Yesterday’s Advisor featured futurist Mike Walsh’s take on recruiting and managing employees in an environment that is quickly changing. Today, Walsh says we may be awash in data, but let’s not forget the human element.
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Walsh, a well-known prognosticator and author of the Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, delivered his tips for preparing for the future at the SHRM Talent Management Conference and Exhibition, held recently in San Diego.
But Don’t Forget Humans
Walsh was in a third world country and met the man in charge of the Internet there. The entire operation was in one room. The gentleman in charge asked, “Want to see me take FaceBook off-line for 30 seconds?” and he did it. He said, “People think the Internet here is unreliable, but that’s not true; I just get bored.”
Walsh tells the story to remind us that in this age of data and computers, we’re still dealing with people and human behavior. And things get interesting in the spaces between new tech and new patterns of behavior, Walsh says.
Save time and money with video interviewing! Start on Wednesday, July 29, 2015, with a new interactive webinar, Video Interviewing: Effective Recruiting Tips for HR. Learn More.
Are Your People Motivated?
Regardless of compensation, more and more people are reporting a lack of motivation, a feeling of alienation, and an absence of purpose in their daily work.
Even if you are happy in your job, you may have felt the frustration of not being able to find the right person to help you on a project or the right document dealing with an issue you know someone else has worked on previously.
As many as 70 percent, by some reports, are not engaged, says Walsh. At the worst, they steal, they are a negative influence, and they drive customers away. Culture is easy in a start-up, Walsh says. That’s a great advantage, but it is not a sustainable one if you don’t plan in advance how to stay innovative as your business starts to scale.
What happens is the high performer original employees get replaced by process people.
All of these issues are symptomatic of an underlying problem in many large companies, the breakdown of network capital. Think of network capital as the health of your company’s social graph, Walsh says. In an innovative company, people are densely networked, both with each other and their customers. They feel supported by the people around them, they understand how their actions impact the business and its mission, and they know how to get the right help and resources.
Collaboration is the force that takes the individual value of each of your coworkers and amplifies it exponentially.
In the old days of marketing, your creative people were your storytellers. They pictured your ideal customer and tried to invent clever ways to influence them through advertising. Of all the people in the building, they were least likely to pay attention to your engineers—the guys running your IT systems, building your websites, analyzing your data reports, and manning your enterprise platforms. In the 21st century that has to change.
Storytellers and engineers need to be best friends, ways Walsh. Here’s why: Marketing in the future depends on how well you can map the complete customer journey from activation to purchase. That task requires not only creative ideas, but also data, feedback, and constant tactical course correction.
Is your company’s current design optimized around defending what you have, or thriving in a world where everything will be different? The road map to the future is yours to create, but there is one thing you should be certain of. The time to start your journey is now.
Speaking of quickly changing environments, more and more HR departments are using video interviewing because it saves time and money. Whether you already video interview or want to get started, there’s timely help in the form of BLR’s new webinar—Video Interviewing: Effective Recruiting Tips for HR. In just 90 minutes, on Wednesday, July 29, you’ll learn everything you need to know about using video interviewing to its maximum effect.
Register today for this interactive webinar.
Conduct efficient, effective, and professional video interviews. Join us Wednesday, July 29, 2015, for a new interactive webinar, Video Interviewing: Effective Recruiting Tips for HR. Earn 1 hour in HRCI Recertification Credit and 1 hour in SHRM Professional Development Credit. Register Now.
By participating in this interactive webinar, you’ll learn how to:
- How the use of video interviewing has increased and why
- Suggestions on how to improve the quality of your technical set-up, and answers to questions like:
- Where should your camera be?
- How far should you sit from it?
- How to prep your candidates before the red light goes on so that you both have a worthwhile experience
- What kind of backup plan you should have in case you lose a connection
- Legal pitfalls you need to be aware of – and avoid
- What background you should have on your side of the camera – and what you should be looking for in theirs
- Why eye contact is so important
- What you should be looking for in how your candidates present themselves
- How to make your candidates feel comfortable
- How and when best to follow up after a video interview
- And much more!
Register now for this event risk-free.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Central)
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Mountain
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Approved for Recertification Credit and Professional Development Credit
This program has been approved for 1.5 credit hours toward recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) and 1.5 credit hours towards SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM.
Join us on Wednesday, July 29, 2015—you’ll get the in-depth Video Interviewing: Effective Recruiting Tips for HR webinar AND you’ll get all of your particular questions answered by our experts.
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Train Your Entire Staff
As with all BLR®/HR Hero® webinars:
- Train all the staff you can fit around a conference phone.
- Get your (and their) specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions answered in Q&A sessions that follow the presentation.