Human resourcer, social butterfly?

By Lorna Davies

Social media participation is fast becoming an essential tool in business, but as its proliferation becomes ever more evident, can HR players keep up with this ever-expanding trend? Lorna Davies spoke to experts from Capgemini, Deloitte and Yackstar to find out whether HR is ready to leave behind its conventional cocoon and spread its social media wings.

A recent survey by Nielsen Wire showed that Americans spent nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs in 2010, up from 15.8 percent just a year earlier - a 43 percent increase. This is surely a case in point that businesses should - as many already are - utilize this potential audience. Although social media is being used by most organizations to enhance their brand (according to Econsultancy more than 700,000 local businesses have active Facebook pages), far fewer use it for their human resourcing purposes.

Ellison Bloomfield, an HR professional and leadership development consultant at Deloitte, agrees that HR is often thought of as a more customary part of the business, more likely to practise and embrace the tried-and-tested rather than push the boundaries of technological or populist development. "HR is generally quite traditional, and I know there has been a lot of fear around people using social media to say negative things about their company or colleagues," says Bloomfield. "But fear of things being said shouldn't be a reason to ignore what is a great resource."

One argument rife amid the HR/social media discussion is that of internal versus external social media. Many organizatons, such as Zions Bank (as discussed elsewhere in this issue of HRM), choose to keep their HR operations on a more 'professional' level, using only internal social media resources to keep the company wheels oiled. Rick Mans, a social media strategist and social media lead at Capgemini, believes starting internally and then branching out to external methods is a good way for businesses to dip their debut toes into the effervescent social media pool. 

"I think it's wise to start first internally to discover what the impact is in your organization, and then from there to start external activities because currently customers expect companies to be online," Mans explains. "That's not only in b2c, but also more b2b decision-makers are using social media to come to a decision."

There is no doubt that using social media for HR processes is in its infancy. Traditional HR processes are soulless, where social tools are frequent, in real-time and connected to people, The question is, can HR leaders harness the social media movement and enable the type of revolutionary culture change that will transform organizations?

The Masons are two brothers who have realized the potential of social media in enabling successful HR on an internal basis. As the founders of Yackstar, the Masons have launched an internal social network that allows employees and managers to effectively engage and interact, making communication within a company more stimulating than the old email system, yet more productive than browsing through Facebook pictures. It was the fascination with keeping employees engaged and motivated that inspired Grant and Craig Mason to start up the site.

"It is clear that so many companies today fail to tap into the true potential of their workforce," says Grant Mason. "Talent lays untapped, people feel under-appreciated and under-utilized and great ideas lay undiscovered."

The Corporate Leadership Council, a renowned research consultancy from Washington, conducted a study to determine what the factors are that motivate and drive team performance in the workplace. They conducted in-depth interviews with 19,000 employees of many of the world's top companies, focusing on the question: 'What matters most to performance?' Mason describes the results as enlightening.

"Informal Feedback was top of the list. In fact eight of the ten top factors related specifically to feedback, encouragement and interaction with leaders. A recent McKinsey survey also found that the key motivators for people are praise from immediate managers and one-on-one conversations with leaders. But the question remained: what kind of tools or systems could help companies bridge the performance gap, when the motivators were often soft and intangible?"

The popularity and widespread use of social media answered the Masons' question for them. Sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn often spark discussions and idea sharing conversations. "Imagine if we could harness all the positive elements of a social network for business purposes, without all the time-wasting distractions?," asked the Masons, and so they founded Yackstar.

Internal innovation

"Companies are now starting to see the benefits of using internal social media tools such as Yammer and Yackstar, which enable people to network, to solve problems and can often lead to higher levels of engagement," Bloomfield explains.

Accounting giant Deloitte plans to hire 250,000 staff over the next five years as it seeks to profit from rising global demand for regulatory scrutiny and risk management. Approximately 40,000 people will be hired globally this year, said Deloitte chief executive Jim Quigley. Allowing for natural staff turnover and retirees, Deloitte will see its staff roster jump to 250,000 by 2015, from 170,000 at present. Bloomfield attributes much of the staff turnover success to internal social media such as Yammer. "At Deloitte there is virtually zero percent staff turnover of those that are frequent users of Yammer," she confirms.  Yammer, a similar network to Yackstar, is used by Cargill, Molsen Coors, Nationwide, AMD and Chevron, as well as Deloitte. It is internal networks like this that encourage collaboration and communication whilst maintaining a strategic nature and connecting remote workers.

