In this post, I interview Shelley Schmoker, StepStone's Head of Product Management, about why she is going to this years HR Technology Conference & Exposition. If you haven't yet registered here is a $470 discount code we have arranged.

This post is part of our series of HR Technology 2009 related posts. Also, in case you missed it, check out the Kindle Giveaway we are running in conjunction with this year's conference.

CE> Why are you going to HR Tech this year?

SS> HR Tech is one conference I absolutely attend every year (and have since its inception) because of the calibre of the speakers and their presentations and the quality and currency of the topics discussed.

Of course it also gives me the opportunity to talk to prospective customers and partners and to take a closer look at what is happening in the market.  This year we'll be sitting down with Naomi Bloom (Bloom & Wallace), Jim Holincheck (Gartner), Claire Schooley (Forrester Research) and Josh Bersin (Bersin & Associates) to share exciting StepStone news as well as to get their perspectives on things.  I'm also excited to connect with our friends at OrcaEyes - Dan and his team are doing some really inspiring and innovative things that are transforming workforce planning and business performance.  All of these touch points help to validate our mid-to-long term product strategy and positioning.

CE> What are you looking forward to at this year's conference?

SS> This year I'm looking forward to a number of things - the Annual Industry Analyst Panel and the Knowledge Infusion sessions; Jason Corsello is presenting on Great New Technologies and Jason Averbrook is moderating the Third Annual Talent Management Panel.

I'm also keen to explore the emergence of "edge" technologies in Elaine Orler's session and to hear the discussion between Mary Kay Byers and Jac Fitz-enz about the evolution of talent management suites into "predictive platforms".  Karen Beaman's panel on the experiences of customers that have deployed Talent Management globally should also be interesting.

CE> What else will be good?

SS> There are a number of sessions on new technology, social collaboration and networking that I'd like to attend: Recruiting Technology Panel - 2010 and beyond, Cool New Technologies For HR and Nokia Leads The Way With Web 2.0 Technologies.

Also, the parties at HR Tech are legendary and are great for networking and getting "creative" answers to your most pressing Talent Management questions.

CE> What will be the biggest priorities for employers/HR this year?

SS> I think the three biggest priorities for employers this year are to:

1. Prepare for the economic turn-around by cultivating relationships with the right candidates
2. Foster a community of engaged employees - engaging employees shouldn't be a set of discreet or one time activities, it should begin with on-boarding and continue at every step in the employee life cycle.
3. Focus on career development and succession planning to remove gaps in the talent pipeline
4. Leverage talent data to plan for and predict workforce needs (as opposed to simply reacting to historic information).

CE> How should employers/HR approach them?

SS> Well, employers need to create "just-in-time" pools of talent by:

• Segmenting talent markets and leveraging integrated social media for out-reach and targeted marketing to these groups
• Driving potential hires to interactive talent portals that are tailored to specific candidate segments or niches
• Cultivating meaningful relationships with "hot" candidates

In terms of effective vehicles for engaging with employees employers should be:

• Using the screening and selection process to uncover skills, competencies and desire to provide new employees with 30, 60 and 90 day plans so that they're well-anchored with a development plan from day one
• Connecting new employees with mentors during on-boarding process
• Leveraging the performance appraisal process and performance management technology to ensure employees understand how their roles contribute to the greater good and directly align to the goals of the organisation
• Providing opportunities for internal mobility, career development and learning
• Communication, communication, communication!

On succession planning, this is critical for business continuity.  In many companies, succession planning is reserved for the upper echelons and while this is important, organisations should consider more tactical applications of succession planning for key roles, key skills and/or key positions.

By leveraging talent data to plan and predict workforce needs, what I'm talking about is using trend data to manage business impact in a variety of ways.  For example:

• Enhancing contribution to the bottom line by recruiting candidates that are most likely to succeed in a role, based on the attributes of previous successes
• Securing positive business results by identifying and stabilizing 'flight' risk in talented performers before these risks evolve into costly gaps in the leadership pipeline.

StepStone can be found in booth #315 at Human Resource Executive's 12th Annual HR Technology Conference & Exposition.  Subscribe to our blog to get continued interviews, commentary, and video regarding the show.

Tags: #hrtechconf, Chicago, HR Tech, HR Technology, StepStone

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Community, HR Tech Conference. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.