Question: What are the new and emerging areas of HR and talent management practices that we need to start paying attention to in order to enhance the productivity and the business outcome

Park, Daniel Dongjin

Yu, Scott Kyungkeun

English

Question: What are the new and emerging areas of HR and talent management practices that we need to start paying attention to in order to enhance the productivity and the business outcome?What_are_the_new_and_emerging_areas_of_HR_and_talent_management_practices_to_enhance_the_productivity_and_the_business_outcome.pdf: 2107 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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What are the New and Emerging Areas of HR and Talent Management Practices to Enhance the Productivity and the Business Outcome?

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Spring 2013 
What are the New and Emerging Areas of HR and Talent 
Management Practices to Enhance the Productivity and the 
Business Outcome? 
Scott Kyungkeun Yu 
Cornell University 
Daniel Dongjin Park 
Cornell University 
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What are the New and Emerging Areas of HR and Talent Management Practices 
to Enhance the Productivity and the Business Outcome? 
Abstract 
Question: What are the new and emerging areas of HR and talent management practices that we need to 
start paying attention to in order to enhance the productivity and the business outcome? 
Keywords 
human resources, talent management, enhance productivity, business outcome 
Disciplines 
Human Resources Management 
Comments 
Suggested Citation 
Yu, S. K. & Park, D. (2013). What are the new and emerging areas of HR and talent management practices 
to enhance the productivity and the business outcome? Retrieved [insert date] from Cornell University, ILR 
School site: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student/36/ 
Required Publisher Statement 
Copyright by the authors. 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student/36 
 3 
 
 
From: Scott Kyungkeun Yu (ksy8@cornell.edu) & Daniel Dongjin Park (dp458@cornell.edu) 
Date: Mar. 8th, 2013 
 
Executive Summary 
 
Question: What are the new and emerging areas of HR and talent management practices that we need to start paying 
attention to in order to enhance the productivity and the business outcome? 
 
New HR Trends and Implications:  
• In 2012, there were huge volume of discussion on “Analytics”, “Big Data”, “Cloud” and “Social Media” going on 
in the business articles. Although HR has not been a pioneer or an early adopter in applying new technology trends 
to its practices, dramatic changes in HR management are expected with the advent of the new technology. When it 
comes to the business performance, more HR experts pay attention to the new HR trends: Big Data, Cloud and 
Social Media for HR.  
• In the efforts to identify the future HR roles, HR experts should emphasize the significance of the traditional roles 
such as staffing, development and retention. However, they also clearly state that those HR decisions must be 
supported by scientific data, analytics and technology in order to measure and predict the business outcome.1 More 
importantly, given the global, virtual, flexible workplace environment, HR should be a technology proponent who is 
able to use technology in enhancing employee engagement to increase productivity.2 
 
 “Big Data” & “Unstructured Data” for New HR Analytics 
• Definition & Background: During the last decade, there were many studies conducted to identify the alignment of 
human capital practices with business outcome. Now, it seems evident that HR impact has high correlation with the 
success of the business bottom-line.3; however, it is also true that HR analytics have had difficulties in providing 
meaningful data for decision making because of focusing on a wrong metrics, lack of analytical skills and poor data 
management.4 On the other hand, marketing professionals, nowadays, enjoy the benefit of Big Data and 
unstructured data to better understand the customers and predict their consumer behaviors.5  
By definition, “Big Data” refers to datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to 
capture, store, manage, and analyze.6 Unstructured data is heterogeneous and variable in nature and comes in many 
formats, including text, document, image, video and more. Also, unstructured data is growing faster than structured 
data; as a new, relatively untapped source of insight, unstructured data analytics can reveal important 
interrelationships that were previously impossible to determine.7  
• Best Practices: In 2007, when Google received 100,000 resumes per month, the company was not sure if it was 
successful in identifying the best candidates by screening the right candidates based on GPA score. So, in order to 
find the best predictor of high performers, Google developed a comprehensive database that collects employee’s 
attitudes, behaviors, personality and other demographical data and compared them with job performance. Then the 
company collected the same information from applicants. This analytical approach has helped Google not only to 
increase its workforce to meet the talent demands but also to predict the likelihood that applicants will succeed at 
the company.8 
Another illustration of using unstructured data to predict and enhance team productivity was introduced in the 
HBR article in Apr., 2012. An MIT professor developed a wearable sensor badge to monitor a team’s 
communication pattern during the meetings to monitor its relationship with the teamwork performance and 
financial results. Until recently, mere observation simply couldn’t capture every nuance human behavior. 
However, since the improvement of affordable sensor technology and analytics capability, companies now can 
predict team’s performance and financial results by merely analyzing data collected through the sensor badge in 
 4 
 
 
an experimental situation.9  
• Challenge & Preconditions: A survey shows that only 6% of HR professionals think they are highly skilled. 
Experts claim that HR professionals do not need to be computer scientists but should maintain curiosity on data. 
The importance of hiring competent data scientists and building integrated database were also integral success 
factors.10 
 
