Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find the very best talent development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to pieces on the truth about the talent situation, Six Sigma and HR, how the “new” War for Talent will change the workplace, and winning the global War for Talent.
From Jon Ingham: Opportunities for Talent Managers / 1: The Truth About Talent
“The main issue is that because we tend to think that talent is not abundant and diverse (which Kourdi things it is), we enter into a doom loop in which we antagonise everyone else”
Wally’s Comment: I love Jon Ingham’s reviews of conference presentations. They give us access to thinking that we might not experience otherwise. This particular presentation is by Jeremy Kourdi. He’s co-author of a book titled The Truth about Talent. It’s a UK publication, that’s available through Amazon. The link is to the US Amazon site. Kourdi’s basic premise is that by assuming that talent is scarce we wind up creating a “privileged class” and antagonizing everyone else.
From Human Resource IQ: Lean Six Sigma in Human Resources – The HR Performance Scorecard
“In our last article, we debunked the myth that people perceive Lean is a manufacturing process improvement tool… that it couldn’t be applied to a department such as Human Resources. This month we will show how to kick off a Lean Six Sigma project.”
Wally’s Comment: Companies everywhere are applying industrial processes to HR and talent development. That’s not a bad thing. Thinking about continuous process improvement can certainly make HR more effective. Disciplined analysis can do the same. The danger is latching on to a single tool and slavishly applying it in situations that are inappropriate.
From Ryan Healy: 5 Ways the New War For Talent Will Change the Workplace Forever
“There’s a new war for talent. Even while some victims of the recession are still out of a job, workers with in-demand skills like programming and web design can work wherever they want and command a huge salary.”
Wally’s Comment: Ryan Healy is the Co-Founder and COO of Brazen Careerist. He assumes that a new War for Talent is underway. If you agree, you’ll want to read his guesses about how things will change. Don’t expect precision, though. These are general statements, without much reference to time horizons or specific changes.
From Jack Mollen: Winning the Global War for Tech Talent
“It is time for immigration reform that will keep more top technical talent in the United States. Today, American colleges and universities are educating foreign nationals who come here to earn advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM fields). We educate them, and then U.S. immigration regulations force them to leave our country to return home, where they contribute to economic growth and the success of our competitors overseas. That has to change.”
Wally’s Comment: There are very few people who would argue that US immigration policy helps attract more technical and entrepreneurial talent to the US. What Mollen, Executive Vice President of Human Resources at EMC Corporation and a director of the HR Policy Association, does superbly here is lay out many different ways that immigration policy affects talent management on a global scale.
Carnivals and Such
From Tanmay Vora: April 2012 Carnival of Leadership Development: Earth Day Edition
