Susan Burns

Talent Synchronicity - Aligning talent solutions with business strategy.

Portland, Oregon Area

Current
  • Executive Director at The Future of Talent
  • Founder and President at Talent Synchronicity (Sole Proprietorship)
Past
  • Worldwide Talent Acquisition Leader at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
  • Operating Vice President, Employment Initiatives & College Relations at Federated Department Stores (Macy's Inc)
  • Store Manager at Robinsons-May
  • Assistant Store Manager at The Broadway
Education
  • Simmons College - Simmons School of Management
  • Stanford Graduate School of Business
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Retail
Websites

Susan Burns’s Summary

Enabling success by further enhancing the essential relationship between business and talent to advantage companies is grounded in my core philosophy. Providing an approach that creates intrinsic, sustainable value through the integration of brand, technology, people, trends and alignment with strategic business directives has allowed me to deliver results through differentiated and effective solutions.

Consulting services include:
• Integrated Recruitment and Talent Management Strategy Development
• Employment Brand Differentiation
• Social Media Strategy
• Recruitment Leader Development
• Workforce/Talent Planning
• University Recruitment and Relation Strategy
• Recruitment Team Structure and Processes

Susan Burns’s Specialties:

Results -- Advancing value of proprietary strategies through business alignment.

Recruitment & Talent Strategy Development -- Establishing productive, mutually beneficial partnerships leading to highly effective relationships.

Recruitment & Talent Strategy Execution -- Improving recruitment technology adoption rates and corresponding talent-centric initiatives through alignment of key constituents.


Susan Burns’s Experience

  • Executive Director

    The Future of Talent

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Staffing and Recruiting industry)

    March 2008Present (3 months)

    The Future of Talent is a small community of successful senior talent leaders. Our research is grounded in the work of Kevin Wheeler and techniques developed at the Institute for the Future, where Kevin was a researcher for more than a decade.

    Our cornerstone event is an annual retreat where we come together to design strategies through differentiated view points, share best practices and ideas, and engage informally with leading thinkers in the areas of talent acquisition, branding, knowledge management, employee development, and leadership.

    Benefits of membership include:
    • Architecting a strategic picture of your organization’s competitive positioning as a basis for leading change;
    • Positioning yourself on the edge of emerging technologies and trends in the world of talent;
    • Replenishing and nurturing your mind while crafting a strategic vision.

    Please contact me directly to learn more about our work and how you can explore becoming a member.

  • Founder and President

    Talent Synchronicity (Sole Proprietorship)

    (Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Human Resources industry)

    July 2007Present (11 months)

    • Expertise in integrated recruitment and talent management strategy development and implementation; employment brand differentiation; recruitment leader development; workforce/talent planning; university recruitment and relations strategy; and, recruitment team structure and processes.

    • Partnering with clients to further enable success by enhancing the essential relationship between business and talent to advantage and differentiate each company.

    • Embedded P & L experience facilitates a focused alignment with strategic business directives to create intrinsic value in recruitment and talent initiatives.

    • Clients experience a creative and resourceful approach to planning, development, and implementation.

  • Worldwide Talent Acquisition Leader

    Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

    (Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

    February 2006June 2007 (1 year 5 months)

    Responsibilities included developing a global talent attraction and acquisition function. Susan provided guidance to the Agency Executive Board, resulting in improved time-to-fill and a more strategic approach to talent planning.

    Workforce Planning and Sourcing:
    • Architected a workforce planning strategy and developed a forecasting tool to guide agency advisory board with headcount growth.
    • Expanded sourcing channels to expand talent reach and global brand.

    Team Development and Structure:
    • Designed and implemented staffing team development and planning workshop.
    • Restructured staffing team to improve alignment with business needs.
    • Promoted 3 staffing team members and recruited three new members including Europe and APAC.

    Results:
    • Increased external hires by 37% and applicant flow by 28% in 2006.
    • Improved time-to-fill across agency through strategic sourcing and planning.

  • Operating Vice President, Employment Initiatives & College Relations

    Federated Department Stores (Macy's Inc)

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; M; Retail industry)

    September 1998January 2006 (7 years 5 months)

    Improved brand positioning, rate of recruitment technology adoption and corresponding talent initiatives.

    • Designed and implemented talent attraction strategy for entry-level through experienced hires for hourly and salaried employment.
    • Developed and expanded Retailology.com, award winning recruitment website and Federated employment brand.
    • Researched, assessed, selected, and managed all aspects of recruitment technology systems and vendor relationships.
    • Led initial development, implementation and advanced curriculum of Recruitment Leaders Conference, resulting in significant talent mindset shift.
    • Responsible for developing, leading and executing college relations strategy.
    • Led multiple high-performance, cross-divisional teams.
    • Developed performance metrics for brand value, candidate relationship management, productivity, and source effectiveness.
    • Achieved solution goal of 38,000 annual hires; database utilization rate increases; and conversion rates.

  • Store Manager

    Robinsons-May

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Retail industry)

    October 1993July 1997 (3 years 10 months)

  • Assistant Store Manager

    The Broadway

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Retail industry)

    September 1986October 1993 (7 years 2 months)


Susan Burns’s Education

  • Simmons College - Simmons School of Management

    MBA, 19971998

  • Stanford Graduate School of Business

    Human Resource Executive Program: Leveraging Human Resources for Competitive Advantage September 2002


Additional Information

Susan Burns’s Websites:

Susan Burns’s Interests:

Business: Collaboration on social networking and how it impacts the way in which companies attract and engage talent. Collaboration around the impact social will have on the future of the corporation, structures and work environments. Personal: Hiking and Yoga. Completed 100 mile trek through Patagonia wilderness and trekked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Training in Baptiste Power Vinyassa Yoga with successful completion of Level 1 teacher training and two eight-day practice intensives.

Susan Burns’s Groups:

Electronic Recruiting Exchange, Human Capital Institute, Link to Your World, Retail Industry Experts, E-biz, SourceCon, Social Media Club, Facebook Fan site and Twitter follower, Facebook Fan site and Twitter follower, Twitter

  •    Federated / May Career Center member
  •    SourceCon2008 member
  •    ERE.net member
  •    e-BIZ member
  •    Six Degrees (Staffing Only) member
  •    TalentBar: HR and Recruiter Network member
  •    Retail Industry Experts member
  •    Australasian Talent Conference member
  •    Recruitment Consultants (4000+) member
  •    Accelerate The Cluetrain Manifesto member
  •    DallasBlue Portland member
  •    Future of Talent member
  •    RecruitingBlogs.com Group member

Susan Burns’s Honors:

• Electronic Recruiting Exchange. 2005 ER Excellence Award for Best Corporate Careers Website. Honorable mentions received for Most Strategic Use of Recruiting Technology and Recruiter of the Year.

• Federated Department Stores. Newness 2000 Award. Recognized for development and deployment of Retailology recruitment site as brand differentiator.

• NACE. Employer Contribution in Technical Innovation. Awarded for development of the Retailology.com/college recruitment site as an employment outreach platform.

• Simmons Graduate School of Management. Susan Bulkeley Butler Award. Academic achievement in accounting.

• Broadway Department Stores. Customer Service Contribution. Selling specialist program development.


Susan Burns’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
  • getting back in touch

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