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Good Clay CEO's Corner I was standing in the Louvre in front of Winged Victory studying the contours of one of the world's most famous sculptures. I had just walked down from viewing the Venus de Milo and was transfixed by this one as well. I was remembering an art professor asking a class at university what these and other great sculptures had in common. The class promulgated many different postulates over the next few minutes before he answered simply, "to make great sculpture you have to start with very good clay". Is concern about the long-term condition, quality, and engagement of the national and global workforce an HR issue, a corporate social responsibility issue, or a government issue? Yes. In no single issue does the crossover of corporate responsibility and human resources stand in more bold relief. In no other social issue do corporate shared values and social responsibility, government educational functions, and organisational human capital strategic objectives more resoundingly align. One would think that everyone would rush with resources to coalesce around the issues at hand, then move rapidly to implement solutions. To be fair, everyone agrees there is a problem. SharedXpertise and HRO Today magazine, the sister publication to HRO Today Global are hosting a "Workforce Congress Event on the Competitive Workforce" in Washington, D.C. on May 2 as part of our HRO Today Forum North America. (Our HRO Today Forum APAC is May 15 to 17 in Singapore and HRO Today Forum EU is November 13 to 15 in Dublin). We have had a significant response to our Workforce Congress programme to address these workforce readiness issues, skills gap issues, veteran hiring issues, etc. We will be announcing our global talent study structure as the quality of the workforce and education remains a preeminent concern of executives from Albania to Zambia and so on. The types of talent needed by employers are changing faster than the educational and immigration patterns are allowing. And generational attitudes, work habits, and engagement models will need to be different to get Gen Y and Millenial workers to perform and maintain tenure. As an HR leader, do you know if you have enough good clay to make a great workforce? Unemployment in many Western developed countries has improved marginally in the last quarter. The unemployment rate is exponentially higher in semi-skilled and unskilled labor in most countries, with Spain and Greece being in particularly bad shape. This is a key social issue and a talent issue that all companies face together and can all work together to solve. Technical graduate levels are declining as well. Our Workforce Congress, a two part event which takes place on May 2 in Washington, D.C. and October 2 in New York City, will be attended by companies, NGOs, media, and academic experts; it will also feature a report from a panel of CEOs that is being presented to the G20. I've stated before that I get tired of hearing that the "best" measure of HR is how little it costs. The measure of HR should be how big its impact is! Is this not the preeminent issue of our time, and are not talent and the workforce the number one concern of CEOs and hiring managers? In the 2012 PWC survey of 1,258 CEOs worldwide more than 90 per cent felt that workforce productivity issues were important, but only 20 per cent felt they had good access to data they needed. Of the CEOs, 79 per cent now have the CHRO as a direct report. So, HR already owns the workforce issue. Who better to own this on the corporate social responsibility stage and demonstrate company-wide and broader social impact than HR? To hearken back to the issue of the CEO having or understanding the data, some is available through HRMS systems on worker productivity, however, the best reporting I have seen on workforce analytics is on the contingent worker side, provided as part of managed service program service reporting packages. The CHRO has traditionally left the governance of the MSP program and the VMS to the procurement group. The CHRO should see what these providers and programs can offer on workforce analytics on contingent labour and adapt it to FTE labor as well. These are the challenges the HRO Today Workforce Congress and the HRO Today Institute will be addressing, and we need the voice of senior HR executives to help illuminate and guide Washington and other key stakeholders in creating workable solutions. For more information or if you wish to make the trip to the U.S. for this programme and become part of the group that can make a difference, please visit: http://www.hrotodayforum.com/index.php/agenda/hro-today-institute-competitive- workforce-congress. [4] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | WINTER 2012 Elliot H. Clark, CEO CEO: Elliot H. 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