TotalPicture: Talent Acquisition, HR Tech, Careers, Leadership, Future of Work

"I rented this booth on Venice Beach... I had 500 Headblades, my ex-wife was there, we had a couple of friends, the girls in bikini's on their roller blades, so I thought 'okay, I'm going to sell my 500 Headblades here, this is where I'm going to do my worldwide introduction of Headblade'... At the end of the day, I looked at my ex-wife and said 'I don't know why I'm doing this... we sold 8 Headblades,' and she said, 'you have to look at the bright side of the story, you sold 5, more than everyone else combined.' And I looked at her and said, 'what am I going to do with that? I'm employee of the month?" Todd Greene.

Timothy Ferriss, nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is an angel investor and author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich has been sold into 35 languages. An expanded and updated edition of Tim's book was just published -- and not exactly on the date he thought it was going to be published. More on that later...

Traditionally, the holiday season is the most active networking time of year with lots of social gatherings, printed greetings and gift exchanges. The explosion of social media has dramatically impacted how we network year-round. Take the opportunity now to expand your connections using the variety of social networking platforms which enable you to keep up with your existing contacts and establish new relationships on a continuous basis.

Is social recruiting just another sourcing tool—a way to promote job postings and find potential candidates? Or is it a pathway to building a sustainable talent community and another tipping point in the evolution in recruiting?

Joining us is Sonya Hamlin, president of Sonya Hamlin Communications, a nationally recognized expert in many phases of communication. Sonya's major focus is on business communication --both verbal and visual.

In our final installment, John describes three new productivity tools he's been using.. Evernote, Prezi, and SugarSync. "These are all examples of what cloud computing looks like when it gets to you."

"In today's environment one of the most important skills you can have to be a great HR leader is contract negotiation." John Sumser

"There seems to be a gross disconnect between the people who are using social media and the people who are actually executing the profession. Is this normal? What should we expect next? Will today’s celebrities be tomorrow’s has beens? Does the echo chamber blind us to the truth? Do prior internet revolutions offer any insight?

'"You don’t even realize how much work it takes for me to stand in front of people and talk. Executive leaders like Jack Welch have coaches and corporate communication teams to make them look great. I have a mirror, a flip camera, and a prescription for Xanax."

When Gen Y'ers were in their most formative years - 11 to 16, we were a world obsessed with terrorism. The adult conversations, the evening news, were around Columbine and 9/11. Events that were inexplicable and random. So a lot of the conceptual model that has been developed in Gen Y is one of random events. And if you think logically, how would you live your life if you had a random mental model?" — Tammy Erickson

David Lee is the founder of Human Nature At Work. He is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance. David has written extensively about the emotional side of onboarding. He preaches the importance new leaders feeling welcomed, comfortable, secure, proud, excited, inspired, and confident. David contributed to chapter 10 of Onboarding, titled Make Positive Impressions.

As Senior Director, Worldwide Employee Learning and Development at Sun Microsystems, George Selix lead a cross-disciplinary world-wide learning and talent development team responsible for Onboarding and new hire program development. While at Sun, he was in charge of building an interactive learning environment that taps into learning, books, videos, blogs, and third-party resources.

Welcome to a special Inside Recruiting Channel edition of Total Picture Radio, with Peter Clayton reporting. Communications expert Jean Brown, partner with New York City based MacKenzie Brown, LLC works with senior executives, managers, and partners of many Fortune 500 companies and law firms. Jean contributed to chapter 8 of Onboarding, titled "Manage the Announcement to Set Your New Employee up for Success."

"There's always a talent war for A players, most of whom are happily and successfully employed. One of the real challenges and primary added values of executive search consultants is our ability to encourage totally uninterested, passive candidates to consider new opportunities. Every placement I've made over the past several years started with a conversation with someone who assured me they were very happy with their current position and not at all interested in the job I was presenting." - Bill Epifanio

Making the wrong hire in this economy can be unbelievably expensive — as well as emotionally devastating for everyone involved, including the person making the hire, the individual placed in the wrong job, and the co-workers involved." — Bill Noll