Jennifer McClure`

Equipping people leaders to navigate change — and design the future — with boldness and purpose.

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How Does Human Resources Use Social Media? [Infographic]

Recently, BLR’s HR Daily Advisor published the results of their HR Trends survey – sponsored by SuccessFactors.

Although the size was relatively small (300 HR Practitioners), the survey results offer some interesting and specific insights about how HR professionals are utilizing social media in the workplace. Top areas identified for social media integration included:

  1. Recruiting
  2. Employee Communications
  3. Training
  4. Onboarding
  5. Teambuilding

Check out some of the specific responses related to How HR Uses Social Media in the infographic below and download a free copy of the full HR Trends survey results, which includes additional information and insights regarding current practices for retention and engagement, formal programs for tracking and development and key HR metrics.

BLR's 2013 Social Media Infographic

BLR’s 2013 Social Media Infographic: By HR.BLR.com

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of leadership development, executive communication skills and talent strategy. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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Effective Presentation & Communications Skills for Business Leaders [slideshare]

Today, I’m sharing the slide deck from two recently completed workshops delivered for groups of senior executives who work for one of my corporate clients – Effective Presentation & Communications Skills for Business Leaders.

Why is there a need for this type of program?

Effective communication and presentation skills are must-haves for Top Business Leaders and Executives in order to establish executive presence, build influence, gain buy-in and help their businesses to grow.

The good news is that these skills can be learned!

I always enjoy working with Leaders who want to develop and improve – and I hope you find some helpful tips to facilitate your own growth and development as a Leader in your organization.

What communication/presentation tips and tricks can you recommend? Share them as a Comment!

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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11 Human Resources, Recruiting & Leadership Practitioner Speaker Recommendations

I attend and speak at dozens of conferences each year – many focused on audiences of practitioners in the Human Resources, Recruiting and Leadership Development professions.

One common theme at all of these events? A paltry number of actual practitioners (i.e. professionals who work in their field at a company that they don’t own and/or isn’t a consulting firm and/or isn’t a law firm) on the agenda as Speakers.

I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for this, but my guess is that one of the biggest reasons is – practitioners are not “professional Speakers” who have the time or inclination to run the gauntlet required by many events in order to be considered for a coveted spot on the roster – let alone a keynote slot.

So what are you to do as an event organizer? Go get them. They’re out there. Many with tons of speaking experience and great information to share. Your conference or event will be better because you didn’t just seek out an author of some unknown book or a consultant or lawyer who will also agree to be a sponsor of your event. Trust me.

I’ve done the hard work for you. From the hundreds of Speakers I’ve seen and can personally recommend, I’m sharing my Top 11 below.

Steve Browne, SPHR – Executive Director of Human Resources, LaRosa’s, Inc.

Who’s That Guy? Steve is a fiercely passionate, intentional HR practitioner who wants to bring the entire HR community together. (Literally.)

Location: Ohio

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Culture, Integrating HR Throughout an Organization
  2. Using Conflict to Your Advantage
  3. Networking/Connecting with Others
  4. Innovation in HR that Sticks

Why Steve? I’ve seen Steve speak dozens of times and never miss a chance to do so. He’s often an event’s highest rated Speaker and gets invited back to speak at events year after year. He’s truly passionate about HR and is the profession’s biggest cheerleader. He’s an HR executive who tells is like it is – in a practical, fun and humorous way.

Blog: Everyday People
LinkedIn: Steve Browne, SPHR
Twitter: @sbrownehr

Broc Edwards – SVP, Director of Learning & Leadership for a fantastic community bank

Who’s That Guy? Broc is a speaker, writer, facilitator (and mountain biker) who is passionate about increasing the performance of business and humans. He seeks to play bigger, do better, and move the world.

Location: Texas

Keynote Session Topics:

  1. HR As A Competitive Advantage
  2. Next Level HR: It’s all about the User Experience
  3. Business Gets Done For, Through and By People. Period.

Why Broc? Broc is a practitioner whose sweet spot is the intersection of business and people. People are an organization’s only sustainable competitive advantage – and your audience needs to learn how to get the most out of them. Your audience also loves books by Speakers – and he’s written one – What Thinks You? A Fool’s Eye View of Human Resources.

