Your Human Capital in 2008
Do you want some practical ideas about recruiting, managing and retaining employees? I’ve reviewed tapes of the 2007 Human Capital and Learning Symposium, and here are a few of the highlights.
Bring Out the Best in Today’s Young Talent
Dr. Carolyn Martin began the symposium with an excellent overview of the demographic groups that comprise the majority of today’s workforce—Generations X and Y—in a presentation that promised “How to Bring Out the Best in Today’s Young Talent”. Dr. Martin represents the firm RainmakerThinking, Inc. and, in my opinion, she is “in the zone” describing the work values of both groups as seen from the employer and employee perspective.
Again, I’m not an HR professional, but as a father and an occasional youth league coach, I find it tremendously important to understand motivational triggers and how they differ between individuals. Dr. Martin addressed a number of flash points between management and employees and also pointed out strengths that can be developed with the proper guidance, direction and support. Watch the following minute-and-a-half video to get a flavor of her presentation.
Coaching for Impact
On the following day, Dr. Jeffrey Magee prescribed treating employees like children in his presentation, “Coaching for Impact.” Actually, he presented multiple coaching styles for dealing with different types of employees, but one observation hit particularly close to home for me. While talking about the frequency of employee evaluations, he pointed out that in sports, participants are evaluated daily with video tape review by position coaches. If high school students playing a child’s game receive this much coaching, why shouldn’t your employees? Watch the following two-minute video to get a sense of Dr. Magee’s energy.
Peer-to-peer networking
In between the two keynote presentations were a number of engaging sessions on topics like Time Management and HR Career Paths. Both HR and Learning tracks conducted breakout sessions. As is often the case, some of the most significant value came from peer-to-peer networking between individuals from firms of all sizes. I interviewed several participants at the conclusion of the meeting, and the comments were remarkably similar. The following videos were edited to about a minute-and-a-half each.
Registration is open!
Registration is open for the 2008 Human Capital and Learning Symposium, which will be held again during February in Kansas City, MO.
