Thalento workshop in Prague and Bratislava: A new generation of HR technologies

Jochen Bessemans, HR Tech Valley

Technology is dramatically changing the nature of work with people in companies. Managers and HR professionals should acquaint themselves quickly with these technologies if they want to maintain their competitiveness.

What changes are already taking place in HR? What awaits us in the years ahead? What technological tools are available? How should we behave in order to survive?

These questions were answered by Ben Greeven, founder of the Thalento company and co-founder of the HR Tech Valley cluster in Belgium, at the "New Solutions for Talent Management" workshop.

Jochen Bessemans, manager and technology "evangelist" from the HR Tech Valley led the workshop together with Ben. They both came to Prague to talk about the future of human resources management and the technological revolution.

The workshop, held on 25 May in Prague and 26 May in Bratislava, was organised by Image Lab, the strategic partner of Thalento in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Anyone interested in new HR technologies is invited to attend the next workshop, entitled Using Thalento Professional Diagnosics. This will be held on 18 July 2017, starting at 9 a.m., at the headquarters of the Image Lab company. Entrance is free after  registration HERE or at +420 284 689 877, +420 773 227 227, imagelab@imagelab.cz

Now, let's get back to the May workshop with Ben Greeven.

HR technology vs. Workforce technology

"Let's stop talking about HR technology since it evokes a shallow conclusion that we use technology to organise human resources. Let's talk about Workforce technology and let's show interest in people and not just figures," says Greeven.

The current task and challenge for HR professionals is to change behaviour within companies. It is important to start working with employees as the most important element for the proper functioning of the company as a whole, and not just as numbers in the eyes of management.

The current state of technologies can quickly help identify the strengths of individuals and teams, as well as optimise the operation of companies by using the right mix of technology and working with people.

Ben Greeven, Thalento

The era of hyperactivity: boom in the HR technology market

Pay a huge amount for a job ad in some printed media and wait for someone to react.

Until 2000, this was common practice when reaching out to potential candidates. After 2000, however, advertising began to move very quickly to the Internet.

Since 2011, according to Greeven, the real era of hyperactivity has emerged – an era of acquisitions of companies creating new technologies for HR that continues to escalate even today.

SAP, for example, took over Success Factors, Oracle took over Taleo, IBM took over Kenexa. Since 2015 there have been hundreds of acquisitions worth trillions of dollars; these merged companies are significantly growing and are predicted to have a bright future.

The problem is not obtaining data, but using it

Many technology tools only work with static data that is only current at the moment when we receive it.

"According to a study, 73% of the candidates' contacts we have in our ATS (Applicant Tracking System) are invalid," Greeven explains.

However, the new generation of technologies already offers tools able to work with up-to-date data and, for example, evaluate personalities by analysing people's personal profiles on Facebook.

Terms such as machine learning or artificial intelligence are becoming discussed more and more in HR.

These tools by no means the music of the future: they are already with us here and now. Thanks to them, in the near future HR people will be able to dispense with such transactional issues as collecting unnecessary and rapidly obsoleting data, or seeking candidates in the wrong places.

Instead, they will be able to focus on more meaningful activities, such as conducting dialogues with suitable candidates and talents who nowadays can choose from many employers and want to know a company well before deciding to accept a job offer.

HR tech in the current market

The future of human resources belongs to HR technologies, or Workforce technologies, able to bring people, technology and business together.

In the follow-up part of the workshop, Bessemans introduced some technological tools that are already available to HR professionals.

Jochen Bessemans, HR Tech Valley

  • Actonomy: a semantic search tool for matching job descriptions and CVs of candidates.
  • Belong: a tool able to target, interest and hire passive candidates.
  • Crystal Knows: an online tool analysing available online data to identify  personalities of people and assign  personality types according to the DISC method.
  • Facelytix: a tool for fast, remote personality testing, linking artificial intelligence and video technology.
  • Intervyo: a virtual recruiter assessing suitability of candidates for a position based on predictive analysis.
  • Reschedge: a practical tool for organising and planning interviews with candidates.
  • TalentBin: a tool operated by Monster to search for passive candidates based on where they are online; search based on professional interests, skills and activities.
  • Thalento: an online diagnosis that allows easy testing of a candidate based on personality and motivation questionnaires, cognitive tests and skill tests in many languages. You can also create your own competence models and base evaluation of candidates' personal prerequisites on these models. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Thalento solutions are provided by the Image Lab company. Learn more about the Thalento online diagnostics.

Next workshop to be held on 18 July 2017

We will show you how to use the most up-to-date diagnostic methods of Thalento – tests, feedback, and building of a map of key competencies of employees and teams – in order to obtain a key tool for the operation of your company as a whole.

Just a reminder: the workshop, entitled Using Thalento Professional Diagnostics, will take place on 18 July at 9 a.m. at the headquarters of the Image Lab company in Prague.

Free entrance after previous registration HERE or at +420 284 689 877, +420 773 227 227, imagelab@imagelab.cz