I’ve always been impressed with the Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide, so I submitted a success story about our recruiting software for this year’s edition. I was pleasantly surprised when the Guide’s editor accepted it.

In the article (which starts on p.60 of the Guide, by the way) I tell the story of easyJet, a small British airline that used our recruiting software and, more importantly, began thinking about human capital as a resource which can be effectively managed as a supply chain.

In other words, easyJet’s executives started coordinating recruiting and staffing efforts and soon discovered that they could get a lot more high-quality recruiting done with fewer employee hours. Their investment in Bond Talent recruiting software was recouped in about four months, with all other savings now improving the company’s bottom line.

As I write in the article, “companies will compete for the same top talent” as the economy rebounds. “Firms that invest in strategic, streamlined Human Capital Supply Chain management now will be poised to react quickly and snap up the most qualified workforce – and save time and money while they’re at it!”

What else is in the Buyer’s Guide? Lots of other stories and information about; human resources software, recruiting products, social media in HR (a favorite topic of mine), and new technology available for recruiting & staffing professionals. The four-page chart that compares companies and the products they offer is particularly helpful.

I highly recommend checking out the 2011 Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide. And I highly recommend contacting Bond Talent if you want to know more about how our recruiting software can help your company improve its recruiting and staffing efforts.

Check out the 2011 Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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I have twice used my discussions with my daughter to inspire blogs. Her and I frequently discuss the ways in which the worlds of business and the world of art and literature coincide. Not too long ago, we related this back to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and then Romeo and Juliet, and how lessons learned from that could apply in both words. Today we’re taking some more advice from the greatest playwright of our time and applying it to the business world of recruiting, because what Shakespeare taught us about love and war, he can also teach us about business and our candidates. Today’s topic: King Lear.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of the play, here is a very brief summary: King Lear, an aging monarch, decides to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters, according to which one recites the best declaration of love. Goneril and Regan exclaim their love outrageously, even though their intentions are not pure and they later treat him with cruelty. Cordelia, who is honest and loyal, is disowned by her father after he confuses her honesty with insolence and the progression of their lives and eventual deaths because of these things.

1.  Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment on practical matters. Sometimes it is hard to regulate things between our analytical mind and our emotional mind because both are very important but in certain settings, such as in most corners of the business world, it is important to keep yourself from getting too emotional about analytical issues in order to keep your judgments about candidates from being clouded by outside factors. In King Lear, this happens when the king disowns his only truly loyal daughter because he takes her honesty as an insult instead of simple fact and this puts him on a path to destruction he may have been able to foresee if he did not get overwhelmed by his feelings at the time.
2. Appearances are important. Edgar disguises himself in Act IV to avoid a warrant placed for his death because no one would expect him to dress like a beggar. While I definitely do not mean for this point to be interpreted as a way to avoid the law, I do think it is a good portrayal of the fact that dressing and presenting yourself in a positive way reflects positively on you just like in the play when he does the opposite and it hides him.
3. Even those closest to you are capable of deception. This idea is the basis for the entirety of the play and it is a hard one to address because we all want to assume that we don’t have to worry about trusting those we are close to, whether we are an old king and it is our daughters or a recruiter and it is our candidate. Trust is an earned thing, not an inherent one – it is always good to remember that those you are close to can hurt you because it keeps you humble and aware, even if it is a problem you never have to directly address.

 These blogs are meant to remind you that the best ways to handle your business recruiting and lessons to learn can be found just about anywhere and the sooner you start looking, the more you will find in places you would never expect. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

The King and the Recruiter is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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Social Media, recently and over the past few years, has gotten bigger and bigger. With websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others, a whole new path of interaction for businesses and their recruiteres has been opened. It gives companies a chance to make new connections with potential passive contacts. Just like with anything, there are many great ways it can be utilized by recruiters, but there are also a number of potholes to look out for if you want to make sure to use social networking in the best way.

