Talent Force

Only one thing really differentiates your business from your competitor: your people. Do you have the right talent in the right place at the right time? It's no longer enough to have a 'workforce': you need a high-impact Talent Force.  The authors first identify the massive social, cultural, and economic shifts that are transforming hiring as we know it.  We are a smaller, closer, and more competitive world, as Baby Boomers are retiring in the US, India is flourishing due to outsourcing and educational development, and China is a strong new economic force. Add to that the fact that today's best people have radically new expectations and approaches to work; this book reveals what they want and how to meet those needs while building your business. Learn how to develop and implement a worldclass talent plan that aligns with business objectives, and define metrics to track and optimize success. Discover how candidates are using technology to evaluate new opportunities, benchmark compensation, and create new back-channels of communication about worklife. Maximize these new technologies to grow Talent Force, tap into new sources of competitive intelligence and stay ahead of the pack.

Foreword  xi

Acknowledgments  xiii

About the Authors  xv

Preface  xvii

Introduction  xix

Chapter 1:  The Quality Talent Imperative  1

Chapter 2:  Talent Market Demands  11

Chapter 3:  Building a Competitive Talent Organization  35

Chapter 4:  The Cultural Obsession of Work  59

Chapter 5:  Building a Talent Community  77

Chapter 6:  Tangible Talent Measurement  93

Chapter 7:  Talent Goes on Offense  115

Chapter 8:  Relationship Recruiting (Still) Rules  133

Chapter 9:  Talent Forces of Tomorrow  151

Index  163

Hank Stringer

Chief Executive Officer, Q Talent Partners

Hank Stringer has over two decades of experience as a successful high-tech industry recruiter, entrepreneur, and innovator in the use of information technology in the recruitment and employment process. Today, Stringer is CEO of Q Talent Partners, an executive search services and consulting firm based on the philosophies and best practices of this book.

Forecasting a talent shortage in 1996, Stringer applied his energy and experiences to start Hire.com. There, he and a team of entrepreneurs created an early ASP business model, utilizing the Internet to scale and automate interactive recruiting relationships and processes. Under his tenure, Hire.com dramatically changed the way companies recruit, hire, and retain talent. Today, global companies, such as Federal Express, BP, Allianz, Raytheon, and Prudential, have adopted Hire.com’s revolutionary approach.

Prior to founding Hire.com, Stringer was president and co-founder of Pedley-Stringer, Inc., a high-tech recruitment firm. Stringer previously served as an internal recruiting consultant for Tandem Computers and Dell Computer, where he was responsible for a number of special recruiting projects in the U.S. and Asia.

Stringer has authored many articles about recruitment and the future of talent management in the workplace, and is an accomplished speaker who has appeared at numerous international industry-leading events.

Stringer holds a B.A. in Journalism and Government Studies from Texas State University and currently serves as President of the Advisory Board for the McCoy School of Business at his alma mater. Hank resides with his wife and kids in the hill country outside Austin, Texas.

Rusty Rueff

Chief Executive Officer, SNOCAP, Inc.

Rusty Rueff joined SNOCAP as their CEO in 2005. SNOCAP is the world’s first end-to-end solution for digital licensing and copyright management services, enabling record labels and individual artists to make the full depth of their catalogs available through authorized peer-to-peer networks and online retailers.

Prior to his position at SNOCAP, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources for Electronic Arts (EA). Joining EA in 1998, he was responsible for global human resources, talent management, corporate services and facilities, corporate communications, and government affairs, reporting to EA’s Chairman and CEO. EA is the world’s largest, and leading, interactive entertainment software company, with revenues of over $3.5 billion and 6,500 employees. In 2003, Fortune named EA one of the “Top 100 Places to Work For” in the United States.

Prior to joining EA, Rueff held positions with the PepsiCo companies for over 10 years. He concluded his career with PepsiCo as Vice President, International Human Resources.

Prior to his tenure with PepsiCo, Rueff spent two years with the Pratt & Whitney Division of United Technologies. In addition, he spent six years in commercial radio as an on-air personality.

He holds an M.S. degree in Counseling and a B.A. degree in Radio and Television from Purdue University. He was given the honor in 2003 of being named a Distinguished Purdue Alumni. Rueff and his wife are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

He currently serves on the Corporate Boards of SNOCAP, All Covered, and Sports Potential. He is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of San Francisco-based American Conservatory Theater (ACT). He is the majority owner of R-Squared Stables, based at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY., and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). He and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA.