HRD Best of 2019: Talent

What a year it’s been for People Leaders across the globe. Businesses have become more aware of HR’s strategic value in business, effective corporate social responsibility and purpose have become key to talent attraction, employee engagement and corporate culture, and inclusion has gone beyond quotas and keynote sessions, to discussions around whether unconscious bias is a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ and stronger initiatives supporting the business value of a more diverse workforce.

With 2019 winding down to a close, we’ve taken a look back over the months to cherry pick the most inspiring articles, interviews and podcasts, featuring our incredible roster of thought leaders and contributors, about talent. Enjoy!

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Talent 2020: HRD Live Podcast with Katrina Collier, Dina Alvarez, Jo Davis and Tara Benton

A changing world of consumer experiences, an ever-evolving suite of tech solutions, and a wider range of choice than ever before, are all placing greater expectation than ever before on businesses to transform their approaches to talent acquisition and the candidate journey. How on earth can businesses respond to such demand from their employees?

Who better to answer this question than four champions of talent. In this week’s special HRD Summit UK edition of the HRD Live Podcast, Katrina Collier, The Searchologist and author of ‘The Robot-Proof Recruiter’, Dina Alvarez, Head of Talent and Culture at Everis UK, Jo Davis, Group HR Director and Tara Benton, Director of Talent and Development, Mitie, got together to discuss the future of talent acquisition, onboarding, employer brand, the candidate journey and more.

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Ruth Bielderman, ABN AMRO, on Embedding the Candidate Experience into the Heart of your TA Strategy

“I think a lot of companies are still thinking inside-out, instead of outside-in, which means they’re really focusing on their insights and their politics, attracting talent from a company perspective, instead of a employee perspective.”

Ahead of her appearance at the HRD Summit EU, June 19th-20th at the RAI Amsterdam, Ruth Bielderman, ABN AMRO, spoke to HRD Connect about how the organisation measures success, not just within the recruitment process, but the entire employee experience.

Read the interview

Talent 2020: What are the biggest challenges facing HR?

“Expectations of businesses are changing and it is vital that companies recognise and respond to this. Once upon a time, business was about delivering a service and making a profit but now both customers and employees care more deeply about a business; values and what it stands for.”

With a new decade on the horizon, we asked a host of HR experts, thought leaders and researchers what they the biggest talent challenges facing HR leaders, and what we can do to solve them.

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William Pietersen Learning How to Learn: Why Learning is Crucial in an Age of Disruption

“For organizations to survive, however, they must generate favorable variations purposefully within their lifetimes. They cannot rely on the genetic lottery. Here we return to de Geus and his concept of a “living company.” In an increasingly turbulent world, the crucial life-sustaining competency is learning how to win at learning.”

How can we encourage employees to embark on the journey of learning? William Pietersen, Professor of the Practice of Management, Columbia Business School, examines the learning process, its promises and potential pitfalls, and how to embrace the process as a whole.

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Culture Amp on How to recognize your top-performing employees

“We’ve collected insights from over 2,500 customers on our platform. What this data, along with peer-reviewed research, revealed is that if employees aren’t engaged at work, they’re unlikely to perform to their potential. And Culture First companies know it’s not enough to simply measure engagement and assign performance ratings. We must also use this data to develop strategies that will boost engagement and, in turn, enable people to perform to the best of their abilities.”

What is the link between performance management and recognition, and how can People Leaders crack it? Sophia Lee, backed by Culture Amp’s Senior People Scientists, explores the secrets of recognizing your brightest and best.

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David Roberts on Cost-effective people transformation

“Companies and individuals more than ever are demanding immediate impact and at an acceptable cost. I can almost hear some of you saying that this is no different to previous years as we always want acceptable costs but I would say some of the glory days of spending endless amounts of money on transformations are gone. I’m personally glad to hear it and even more glad to step up to the challenge to meet these demands.”

How can businesses successfully transform their people through cost-effective solutions? David Roberts, People and Business Transformation expert shares his thoughts.

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Molly Spatara, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, on Creating the right mindset to manage your external talent

“44% of organizations are experiencing digital security breaches, sometimes frequently and on nearly every engagement. You can’t manage what you can’t see. So you don’t have the visibility, you’re preparing the talent like you would material, then you’re not going to have visibility at that level. Who’s behind your firewall? Who’s working for you? What are they doing? Do they have the certifications or the licenses they need?”

HRD Connect sat down with Molly Spatara, Global Vice President, Brand Experience, SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, to break down the key strategic solutions to successful external workforce management, and discuss the importance of employer brand as the No.1 priority in talent acquisition today.

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Sona Sherratt on how to educate leadership in volatile times

“In today’s volatile and uncertain world, where planning and forecasting is no longer something that can be relied on, learning agility has been has been identified as THE key requirement for successful leaders.  Indeed, a curious mindset is increasingly hailed as more important than experience for leader’s advancement to senior roles.”

How can we develop agile business leaders during times of great uncertainty? Sona Sherratt, Professor of Practice – Leadership, Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School, investigates.

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Empowering employees through learning and development: Interview with Elisabetta Galli, Global Head of Knowledge, Development and Talent Management, Santander

At the HRD Summit Europe 2019, Elisabetta Galli spoke to HRD Connect about managing development within the workplace, and what businesses can do to adopt these new learning platforms.

Watch the interview

HRD Live with Jayne Haines, SVP Talent, Learning & Organisation Development, GSK

In this episode of the HRD Live Podcast, Louron Pratt speaks to Jayne Haines, Senior Vice President of Talent Learning & Organisation Development, GSK.

Jayne and Louron discuss the essential role of unique business culture in creating a driven and successful organisation, and the impact such a cultural focus can have on shareholder value for any business.

In addition to deep dives into the centrality of culture for organisational development, Jayne also reveals what she finds most exciting about her role at GSK, and what business leaders and HR professionals can do to shape and influence their organisations.

Listen to the podcast