Fistful of Talent

Two Words - The Champion (The FOT Talent Management Blog Rankings)

The Champion is....

Talented Apps!! - Surviving 5 head-to-head match ups in the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings, the gang from Oracle, lead by Meg and Mark, has emerged as the champion of the little contest we put together called March Madness.

Congrats Talented Apps!!  It's no small feat to win this thing, because we had 32 kickin' blogs that started the tournament, and it wasn't enough to simply be good and liked - you had to motivate your tribe to vote for you.  Almost 3,000 votes after starting the tourney, TA is the winner, after defeating Your HR Guy 56% to 44%.. nice....Congrats also to Lance at Your HR Guy, although I'm still on the DL after taking a beating in the semi-finals...

Here are my thoughts about the tourney we called March Madness:

1.  I like the format, although 5 rounds got a little long. 

2.  The folks who were the most successful, even suprising, were the teams who could mobilize their "tribe" to vote for them.  That includes Talented Apps (big company), but also some folks with big Twitter and Facebook presences. 

3.  Cinderella Stories - the multiple wins by Lisa at HR Thoughts and Mike at HR Observations.  I knew the quality was there (I'm a reader of both), but had no idea how strongly your tribes thought of you.  Now I know... Well played!!

4.  How did I lose?  Aren't I the CEO of FOT?  Who said this should be fair? Should I make a management change on the editorial side (just joking, JLee)

Congrats to everyone who played!!!

March Madness Showdown: The Man Versus The Machine! Get Your Votes In!

Let me just say this first - I'm a Pac-10 gal. I went to the University of Washington and I also worked for the UW a few years after completing my studies. (Go Huskies!) And our HR blogging friend Lance Haun, Your HR Guy? Yes, that Lance Haun. Well, he's also a Pac-10 guy. A cougar, a Washington State University alum. And for those not schooled in Pac-10 life, there's a old, old rivalry between us huskies and cougars... but for this contest, I won't hold the fact that Lance is a WSU product against him because... wow! He made it to the finals beating out in the final four FOT's own Kris Dunn, the one and only HR Capitalist. Wow!

So, I'm biased, what can I say... it's impressive but well deserved as Lance is an excellent blogger, despite being a cougar/WSU alum. But, alas, it's how you voted folks and here at Fistful of Talent, we're a democracy. (And not without voting challenges, yes. We're just like Florida with voter registration and voting machine problems. Sigh...) A quick recap of the final four before we move on - here's how things shook out:

Talent Apps defeated HR Thoughts, 77% to 23%
Your HR Guy defeated HR Capitalist 60% to 40%

I'm not sure this is how many would have predicted things turning out - but I love the madness of this whole situation. So with that, we have arrived to the finals, friends. Lance Haun, Your HR Guy versus Talented Apps, written by a group of pros at Oracle. This is the man, versus the machine! What an awesome matchup! Just look at the last five entries at each of the two blogs-

Your HR Guy:

• Stupid Snap Judgments Can Cost More Than Your Job
• Don’t Cry For The Newspapers (You’re Next)
• You Can’t Recession Proof Your Job…or Can You?
• Why Unemployment Numbers Shouldn’t Matter To You
• You Can’t Recession Proof Your Job

Talented Apps:

• Sideshow Blog!
• Scared @#!*less
• Vote for Pedro… um TalentedApps
• Rich social network = rich productivity
• How I became a Kindle-vangelist

These folks are writing some quality stuff - wouldn't you agree? And it's cool to see two very great blogs going head to head but there can only be one winner. We're not going to cater to Lance as a gen-Y guy and hand out awards to everyone for just participating. We want to declare someone as the best - so that's where you come in. Vote! Choose one! And help us crown the top dog, or top dogs, in this contest. Polls will remain open until 9pm EST - and after that, we'll declare a winner unless of course a tie takes us into overtime. (Wouldn't that be a nice way to end this March Madness?!)

