I came across this post on the Orlando Sentinel website that inspired me to offer up a different view on why working mothers are desirable talent. The post “Have demands of motherhood made women undesirable employees?” points out how the strain of motherhood may have a negative impact on the perception of women in the workplace. It begs the question of whether employers should extend special treatment to working mothers vs. employees without children.

Financial Impact? You Bet!

I can spew out a bunch of opinions since I am a working mother, but let’s take more of a scientific approach. According to an article from USA Today, women make up half the American workforce. That is certainly a talent pool that cannot be alienated without seriously comprising productivity across the board.

That being said, what do working mothers have to offer the business world? Plenty! From a financial perspective (from U.S. Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Women-Owned Business Enterprises), women owned businesses:

• Make up 26.0 percent of the nation’s 20.8 million non-farm businesses
• Employ 7.1 million paid workers
• Generate $818.7 billion in sales

Talents of the Working Mother

Not too shabby ladies! Working mothers also have enhanced talents and skills that have developed due to the mass of responsibility we take on in our daily lives. Some areas where working moms tend to excel are:

• Being way super organized (balancing home and work gives us plenty of practice to do more with less)
• Queens of collaboration (creating a support network is a working mother’s best friend)
• Not afraid to take risks (conventional rules of engagement don’t tend to stay us)

What Working Mothers Want

When push comes to shove, working mothers are valuable members of the business community. Women will drift towards certain types of employers though. Companies that are family friendly will win the talent war every time when it comes to working moms. Employers that attract the working mother variety usually:

• Offer flexible work schedules (telecommuting full or part time is big)
• Have gyms and/or child care on site (save us time and convenience eases our minds)
• Provide career development and access to growth opportunities (we want career growth too)

Does that mean we should get special treatment vs. our child free counterparts (and the men too)? Of course not! Accountability is key. These policies should be available to all employees. Fair is fair!

Believe it or not, there is an application on the iPhone for coaching. Jason Alba, noted author and social networking rock star, brought iPocketCoach by Tony Deblauwe to my attention. At first, I was skeptical. How can an iPhone app that costs $0.99 teach someone how to coach another individual?

iPhone Can Do It All

Of course, I had to check out iPocketCoach for myself. A few clicks and $0.99 later, I am faced with a screen with 8 different options to choose from as seen in the app’s screen shot here. Interestingly enough, iPocketCoach is a good reference point to get started or as a quick guide to help someone out in a pinch.

Just In Time Learning Has A New Meaning

After playing with iPocketCoach a little more, I came to the conclusion that this one app is a true game changer for “just in time” or informal learning. How cool is it that I have a quick reference guide to leadership and coaching at my fingertips? Think of the implications this has on the training profession! Think about:

• How supplemental training materials are designed and delivered
• Quick reference guides are delivered electronically to a mobile device
• Learning happens instantaneously at the learner’s whim
• Updates are easy to get to with devices like the iPhone

iPocketCoach Is A Must Have

As an unsolicited endorsement for iPocketCoach, I believe it is a must have for any person in a leadership role (iPhone is a must too!). This is the only the beginning in a world where we have the information we want, when we want it and where ever we want it. That’s the beauty of mobility! Here’s why this app is so great:

• Simple reference guide for just about any topic under the talent management umbrella
• Fantastic supplement for leadership training and development
• Pragmatic examples that can be used immediately in the real world
• It only costs $0.99

Talk about worlds colliding! Twitter and LinkedIn will be integrated. Basically, you can share all or selective tweets or status updates between the two social networks. The two companies are referring to the technology merge like “peanut butter and chocolate”. This new feature is set to come out November 10, 2009. The LinkedIn blog has a detailed description of how to activate and use the upcoming functionality.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Can Be Fattening!

While I like peanut butter and chocolate together just as much as the next person, my hips don’t agree. LinkedIn and Twitter are both powerful social networks, but using them in conjunction for every single tweet or status update will make your social network’s hips expand way too fast.

Great in Moderation

Using the LinkedIn and Twitter integration can be a powerful tool when used appropriately and in moderation. Just like eating peanut butter and chocolate, while it tastes great, a little goes a long way. Once you determine your purpose, the rest falls into place.

Yes, this feature on either side looks simple to use (refer to LinkedIn blog for details). The question remains about how much should it be used? Here’s a few thoughts to consider:

• Why are you on LinkedIn? Job seeking, networking, business?
• Why are you on Twitter? Personal, job seeking, networking, business?
• Do you have multiple Twitter IDs?

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay. It will only get more popular, easily accessible and advanced. This has the potential to be a huge headache for companies, especially for their HR and legal departments.

No Policies? Get Some Fast!

Your employees are using social media. Most of us have common sense (hopefully) on what to write about and what not to write about. Some people may not understand that “you are what you post” and others outside of their network may see what they write. Herein lies the danger of not having policies regarding use about social media. Not having clearly defined do’s and don’ts can lead to:

• Confidential information about the company being leaked.
• Potential embarrassing situations for the company.
• Possible sexual harassment or hostile work environment issues.
• Company’s reputation being inadvertently damaged.
• Turn off potential employees and damage recruiting efforts.