1. Spam. A lot of social media websites lend themselves to being used constantly. While tweeting or posting what you’re doing every ten minutes might be okay for a personal account on one of these websites, if your business does the same, people will get annoyed fast. If your tweets are so frequent that they fill up the feeds of everyone following you – whether or not the content you are posting may be relevant or interesting – they will get annoyed and could be compelled to remove you from their feed. Like with all things, moderation is important.
2. Inactivity. On the opposite side of posting too much is not posting enough. Once you make an account on a social networking site and people know that you are there, if you abandon it, it is likely that potential candidates, customers or contacts will see it and assume that you are no longer in business, or some other unfortunate outcome.
3. Impersonal. Just like with the two sides of the coin when it come to how much content you post, there is the question of what content you post. I have seen Facebook pages for companies that have little to no information save for a link to their company’s website and a few words. While this may seem more stoic and businesslike, it leaves a lot to be assumed. Having some information about the company, and even the people who work there, adds a personal touch and as long as it is done tastefully, can help keep people revisiting your page.
4. Too personal. The other side of this coin is posting too much personal information. It’s endearing to see a post celebrating someone’s birthday or something that is as much of a milestone as that, but if too much is posted, such as a comment about office shenanigans multiple times a day, it gives an air that is not as businesslike as most people prefer.
5. Lack of interaction. Remember that just posting tweets or updates isn’t the only way to take part in social networking, but discussing and interacting with others who are posting on their own and your pages as well can make you more interesting to them and others who see their pages.

 I hope that these five things to look out for will help you better manage your social networking now and for the time to come. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

Top 5 Social Networking Potholes is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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A thought leader is someone who has innovative ideas and concepts – someone who, despite what is going on around them, defies convention and tries something new and succeeds. It is a term that was coined over fifteen years ago and has a lot of new dynamics in the current age. The advent of social media and the continuing advance of technology makes being innovative and sharing those innovative ideas. How do we utilize these things to share our ideas? What things are there for us to use? Here are a few suggested resources you can use to help share your ideas with those who can help support you on your way to thought leadership.

1. Your community! While the internet has boundless forums and websites and so on and so forth that can help you share your ideas and gain recognition, the first place to always go is your own community. Your colleagues, customers, friends, and family – all of these people will listen to your ideas and it is very likely that if they like it they will share it with their own colleagues, customers, friends, and family. The power of speaking with those around you is surprisingly strong and people are usually quite eager to help those they know out if they believe in their ideas.
2. Social Media. I know I talk a lot about social media here, but that is because it can be a useful tool. There are both good and bad ways to utilize it, but that’s for another blog. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, and many others can be used to help share and connect with people who may have similar ideas to you. Also, using Google to find more specialized forums and think tank type sites can help you as well. Be vigilant!
3. Self-publishing. If you have formed your idea enough, the world of self publishing is a very useful one. Many of the major publishers look to self publishers as a way of finding new and upcoming manuscripts so if you are confident enough about your idea you can take that next step by writing about it in a manuscript and going from there – who knows who could pick it up, or who could read it – the possibilities are endless.
4. Listen to advice! That’s my biggest tip, if there is any tip to give it is this one. Anyone who offers you help or gives you advice, listen. There are many bits of genuine information lying in a lot of the places you would least expect to find them. If you just look, search, and persevere, the right path is always there.

In the end, being a thought leader comes down to you. It comes down to your confidence and your drive. It comes down to your desire to really share your ideas with the world. If you believe you can change it, there’s no reason not to try. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

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My youngest daughter is currently a college student, studying literature. This focus gives her a different eye on many of the HR topics I usually address in my blogs and that eye is what brings me to the topic of this blog. We were discussing her studies and she brought up a man named Niccolò Machiavelli. He is best known for his book, The Prince. The purpose of the book was to outline the goals of the Medicis, those ruling in Florence Italy, where he was living in the fifteen and sixteenth century, and how he believed they could attain those goals. His name is frequently associated with a very rigid sense of rules and some, when it was first introduced, thought his views were tyrannical – while this could be true at that time, with some creative interpretation, he had some important ideas that could apply to the modern day business world of Human Resources.

 While the topic is a bit outside of my norm, today I’m going to, with the help of my daughter’s insight, address some of the things Machiavelli speaks about in his book and how they can apply to the business world of Human Resources.

• Give attention to all human components of a company.

Machiavelli was very adamant about a ruler being aware of the morale of his subjects’ at any given time – from the lowest peon to all the lords and ladies. This concept applies to a business hierarchy as well. This allows changes to be made before any negative action can take place – a good business leader is aware of any potential grievances before they become problematic and, then, can make provisions ahead of time.

•  Appeal to subconscious desires.

