HR Must Embrace Social Media

Human Resources – gate keepers or enablers

According to a survey by SilkRoad, over 75% of HR professionals feel that they are being left behind when it comes to social media.

With a 91% of firms claiming to use social media to evaluate potential candidates, what we all do online can make or break our next career change. Knowing what we should (and should not be doing), is becoming increasingly important.

Collaboration through Social Media

One of the nirvana of HR is employee engagement. Firms that have embraced social media (social business) tools both internally and externally, have found a direct relationship to improved engagement among the workforce. So why do so many HR policies try to stop this “life blood” of communications and collaboration tools?

Social (media) is good for business

Research suggests that social media activity can provide a range of benefits to both a business and its people:

1. Morale
2. Reputation
3. Communication
4. Free advertising
5. Collaboration
6. Social research
7. Skill Building
8. Transparency
9. Good PR
10. Networking

Source: from Compliance & Safety

Younger employees

Well its not just about “young” by age, but the reality is that the population about to be employed, those starting to graduate, have been using social collaboration tools for almost 10 years. they are more than digital natives, they will expect these tools. And when these tools are not available internally, they will work externally. and there is NOTHING a business can do to stop it!

An example, one of my daughters had a problem with her home work a few years ago, she or her class mates did not know the answer, sh she connected a person in her dance class, in a different school, and got the answer from one of their friends. Now that is collaboration. This age group are about to graduate from university. Are you really ready for them?

 Threat of Social Media

Of course I would not be so naive as to say this is a risk less strategy, but with appropriate tools, education and support, social media tools can become critical to rapid change, growth and performance withing organisations of all sizes.

So do you see Social media as a threat or an opportunity to your HR processes and strategy?