Blog: fool (with a plan)
LinkedIn: Broc Edwards
Twitter: @brocedwards

Mary Faulkner – Director of Talent Management, ClearChoice Dental Implant Center

Who’s That Girl? Mary is a leadership & talent professional who works within organizations to help build better companies. She specializes in people and organizational development and spends her spare time thinking about self-awareness/accountability, neuroleadership, engagement, decision-making and other brainy type stuff. She’s also a random fact sponge and has a weakness for peanut butter.

Location: Colorado

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. The Disengagement Decision: How employees get there & how leaders can help them make the right decision
  2. Surviving a Matrixed Organization – A 12 Step Program
  3. The Leader’s Legacy: Understanding & controlling your impact on your company’s culture
  4. Connecting The Dots: Why HR should play the role of “connector” in an organization & how to do it
  5. Put The “Critical” Back Into Your Thinking: How HR can help business make better decisions

Why Mary? I’ve worked with Mary in the past and have also seen her present many times. She’s excellent – both in knowledge of Leadership and Talent Management, as well as the process of building an effective and engaging presentation. She will nail a seminar, training session or keynote at your event. I promise.

Blog:  Surviving Leadership: Your Survival Guide OF and FROM Leadership
LinkedIn: Mary Faulkner
Twitter: @mfaulkner43

Amybeth Hale – Platform Services Recruiter, Concur Technologies

Who’s That Girl? Amybeth has been working as a recruitment sourcing professional for over a decade and enjoys finding interesting and talented people for great opportunities. She’s got experience working with both third party recruiting firms and corporate recruiting teams at premier companies such as Microsoft, AT&T and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. Amybeth is also the former Editor of SourceCon.com, an internationally recognized recruitment sourcing publication.

Keynote/Session Topics:

Amybeth can share key insights and deep experience in all aspects of candidate sourcing, prospect contact information gathering, initial prospect outreach, Internet mining, Boolean search query creation, appropriate use of social media for sourcing/prospecting.

Why Amybeth? Sometimes your conference or event needs a meaty presentation on the how-tos. For that, you need an industry expert who’s been there, done that – and continues to find new ways of doing it. I’m a long-time Fan of Amybeth and I’ve seen her present at several conferences. She knows her stuff and cares deeply about advancing the sourcing profession and building a good partnership between sourcers and recruiters. Amybeth is truly top shelf.

Blog: Check out her posts on SourceCon and ERE.net + ResearchGoddess.com
LinkedIn: Amybeth Hale
Twitter: @researchgoddess

John Hudson, SPHR – HR Business Partner, Discovery Communications/Harpo Studios, Inc.

Who’s That Guy? John is the lucky HR Business Partner that gets to work with both Discovery Communications and Harpo Studios (and yes, he’s met Oprah many times – but he can’t tell you about it or he’ll have to kill you). He’s an HR generalist who has supported business leaders in a variety of functions including insurance, finance, legal, IT, sales and production.

Location: Illinois

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Getting Your Foot in the Door Without Putting Your Foot in Your Mouth – everything from building a digital footprint to making connections and then sealing an interview
  2. Building Credibility and Relationships To Increase HR’s Influence

Why John? John was a featured Speaker at the 2013 SHRM Student and Faculty Conference earlier this year and was also the emcee at last month’s 2013 Illinois SHRM Conference. He brings a fresh perspective and new ideas to the work of #TrenchHR, and he’s passionate about mentoring other HR professionals and business leaders.

Blog: Official Blogger for SHRM’s We Know Next blog
LinkedIn: John Hudson, SPHR
Twitter: @johnphudson

Jay Kuhns, SPHR – Vice President of Human Resources, All Children’s Hospital – A Member of Johns Hopkins Medicine

Who’s That Guy? Jay gets fired up about leadership, blogging, speaking, doing HR differently, healthcare, social media, coffee and hockey.