Sometimes it is more effective to, instead of making an effort to reach potential customers with reasoning, to use passion. Machiavelli thought a person in a position of power could use common denominators to gain trust. In the business world this is most commonly done through the use of clever marketing techniques – if a customer thinks that your company is something that is fundamentally good, they will be much more likely to become committed to your cause.

•  Stay involved.

Machiavelli strongly believed that the idea of fortresses was a mistake, because if a ruler locks himself inside of one, he can become out of touch with what is really going on outside of the walls he hides in. This applies to the business world because a good business leader should avoid making “fortresses” by staying available to employees and interacting with those in the office environment. That way he or she can always be prepared for anything that is thrown his or her way.

There were many other things that Machiavelli stated in The Prince that could be applied to the current business world with modern interpretation. Not everything he said applies to the current century but the ideas are the same – a successful leader cannot dissociate from those that are being lead by being available, able to associate and confident in their abilities. I suggest giving it a read and drawing your own conclusions, if not for business, for historic perspective – you never know what you can learn from the future by looking to the past. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

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A large part of the human capital supply chain is the acquisition and sourcing of many talents – but the process of obtaining these assets in the first place is also an important detail. Resumes are read, interviewees are spoken to, and decisions are made. Quality hiring practices are too frequently abandoned because of the inconvenience of finding the proper employee in a sufficient amount of time. There are a number of ways to ease the process and the one I’m addressing today is personality testing. The use of personality testing can be quite beneficial in the streamlining of the hiring process and here are three reasons why:

 1.      Personality testing can help reduce turnover in your company. Certain office jobs require certain personality traits all around – a personality test can help you find people who truly are ambitious about things that are key in your company. For example, let us say that a large part of a potential job requires a person to perform a series of highly specialized tasks, it would be best to find a person that is genuinely interested in doing detailed work. Certain series of questions can show whether or not a person is genuinely interested in such a thing instead of saying it for a better chance at being hired.

2.      Personality testing can help illuminate traits that are not easily measured through interviews. Let’s say that you are looking to hire a late night help desk person to sit and answer phones at a help desk for all hours of the night. A person ideal for that position would have to introverted and extroverted traits combined since they will both be alone at their desk but talking to people on the telephone. They would have to be interested in helping others, be willing to know immensely about whatever product or service it is that they are helping with and patient in the case of confrontation. Certain traits like these are not the sort of things you can see in an interview – like that of being introverted and extroverted in different ways – so a personality test helps you to add another layer to your interviews.

3.      Personality testing can help you gather data about what works successfully within your business. By testing employees before hiring and comparing their traits to your best performers, you can later analyze this data to see which test scores work best in the dynamic of your office. If you have a string of people you’re hiring leave shortly after their being hired, you can look back to see if there were any trends within their testing. This goes the same way for those who stay with your company for longer amounts of time. This will allow you to focus more on the traits and skills inherent in the employees that mesh best.

 Introducing personality testing as a part of your hiring process takes away a level of mystery that may be challenging later on when you are addressing other parts of the human capital supply chains. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

Hiring The Right Personality is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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After attending the HR Thought Leadership conference in Atlantic City in June, I came away with a bunch of insights from attendees and other speakers about the Future of Human Capital Supply Chain Software.  I heard from a number of corporate HR executives that there is a HUGE market globally for the “replacement” of first generation 1.0 Talent Management systems over the next few years. This is being driven by the explosion of Web 2.0 technologies and the dis-satisfaction that many corporate HR users have with their “over-sold” current 1.0 talent management solutions. 

In general, the Top 5 Future Capabilites Include:

1) ”User-Defined” systems that can be easily configured by the user, without the expensive need to redesign old customizations.

2) “Consumer Driven” solutions that are vastly more User Friendly and better reflect the user experience of using Google.

3) “SaaS Cloud Computing” solutions that are rented by the month with much easier termination clauses.

4) “Perpetual Beta” software where “Upgrades” become obsolete, because your software is automatically updated every night with bug fixes and new features.

5) “Interactional” solutions where “batches” become obsolete and “work flow” changes are easy and continual.

In addition to these General statements about the Future of HCSC software, there were a few more specific directions discussed:

1) HCSC Software will become a tightly integrated solution from a single vendor that will combine Enterprise Software + Moblie Apps + Web 2.0 Applications.

2) The “Gamification” of HCSC software will begin as younger user demand more of a PS3 or Wii interface device for their Talent Management systems.