External social media such as Facebook and Twitter are often used by businesses to enhance the company brand. But can these most social of mediums help enhance a corporate culture? "It [social media] creates a certain sense of belonging and can enforce your brand or your culture," Mans enthuses. "It can be a really great tool since it's not a traditional top-down method and, if executed well, it can really strengthen the culture and the brand, and also help retention."

In terms of HR, internal methods are better for collaboration, communication and keeping a strategic business angle in mind. But there are definite positives for public social media, especially when it comes to recruitment. Social media screening is often both a useful tool and a method that causes some concern when it comes to professionalism and security. Facebook now has more than 500 million users and there are more than 50 million tweets posted each day. Social media has taken the world by storm, and in the employment arena, it's now a critical sourcing tool for jobseekers and recruiters alike.

But when jobseekers post information about themselves on sites, will employers review it? LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are all frequently used by companies in the sourcing process to find the best candidates, and by jobseekers to expand their network and be accessible to recruiters. However, the slippery slope begins when hiring professionals are tempted to not only use social media for sourcing, but also for screening, and how to use the information properly is a question that crosses on to shaky and undefined legal and ethical grounds.

Some companies are now offering social media screening as a service, but there are important legal and EEOC-related pitfalls that must be considered before companies conduct these screenings. And while social media-based screening is still a rather limited process, it's likely to grow over time, and individuals need to be careful about how they are portrayed online.

"I do have concerns about people's personal lives and what they do outside of the office becoming part of a recruitment process or reasons for disciplinary action," says Bloomfield. "It raises the question as to whether there is a statute of limitations on what can be used as evidence against someone. Is a photo or a comment posted five years ago going to be relevant to a hiring decision in the present day?"

Bloomfield raises the question that often keeps employers away from public social media. Mans, however, says it is about educating both the employee and employer on their limitations. "Security can be an issue, and what's most important to prevent bad things from happening is education. Educate your employees and even your customers what they can and cannot do online: not by policing them, but really by helping them preventing getting hurt," Mans explains. Bloomfield echoes this view in other ways. "There are also other benefits to organizations who trust their employees to use social media, using the example of Deloitte again, the policy essentially boils down to one sentence: 'what would your Mum say?'

"Employees are trusted to treat the company with respect and are given accountability for what they say and do online. The end result of this is that people don't feel as if the company is watching over their shoulder and that they are valued as individuals. Deloitte actively encourages people to blog, to share their stories and to network with individuals and potential clients through social media."

So what about checking out a prospective employee's online presence? "I think it's a good thing in general as long as the people who are screening don't focus on that one picture on Facebook where the potential new hire is drinking a big glass of beer because, well, if that's problematic to you, you probably won't hire anybody under 30," Mans admits.

"Everybody has such a picture in his or her profile. I think it's more important to get a 360-degree view of the person. What's he/she saying on their resume? What is the external line and, maybe, more importantly: what are their friends saying about them? This provides you with extra input in the decision-making process." This is especially true of candidates who claim to be social media whiz kids or who are going for a role where this will play a big part in their duties. "Every now and then I get people who say: 'I'm really great in social media. That's my job.' But you try to Google them and you can't find them. Well, something is wrong. I think that's really important for most people to build a personal brand and to make themselves findable online," says Mans.

Employment competition

To say the employment market is difficult right now would be putting it mildly. Although the U.S. unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 9.0 percent in January, new jobs are still difficult to come by. Economists had expected at least 146,000 new jobs created at the beginning of 2011, so the numbers reported at the beginning of February by the U.S. Department of Labor painted a mixed picture of the economy, which has struggled for more than two years. In this climate jobseekers need to, more than ever, utilize and harness the tools around them to strengthen their personal brand. What advice can Rick Mans give to those seeking employment at this difficult time?

"What I think is most important is to be aware that everything you put online is public. You might find that it's not private because, for example, Facebook every now and then changes its privacy settings and suddenly content becomes public. So, think of everything that you publish online - even though it's in a private environment - is being made public, where your potential employer is also present. So, if that's LinkedIn, make sure you have a presence on LinkedIn. For example, in the Netherlands, Facebook isn't the biggest network, it's Hyves. So you have to decide where your presence is depending on what kind of company it is. Most important is to be sure that you portray a consistent image of yourself over all those different channels."

