If Forbes is saying that 2014 is the year social HR Matters then we all better be listening. It doesn’t matter if you think “Facebook is a waste of time” or “You simply don’t get the point of Twitter”. If you’re in a position to be influencing HR in your company, you better be paying attention to social HR trends. To help tune your focus, I’ve put together a few components of social HR which are a good starting point for any organization.
Components of Social HR
Recruitment through Big Data
If you haven’t heard of big data or paid attention to how it can help you, I can say one thing:
You’re becoming inefficient faster than frontier markets are changing
From hiring the right people for the required skills to creating better managers, big data helps making decisions which are backed by logic. But how do big data and social media tie up in the world of HR? When an overlap of tons of data comes together through a social feed, you get the perfect marriage of the two. In HR this simply means that companies using big data for recruiting look towards social avenues such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. instead of finding candidates in filing cabinets.
Team Building with Social Media
The experts in social media all agree in at least one thing:
Community building is central to a successful social media strategy
In HR the ability to use social media as a tool for team building revolves around providing a sense of belonging for employees. Whether you use social media for employee recognition, making team announcements, scheduling and sharing event details (especially across geographical boundaries) – the goal is to make everyone feel like they belong to something bigger. It becomes the center for communication.
Company Branding Online
According to a survey by Spherion Staffing
47% of millenials say a prospective employer’s online reputation matters as much as the job
That’s kind of a huge fact. I’ve already covered 12 Ways to Improve Your Company Branding Strategy Using LinkedIn but it remains that company branding on social media can have a huge impact on the type of talent you attract. Think about it, isn’t the first thing people usually do when looking up a company is “Google It”? And if your homepage doesn’t have links to your corporate social media accounts, well let’s just say a lot of good, relevant talent would probably pass you by. The same goes if the accounts you advertise are not following appropriate branding strategies.
Top Social HR People
If you’re still not sure how best to implement social HR in your organization, I’ve put together a list of 5 HR professionals who are rocking the Twitter HR scene. This brings into question why we’re so Twitter focused when it comes to HR and communication but that we can discuss on another day.
1. Meghan M. Biro @MeghanMBiro
Ceo of Talent Culture, host of #TChat and contributor to Forbes and Huffington Post as well as others, Meghan Biro tweets about all things HR, Tech and other info nuggets guaranteed to get you thinking.
2. Steve Boese @SteveBoese
HR Technology Conference Co-Chair, Host of the HR Happy Hour Show and contributor to Fistful of Talent and HR Executive Magazine, Steve Boese keeps everyone up-to-date on all things happening in HR right now.
3. Jessica Merrell @blogging4jobs
She’s a HR, Tech and Workplace Future Digital Strategist and founder of blogging4jobs focusses. Her focus on Twitter lies in recruiting, leadership and tech.
4. Lars Schmidt @ThisIsLars
Involved in at least 4 Twitter accounts, Lars Schmidt is a Digital Strategist and Speaker along with much more. Scroll through his timeline for a host of entertainment and informational value.
5. Dave Ryan @DaveTheHRCzar
Director of HR at Mel-O-Cream Donuts and a volunteer for ILSHRM Dave Ryan’s timeline is filled with tweets from the SHRM community.
Still want more on social media? Take a look at this Social Media Toolkit to Advance Your Career. It’s got tons of tips on 15 tools which are valuable throughout the HR cycle. If you have social media HR tips to share, please add them in the comments below!
Photo Credit: khalid Albaih via Compfight cc
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