Talent: what REALLY matters
By Geoff Callard au.linkedin.com/pub/geoff-callard/7/160/9 The ‘Talent Management’ industry is a recent phenomenon – and it does not bear up under scrutiny. There is no evidence to suggest that it helps organisations succeed and it ignores the need to take a deeper, systemic look at the best ways to develop people into consistently high performers. […]
I am NOT your talent!
‘Talent’ is the HR word of the moment. The many articles, conferences, blog posts, training programs and otherwise-concluded findings tell us that businesses need to prioritise their ability to ‘attract, retain and develop talent’ in order to ‘optimise’ their workforce. Referring to people as ‘talent’, like telling employees they are an ‘asset’, seems complimentary at […]
The weakness of hierarchies
The linear hierarchical structure has, almost without exception, become the only type of structure used in organisations. The entrenchment of line-based management in modern organisations reflects the conviction that productivity is an outcome of time-and-motion efficiency. Enterprises invest heavily in increasing motion, compressing time and utilising tools such as fish-bone diagrams, decision trees, organisation charts, […]
Industrial models vs. post-employment
The knowledge economy was supposed to bring unprecedented levels of opportunities to workers. As more work depended on the use of information rather than manual labour, these workers as contractors and freelancers would have the freedom to choose independence over traditional employment. They would be able to negotiate contracts that recognise their unique abilities outside […]
Understanding Gen Y Part 2: why employers need to learn to love them
Businesses globally are unprepared to face the challenges of the changing business environment, as they struggle to manage the demands of Millennial (also known as Gen Y) employees and adapt to disruptions in labour markets. This was the finding from a Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey released earlier in 2014. Gen Y are frequently […]
Understanding Gen Y: Part 1
I recently came across an article written by a young man who identified himself as Gen Y (those born between the mid-1980s and 2000). His article reflected on the life of his mother who had served her main profession and few employers continuously and steadfastly throughout her adult life towards the aim of enjoying a […]
Does a knowledge worker need a knowledge manager?
Here’s a thought: in a matter of years, the worker and the manager positions will be reversed in the organisational hierarchy. There are three parts to the economics of pay and hierarchy: 1. Control of assets. Workers have little control and authority over assets and are paid to ‘just work’. At the low end, managers […]
Fairness – working it well
This week in the second part of our look at fairness, guest writer Geoff Callard, discusses how workplaces can be more fair. For our primitive ancestors, fairness was a matter of survival. Fairness ensured that members of the community would cooperate and share resources, especially during times of scarcity. It doesn’t take too much […]
Fairness – it’s all in your head
This week’s post comes courtesy of guest writer, Geoff Callard. I recently worked on a large IT implementation project with a team including a hand selected group of ‘Subject Matter Experts’. These were eight of the organisation’s young stars – selected as part of their career development path. Within two months of the project […]
Some things change; some things never change: future work imagined
Fast forward fifteen years from 2014. The robot has not completely taken over but they and automation have definitely changed the landscape of work. This post is not meant to be a crystal ball into our future world; rather it attempts to extend what we already see happening in work and imagines the movement of […]