Control the Message

It’s hugely important to control your company’s message. While 100% of what happens on the Internet cannot be monitored or controlled, having policy guidelines in place can help curtail potentially damaging situations. Employees will most certainly use social media and networking to connect with family, friends or past/present colleagues. Turn this interaction into employees being solid representatives of the company. Five must have social media policies are:

1. Protecting intellectual property – clearly state what is company intellectual property that cannot be posted via social media
2. Defining company’s message – define the company message and anything outside those parameters cannot be posted on social networks
3. Recruiting efforts – clearly state what the strategy and tactical plan is for recruiting potential new hires
4. Responding to media requests – provide instructions and a company contact for employees to forward to any media requests
5. Maintaining company reputation – outline what can and cannot be written about the company (a list of examples helps)

Are you on a bunch of social networking sites? If you are, then odds are you are getting bombarded with information. Eventually it all just becomes noise. How useless is that? I’ve gotten tips from people and have come across tactics that work. It’s simple and easy to implement! Keep a look out for tips and tricks coming regularly on Connecting Redefined.

Tweeps All Over the Place

As an avid Twitter user, you probably have hundreds to thousands of followers. You follow them for a reason, but sometimes in can be hard to sift through the mass of tweets coming your direction. Vital information might be buried! Not only are tweets that are important to you being lost, but so is knowledge that you may want to pass on to your network.

Organize Your Tweeps

Bow down to the Twitter gods, for they have answered your prayers! Twitter just released a new feature called Lists. This is the best thing since hash tags. Lists allows you to create a “bucket” or “category” and assign your followers to it. Here’s a few handy features Twitter Lists provides you with:

• Create customizable lists that can be either public or private
• Ability to create multiple lists
• Assign followers to one or more lists
• Edit and delete lists (just in case you make an oopsie)
• View other people’s lists

Uses for Twitter Lists

While knowing what a feature does, it helps to know how to use it in real life. Not only can using Twitter lists organize your tweeps, it can aid in the execution of just about any strategy you’ve got in motion. A few ideas:

• Expertise: create a list for each of your areas of expertise which makes it simpler to see what you are all about at a glance
• Marketing: create a list for each of your products so people can see what others are saying
• Training: create a list for each of your training topics/subjects, use for specific groups by locking the list down as private
• Recruiting: create a list of the different departments or office locations you have for your company to make job hunting simpler

I had the chance to attend International Association of Correctional Training Personnel (IATCP) conference in Orlando, FL. After talking with some fellow attendees and sitting on a great session called “Blend Baby Blend”, training professionals in the corrections field have some challenges ahead of them when faced with learning technologies. What was totally cool about this session is that there was a collective 185 years of training experience in the room!

What’s the Story

Conference attendees were comprised of training professionals at the U.S. federal, state and local levels. It was interesting to listen and participate in conversations about the challenges they are facing when it comes to training their people. Some of the main pains are:

• Budget constraints
• Not enough training personnel
• Inconsistency in who has access to what technology
• Need to get more done with less resources
• Lack of knowledge on how to implement new technology for learning purposes

What They Have

Surprisingly, some agencies had access to more technology than I thought they would. The issue remains that not all agencies had the same access to the same technological resources. Some agencies barely have Internet access or just obtained it. Yikes! Here are some of the technology tools they have:

• Virtual classroom
• Learning Management System (LMS)
• Courseware development software and developers
• Learning labs equipped with computers
• Internet access
• Access to Web 2.0 applications like Facebook, Twitter and blogs

What They Want

While not all agencies have the same tools, budgets or resources, they do have one thing in common: a desire to advance their training toolkit! There is a push among correctional training professionals to start doing more with less, especially with the budget cuts some agencies are facing. Some ideas of how to accomplish this:

• More online courses covering basics so in person facilitation is concentrated with hands on training
• Virtual classroom offerings on leadership, change management and other professional development topics vs. in person classroom training
• LMSs or other online systems that can handle online registrations and automating functions surrounding training operations (printing certificates, online approval process, etc.)
• Use of social networking so learners can share information and trainers can interact post class (great for level 3 and 4 analysis)

Are you on a bunch of social networking sites? If you are, then odds are you are getting bombarded with information. Eventually it all just becomes noise. How useless is that? I’ve gotten tips from people and have come across tactics that work. It’s simple and easy to implement! Keep a look out for tips and tricks coming regularly on Connecting Redefined.

Schizophrenic on Twitter

Do you have more than one account on Twitter? If you are a Twitter enthusiast or use it for work and personal reasons, you probably do. Split personalities on Twitter can drive you batty. Hello schizophrenia! People who have multiple Twitter personalities can find it hard to manage what they are tweeting, the message and forget simple things like logins!

