Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization Show

As companies emerge from the pandemic, the real work of HR is just getting started. Management and workers alike are facing a new era of perpetual uncertainty. What are the most emerging megatrends that will shape Human Resources in 2021 and beyond? How must HR leaders respond? For this episode, Tom Haak, founder and director of The HR Trend Institute, joins us to explore his top 3 HR trends: ethical leadership, anti-fragility, and learning-in-the-flow.  Tom is one of the Thinkers360 Top 5 Global Thought Leaders of the Future of Work and HR. Tom Haak is the founder and director of The HR Trend Institute. Prior to founding the HR Trend Institute in 2014, Tom held senior HR positions in companies as Arcadis, Aon, KPMG and Philips. The HR Trend Institute detects, follows and encourages smart and creative use of trends in the field of people and organizations, and also in adjacent areas. You can read more about these 3 Emerging HR Trends (and 8 more) here.

Whether you’re a teacher or parent, student or job seeker, this is a must-listen. Imagine you're a professor. You're responsible for teaching 500 students. (Or maybe you’re one of those students and paying thousands of dollars each year to learn new skills.) Each student learns just a little bit differently and has different needs and expectations. As an educator, how do you clone yourself 500 times to deliver personalized learning and an optimal learning experience? COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed higher education. This is a tipping point for education. The need for change is acute and long overdue. The vulnerabilities of mass generic education were ripped open and its fragility was shattered.  The need for personalized and adaptive learning is strikingly obvious. Meet ElevateU, a platform that is transforming teacher-led classroom instruction into a dynamic, interactive, engaging experience. Joining us on this episode of Geeks Geezers Googlization is Elliot Grossbard, VP of Growth, who will be discussing personalized learning and how EdTech will transform how teachers teach and students learn.

Whether they are hired or not, do your job candidates walk away feeling like they mattered?  Are candidates who are not hired motivated to apply again or become customers? Does your candidate experience create loyal enthusiasts or unhappy, resentful customers?  For the 3rd consecutive year, Geeks Geezers and Googlization welcomes back The Talent Board’s Kevin Grossman to discuss the key candidate experience takeaways from the just-released 2020 Candidate Experience Research Report, a survey from over 152,000 candidates across 133 North American companies. Don’t miss this episode to learn what you need to know to attract, engage, and convert job seekers into brand promoters and raving fans (even those applicants not selected!)

Employers have an opportunity to be heroes, not goats! Unfortunately, from pre-hire to departure in most organizations, the employee experience is all FCDD-up! The employee life cycle is filled with Frustration, Confusion, Disappointment, and Distraction. In a VUCA world, employee needs can shift in the blink of an eye. Employee engagement surveys are turning into the much-maligned annual performance review. Our guest Jason Cochran, CEO of iAspire urges employers to be practical, not surgical; to measure the rhythms and beats of employees, to measure what people will do, not what they say they will do. Through 20 years of research, he’s identified the “Four Principles of Connection.” Jason visits Geeks Geezers and Googlization Show to share how you can transform your company culture and make it your competitive advantage.

The last thing most people would associate with the year 2020 would be laughter. But not Nancy Watt, our guest this week on Geeks Geezers and Googlization. Faced with unprecedented pandemic uncertainty, billions of people worldwide almost overnight in 2020 were forced to improvise, doing things they never planned, using whatever resources they could muster. As a skill, adaptability skyrocketed to the top of the in-demand job and life skills charts, above EQ and IQ. Adaptability quotient (AQ) achieved global momentum and recognition. Unfortunately, the theoretical knowledge of one’s AQ doesn’t always translate into adaptive behavior unless it’s applied. Using the improv skills Nancy learned at Second City Conservatory in Toronto and Chicago, she is able to help people boost AQ and personal and organizational performance. Often called a ‘Pracademic’, Nancy Watt is the Founder & CEO of NANCY WATT COMMUNICATIONS, a creative agency in Toronto, Canada.