Location: Florida

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Taking HR Social and Not Apologizing For It
  2. HR Transformation Is A Risky Brutally Long Process That Will Change Your Life

Why Jay? Jay is changing the way HR does business by doing more than just talking about it. He’s the real deal in terms of an executive HR practitioner that your HR and business leaders want to hear from. The 2014 Louisiana SHRM Conference has already booked him as a keynote for their event next year – because, or course, they only bring in the best HR Conference keynote speakers.

Blog:  NoExcusesHR
LinkedIn: Jay Kuhns, SPHR
Twitter: @jrkuhns

Trish McFarlane – Director of Human Resources, Perficient

Who’s That Girl? Trish is a career HR business leader, having held leadership roles at Big 4, public relations, healthcare and technology consulting companies. She’s currently the head of HR for Perficient, Inc., as well as the co-founder of HRevolution – a learning and networking event for HR, marketing and social media professionals and a co-founder of the Women of HR blog community. Another “co” to add to her credentials? She co-hosts the HR Happy Hour radio show, which focuses on talent management, recruiting, HR technology, leadership, careers and more.

Location: Missouri

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. HR Thinking Creatively: How to start a business from scratch
  2. Thinking Outside the (In)Box – Trends in HR Technology
  3. How Social Tools Empower the Organization
  4. Employer Branding and Employee Engagement

Why Trish? Trish regularly presents to audiences of senior level HR and business professionals and has been sharing her experiences as an HR Leader on her blog – HR Ringleader – for several years. She’s passionate about HR practitioners becoming educated in HR technology so they can recommend better business solutions to leadership and she is one of the few who is pushing the boundaries and seeking to expand the scope of HR within business.

Blog: HR Ringleader
LinkedIn: Trish McFarlane
Twitter: @TrishMcFarlane

Neil Morrison – Group HR Director UK and International companies, Penguin Random House

Who’s That Guy? A 17-year veteran in HR, Neil is a blogger, tweeter, agent provocateur aka loudmouth, merger of companies, changer of cultures, challenger of norms.

Location: United Kingdom

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Cultural Mind Shift in an Age of Discontinuity: How to transition organizations when everything has to change, but everything has to stay the same
  2. HR: The Driver of Organisational Performance: How a systemic approach can drive success

Why Neil? Your conference or event needs someone on the agenda who can talk about HR from a global perspective and also someone who can talk about HR in a way that provokes thought, change and action. (Here’s your guy.) Neil was recently named UK HR Director of the Year 2013 and he’s passionate about company culture, change, leadership, organizational development and organizational strategy. He also likes wine and cheese, so add that to his Speaker gift basket.

Blog: Change-Effect
LinkedIn: Neil Morrison
Twitter: @NeilMorrison

Lisa Rosendahl, SPHR – Human Resources Director, a federal healthcare organization

Who’s That Girl? Lisa is an astute business leader with more than 18 years of experience in human resources. She has led and provided expertise to strategic HR operations in both public and private organizations and currently works in a prominent federal healthcare organization. Lisa is also a co-founder of the Women of HR blog community.

Location: Minnesota

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Now Is The Time: Grow Up and Lead
  2. Breaking Down The Walls Between Human Resources and Our Customers

Why Lisa? Lisa is passionate about leading teams, developing others and building the relationships necessary to consult, advise and impact decisions as a business leader and an HR professional. She’s an engaging presenter who brings a relatable and seasoned perspective and who also motivates audiences with stories of how bringing the best of who you are to any situation can make all the difference in the world.

Blog: Lisa Rosendahl – Story. Flow. Tribe.
LinkedIn: Lisa Rosendahl, SPHR
Twitter: @lisarosendahl

Lars Schmidt – Senior Director Talent Acquisition & Innovation, NPR

Who’s That Guy? Lars is a change catalyst who believes strongly in blending best practices, technology, and relationships to develop and drive talent initiatives with limited resources; leveraging innovative recruiting techniques and building proactive and sustainable global talent programs. He’s got global talent acquisition and HR experience that spans a variety of industries including technology, web, media, non-profit, eCommerce and consulting sectors.