3) Expanded use of “Video Interviews” with the new streaming technologies, bigger bandwith and the launch of the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

4) Much better “Scheduling” capabilities through the use of mobile devices and products such as Timebridge and the new auto appointment matching capabilites of Outlook.

5) Better “Expense” management with products such as Expense Cloud, Better “Reference” checking with Checkster and Better “Interconnections” with products such as Jobvite.

6) A complete “Supply Chain” environment that connects your HRIS + ATS + CRM into a single system from a single vendor.

The point of all these predictions is to give our Blog readers a reason to sit down with their current technology vendors and understand “WHEN” they will be receiving these new features and intergrations.  If your vendor does not have “Feature Road Map”, it may be time to find a new vendor that does!!

Future of HCSC Software is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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For awhile now there have been two camps of thought concerning how to best help Corporations improve the management of their contingent workforce spending.  At first, there were stand alone VMS (Vendor Management Software/Service) companies that applied technology to this business issue,  Over time the large Staffing firms jumped in and through their MSP (Managed Service Provider) offerings and the acquisition of some of the VMS technology companies, they have been able to effectively help their largest corporate clients better manage the flow of contingent spending.  Who is right and who is wrong ???

In a recent article in Workforce magazine, Chris Dwyer (analyst with research firm Aberdeen Group) mentioned that “it now makes good sense to combine a vendor management system (VMS) with a Managered Service Provider (MSP)”.   He continued that “the big attraction of a vendor management system is that they help companies home in on how much they actually pay for temps and all other contingent workers”.   Dwyer also relayed that “VMS users have reduced their time-to-fill rates by 34%, while achieving 37% higher cost savings than non-VMS users”.  The benefits for corporations working more tightly with their Staffing suppliersis becomming more and more aparent to everyone.

Managed service providers, such as Manpower, Adecco and Guidant,  have their own software ( usually through acquisition) for keeping tabs of their client’s contigent labor.  Ed Jackson (CEO at Provade) summed it up very clearly, when he stated that “it was a lot simplier 20 years ago when 90% of the total workforce was permanent, where today it is down to 60% or even lower in some companies”.  Jim Holincheck (analyst withresearch firm Gartner) clarified that “the interest in Vendor Management Systems has been limited to those firms that spend at least $30 million each year on contigent labor”.    As with most new technologies, the largest firms spearhead the initial efforts and then smaller firms follow along.

So where does all of this information lead us ???  From my point of view, the need for a seperate standalone VMS system is quickly fading for a number of reasons.  First, corporations want their current applicant tracking ATS and talent management TMS systems to include most of the VMS functionality as it relates to distributing orders and assigning workers from multiple tiers of staffing suppliers.  On the other side of the coin, staffing firms need some of the VMS capabilities bulit into their own front and back office systems to handle the collection of timecards and creation of invoices for those corporate clients.  Because of this changing direction amongst corporations and staffing firms, we at Bond International Software are currently delivering our Bond Talent corporate solutions and our Adapt/On Demand staffing systems with all of these VMS capabilities built in from the beginning and tightly integrated, just like in an ERP manufacturing environment. 

As Bond and other software firms begin to deploy these integrated Human Capital Supply Chain solutions to corporations and their staffing suppliers, the need for stand alone VMS systems will quickly disappear.  Those VMS firms such as BeeLine will continue to be acquired by staffing firms such as Adecco and other.  What is your company’s strategy for better controlling your Contigent Spending and moving towards a Human Capital Supply Chain environment with your staffing suppliers???  Let me know, Tim Giehll

Staffing MSP Services Kills Need For VMS Firms is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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Last week, while attending the Consulting Summit in Chicago ,hosted by Brian Cuthbert and Joe Kornik of Consulting Magazine, I had the opportunity to talk with some of the world’s leading HR and Supply Chain consulting firms.  I had the chance to speak with Kathryn Hayley (CEO) from Aon, Rajeev Jain of Hewitt, Maryanne Faschan of HP, Carrie Greenbaum of Alix and Susan Kantor of PRTM.  After talking about the revolutionary aspects of Human Capital Supply Chains, all my discussions focused on how Consulting firms should begin to engage with their corporate clients about the benefits of implementing a Human Capital Supply Chain environment.  The discussions were lively and it reinforced for me the true transformational nature of a new idea such as Human Capital Supply Chains.   