VOTE NOW!!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

The Final Four - March Madness Continues! FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived to the final four. It's been an interesting ride, hasn't it? Maybe a bit like what we're seeing in the NCAA, at the beginning of this contest, perhaps you thought you knew which blogs were of elite status and would likely be making it to the final four. Yet we've seen some heavy hitters (and some of FOT's and your favorites!) get knocked out of contention. First seed -Compensation Force and highly favored, Social Media Headhunter were both knocked out in round 1 - and then we saw Punk Rock HR and Cheezhead both get defeated in round 2. I'm not sure I would have predicted that things would have shaken out this way but, for better or worse, conference tournaments are always full of chaos and suspense.

Before we get to the final four - here are the results from round 3:

Game #25 - HR Thoughts defeated The Recruiter's Lounge, 61 - 39%

Game #26 - Talented Apps defeated Taleo, 58 - 42%

Game #27- Your HR Guy defeated HR Observations, 67 - 33%

Game #28 - The HR Capitalist defeated HR Bartender, 60 - 40% 

The margins between blogs in each match up are getting larger, as are the vote counts - and we have a lot of pure HR blogs making it through, which has made us pause a bit to wonder if our readers are more on the HR fringe than on the recruiting fringe. What do you think?

For the final four, the polls are open until 9pm PST/midnight EST - and then we move on to the finals. (Email subscribers, click through below to make your picks!) And with that, here are your final four matches!

Game #29 - HR Thoughts (highlight) vs. Talented Apps (highlight) 

Game #30 - Your HR Guy (highlight) vs. HR Capitalist (highlight)

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Round 2 - March Madness Continues! FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings!

So it turns out that talent management and recruiting bloggers are a competitive bunch of suckers! Ha. We were blown away with the level of interest and activity (or lobbying?) for the first round of the March Madness FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings - so thanks for playing along, folks. The polls closed at 5pm CST on Thursday but before we get to the round 2 matchups, how about a little post-game analysis and a special episode of FOTv featuring our friend, Amybeth Hale? (Yes, the Amybeth Hale - the research and sourcing queen!) 

Good stuff - and thanks, Amybeth for being our special guest. The first round was indeed interesting and we saw several very tight head-to-head matches and we even saw a first seed blogger get knocked out of the tourney! How 'bout that?! All told, 546 votes were cast in this first round and here's how things broke down (and no re-counts, people. This isn't Minnesota, and Jim Durbin a.k.a. Social Media Headhunter, you're not Norm Coleman! Ha.):

Game #1 - The Recruiter's Lounge defeated McArthur's Rant 59%-41%

Game #2 - Renegade HR defeated Incentive Intelligence 51%-49%

Game #3 - jessica lee writes defeated Tracy Tran, 58%-42%

Game #4 - HR Thoughts defeated Great Leadership 51%-49%

Game #5 - Cheezhead defeated Andy Headworth/Sirona Says 55%-45%

Game #6 - Talented Apps 55% defeated Infexion Point 55%-45%

Game #7 - Punk Rock HR defeated Nina Simosko 60%-40%

Game #8 - Taleo defeated Personal Branding Blog  53%-47%

Game #9 - Find + Attract defeated Compensation Force 51%-49%

Game #10 - HR Observations defeated Social Media Headhunter 53%-47%

Game #11 - Cincy Recruiter defeated All Things Workplace 51%-49%

Game #12 - Your HR Guy defeated HR Minion 57%-43%

Game #13 - The Recruiter Guy defeated The Staffing Advisor 67%-33%

Game #14 - HR Bartender defeated Steve Boese's HR Tech Blog 57%-43%

Game #15 - Jason Seiden defeated Three Star Leadership 51%-49%

Game #16 - The HR Capitalist defeated Rise Smart 71%-29%

Voting begins now for Round 2 match ups and will go through 12noon EST on Wednesday - so get your game face on and get ready! 