Location: Washington, DC

Keynote/Session Topics:

  1. Recruiting Lessons From The Trenches: How To Develop Social Recruiting Strategies That Work
  2. Recruiting To Win: Confessions Of An HR MacGyver

Why Lars? Lars has a wealth of experience in talent acquisition and HR and I’ve heard him speak many times. His presentations are a mix of how-to, practical tips and innovation. Your audience will appreciate hearing from someone who’s actually re-imagined a recruiting function and tried things that worked/didn’t work. Learn more about some of the work of Lars and his team in this article from The Washington Post.

Blog: Amplify Talent
LinkedIn: Lars Schmidt
Twitter: @ThisIsLars

Will Staney – Director of Recruiting & Strategic Programs, SuccessFactors

Who’s That Guy? Will’s career is a culmination of combining over a decade of sales experience with his passion, education, and track record of success with corporate recruiting using new media marketing tactics. He’s the guy who’s keeping up with (and implementing) emerging social, recruiting and HR technologies to ensure that SuccessFactors is on the cutting edge.

Location: Texas

Keynote/Session Topics:

Topics: Employer Branding, Talent Acquisition Social Media Strategy, Recruiting Analytics, Social Sourcing Tactics, Career Site Strategy/Design, Recruitment Marketing/Advertising Strategy (multi-channel/online campaigns), early talent programs (college/new grad recruiting)…to name a few

Why Will? Will has solid experience and success recruiting highly sought after talent in some of the most competitive industries in the world. He’s an award winner (Workforce Management’s 2013 Game Change award and Glassdoor’s Top 10 Social Recruiters) and he’s always one of the first to try new technologies. You may have seen him – he’s the guy wearing the Google Glasses.

Blog: Find Will on the SuccessFactors blog + RecruitMedia – Social Recruitment Guide
LinkedIn: Will Staney
Twitter: @willstaney

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So there you have it. Choose one or several from the list. Make the Speaker approval process easy for them. PAY THEM. The work that they will put into making a great presentation at your event isn’t included in their day job and their time is valuable. Please demonstrate that you agree.

Oh, and I’d love to join anyone on this list on the Speaker roster at your event. 🙂

Got another great practitioner to recommend as a Speaker at human resources, recruiting and leadership development events? Leave a Comment and tell me about them!

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact Us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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ROWE: Can We Afford To Manage By Results Only?

While attending a conference earlier this year,  I had the opportunity to hear from the Founders of CultureRX – Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson – who are also the authors of “Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It” – described as a field guide for how to operate in the new world or work. During their talk, Cali and Jody shared more about why they believe that it’s not Managers that suck in today’s workplace, it’s the way that we manage people that sucks.

Ressler and Thompson came to this conclusion several years ago while working at the corporate offices of Best Buy and dealing with some of the challenges associated with Best Buy’s “flexible work environment”. Cali (a frustrated department Manager) was constantly fielding questions from her team about what they could and could not do within the confines of the flexible work schedule policy – and Jody (a Change Implementation Manager) was assigned to work with her to resolve these issues.

To overcome many of the challenges created by a system where the clock was the foundation for how work is judged (“Sally worked 60 hours last week” or “Jim worked all weekend.”), Ressler and Thompson ultimately concluded that the definition of work needs to be changed. Work is no longer a place you go, it’s something you do – and defining work as a specific place and a specific time was an industrial age idea that was no longer the reality in the workplace.

With the advent of “knowledge work”, the world of work has evolved to the point that work is no longer defined as “Time + physical presence = results”. Now, the focus should be on the results of work – not on how the work gets done. Hence the concept of ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) was born, where each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done – and Managers don’t manage people or time and place, they manage the work.

With the ROWE concept, the Managers don’t dictate the “How” of work – they focus on the “What” of work. Everyone is measured on results – not just the knowledge worker. Work is objective, not subjective. Managing people, in the sense that “we must all be present in the office in order to communicate and collaborate” is outdated. In a ROWE environment, it’s about managing work – “the deadline for the deliverable is Friday, May 10th at 2pm”. As a result, the Manager is able to go from Hall Monitor to Coach and Mentor.

For many Managers and Human Resources professionals, the concept of ROWE may conjure up thoughts of anarchy and employees running amok, but Ressler and Thompson are quick to point out that in order to make ROWE work, there must be consequences if there are no results. ROWE only works if there is both 100% accountability along with 100% autonomy. In short, “no results, no job.”

