Here’s the latest from Tom Peters. He is frustrated with HR, particularly with standard evaluation forms.

What do you use in your organisation?

Not all doom and gloom
It’s misleading to talk in national terms, or blindly generalise the state of the job market (the media loves bad stories). Some states are still dealing with 3% and below unemployment rates. Some companies are struggling to find staff. Demand and supply of talent is a local issue, and in most cases national data does not always accurately represent the reality at the local level. By the way, national unemployment rate currently stands at 4.5%, hardly the nightmarish picture often painted by mainstream media.

Online classifieds grows
Online ads continues to grow. The market grew by 22% in Q4 2008 compared to last year, and is tipped to reach $2 Billion in 2009. PWC/IAB Online Advertising Report available here (pdf). These are dark days for print media, everywhere.

Social networking tactic
The fine art of navigating Facebook becomes an essential skill in the bold new world of social networking. Here’s tips on how to friend mom, dad and the boss safely on Facebook.

Tom Peters on culture
I am a big fan of Tom’s bold and unconventional take on almost all aspects of business. Below, he argues ‘brand is the talent’, that customers comes second, internal staff and company culture comes first (a similar theme echoed by CEO of Zappos in this VIDEO)

Tom Peters on Organizational Excellence from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Tom Peters argues that ‘passion’ is much more important than ‘experience’ when it comes to hiring staff (transcripts).

Tom Peters on Passion! from Tom Peters on Vimeo.

Tom Peters is arguably one of the world’s most influential thinkers. An early proponent of personal branding (Coined the word Brand You), Tom is big on getting ‘talent’ right, and it takes a central place in most of his trademark themes (business excellence, quality and leadership), books and presentations.

Loud, bold, and confronting his presentations are unforgettable both in content and style.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, his presentations are richly populated by thought provoking and inspirational quotes collected from a wide range of sources.  Some of the money quotes from Tom’s presentation:

“Some traditionalist bosses see the Brand You notion as institutionalized dis-loyalty. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth. Brand You is about people profoundly committed to personal growth—and it goes without saying [I think] that people committed to growth are by far the most engaged and valuable employees”. – Tom Peters

“The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others.” — Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius

“In short, hiring is the most important aspect of business and yet remains woefully misunderstood.” – Source: Wall Street Journal, 10.29.08, review of Who: The A Method for Hiring, Geoff Smart and Randy Street

“Development can help great people be even better— but if I had a dollar to spend, I’d spend 70 cents getting the right person in the door.” —Paul Russell, Director, Leadership & Development, Google

Below is a presentation by Tom. Anyone in the business of talent attraction and acquisition will find it useful.