You’ve likely heard about Match.com and the hundreds of other dating platforms. What if your business could use the same business model and technology to match people-to-people who are in desperate need of help, support, or a shoulder (virtual of course!) to cry on? After a yearlong pandemic, social unrest, and unprecedented uncertainty, the demand for human guidance, wisdom, intimacy, and understanding has never been greater. The collective toll on mental health has been enormous and costly. Add to that the events of an extraordinarily disruptive year to the day to day life challenges we all experience, the impact on employee well-being and productivity exceeds $2 Trillion per year. Our guest today is the CEO of Life Guides, Derek Lundsten, who shares how his company is helping employers of all sizes to take care of their most important asset - people. Derek is an expert on employee stress and how to create a culture of caring.

The headlines suggest that robots and on-demand labor markets like Uber and Lyft are the future of work. Not so fast, says our guest Jeff Wald, best selling author of two books, including, The End of Jobs, The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations, founder of Workmarket, and founder of the $10 Million Future of Work Prize. Based on the last 3 industrial revolutions, Jeff suggests some good news for workers: there will be no NET jobs lost due to robots. The catch: Instead he believes ALL workers will be on-demand workers which will lead to the end of jobs as we know them. So what’s the biggest challenge employers and workers face? Tune in for the 1st show of 2021 and the start of our 4th season!

Geeks Geezers and Googlization was selected by Thinkers360 as one of the top 50 podcasts to listen to in 2021! For this 51st and final show of 2020, Ira S Wolfe and co-host Joyce Gioia were joined by 14 thought leader guests of the show to offer their business and/or HR forecast 2021. Guests included Dennis Hill (EXACTA), Kevin Grossman (The Talent Board), George Randle (The Talent War), Elizabeth Lotardo (McLeod & More), Bill Coletti (Kith), Claudia Reuter (Techstars), Gerry Crispin (The Talent Board), Declan Murphy (Allsorter.com), Keith Kitani (GuideSpark), Micole Garatti (FairyGodBoss), Phil Strazzula (Select Software Reviews), Rhamy Alejeal (People Processes), Tim Spiker (The Aperio), and Mike Raven (AQai). Joyce Gioia, Vice Chairman of the Association of Professional Futurists and CEO of The Herman Group, opens the show with her 3 predictions and HR Global Thought Leader Ira Wolfe concludes with his outlook and forecast for 2021.

Cybersecurity thought leader Dennis Hill believes our data privacy vulnerabilities lie in the fact that companies store our data on centralized computers. As proof, you need to look no further than the data breaches at the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce. Even the software company hired to protect their data was hacked. Every day last year a hospital database was breached. Individual identity theft occurs every 35 seconds. Hill has a plan to not only protect our personal data but protect ownership of our personal information. He suggests that by “simply” decentralizing how we store all our data, the chances of a hacker stealing our information is reduced to 1 in 15 trillion. That’s pretty good odds, wouldn’t you say? This episode is guaranteed to keep your attention from start to finish! The episode concludes with our Ahead of the Curve: Normal 2.0 segment with Joyce Gioia. Today’s topic is Doing Recognition Right in Normal 2.0. You’ll want to hear how the bonuses you give bonuses help but the timing of those bonuses is everything.

Following a tragic pandemic, raucous election, devastating economic crisis, and massive social unrest, everyone seems ready to move on. So what can we expect in 2021? How long will it take until the economy and job markets recover? Which sectors will prosper, which businesses are already recovering, and which industries are still heading for a hard landing? Our favorite economist Alan Beaulieu (ITR Economics) joins Geeks Geezers and Googlization Show again to offer his highly anticipated and respected economic outlook for 2021 and 2022. With an astonishing forecast accuracy of 94.7% at one year out since 1985, you don't want to miss this episode.   Michael Spremulli joins us for a special episode of Ahead of the Curve.  Mike shares his top tech tips on how to look your on-screen best, on a budget.  The Geeks, Geezers & Googlization TV Show can be viewed live every Wednesday at 1 PM ET on Facebook, YouTube, Talk 4 TV, and broadcast on W4CY Radio, part of Talk 4 Radio, on the Talk 4 Media Network. Following the broadcast, the replay will be available at the same links for YouTube and Facebook, our podcast website Geeks Geezers Googlization website, and on most podcasts including Apple Podcast, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher and more.