I must admit that I like the concept of ROWE and I do believe that a majority of employees, if given the opportunity, will do what it takes to get their work done within established guidelines. But there’s almost always that same old 20% that ruins it for everybody. They’re the ones who don’t play well with others and do just enough to get by. They’ll hit their results, but someone in the 80% typically has to step up and take up their slack.

I’m also not sure that the ROWE concept works in all types of environments (although Ressler and Thompson say that in their consulting experience, it does). As someone who’s worked with companies in a variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing and food service companies, I see some difficulty in implementing an “every person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want as long as the work gets done” philosophy.

So what do you think? Do you have experience with ROWE in your workplace? Does it work, or is this something that sounds good in theory, but not always in practice?

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of people strategies, leadership development and career growth. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact Us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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The HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook For Business [Webinar Series]

I get to do many cool things in my job at Unbridled Talent, but one of the best things about my job is the opportunity to travel around and meet professionals who are interested in learning more about how to grow their professional careers or how to implement best practices to improve their company’s performance.

In addition to working with business leaders to define and implement people strategies required to achieve business objectives, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at over 150 conference events, corporate workshops, association meetings and webinars – often about how to utilize social media for career development, why social media matters for business and how to utilize social media tools and resources in Human Resources and Recruiting.

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

I love my job.

But even though LinkedIn recently reached it’s 10th anniversary, Facebook has turned 9 and Twitter has crossed the 7 year mark, many people are still confused about or unaware of how to best utilize social media tools as business and professional resources. It’s not uncommon for me to talk with someone after an event where the person relates something similar to, “I was skeptical that using social media was something that I (or my organization) needed to do and I didn’t understand it, but now, I believe that it is – and I can!” Best. Feedback. Ever.

And it’s ok.

That’s one of the reasons why Laurie Ruettimann* and I are teaming up to offer a series of upcoming webinars to help business professionals, human resources pros and talent acquisition geeks understand the HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – and we’d love for you to join us!

We realize that many of you may not be inclined to attend a conference to learn more about how to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook and you also may not have the time or budget resources to do so. So we’re coming to you – in your offices, your cubicles or out on your back deck – via a series of 90 minute webinars to share what we’ve learned about using social media to cultivate awareness, develop your brand/your employer brand and effective ways to nurture both consumer and employment leads in the marketplace.

So here’s the scoop (click on the links for full session descriptions and for registration):

After doing webinars for other companies for years, many of whom charged quite a bit of money, we’d like to offer these webinars at an affordable price ($37 each or $99 for all three) and we’ll also provide everyone who registers with a free toolkit after each webinar that includes a copy of the slide deck, a recording of the webinar and a resource sheet with links to learn more from leading social media resources.

Not available during the specific dates or times? No worries. The webinars will be recorded for access at any time and you’ll still receive the toolkit!

Why are we doing this now? Because we want to help you and we want to share what we’ve learned from years of working as entrepreneurs, recruiters and human resources professionals along with our experience working in a variety of industries – both within corporate America and as external consultants working with some of the best leaders and companies in the world.

Have a question about the webinars or what’s in it for you? Let me know in the comments or you can find both Laurie and I on the interwebs via

LinkedIn – Laurie Ruettimann / LinkedIn – Jennifer McClure

Twitter – Laurie Ruettimann / Twitter – Jennifer McClure

Facebook – Laurie Ruettimann / Facebook – Jennifer McClure

Or just go old school and send me an email!

If you know someone who could benefit from one, two or all three of these webinars, please share this information with your colleagues or clients!

*True story. Laurie is my favorite Cynical Girl, Pixie of the Apocalypse, cat lover and thinker/agitator in the world of work. We “met online” years ago when I found her Punk Rock HR blog, so when we actually met for the first time in person at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference, we were already BFF’s. Ultimately, Laurie has been one of the most helpful people to me in developing my business and my speaking career and is firmly ensconced in the Unbridled Talent President’s Club. See? Using social media to build real relationships and to grow your business can definitely work!

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Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. We offer keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

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