Case Study:
Finding Qualified Talent
Managers at a global energy services company could not find or access their best talent to solve clients’ technical problems because of geographic boundaries and business unit barriers. The company’s help desks supported engineers well enough for common problems, but not for difficult issues that needed creative solutions. Using Web technologies to expand access to experts worldwide, the company set up new innovation communities across its business units, which have improved the quality of its services. Dow Chemical set up its own social network to help managers identify the talent they need to carry out projects across its diverse business units and functions. To expand its talent pool, Dow extended the network to include former employees and retirees. Other companies are using networks to tap external talent pools. These networks include online labor markets, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and contest services, such as InnoCentive that help solve business problems.
• Amazon Mechanical Turk Website-aws.amazon/mturk/) is a marketplace for work that requires human intelligence. Their web service enables companies to access a diverse, ondemand workforce.
• InnoCentive Website-innocentive/) is an “open innovation” company that takes R&D problems in a broad range of areas such as engineering, computer science, and business and frames them as “challenge problems” for anyone to solve them. It gives cash awards for the best solutions to solvers who meet the challenge criteria.
Q1. Visit and review the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site. Explain HITs. How do they provide an on-demand workforce?
Q2. Visit and review the InnoCentive web site. Describe what they do and how.
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.