Last week, I hinted that I would be discussing possibilities about how various technologies like social networking and talent management might intersect. The presentation I did at the SilkRoad Connections conference in part discussed what the future of HCM solutions might look like as we incorporate emerging technologies. I chose a storytelling format for this so I thought I would publish the stories on the blog. It is important to note that much of what I describe is possible today, but you cannot buy it off the shelf. Also, you might read the story and say to yourself that it has no applicability to your organization. That is fine. If it is not applicable, then you should write your own story for your organization. The easiest way to predict the future is to create it yourself and imagining what may be possible can be a good first step.
Without further ado allow me to present my first story that leverages Social Networking, Talent Management, Workforce Planning and Analysis, Context Aware Computing, and Telepresence to improve candidate sourcing and screening.
Ben lives in London. He is a recruiter for a well-known multinational firm that is considered an employer of choice in their industry. The organization plans to introduce a new product line in about two years. The talent management solution has identified one of the key risks for successful introduction of this new product line is that the organization will not have enough engineers, a critical role. Ben and the executive in charge of this product line, Sarah, who lives in New York, have both been notified of the risk. A workspace was automatically created where Ben and Sarah can collaborate and begin to work out how to mitigate this risk. The talent management solution has determined that it is unlikely that the demand for engineers can be filled through internal mobility or re-skilling existing engineers. It has also ruled out hiring contingent labor and recommends hiring new, full-time engineers. The workforce plan maintained through the talent management systems indicates 10 additional engineers will need to be hired over the next 12 months to meet the demand. The system has auto-created a new requisition for these 10 openings because this initiative has already been approved.
In the collaborative workspace, Ben and Sarah review the success profile for engineers at the firm and tweak the qualifications. The good news is that Ben has been aware of the need for new engineers and has used various social networking tools to proactively build a pool of candidates that can meet most of the qualifications. Ben brings up the candidate pool in the collaborative workspace and they review the various candidates in the pool. Sarah and Ben agree that Candice, who lives in Miami, is the best fit candidate. Ben can see in his candidate relationship management solution that Candice is online. Ben sends a direct message to Candice to see if she is available to chat with Sarah and Ben about the opportunity at the firm. Candice responds that she is available. Ben sets up a telepresence session in the workspace and invites Sarah and Candice who both accept. Though Ben, Sarah, and Candice are in different locations, they can talk to each other like they are in the same room. Ben and Sarah are both presented in the workspace with a list of potential questions to ask to confirm various qualifications represented by Candice and to see if she exhibits certain behaviors that are indicated the success profile. After chatting for 15 minutes, Ben ends the telepresence session. Ben and Sarah agree that Candace passes the initial screen.
Is it too far out there? Is it not far enough? What do you think?
