the specific roles of Specialist, Leader and Innovator to be assessed through connected scenarios in a highly realistic setting

• A career success module followed to develop individual personal development plans

Talent Centres continue to be rolled out across the world targeting potential Talents.  These Talents, if selected as having global potential, will continue into a developmental ‘Greenhouse’ for fast track development to help Grundfos achieve its organisational development goals.

Grundfos prsented on Global Talent at The Pan-European HR Network’s Next Gen Talent Retreat in Stockholm on 22^nd November.

Access additional case studies, plus white papers and advice guides on Talent Management during major change from the A&DC resources site: www.adc.uk.com/change

By Dr. Katherine Jones

Principal Analyst and Director Human Capital Management, Bersin & Associates

With the growth in demand for HR and training solutions, vendors in the talent management and human capital communities such as Lumesse, SuccessFactors, Taleo, and SumTotal are busy developing new products in-house and acquiring companies to extend their existing applications or solutions.  In 2010, there were more than 30 major acquisitions in the talent management software market alone, and nearly every solution provider launched several new offerings.  Now, starting in 2011 and 2012, the elephants from the markets of core HR have arrived – SAP and Oracle in particular — and they plan to start making the party a lot messier.

We see changes in product offerings that often require extensions or total makeovers of the company’s positioning and marketing strategy.  This is clearly important as solution providers grow, but without preparing the marketplace, this proliferation of new solutions runs the risk of confusing buyers.  Let’s look at three kinds of solution changes and the level of market education needed to successfully reposition the company or products for a given vendor.  The three categories discussed here are innovators, category changers, and definition changers.

Innovation Requires Major Market Education Programs

Innovation in Human Capital Management and Learning & Development solutions is rampant.  Today’s solution providers are actively creating new technologies such as social networking, collaboration tools, advanced mobile applications, SaaS delivery methods, Cloud storage and many more that totally transform their offerings from what they were only five years ago.  When such innovation reaches the market, vendors often find that HR buyers are less excited than they are.  This requires a basic market education program that includes:

• The business value of the innovation to the organization (what is the business value of a mobile recruiting tool, for example?  Does it enable campus recruiters to save time and talk with more candidates?)
• The cost/benefits of the solution compared to other available options (what is the innovation replacing?  How much money will a SaaS application save a company that is highly committed to on-premise software?)
• Change management issues to address risk mitigation (what will it really take to migrate to a new software architecture – how does the customer now work with the IT department?)
• The performance and infrastructure implications of the new solution (will the new solution require high speed networking, new devices (e.g. an iPhone vs. Blackberry) and how will it play in older, less connected parts of the organization?)
• The impact on IT for integration with existing applications, such as an on-premise ERP solution (what are the time/cost implications for IT?)
• Realistic time-to-implement and time-to-production information
• How to develop the business case for purchase.

Here, the new solution providers need to prove that the innovations add demonstrable business value in a way that merits the change of existing applications.

Category Changers Require Vendor Re-Positioning

Horizontal growth is a common activity for HR-related vendors.  Recruiting companies added performance management to become talent management; performance management companies and others became full-fledged HR solutions.  Each provides broader solutions to potential buyers – but also creates concerns for the vendor.  When a vendor has presented itself as a particular category player for the last decade and changes horses midstream, as it were, it causes confusion and sometimes loss of credibility.  Whether the added components were acquired or built in-house, their effect on the total solution has to be carefully explained and positioned – and the vendor must reinforce this new position consistently over time.