The change in direction of the U.S. economy associated with the recession offers an opportunity to rethink where many aspects of business are headed. Perhaps no functional area has gone through more turmoil than human resources. From hiring and retention frenzies in the late 1990s to downsizing after 2001 back to hiring and retention issues combined with an intense focus on metrics and performance followed again by sharp downsizing in 2009-10, it's been tumultuous.

The downturn has resulted in an influx of traffic into the job market, but also forced HR departments to think more strategically. "I think social media can really help at reducing costs," says Mans. "For one project we did we achieved an email reduction of around 90 percent. We put a system in place where people could collaborate ideas on a document and everyone could see the changes, rather than going back and trying to find the original email." Incentives such as this reduce time and cut costs - two valuable commodities today.

Ad hominem

The lack of personal interaction is often what puts HR leaders off fully embracing and implementing social media tools. "I think for some products human interaction will always be required," says Mans. "I often conduct guest lectures in the Netherlands. Most customers said when asked that they'd rather see somebody in a suit with a tie in a building when say, going for a mortgage. That's what they prefer." For this side of business it is understandable customers would want face-to-face interaction. But for issues such as finding out where has the best cell phone reception in your area, this could be done online.

These initiatives - moving to a more digital customer relationship - will, in turn, impact HR. "I think human interaction will always be there for some issues. But social media will probably be better and faster, and for most companies, also a cheaper channel," predicts Mans. It is also important to remember that, despite having a more robotic reputation, social media is just that - social. It provides a platform upon which clients and industry leaders can interact. This could be the 'humanizing' factor for HR. "I think that social media can be used as a way to 'humanize' HR; we're often in the background of the business, and often only thought of as those that do the 'dirty jobs'...it can often be forgotten that HR are people too!" says Bloomfield.

So what is in store for the blossoming relationship HR has with social media?

"What we will need to start to see more of is our national HR associations using social media to engage current and potential members," Says Bloomfield. "There have been a couple of instances where this has been done quite badly and has alienated members. However, if the associations want to be able to encourage people to start careers in HR and to feel that their association understands them, they will need to start doing this more effectively."

For Mans, future trends are intertwined with cost reduction and employee retention. "Good employees are scarce, and there is a lot of social media effort regarding unity, creating a sense of belonging, but also making sure that while people can share their knowledge, they can develop themselves, but also boost community too. If there are fewer e-mails and fewer meetings, it will save time and so save money."

Both internally and externally, ideation and co-creation are becoming crucial components of HR operations. "So, internal communication and collaboration are important, but so are your customers in creating your next product or improving your next product," says Mans. "It's about asking: what do people say about us in the outside world, and how can we help people outside our formal customer service perspective or from brand or reputation management perspective?  Those are the big trends I see now."

HR managers need to stay ahead and abreast of the ever-expanding social media networks. By harnessing the tools internally, businesses can provide a new innovative platform for collaboration and communication whilst maintaining a professional, security aware operation. By using external sources HR operations can source talent from a wider field and seek out an all-round view of possible employees. With the social media trend showing no signs of slowing down, HR leaders need to spread their wings if they wish to keep up.  

Rick Mans

Rick Mans is the social media lead at Capgemini, he also works for several of the Fortune 500 companies as a social media strategist on national and international cases. He started working for Capgemini in 2007 and now lives and loves all things social media, helping people and enterprises in using social media in a way that adds value for them. He also gives guest lectures at several universities to make student aware of the impact social media will have on their life in general and on enterprises in particular in the future.

Grant Mason

Grant Mason is the director, along with his brother Craig, of Yackstar. Yackstar was started in 2009 and is a new business platform that enables teams and enterprises to communicate, collaborate, recognize and innovate. He was previously a Director at Coffee Causes in Australia and HR Manager at Rio Tinto.

Ellison Bloomfield

Ellison Bloomfield is an HR professional and Leadership Development Consultant at Deloitte in Melbourne, Australia. Bloomfield's role involves account management and development of the Deloitte Leadership Academy a blended learning solution which develops the capability and leadership skills of managers and executives. She also serves as Secretary on the Victorian State Council of Australian HR body the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI).

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