The "Shaquille O'Neal Twitter Account" Regional:

Game #17 - The Recruiter's Lounge (highlight post here) VS. Renegade HR (highlight)

Game #18 - jessica lee writes (highlight) VS HR Thoughts (highlight)

The "Dick Vitale Needs to Shut the **** Up" Regional

Game #19 - Cheezhead (highlight) VS Talented Apps (highlight)

Game #20 - Punk Rock HR (highlight) VS Taleo (highlight)

The "Our Team Stinks But You'll Work For Us After You Grow Up" Regional

Game #21 - Find + Attract (highlight) VS HR Observations (highlight)

Game #22 - Cincy Recruiter (highlight) VS Your HR Guy (highlight)

The "AIG Wrote a Check in 2008 But Couldn't Back Out of the Sponsorship Because They Were Legally Bound" Regional

Game #23 - The Recruiter Guy (highlight) VS HR Bartender (highlight)

Game #24 - Jason Seiden (highlight) VS The HR Capitalist (highlight)

March Madness - The FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings

Welcome the March Madness version of the FOT Talent Management Blog Rankings!  Who's the Cinderella Story going to be?   Who's Duke, who's UConn?  Who is Butler?  Who is Dick Vitale?

In the endless quest for themes to freshen this thing up, we think we’ve got a good one – we’re combining the HR Carnival and FOT Power Rankings and creating our own version of MARCH MADNESS, a hat tip to the coming college basketball craziness that will consume America for most of the month.

Here’s how it’s going to work – the blogs and posts below have been entered into the HR Carnival as normal, and we've used them to create a MARCH MADNESS bracket with all submissions. 

We’re using the the matchups below to run our next installment of the Talent Management Blog Rankings. Instead of asking our staff at FOT to vote on the blogs, we're doing a a web poll and asking the participants and readers to vote on the head-to-head match ups. We’ll start with the round of 32, and then move to the rounds of 16, 8, 4 and then of course, the final match up. Winners move on, survive and advance. 5 rounds in all, 2 days to vote on all the matchups in each round (10 total business days in the tournament).

Below are the first round match-ups, and we've linked to the blog and used the submitted post as a "highlight" to satisfy the Carnival feature (highlights of everyone's work).  You can see a bracket of the entire tournament here, and once you take a look at the first round matchup and the highlights, we're asking you to go vote on each match up by clicking on our web pool here.

Have fun!  Remember, anyone can win.  You just need a dream, a jump shot, and of course, an aggressive audience that will vote for you..

RULES AND THOUGHTS BEHIND THE FOT/ HR Capitalist MARCH MADNESS:  The brackets have been set up to be as balanced as possible, and #1 Seeds were determined by the results of the last Talent Management Blogs Rankings over at Fistful of Talent.  While we've listed each post submitted as part of the HR Carnival as a "highlight" to the side of the blog, we're not mandating you vote for the strength of that individual post, because we know no one reads all the submissions to every Carnival.  Instead, we're simply asking you to vote for the blog you believe is the strongest in each matchup.  If the post highlight influences that, more power to that blogger. 

First Round March Madness Matchups for the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings are as follows (see entire bracket here):

The "Shaquille O'Neal Twitter Account" Regional:

Game #1 - The Recruiter's Lounge (highlight post here) VS. McArthur's Rant (highlight post here)

Game #2 - Renegade HR (highlight) VS Incentive Intelligence (highlight)

Game #3 - Tracy Tran (highlight) VS Jessica Lee Writes (highlight)

Game #4 - Great Leadership (highlight) VS HR Thoughts (highlight)

The "Dick Vitale Needs to Shut the **** Up" Regional

Game #5 - Cheezhead (highlight) VS Andy Headworth/Sirona Says (highlight)

Game #6 - Talented Apps (highlight) VS Infexion Point (highlight)

Game #7 - Punk Rock HR (highlight) VS Nina Simosko (highlight)

Game #8 - Personal Branding Blog (highlight) VS Taleo (highlight)

The "Our Team Stinks But You'll Work For Us After You Grow Up" Regional

Game #9 - Compensation Force (highlight) VS Find and Attract (highlight)

