By Craig Holliman
This Tuesday, members got a taste of the game-changing innovations for human resources management. Moderator Elisa Mallis, Head of Executive Coaching at MDS, facilitated the discussion, which ranged from whether technological advancements are good for workers to larger issues such as talent acquisition and talent management.
Remington Hu, Principal Consultant for Korn Ferry International, started the meeting off by presenting his company's tool for identifying true leadership potential. The questionnaire contains no right or wrong answers, and has built-in mechanisms to tell if applicants are lying. He stressed that in an increasingly technological world, business strategy alone is not enough for growth – talent and culture are just as essential.
Up next was Rina Joosten, the Cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of technology venture Seedlink Tech in China. Her company has discovered that language is as unique as fingerprints and is a statistically valid predictor of behavior. A new written test they have developed analyzes applicants writing, particularly their vocabulary and style in order to measure their future potential with the company. Already, companies such as L’Oreal and Hugo Boss have implemented this technology into their hiring process. These new advancements not only save companies money and time, but also give qualified applicants who aren't from top universities a chance.
Jason Zheng, the business director of the IBM Smarter Workforce team, unveiled a new system IBM has been working on that provides a comprehensive view of both individual employees and the company. These demographics will be particularly beneficial for larger companies that work with lots of data. IBM is confident that their new system will quickly rise to the forefront of HR cloud technology. To him, data and analytics-driven HR is an inevitability. “When an elephant comes you either get out of the way, or you get trampled,” Zheng said.
Craig Holliman is a Communications Intern at AmCham China.
