Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Soon, Your Boss May Be a Machine

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Soon, Your Boss May Be a Machine Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, has a compelling proposition: once machines track your every move and tell you exactly how to become more productive, will you listen to them? A few years ago, in support of the pioneering practice of people analytics, MIT invented employee badges that allow organizations to tell which employees are most productive, and where their efforts should be directed to ensure maximum success. At the time, these badges were considered an experiment â€" a novelty. Not anymore. Whether you think counting your steps with FitBit is motivating or a chore, you’ll have to get used to the idea that it’s only a matter of time before FitBit for business arrives on your device or in the mail via a wearable. Seemingly harmless software and/or software powered by big data algorithms will turn your working life into Big Brother on steroids, and you’ll have no choice but to use it. As Schrage says in Harvard Business Review: “Anybody and everybody who wants to succeed in tomorrow’s organizations will have to commit to levels of self-monitoring, self-surveillance, and self-quantification that makes Orwell read like Pollyanna.” That Little Voice That Whispers “You Can Do Better” Is No Longer in Your Head But On Your Device How will this work, exactly? Schrage explains that much the way Amazon suggests books to read and Netflix recommends videos to binge watch, data aggregators will synthesize and customize explicit recommendations designed to make people productive and effective. Annoyed that your boss doesn’t give you enough attention? Fear not, for soon, algorithms will recommend strategies to boost your creativity, optimize your performance, manage your time, and improve on your work product based on your unique style. An algorithm may serve as a communication coach, too. It could prompt an introverted employee to get out there and network, and an extroverted one to tone it down. It may help you solve a problem with a colleague, deliver criticism to a direct report, or manage a sticky political situation. Even if your boss did have the time to help you out, who’s to say his or her advice would be as good? What will win here, human intuition or scientific objectivity? The jury may be out now, but machines are only getting smarter whereas human capabilities are pretty static. For more where this came from, check out the full post at QuickBases Fast Track blog.

IT Technician Job Description Sample - Algrim.co

IT Technician Job Description Sample - Algrim.co It Technician Job Description Template Download our job description template in Word or PDF format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Using Your Template Follow these instructions to use your new job description template Step one: Fill out all details in your job description template using the provided sample on this page. Step two: Customize your requirements or duties to anything special to your workplace. Be sure to speak with team members and managers to gauge what's required of the position. Step three: When the census of the team has agreed on the description of the work, add in a Equal Employment Opportunity statement to the bottom of your job description. Step four: Check with your legal department, management team, and other team members to ensure the job description looks correct before creating a job advertisement. Choose a job board that's specific to your needs. Related Hiring Resources IT Technician Cover Letter Sample

How to Design a Great Hiring Process Think Candidate UX!

How to Design a Great Hiring Process Think Candidate UX! What is Candidate UX? In order to understand Candidate UX, you must first understand what User Experience (UX) is. The discipline of UX is dynamic and always changing and growing, but in a nutshell, its an umbrella term used to describe all the factors that contribute to a users overall perception and feeling about a system or product. UX Design is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the product. This is done by asking questions such as: Is it easy to use? Is it attractive and appropriate? Does it meet users needs? Its important to note that the core of UX Design focuses on having a deep understanding of the users what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. Candidate UX takes the best practises and fundamentals from the discipline of UX Design to provide frameworks and guidelines to the design of the hiring process. By applying what weve learned from the field of UX, we can use these frameworks and guidelines to design a positive, high quality, and user-friendly hiring process which will ultimately improve the overall candidate experience: What are the UX Design best practises? A quick Google on this topic will give you ample information about the fundamentals of UX Design from which you can work from. My favourite list is by Peter Morville, a respected UX expert, who identifies these core best practises of UX design which Ive adapted to relate to the job application process: Useful: Your content such as job descriptions, information packs, feedback etc should be original and fulfil a need. Usable: The entire job application process should be easy to use. Desirable: Image, culture identity, employment brand, and other design elements conveyed on careers sites, job specs, social sites etc are used to evoke emotion and appreciation. Findable: Job opportunities and relevant information needs to be navigable and locatable onsite and offsite nowadays this includes mobile platforms. Accessible: Content needs to be accessible to candidates with disabilities. Credible: Candidates must trust and believe what you tell them. Candidate Personas The Foundation of Candidate UX The foundation of a great UX Design is having a strong understanding of your users behaviours, attitudes and motivations (a.ka. personas). Personas concentrate on what a user does, what frustrates the user, and what gives the user satisfaction[4]. For Candidate UX this means gaining a deep understanding of your target candidates preferences, needs and expectations as it relates to the hiring process. For example, after 9 years of tech recruiting I have formed a good idea of a candidate persona for a Software Developer: I know they are typically well educated, smart and are passionate about problem solving, building things and technology so this needs to be evident in all job descriptions to catch their attention. They are technical by nature so all job descriptions and relevant useful information such as company profile and products must be easily searchable and available online and on mobile devices. They tend to be more introverted and analytical and are impressed and motivated by technical challenge so a combination of behavioural and technical interviews are required to get an accurate candidate assessment. They like team collaboration with other smart people so including peer level developers (not just hiring managers) in the interviews can be beneficial to both parties. Software Developers like a degree of freedom to play with and test new new tools and emerging technology so these topics should be discussed during the interview process. They arent always the best verbal communicators and often prefer to demonstrate their technical ability as opposed to just talking about it, so including technical coding assignments into the process is valuable for both parties. They are detail orientated by nature and like to analyse data instead of taking things at face value so make sure you have good data available to back up any claims youre making about the job and company etc. They are motivated by learning new technologies and theres a typical dichotomy where some prefer to remain 100% technical hands on throughout their career, while the others tend to move towards architecture or people management so its important to uncover this during the process and educate the candidate about typical career paths available to them at the organisation. The Universal Candidate Persona: At the end of the day, all candidates are human, and regardless of what job or industry we work in, there are some common denominations in behaviour, attitudes and motivations that we all share. Whether youre hiring a CEO, a software developer, or a truck driver, there are certain elements that all candidates need and expect throughout the hiring process. I have identified the following universal factors that must be applied to all job application processes: User friendly: Whether its submitting a resume, finding information, or interviewing, the entire job application must be easy to use for the candidate. Feedback: At minimum, confirmation that a job application has been received is critical. Better yet, feedback about the status and timing of the application should be communicated to all candidates regardless of the strength of their application. Communication: honest and clear communication throughout the process is vital. The more personal the communication is, the better. Information: Accurate, consistent and quality information must be available to all candidates (and easy to find!) throughout the entire process. Respect: All candidates deserve respect for their effort and time regardless of their fit for the role. Closure: All candidates, whether successful or not, need closure on their application. Conclusion: In todays competitive job market, the organisations that offer the best candidate experience are having the most success in reaching their hiring goals. By applying the principles derived from UX to recruitment, organisations can design better hiring processes that will have significant positive impact to the overall candidate experience. Author: Brian Thompson is Talent Acquisition Expert at  www.talentandrecruitment.com. Follow him on Twitter  @briantrecruiter.