Game #10 - Social Media Headhunter (highlight) VS HR Observations (highlight)

Game #11 - All Things Workplace (highlight) VS Cincy Recruiter (highlight)

Game #12 - HR Minion (highlight) VS Your HR Guy (highlight)

The "AGI Wrote a Check in 2008 But Couldn't Back Out of the Sponsorship Because They Were Legally Bound" Regional

Game #13 - The Recruiter Guy (highlight) VS The Staffing Advisor (highlight)

Game #14 - Steve Boese's HR Tech Blog (highlight) VS HR Bartender (highlight)

Game #15 - Three Star Leadership (highlight) VS Jason Seiden (highlight)

Game #16 - Rise Smart (highlight) VS The HR Capitalist (highlight)

HR Technology - Don't Believe the Hype

Editor's Note - Don't Feed the Vendors is a new series we're bringing into the FOT fold, just in time for Christmas.  The goal of the DFTV series?  We get hammered by third parties who want to write at FOT, so we give them a challenge.  Write something cool and significant we can learn from/talk about in the FOT style, and you can roll with the FOT crew.  Try to sell our readership your product and/or provide a whitepaper, and we'll openly mock your company in public for not understanding the DNA of our readership.  Many inquire, few follow through once they learn they can't post a workup of their latest "research".  For those that make the cut, we'll offer up associate FOT membership as part of the Don't Feed the Vendors stable.

Sean Conrad of Halogen Software is one of the ones that made the cut.  Show him some love in the comments for being up to the challenge and not writing something that should be read on PBS. 

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In the words of Public Enemy,

We don't need it do we?

It's fake that's what it be to 'ya, dig me?

Don't believe the hype....

OK, personally, I'm a big believer in social networking and Web 2.0, 3.0 (and pretty much anything with a dot 0 after it) technologies. Why else would I be blogging on FOT?  I'm just not convinced when it comes to talent management, that these technologies are something the average HR pro needs or is actively using today.  Should people be on top of the trends and what is coming? Absolutely. Should HR be aware of new technologies and how they impact their employees?  Without a doubt.  That said, after spending time at the HR Tech conference back in October, I confirmed my belief that many companies aren't ready for or in need of more 2.0 technology as far as HR apps go.

I attended plenty of sessions where the panelists waxed poetic about the virtues of the latest social networking features, but the reaction from my view at the back of the room, was often the same - shaking heads and stunned looks. That's not to say HR pros don't "get it" but rather they don't necessarily have the need for this stuff today.  When you listen to analysts and pundits talk there seems to be this underlying assumption that most companies have all of the key applications - HRIS, recruiting, employee performance management - in place. 

That's simply not the case. Stop and take a look at the market sizing numbers for talent management alone.  The market is growing at a rapid rate as organizations push to automate tedious functions and take on-boarding, appraisals, succession planning and learning management to a new level.  And yes, I did say automate.  It's not sexy. It's not going to draw a crowd big enough to give an HR pro rock star status, but automation is where it starts. So before worrying about integration with FaceBook or LinkedIn, HR needs to work on things like ensuring employees have goals set that align with the organzation's goals and have the tools to manage them.

Once that's all done and working well, then HR and the organization can start thinking about how to use technology to make even greater gains.  But technology, for the sake of technology, might mean you show some extra sizzle to your exec team or employees, but without the fundamental building blocks in place - let's call it steak (so that my lame pun can work here) - they ain't gonna get to the sizzle anytime soon.  Remember, technology is an enabler, not the be all and end all of your strategy and tactics.

Save yourself the headache, focus on what you need to execute your strategic HR plans today, while taking the time to learn more about how you can build on that over time and can be ready for new technologies when your organization can actually use them.

After all, Flavor Flav has a basic clock, not a digital one, as a necklace.  Thanks for the post inspiration Flav!