Social Media for higher engagement and productivity 
• Definition & Background: Social media are information-based tools and technologies used to share information 
and facilitate communications with internal and external audiences. Social media also include applications known 
as “Web 2.0,” a term encompassing blogs, texting, wikis, and etc.11 The exploding growth of social media has not 
only have changed the way we communicate, but these applications present great opportunities for businesses.11 
Today, social tools have infiltrated nearly every software platform in HR—enabling nearly every HR practice and 
process to be infused with social functionality.12 Companies eager to improve productivity by connecting 
employees to each other and to corporate information sometimes come on too strong.13 
• Effectiveness: According to a study by Nucleus Research, Chatter(an Internal social networking brand) clients saw 
a 12.5% rise in productivity and reported that people could find information 52% faster than before. It also claims 
that users have 27% fewer meetings, a 30% reduction in email use and 39% more collaborations between staff.6 
Collaborative technologies seem to be valuable in the workplace because of their effectiveness in improving 
understanding and teamwork, building relationships and developing lateral communication.11 There are many 
benefits to using social media tools in a customer service environment. Collaboration and knowledge sharing can 
benefit employees as they explore customer solutions in real time.15 
• Engagement & Communication: The best way to get that engagement is through self-direction. The where, how, 
when and with whom to do things is the autonomy that everyone seeks to have.16 The use of social media can 
provide employees and leaders in an organization with opportunity to be heard, answered, and be engaged.18 Some 
companies have made an Enterprise Social Network that could connect company employees across different 
geographies and time zones, making it a common platform where exchange of ideas/information can take place 
seamlessly.17  
• Learning: Blogs are one of the most widely used tools for social networking and can be excellent informal 
discussion channels. Learning blogs can help employees to engage in conversations with teammates and expand 
understanding around difficult processes, or provide employees with informal techniques for handling customer 
issues. Similar to the learning blog, but with even more guidance/focus, discussion starters can be of great benefit. 
They are a widely used method for collaboration in online learning environments, but they can work just as well for 
classroom and on-the-job training.15 As such, companies need to embrace social media to enhance learning.16 
• Best Practices: Molson Coors has been promoting itself internally/externally through blogs, tweets, social 
networks, videos and fundraisers through platforms and sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and 
Yammer19 The CEO of DreamWorks Animation shared strategies for engaging employees. He started a blog 
where he shares and he responds to all comments. The dialogue builds transparency and an authentic level of trust.20 
The BBC has used Yammer to discuss its move to Salford and the 20% budget cuts with employees for two-way 
conversation.14 Consultancy Deloitte uses business networking tool Yammer to solve problems and pass on 
information that might be outside individuals' immediate communities.14 IBM originally created social media 
platform IBM Connections for its own staff before marketing it to other companies.14 
• Challenge & Preconditions: How to measure the ROI of social media initiatives remains a challenging and hotly 
debated.21 To maximize the effect of social media, we should let employees to present themselves, put their best self 
out there, feel safe on their comment, and keep coming back on and make the system simple.22 
Bibliography 
1. SHRM SEP. 2012.The top trends for 2012. Future Insights.  
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2. David T. 2012. Five key HR trends for 2013. Voice of Lumesse.  
3. Kaifeng Jiang, David P. Lepalka. 2012. How does Human Resource Management influence organizational outcomes? 
Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 55, No. 6, 1264-1294.  
4. Wayne F. Cascio, John W. Boudreau. 2010. Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives. 2nd 
Edition. Chapter 1.  
5. Josh Bersin. February 29, 2012. How BigData Tools Helps HR Understand You. Forbes.com 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/02/29/how-bigdata-tools-helps-hr-understand-you/ 
6. Mckinsey Global Institute. May 2011. Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity. MGI 
Big Data Executive Summary. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi 
7. John Gantz, David Reinsel. June 2011. Extracting Value from Chaos. IDC IView.  
www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-extracting-value-from-chaos-ar.pdf 
8. Jeanne G. Harris, Elizabeth Craig and David A. Light. 2011. Talent and analytics: new approaches, higher ROI. Journal 
of Business Strategy. Vol.32 NO. 6  
9. Alex Sandy Pentland. April 2012. The new science of building great teams. Harvard Business Review. April Edition. pp. 
61-70.  
10. Josh Bersin. November 17, 2012. BigData in HR: Why it's Here and What it Means. Bersin by Deloitte. 
https://www.bersin.com/blog/post.aspx?id=574b5527-ce55-4ec6-8c45-c8f05f85162e 
11. SHRM W. 2012. Managing and leveraging workplace use of social media . Templates & Samples_Toolkits. 
12. Rhonda S. 2013. Changes in technology, talent Management Among challenges facing HR in 2013. Human Resources 
Report. 28(10) 
13. Kim S. N. Yammer on. 2011;27(9).CIO Magazine. 
14. Snoad L. 2011. The vital connection between staff and the bottom line. Marketing Week (01419285).;34(45):19-19. 
15. Richard Jaenke. 2011. Social media basics for frontline workers. T + D. 65(12):30-31. 
16. Theresa M. 2010. Use more than social media to engage workers. SHRM_HR Topics & Strategy.  
17. 2013. The emerging wave of enterprise social networks. Information Week India. 11(2). 
18. Blacknell A. 2011. Using social media to drive engagement. Strategic Communication Management. 15(4):13-13. 
19. Sarah Dobson. 2012. Brewing up engagement with social media. Canadian HR Reporter. 25(16):16-16,22. 
20. Andrea Davis. 2012. DreamWorks, mayo clinic leaders share social media strategies to boost engagement. Health Data 
Manag. 20(6):8. 
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21. Dave Zielinski. 2012. Find social media's value. HRMAGAZINE. 57(8):53-55. 
22. Rebecca H. July. 2009. Social networking can help motivate performance. SHRM HR Topics & Strategy 
  


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What are the New and Emerging Areas of HR and Talent Management Practices to Enhance the Productivity and the Business Outcome?

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