Peter Cappelli Joins SkillSurvey Professional Advisory Board

SkillSurvey, Inc. announced today the addition of Dr. Peter Cappelli to its newly formed Professional Advisory Board.

Cappelli was also the keynote speaker at the companyís recent seminar, ìMoving Talent to the Center of HRóThe Next Generation of Talent Management Initiatives.î The podcast can be downloaded at http://www.skillsurvey.com/whitepapers/whitepapers.aspx.

Head of The Center for Human Resources at The Wharton School and an acclaimed author, Cappelli is among the nine members of the newly-formed Professional Advisory Board for the on-demand reference-checking pioneer.

The Professional Advisory Board is comprised of nine business leaders and academic researchers, and was recently inaugurated to provide the SkillSurvey executive team with recommendations and support to help guide business and technology growth at the company.

Considered a thought leader in human capital, Cappelliís new book, ìTalent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty,î debuted last week. Earlier this month, he presented the topic as a keynote address, ìTalent Management for a New Generationî during a seminar co-hosted by SkillSurvey and DoubleStar, a Pennsylvania-based provider of staffing, recruiting and workforce measurement products and services.

ìModern businesses have lost the ability to plan, with over 60 percent lacking succession planning and workforce planning of any kind,î Cappelli said. ìThis is unheard of in decades past, where the vast majority of large companies planned their workforces and created years-long plans for succession. Talent management in such a climate must be both flexible and designed to handle uncertainty.î

Cappelli cited multiple reasons for such changes ñ including the end of lifetime employment, business cycles of non-stop restructuring, and decentralized operations. Employee commitment has shrunk correspondingly, illustrated by the average tenure of 10 years for a president or chief executive officer during the 1950s to just 3 years now.

Todayís workforce has markedly different attitudes towards employers, changes in life priorities, desire for work-life balance and a focus on building their careers across jobs. As such, Cappelli argues, companies must plan more nimbly and flexibly, offer a clear ìemployee value proposition,î and keep in mind four principles for managing talent:

ï Avoid mismatch costs ñ balance ìmake and buyî
ï Reduce risk with shorter forecasts and portfolios
ï Design development to ensure payback
ï Balance employee interests in career moves