The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings 2.0 [Sponsored by FOT and the HR Capitalist]

We're back at it again, folks. Fistful of Talent is pleased to unveil the second round of our Talent Management Blog Power Rankings. We looked at 115 Talent, HR and Recruiting-related blogs and have compiled our list of the very best. Check out the original Poll Methodology here (but note we looked at more blogs this time around and the lineup of folks ranking the blogs has changed slightly).

Additionally, all pollsters (click for profiles - Jessica Lee, Maren Hogan, Kelly Dingee, Jennifer McClure, Jason Pankow, Josh Letourneau, Paul Hebert and Kris Dunn) selflessly gave up the right to have their blogs considered for ranking since they are pollsters.  That means we can't vote for eachother either. 

Here are our top 25 which we believe represent the best of the talent/recruiting/HR/human capital blogs (and welcome to those new to the top 25, italicized!):

Ranking/Blog Name (Power Rating, Last Poll Ranking)

1.    cheezhead™ (Power Index Rating - 120 | 1st Place Votes - 3 | Last Poll Ranking - #10)
2.    The Recruiter Guy (Power Index Rating - 79 | 1st Place Votes - 1 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
3.    Jim Stroud's The Recruiters Lounge (Power Index Rating - 78 | 1st Place Votes - 3 | Last Poll Ranking - #1)
4.    Compensation Force (Power Index Rating - 66 | Last Poll Ranking - #4)
5.    Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel (Power Index Rating - 62 | Last Poll Ranking - #23)
6.    Your HR Guy (Power Index Rating - 54 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
7.    Amybeth Hale - Research Goddess  (Power Index Rating - 41 | Last Poll Ranking - #16)
8.    All Things Workplace (Power Index Rating - 38 | Last Poll Ranking - #3)
9.    Employee Evolution (Power Index Rating - 35 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
10.  Great Leadership (Power Index Rating - 34 | Last Poll Ranking - #9)
11.  Learn @ Trizle (Power Index Rating - 30 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
12.  TalentMash by Kristin Gissarro (Power Index Rating - 29 | Last Poll Ranking - 22)
       Andy Headworth's Sirona Says (Power Index Rating - 29 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
14.  HRmarketer.com (Power Index Rating - 28 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
       Evil HR Lady (Power Index Rating - 28 | Last Poll Ranking - #5)
16.  Marketing Headhunter.com (Power Index Rating - 27 | Last Poll Ranking - #21)
17.  HR Bartender (Power Index Rating - 26 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
18.  Three Star Leadership Blog (Power Index Rating - 26 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
19.  Ask a Manager (Power Index Rating - 23 | Last Poll Ranking - #16)
20.  Seth Godin (Power Index Rating - 24 | Last Poll Ranking - #7)
21.  The Business of Management (Power Index Rating - 24 | Last Poll Ranking - #15)
22.  JibberJobber Blog (Power Index Rating - 23 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
       Punk Rock HR (Power Index Rating - 23 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
24.  TalentedApps (Power Index Rating - 22 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)
25.  Social Media Headhunter (Power Index Rating - 21 | Last Poll Ranking - N/A)

Also Receiving Votes - Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog, Cloud Recruiting - Michael Marlatt, Success Factors, Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything, Louise's UK Recruiter Blog, People Shark, Workplace Prof Blog, The Job Lounge, HireStrategies Talent Technology Blog, The Enlightened Manager, Employment Digest, Digital Roam: The Back of the Napkin, The HR Cafe, Cybersleuthing, Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk, HR Observations, KnowHR Blog, @Work, Find + Attract, McArthur's Rant, Manager's Sandbox, Social Media Explorer, Find Your Metrics that Matter, The Human Capitalist, Tom Peters! Blog, Jason Seiden, Fortify Your Oasis, The Future of Work, Recruiting Fly Blog, Suits In The WorkPlace, Knowledge Infuser, SittingXlegged, systematicHR, Harvard Biz Review's Bob Sutton, Consultant's Corner, The Contented Cow Blog, Totally Consumed

The leaders at the top of the board are a bit different from the last round of rankings with cheezhead™ taking the top spot and The Recruiter Guy making a big debut at #2. You may also notice that a few folks are missing from the original rankings, notably, ERE.net which took #2 last time.

