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Managing The Reinvention Of Work: Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud

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I'm here in Viva Las Vegas taking part in the IBM InterConnect #IBMinterconnect conference. It has got me thinking about how mobile and the cloud are transforming talent management and the world of work. Big thoughts for sure. Corporate culture undergone a major mindset shift: from real space to virtual space, wow to innovation. We get the power of analytics. We see data as a precious resource that just happens to seem, right now, infinite with possibilities. How big is the cloud? It’s a great question. But more relevant to all this that we get the shift in perspective: what we thought were the limits of information are no limits at all.

Now it’s time to learn to maneuver our reinvention. More than how we think, it’s a matter of how we function. To manage an immense galaxy of Big Data; to produce precisely calibrated, accurate, relevant analytics: that's critical. And we need streamlined, lightning-fast processes in place that can fit into the neat little window of a smartphone. Have I mentioned email yet?

It’s as if we’ve discovered a new universe, and all we have to do is figure out make it function on the head of a pin. But that’s not a paradox. Our file cabinets may have blown open and sent reams of information up into the sky, but our increasingly hyper-connected, highly mobile, highly social world of work requires we conduct business as usual anywhere, anytime. If Cloud is the new file cabinet, then Mobile is the new office.

Here are four great changes coming down the pike. It’s see it as four quadrants of our World of Work reinvention:

1) Analytics

We’ll have a powerful and agile way to bring analytics to mobile, in order to deliver the relevant insights that drive all facets of talent management, from attracting to recruiting, hiring to engagement. Ground-floor winnowing can be accomplished via good data instead of endless C.V.s, which we’ve learned are not necessarily the best way to predict a candidate’s fit for an organization.

2) Functionality

We’ll have a way to holistically shift HR functions, including all facets of talent management and analytics, to mobile, without losing any actions, insights, information, or communication. It will be fast and integrated, and enhance contact and communication between organization and employees, recruiters and talent, scaled to the new sense of time and immediacy that fits mobile.

3) Integration

We’ll see a seamless interplay between mobile, the Cloud, and existing processes, so there’s no gaps in the flow of information, in how quickly we can respond to changes or needs, or in our processes. The best way to adapt to new innovations is to be using them, and let the innovations drive the need for new processes and solutions.

4) Selectivity

As we become more fluid with Cloud and mobile, we’re also going to become more selective in both the data we rely on and present, and the processes we use. We’ll create new ways of tasking and feedback. It’s the same as in branding, where the clients prefer to see a very focused and small picture than an amorphous yet noisy big one. I get that. HR and Leaders certainly deal in personal brands: the organization, the employee, even HR itself. We’re not going to lose our sense of priorities, individuality, or judgment. If anything, we’re going to refine it.

I’m looking forward to discussing all of this and more at the conference, geeking out on the tech of it all, and dovetailing the HR, culture and social business perspective with everyone else’s. What conferences like this do is remind us that we’re all in this together, and propel us forward into a fresh and more collaborative perspective.