Horizontal growth into closely neighboring categories is the easiest for potential customers to understand and accept. For example, a recruiting solution provider adds onboarding process management or embedded pre-hire assessment.  When what may appear as totally disparate solutions are melded together, more explanation is needed.  Here it is beneficial to move the marketing strategy “up a notch” to incorporate a broad area, as many have done with the adoption of the “talent management” category, which can cover multiple applications.  Key points on which buyers need education on category changers include:

• The vendor’s credentials in the new area (“We are already #1 in this area, so you can depend on us in this new space”)
• How the augmented product now fits with an existing application set as both replacement and supplement or complement  (“Our new-to-the-market offering, enables customers to replace a vendor’s older  solution”)
• The ability of the vendor to support what may appear to be a wholly different product set (Explain how you have built the team, ecosystem, and infrastructure to support these new buyers)
• The development plan that continually upgrades the multiple applications (Provide a roadmap which shows deep investment in this new area)
• The impact in terms of IT and operational disruption (Is this new offering going to be easier to implement, support and deploy globally than what the customer already has?)
• Integration requirements
• How to compile a “sole-source” case study for disparate functionality (why a more integrated solution from this vendor is better than standalone solutions from others).

Definition Changers Require Extensive Re-education of the Market

Bersin & Associates’ recent research has been covering several “definition changers” – companies that enter the market with a solution to replace an existing application suite while changing the definition – not the name — of the function.  For example, companies are announcing applications that compete with core HRIS systems, often excepting payroll.  By redefining the concept of “employee system of record,” these companies are butting heads with long-established HRIS systems and the HR component within the major ERP vendors’ products, such as Oracle’s PeopleSoft or SAP.  By redefining a key concept in core HRIS, and in general, eliminating payroll from the mix, these solutions are entering the market with a different view to an existing core function. And because the resulting suites are often new products in the market, it is important that the vendors take care not to oversell them. There is no credibility in announcing a total HRIS system competitive with the current market leaders, if the solution is a work in progress.  Here education is needed to address two separate markets: existing customers and potential new buyers.

For existing customers, vendors must explain the:

• Added new features and how they augment the previous product
• Integration ramifications of adding the new components or functions into the existing environment
• Value proposition (differentiators, integration advantages) for replacing any similar but competitive products already in use by the customer
• Integration with historical employee data
• Integration with third-party payroll software
• Product roadmap through which the customer can anticipate potentially disruptive technologies in the future
• Capability, commitment and capacity to support  this expanded functional set
• Business case for replacement solutions

For new prospects, the vendor needs to explain:

• Why the vendor has credibility in the new category
• The solution differentiators across the entire suite and their advantages
• Integration – to existing on-premise and SaaS application, and Cloud-to-Cloud integration
• The solution positioning—a replacement or augmentation of an installed solution

In Summary

Innovation in the market is good for customers, good for the economy and good for the successful solution providers.  Whether the solution is novel in its technology, broader in its scope, or a re-defining replacement for existing technology, it is imperative that the vendor provide the thought leadership for educated buyers to make rational business decisions.

© Copyright Bersin & Associates.

iTalent Competition = X Factor for HR!!

iTalent is the demo competition that puts this emerging talent technology on stage. HR leaders and executives will get a chance to see how start-ups are moving and shaking things up with new technology, new processes and new business models.

Handpicked from across the world, these companies may be small, but they will surely will disrupt the way you think about HR technology.

Competition Host:  Jerome Ternynck, CEO, SmartRecruiters

Shortlisted Start-ups:

Lisa Scales, Co Founder and CEO, TribePad TribePad is a talent management platform enabling organisations to build their own internal social networks and talent communities. TribePad gives organisations the ability to collaborate and network online, as well as underpinning social and direct hiring strategies. Tribepad enables organisations to aggregate data, share talent, and build talent communities for future needs. Tribepad helps to source, attract, recruit and retain talent as well as onboarding, promoting referral schemes and retention programs.  TribePad enables internal mobility to be transparent and utilised throughout an organisation. The TribePad platform connects employees, jobseekers and teams, helping businesses to be smarter, more efficient and ultimately more profitable.  See what TribePad did for international security firm G4S

Ed Hendrick, Founder & Chairman, Sonru Sonru, a multi-award winning automated online video interview solution for screening candidates, replaces first round phone and on-site interviews. Sonru is a global leader in the field of video interviews and video screening. Recognised leaders in this field, Sonru have established the effectiveness and validity of using video in the recruitment process. Companies like Volvo, Johnson & Johnson, PaddyPower, BioWare (a Division of EA Games), Allianz Worldwide Care and CERN have innovated in their talent acquisition processes by using Sonru’s video interview solution. See their work with CERN

Lucian Tarnowski, Founder, BraveNewTalent

BraveNewTalent is a Career Social Network that allows Talent and Employers to connect in a much deeper way than ever before. Talent of all ages can power their careers by following employers, gaining insights, ideas, advice and opportunities to develop their career. Employers are able to build Talent Communities to connect with candidates in a much simpler way, showcasing their employer brand, engaging and recruiting the best talent.  Check out their work with L’Oreal

Ludovic Simon, CEO & Founder, DoYouBuzz DoYouBuzz is a platform for publishing your resume online and increasing your visibility and resonance on the web. DoYouBuzz enables professionals to design and share their online resume for free. Our users love the professional look and super simplicity on DoYouBuzz. The service is search engine optimized so that resumes rank well in search engine results pages. Try it by creating a resume at www.doyoubuzz.com

Stéphane Le Viet CEO and Co-founder Work4 Labs Work4 Labs is the world leader in social recruitment technology. Work4 Labs’ breakthrough apps allow companies to post jobs to their Facebook Page, as well as distribute jobs via Facebook Ads, advanced referral features, and embedded social broadcasting. Work4 Labs also develops Jobs for Me, the largest network of university career centers and vertical job boards on Facebook. Work4 Labs clients include Citibank, Accenture, Oracle, Microsoft, KPMG, Intel, PwC, Hard Rock Cafe, Adecco, Manpower, and Randstad. Work4 Labs was founded in 2010 and has over 25 employees in its San Francisco and Paris offices. Check out what they did for Hard Rock Cafe

iTalent has a Panel of Judges that includes many of the most respected and noteworthy commentators to be found on the web when it comes to recruitment, HR and technology.

• Thomas Otter, Research Vice President, Gartner
• Bill Boorman, Founder, @BillBoorman
• Craig Fisher, Vice President, Ajax Social Media
• Geoff Webb, Founder & Master Sourcer, Radical Events
• Jon Ingham (MC), HR & Social Media Strategist, Strategic Dynamics
• Jonathan Campbell, Founder, Social Talent
• Peter Gold, Founder, Hire Strategies
• William Tincup, CEO, Tincup & Co

Be sure to watch this space for more on the apps your HR department will be using in the near future. See you soon @ HR Tech Europe!

Peter Russell & Marc Coleman are directors of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or connect directly via LinkedIn. Our recent event productions include: HR Tech Europe and HRN World Talent. Recent news and views please visit the Pan European HR Network on LinkedIn.

“I trained for a world that doesn’t exist,”

That’s a quote from a young unemployed Spanish university graduate as reported in the recent Economist article Left Behind about the growing youth unemployment in a large part of the developed world.

She evidently didn’t study a subject in which there is always a guarantee of work – law, medicine or accountancy!

I often find it interesting to look at the most recommended comments on such articles and the lead comment on the article doesn’t disappoint. Here is a quote from it:

“What we are seeing this time around is that no matter what skills young people possess, they are locked out of the jobs markets by either:
 1) a two-tiered system that puts them on temporary contracts or
, 2) a lack of aggregate demand, meaning that firms won’t hire anyone at all (regardless of their skills). …

In the next 3-4 years, as this situation continues, don’t prepare for young people to cry … prepare for them to be outraged. A system that does not let them in and when they are let in, a large portion of their wages go to paying for a social security system other people use (and will likely not exist when they reach their old age or retirement), is a recipe for real unrest.”

See more @ Left Behind Comments

Last August in Generation Lost this blog also alluded to much the same outcome.

In the Atlantic Monthly this week there was a pretty realistic article that also demonstrates that the future for the young isn’t quite so bright as some would have us believe – what follows is true for far more developed economies than just the USA:

“Gen-Yers don’t have a lot of assets, which is fortunate at a time when housing values have fallen more than 25 percent in major cities. But we do have debt, particularly student loan debt, and this is a particularly nerve-wracking story. Total student loan debt infamously eclipsed credit card debt last year at $850 billion, and tuition costs are still rising even faster than health care costs. The hollowing out of the middle class means that paying back that debt — and finding ways to pay for an education that keeps us ahead of productivity curve — will be the challenge of a generation.