On the cheezhead front, I would venture to guess that many of us are digging some of the site's new writers including Vanessa Dennis, who joined over the summer. Vanessa has brought top notch reporting and writing on technology, the labor market and all things related to talent acquisition to cheezhead. And as for The Recruiter Guy, well, who doesn't like Chris Hoyt? In retrospect, it was a little surprising that he didn't make the cut the first time around, so we're happy to see him getting the accolades he deserves with this round of rankings. And if you aren't familiar with him already, we think you'll like him too. Definitely check him out.

On the ERE.net front, we collectively decided to take the "big boys" out of the running that have individual blogs hosted within their sites (sorry, RecruitingBlogs.com, that includes you). Despite loving the work of ERE.net, we felt it made more sense to stick to rating individual blogs/contributors rather than looking at those sites in totality. (So Wheeler, Sullivan et al - start your own blogs, will ya?)

No doubt, the list of blogs also receiving votes will grow with time, as will the number of blogs we evaluate, since there is a lot of amazing talent out there... and we see this as a good thing. Linking to all of your blogs is hell, but you know what? We're thankful to be part of such a vibrant community - and we're glad to have y'all keeping us on our toes with our own writing. Keep blogging...

What's Jim Stroud Doing atop the FOT Power Rankings?

Lots of good conversations yesterday related to the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings, with some of the best conversations occurring off-line among FOT members.

Here's one of the topics - why is Jim Stroud at the top of the rankings?  If you look at the vote totals, it's pretty clear that he netted votes from almost everyone voting, which is a rare occurrence across FOT Nation.  We get along pretty well at FOT, but let's just say we have OPINIONS, which means at times we agree to disagree.

But back to Jim Stroud and the Recruiter's Lounge.  Why them?  I'll tell you what I get as a reader, then I'll ask any of the FOT cast to pitch in within the comments, and if you have thoughts - do the same.

For me, it comes down to three factors:

-Voice - Let's face it, Jim writes in a voice that makes you trust him.  He's easy like Sunday morning.  Lot's to learn from this type of voice approach...

-Dives - Jim likes to dig into deep dives in certain subject matters, like sourcing and the intersection of sourcing and technology.  Wish I had more time to learn and use what he lays down, but even if I don't use it, or even read it, on a given day it's nice to know it's there.

-Spanning the Globe - Like Jim McCay, this Jim is spanning the globe to bring the variety to your table.  It's rare that I don't stop and look at "The Week in Recruiting", which usually includes around 15 links.  I usually drag my cursor across the top of the links to see where they are going, and it's rare that I don't find something there.

So that's me.  Hit me in the comments if you've got something to add.  Speaking of voice, here's Jim reacting to the news that he was #1 (email subscribers will have to click through for the video).

Congrats Jim...

The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings [Sponsored by FOT and the HR Capitalist]

Fistful of Talent is proud to announce the first installation of the Talent Management Blog Power Rankings!  Rankings below reflect recent blog entries across 103 Talent, HR and Recruiting-related blogs.  How do we rank them?  Check out the complete Poll Methodology here... 

You might remember that the HR Blog Power Rankings used to be hosted over at the HR Capitalist. I liked doing that, but it was one voice.  Additionally, once we put the team together at FOT, I knew we could make the rankings better by getting multiple working Talent professionals serving as pollsters.  Think of this as a corporate takeover, with the HR Capitalist staying on as a name sponsor as a hat tip of sorts.  Kind of like the founder of a company getting to keep an office when he gets pushed out.

As a result of bringing the crew at FOT aboard, this poll is comprised of professionals working in the field as HR professionals, corporate recruiters, 3rd party search professionals and consultants working in the Talent Management industry.  In short, they're people just like you, and the poll results reflect the collective view of the team regarding the best blogs in the Talent Management game.

