Rob Scott's Weblog - HR Strategy should not be like kissing your sister!

I'm on another 'HR Maturity' searchabout at the moment, and this one was very insightful. A very interesting article about how misunderstanding the HR maturity of your organization can lead to misalignment of the HR function with the organization's strategy and the resulting inefficiency that can bring.

Ivey Business Journal - Succession Planning: Often Requested, Rarely Delivered

One of the elements of a sound workforce plan is, of course, succession planning.  This is an area that's new to me, but intuitively it is a no-brainer - or rather, that it is necessary is a no-brainer.  So I just found this, and I've enjoyed the first page, so I will continue reading.

I got a chuckle out of the inclusion of Herman Kahn's MEGO Factor (My Eyes Glazeth Over) - that's the first I've heard it, but it's so ... apt.

Another interesting tidbit: I found an organization's board-approved and published Succession Plan online, which had stated 'no candidates identified at this time' for every senior position, which leads to: It is better to have gone through the exercise and found no one than to avoid the task in fear of the same outcome.  I think.

Peter Drucker’s Paths to Creating an Engaged Worker

This is an excerpt from William Cohen's new book Drucker on Leadership which outlines Mr. Drucker's four key components of developing an engaged workforce.

Cool stuff; just might have to buy the book.

Taleo Blog - Top 5 Employment Considerations

This is essentially a link to a link, but credit where it is due - besides, Taleo's Blog is a good one to follow.

Their article speaks to the top reasons employees will choose your firm over another, as identified by a recent survey of employment candidates.  Not surprisingly, the number one issue is 'career development prospects' - interesting that this happens to be one of Peter Drucker's Paths to creating an engaged worker (as described by William Cohen).

They also identify another report, validating these results, which includes this interesting bit of information:

Companies in which most employees have high-quality development plans have 27 percent lower turnover than companies in which few or no employees have development plans. In addition, companies with high-quality development plans have twice the revenue per employee.

Presentations from the 2008 Human Strategy Alignment Conference

I've given a thorough read of Louch, Strategic Workforce Planning and found it to be very insightful; I especially like the way he describes workforce segmentation from a strategic impact/value perspective.

Sullivan, Measuring the Right Things was a good read too; the 'other pocket costs' perspective was something that often gets missed.