Two interesting and related articles worth reading this week, covering some critical personnel issues, especially those relating to cybersecurity personnel.
First, in my recent Compliance Week column entitled, “Cybersecurity Personnel: Recruiting the New Fighter Pilots,” I address head-on the most dangerous virtual threat today. Surprisingly, this threat is not state sponsored terrorism; newfangled clandestine malware; or a hacker culture run amok — but is rather a severe cybersecurity labor shortage, expected to reach 1.5 million job openings by 2019.
My take is that the only solution for companies facing the challenge of cybersecurity is to adopt a much more aggressive, thoughtful and meaningful approach to cyber-recruitment, strategically focusing on four discreet and essential missions: identification; hiring; retention; and management. By executing upon these four distinct and crucial phases, a company can overcome cybersecurity labor shortage challenges, and succeed in assembling a strong cybersecurity and data breach response team.
Above all else, the cyber-labor shortage means that when it comes to cybersecurity experts, a special set of employment practices apply. Bend the rules for them (though not the ethical ones, of course). Bypass the bureaucracy for them. Make exceptions for them. Like modern-day fighter pilots, cybersecurity professionals are not merely a company’s elite corps of talented professionals with special skills, the company also cannot win the (cyber) war without them.
Second, this week I also authored a more entertaining article entitled, “Timeless HR Lessons From Five Great Watch Companies.” In this somewhat whimsical piece, I illustrate how watch companies and their timepieces can actually provide excellent lessons regarding a company’s overall general HR challenges, including recruitment, retention and management.
Of course, such a connection is not intuitively obvious. What could a watch tell a company c-suite about effective HR? Quite a lot, it turns out. Though perhaps not obvious on its face, a timepiece can provide illumination and exposition to some of the most basic tenets of any talent acquisition or management paradigm. Indeed, horology, the science or art of measuring time, offers the kind of teachings that can enlighten and inspire corporate and government executives and usher in dramatic results.
Specifically, I present a multimedia discussion of five extraordinary HR lessons from five extraordinary watch companies: Zenith; Patek Philippe; Audemars Piguet; Jaeger-LeCoultre; and Hamilton.