Managing the Chatter

Taking control of who invades your brain when tweeting is certainly manageable. You don’t have to log in and log out of Twitter just to send tweets, retweet and engage your audience. Here’s a few tips to manage the chatter:

• Keep stickies on your monitor with Twitter IDs and a few key words about this ID’s purpose (no passwords!)
• Use a program other than your Internet browser to manage multiple accounts (TweetDeck is a good one)
• Look at ways to merge the accounts (Can you get the same message out with a single Twitter ID?)
• Schedule tweet times for different IDs (single focus at certain intervals will make your tweeting more effective)

I recently saw a question on LinkedIn that I had to share. It is the question that has plagued HR professionals and hiring managers every time they post an opportunity!

The Question

This is the question that has sparked a rather long discussion on LinkedIn: Hire employees with the skills or behaviors? There is some debate on whether you hire the person because the right attitude for the company and you can train them to do the work. Or, hire those who already have the skills and orient them on the company culture. What do you do? And, would your answer change based on the level of the person being hired?

My Response

What a thought provoking question! This is a dilemma that continually plagues hiring managers. From a talent management perspective, I’d hire who ever will get the job done. This requires both skill and behavior.

First, is the corporate culture clearly defined? If not, it should be. Even from department to department, the culture will change. Make sure the the attributes you are looking for are worked into the job description. Remember, attributes can’t be taught! This will attract the right talent and make the hiring manager/HR person’s life easier from the get go.

Second, are the job responsibilities clearly defined? Make sure the opportunity is written for the right level of talent the company needs. Writing a job description for a VP is obviously different than writing one for middle management or early career level.

Third, is the initial selection process mapped out? Being able to sift through the hundreds (if not thousands of resumes) piling in for an opportunity. Look for the ones that go out of their way to reach the decision maker. These are the hungry ones who want the job. Plus, it shows their networking skills and resourcefulness.

Fourth, who will interview the candidates? Having the right questions asked by the right people is crucial in determining fit, skill and behavior wise. HR recruiters can normally handle the initial screening which will weed out the best talent. Interviewing with the team, individually or together, others they will work with and the department head is a targeted approach to zeroing in on the right person. Don’t forget to compare notes!

Your Thoughts

Hiring for skills or attributes will always ignite debate. I am interested to get more opinions! Post your thought or join the discussion on LinkedIn.

Are you on a bunch of social networking sites? If you are, then odds are you are getting bombarded with information. Eventually it all just becomes noise. How useless is that? I’ve gotten tips from people and have come across tactics that work. It’s simple and easy to implement! Keep a look out for tips and tricks coming regularly on Connecting Redefined.

LinkedIn’s New Features: Best Friend or Worst Enemy

Like any technology today, LinkedIn changes faster than the weather does during Florida’s summer! Trust me, it’s fast. This can be your best friend or worst enemy. LinkedIn’s Group functionality has undergone some rather extensive changes since its inception. As a group manager, this is exciting. As a group or multiple group member, this can be daunting. New features include:

• Subgroups (groups within a group)
• Jobs (people can list jobs in groups under a separate tab)
• News (ability to share web links)
• Follow discussions (you can emails delivered to you when someone comments on a discussion)

Staying on Top of Your Groups

If you are not careful and do not stay on top of your group activity, you can very well get flooded with communications. Your inbox can fill up quite rapidly unless you manage what communications you want to receive. Here are a few tips to help you filter out the noise:

• Do you really need to join this group? LinkedIn allows you to be a member of 50, but with subgroups that total can sky rocket. Pick only the groups that will bring you the most value.
• Are you missing out on important job postings? If you are looking for a job and are a part of too many groups, you may be missing out on the job of a lifetime. Make a habit of checking out the Job tab in your groups.
• Did you miss a good news article? Web link sharing is a beautiful thing unless the truly relevant info is buried under a mass of communication. Work some time into your day to enhance your knowledge by clicking the News tab in the groups you really enjoy.
• Do you want to follow this discussion? If you don’t uncheck the box that says follow discussion, you will receive an email communication every time someone posts a comment. Pick the ones that mean the most to you.

Are you on a bunch of social networking sites? If you are, then odds are you are getting bombarded with information. Eventually it all just becomes noise. How useless is that? I’ve gotten tips from people and have come across tactics that work. It’s simple and easy to implement! Keep a look out for tips and tricks coming regularly on Connecting Redefined!

Too Many Friends?

As an avid Facebook user, you may have friends totaling in the hundreds or more, fans of way too many pages, applications up the ying yang, causes, and the list goes on! Facebook can be a hugely powerful source of knowledge. People can lose sight of this when being flooded with Farmville updates.

What To Do

Let’s get back to basics. How can you filter out this noise? Here’s a few suggestions:

• On your Facebook home page, you can hide updates from friends.
• When you add new friends, you can choose to include them in your status updates.
• Tired of Farmville or Mafia Wars updates? Hide them from your status updates feed on the home page.
• Disable notifications from applications by blocking them.
• Don’t become a fan of too many pages. You won’t be able to keep up with the really important ones.