We also discussed the importance of HR consulting firms tackling the challenges of transforming “People Responsibilities” within their client organizations and the complexities of Human Capital Supply Chain ”ProcessRe-engineering”.  I also offered the global resources at Bond International Software to help these same consulting firms with the technical software requirements of implementing a HCSC environment.  Over time, Bond will be looking for consulting firm partners to implement Human Capital Supply Chain environments around the world.

HR Consulting Firms Embrace Human Capital Supply Chains is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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First of all, I have to give full credit for this post to the Californai Staffing Association.  The information written by them below is one of the BEST descriptions of what staffing firms many times deal with when they interact with a corporate VMS.  It is important for all parties; 1) the corporate client, 2) the VMS/MSP and 3) the staffing firm to better understand the  common frustrations of interfacing with a VMS environment.  Happy Reading !!!

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It’s not likely to change soon; more and more staffing agencies are getting cornered into working with middlemen-vendor managers. One day you’re sending temps to an end user and directly billing the end user. The next day a vendor manager-accounts payable service has been installed between you and the customer. You’re told, “Take it or leave it!” If you must “take it”, at least do it with eyes wide open. There are a number of things you must understand, and do, to make sure you don’t get burned by VMS vendor managers.

Whatever software or web system the VMS uses to interact with the staffing agencies, subcontractors, and temps, you had better understand it extremely well from the very beginning (before you send the first employee). In most cases, if you are not set up perfectly on their system you will not get paid by the VMS no matter how much you have already paid your temps. It does not matter how much of your own internal paperwork or documentation you have. You can send the VMS your invoices, timesheets and payroll data until you are blue in the face, but they will usually only pay the hours recorded perfectly on their system. This can be true whether it is in the normal course of business or even in a dispute. Most VMS will never look at your invoices and never see your time sheets. Never pay employees from your own internal time sheets.

The payment information that vendor manager systems provide staffing agencies is often confusing. Many can tell you, “if you don’t have a good deal of time to reconcile all of the data provided by the VMS every week, don’t even start in with a VMS.” Payment reports from the VMS might include payments from different week endings; payments are not clear cut and may not be tied into one specific week. Confused and overloaded, agency operators just keep erroneously applying payments to the oldest invoices. When a VMS creates confusion and holds payments, or doesn’t pay the correct amounts, the staffing agency usually ends up taking it in the shorts.

Many agencies keep paying employees that are not fully approved, turned on, or activated on the VMS system. The VMS can say the temp did not send their resume, complete a background check or drug screening, meet some educational requirement, etc., etc. Before you find out some element of “fully approved” has not been met, you lose a week or more of pay. And then you may spend countless hours fighting to recover.

In some cases, by contract you only have two or three weeks to find out if an employee is not turned on in their system, to correct hour variances, and handle disputes. You may not even know something is wrong for almost six weeks, until you get a shorted check. When working with a VMS, it is safest to log in and reconcile constantly. Import the hours from the VMS software to your payroll and billing software if possible. If the first check you receive from the VMS does not exactly match your imported data, stop everything. Know that it will never be correct going forward and you will probably lose money in future confusion. Too many staffing agency owners, especially start-up operations, are just so happy to get a check, they ignore the early warning signs.

New developments at the macro level of working with a VMS can also cause you financial losses and higher risk, especially in bankruptcy situations. When working directly with a client, a staffing agency would normally pull a credit report on that direct client before sending in workers. When working with a VMS the real debtor becomes the VMS, not the end user of the temps. In VMS contracts the staffing agency usually has no rights to collect from the company that used the temporaries. It is necessary to pull a credit report on the vendor manager. Normally if the vendor manager ever goes bankrupt, you the staffing agency must return to the court any monies that the VMS paid to you within the ninety day period before the VMS bankruptcy. If the end user of the temps declares bankruptcy, you do not have to return monies paid to you by the VMS; your customer is the VMS. In that case, the VMS would take the bankruptcy hit. Beware…that scenario is changing now. Study carefully the clauses in any VMS contracts you may be given. In some of them you will now see paragraphs that obligate you to return monies paid to you by the VMS if the end user of the temps ever declares bankruptcy. That means you must pull credit reports on, and continually track, both the VMS and the end user.

VMS Hell from a staffing industry point of view is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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