Additionally, all pollsters (click for profiles - Jessica Lee, Maren Hogan, Kelly Dingee, Jennifer McClure, Jason Pankow, Josh Letourneau, Paul Hebert and Kris Dunn) selflessly gave up the right to have their blogs considered for ranking since they are pollsters.  That means we can't vote for each other either.  At least I think they understood that was part of the game...

In our opinion, the top 25 and those also receiving votes represent the best of the Talent/Recruiting/HR/Human Capital Blogs.  Thanks to all listed here for your commitment to the Talent/Recruiting/HR/Human Capital  community!

Ranking/Blog Name (Power Rating, Last Poll Ranking)

1. The Recruiter's Lounge (Power Index - 89) (1st Place Votes - 3)
2.  ERE.net (Power Index - 69)
3.  All Things Workplace (Power Index - 63) (1st Place Votes - 2)
4.  Compensation Force (Power Index - 58)
5.  Evil HR Lady (Power Index - 57) (1st Place Votes - 1)
6.  Brazen Careerist (Power Index - 53) (1st Place Votes - 1)
7.  Seth Godin (Power Index - 53)
8.  KnowHR (Power Index - 52)
9.  Great Leadership (Power Index - 50)
10. cheezhead (Power Index - 41)
11. The Employee Factor (Power Index - 39)
12. The Fordyce Letter (Power Index - 37)
13. Bob Sutton (Power Index - 36)
14. HR Observations (Power Index - 33)
15. The Business of Management  (Power Index - 33)
16. AmyBeth Hale - Research Goddess (Power Index - 33)
17. RecruitingBlogs.com (Power Index - 31)
18. Knowledge Infuser (Power Index - 26)   
19. Louise's UK Recruiter Blog (Power Index - 26)
20. McArthur's Rant (Power Index - 26)
21. Marketing Headhunter (Power Index - 25)
22. TalentMash (Power Index - 25)
23. Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel (Power Index - 24)
24. Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog (Power Index - 23)
25. Taleo Blog (Power Index - 23)

Blogs Not Eligible For Votes (please visit anyway!  We think they'd be in here somewhere) - HR Capitalist, Big O Recruiting, Incentive Intelligence, LG and Associates

Also Receiving Votes - TalentedApps, HRMarketer, Three Star Leadership, Suits in the Workplace, Punk Rock HR, Freakanomics, JPIE, The Workforce Institute, Trizle, Ask a Manager, Fortify Your Oasis, Employee Evolution, systematic HR, HR Lori, HR Thoughts, Pink Slip, Social Media Headhunter, Talent Alchemy, JibberJobber Blog, Social Media Explorer, Human Capitalist, Consultant's Corner, SuccessFactors Blog, SittingXlegged, Digital Roam, The Contented Cow Blog, Execupundit, What Would Dad Say, Recruiting Fly, YourHRGuy, Gladwell.com, Tom Peters Blog, Complete Potential, The Monster Blog, People Signals   

Methodology - The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings [sponsored by FOT and the HR Capitalist]

--See the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings HERE...

--Poll is based on 103 Talent Management-related blogs, including properties focused on talent  management, HR, recruiting, compensation, rewards/recognition, benefits, vendor products, leadership, workplace culture, employment law and related legal issues.  Oddly enough, the search continues for the world's first payroll blog.  At this point, we've also opted to include social networks like RecruitingBlogs and The Fordyce Network in the poll.  Since ERE has a single RSS feed from multiple sources, we've included them too, for now....

--Blogs seeking inclusion in the Talent Management Blog Power Poll may submit their site to Fistful of Talent and The HR Capitalist for voting moving forward.  Blogs seeking inclusion must support RSS via Google Reader.

--Poll Sponsors (team at Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist) attempt to read/review every eligible blog.   But hey, we're human.  It's got to be good or we might not come back... Just like you....

--Upon reading blogs, pollsters determine if blog contains news/thoughts/entertainment which is exceptional enough to recommend to colleagues for consideration.  In short, the entry must have data/news/opinion/reflections with substance to improve the life of an average Talent Management Manager/Director/VP as judged by pollsters.