The kids behind us face these challenges, and more. If their parents can’t afford tuition and extended health care coverage, that will mean more debt for today’s grade-schoolers. In the near future, the poverty rate for children is projected to rise to a multi-decade high of 26 percent in 2014.” See more @ The Atlantic Monthly

Luke Johnson writing in the FT at the beginning of the week highlighted what he described as “a national epidemic that hurts the young”. As a missionary for the entrepreneur it is not surprising he sees entrepreneurship as a solution – he is right, it is part of the solution. The problem is, as he also highlights, that governments in many countries have made starting a business not only complex, but also expensive.

This leads to the question of whether small businesses will prove to be a salvation. There was an excellent post on this at Zero Hedge earlier in the summer – again there’s a US focus, but I can assure you from personal experience that Europe is not a whole lot different. The costs of setting up a small business and employing staff in some parts of Europe are so crushing that you’re probably better off giving up and going to work in the public sector!

We seem to be moving towards an hourglass world where the majority is at the bottom, there is nothing much in the middle and only a small but dwindling percentage left at the top. Growing dissatisfaction with the role played by banks, politicians and big business, among educated young people (and many not so young) is not going to play out well – and the sight and sound of Europe’s modern day Grandees and Seigneurs squabbling over Greece does little to inspire confidence.

Young people with time on their hands may well find that their thoughts turn more to the true purpose of life; some may well opt out altogether, and who could blame them! But you can be sure too that there’s a great deal of ire building – recruiters need to get out there and grab the talent fast before it’s too late.

Featuring an exciting line-up!

Mark Turell CEO OrcaSci, World Economic Forums Young Leader and Technology Pioneer and founder of Imaginatek will lead a session quite unlike any that you have attended, it will pull seemingly disparate strands together to provide useful advice on how you can navigate your own organizational challenges.

Eaun Semple web evangelist, former BBC director will examine what the exponential changes mean for people in business, how they represent a new wave of exciting opportunities for 21st century organisations and what lies in store for managers and the role they will play in the future of business.

Matthew Hanwell Nokia’s Head of HR and Social will help you to understand how to embrace social media as a key capability in change and transformation, and ultimately in engaging your employee’s.

HR Tech Europe 2011!

Jerome Ternynck Founder of SmartRecruiters and MrTed will share his view on the death of applicant tracking and making recruiting social again.

Jon Ingham recognizably a global authority on social media and HR, the only European American’s recognize on their most influential HR, Talent & Social listings will MC and play host to numerous interviews for the duration of the conference.

Derek Irvine VP Globoforce the world’s leading reward and recognition powerhouse will demonstrate how you can harness social networking to retain not just recruit employees. The result is an engaged workforce, higher satisfaction levels and ultimately, measurable bottom-line results.

Ian Bird – IBM’s Global Leader of Social Networks and Informal Learning offers insights on how the new paradigm is changing the nature of how talent operates, how learning is developed and delivered, and how skills are being applied faster than ever before at IBM.

…. and many more! To learn more please find below event details:

HR Tech Europe 2011

Wed, Nov 02 to Thu, Nov 03

Venue: Okura Hotel, Amsterdam, NOORD-HOLLAND, NL

Web: http://www.hrtecheurope.com/

LinkedIn RSVP: http://events.linkedin.com/HR-Tech-Europe-2011/pub/681050

Who should attend? HR, Recruiting, Talent, OD, Learning, Social Media, Communications and Rewards professionals.

Contact us directly. Special incentives are in place for teams and groups to attend! Get in Touch!

As more and more companies begin to offer employment opportunities in the social media world, many of us are trying to figure out how to get a foot in the door. If you want to get into this field but your efforts have proved fruitless, look no further. This unofficial guide will set you on the straight path to employment.

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or connect directly via LinkedIn. Marc’s recent productions include: HR Tech Europe and HRN World Talent. Recent news and views please visit the Pan European HR Network on LinkedIn.