--If the blog meets that standard, pollsters consider voting for blog in power rankings moving forward.

--All Fistful of Talent pollsters submit votes with each poll, ranking their top 20 blogs, giving 20 points for the blog ranked first, 19 points for their second ranked blog, etc.

--Votes are collected from each pollster and tabulated overall, netting the top 25.

--Blogs in Top 25 will receive overall ranking, a power index noting the total number of votes, first place votes and an indicator noting last position in poll. 

--Blogs not in Top 25 but receiving votes will receive a "shout out" in the "Also Receiving Votes" section of the poll, meaning they are players in the eyes of the FOT pollsters.

--Ties among blogs with the same number of votes are broken according to even more subjective criteria than those listed above.  Kind of like the College BCS poll in this area...

--Quality posts are measured via the poll, but blogs are not penalized for posting more frequently than their peers.  If it takes 10 posts a day to crank out the masterpiece, cool.  If you can become #1 with two posts a week, more power to you.  Lots of different ways to influence.

--The rankings will be a work in progress according to the definition of Talent Management, etc.  Blogs with lots of political humor, language, etc. may be removed from consideration.  We'll use our best judgment, but the goal is being able to recommend the blogs to the broad audience of people practicing Talent Management - not just bloggers, who tend to have thick skin.  So, the core mission of the blog has to be providing quality information, with Talent issues at the core of what the blog is about.

   

--See the FOT Talent Management Blog Power Rankings HERE...

--Poll is based on 103 Talent Management-related blogs, including properties focused on talent  management, HR, recruiting, compensation, rewards/recognition, benefits, vendor products, leadership, workplace culture, employment law and related legal issues.  Oddly enough, the search continues for the world's first payroll blog.  At this point, we've also opted to include social networks like RecruitingBlogs and The Fordyce Network in the poll.  Since ERE has a single RSS feed from multiple sources, we've included them too, for now....

--Blogs seeking inclusion in the Talent Management Blog Power Poll may submit their site to Fistful of Talent and The HR Capitalist for voting moving forward.  Blogs seeking inclusion must support RSS via Google Reader.

--Poll Sponsors (team at Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist) attempt to read/review every eligible blog.   But hey, we're human.  It's got to be good or we might not come back... Just like you....

--Upon reading blogs, pollsters determine if blog contains news/thoughts/entertainment which is exceptional enough to recommend to colleagues for consideration.  In short, the entry must have data/news/opinion/reflections with substance to improve the life of an average Talent Management Manager/Director/VP as judged by pollsters.

--If the blog meets that standard, pollsters consider voting for blog in power rankings moving forward.

--All Fistful of Talent pollsters submit votes with each poll, ranking their top 20 blogs, giving 20 points for the blog ranked first, 19 points for their second ranked blog, etc.

--Votes are collected from each pollster and tabulated overall, netting the top 25.

--Blogs in Top 25 will receive overall ranking, a power index noting the total number of votes, first place votes and an indicator noting last position in poll. 

--Blogs not in Top 25 but receiving votes will receive a "shout out" in the "Also Receiving Votes" section of the poll, meaning they are players in the eyes of the FOT pollsters.

--Ties among blogs with the same number of votes are broken according to even more subjective criteria than those listed above.  Kind of like the College BCS poll in this area...

--Quality posts are measured via the poll, but blogs are not penalized for posting more frequently than their peers.  If it takes 10 posts a day to crank out the masterpiece, cool.  If you can become #1 with two posts a week, more power to you.  Lots of different ways to influence.

--The rankings will be a work in progress according to the definition of Talent Management, etc.  Blogs with lots of political humor, language, etc. may be removed from consideration.  We'll use our best judgment, but the goal is being able to recommend the blogs to the broad audience of people practicing Talent Management - not just bloggers, who tend to have thick skin.  So, the core mission of the blog has to be providing quality information, with Talent issues at the core of what the blog is about.