Consumerization of HR- Social Media Tools

According to Forbes’ Jeanne Meister, 2014 is going to be the year social integration becomes the status quo. Baby boomers and older have learned to embrace social media tools — years later they’ve caught up with the younger generations. The use of social media inside companies will be increasing for tasks such as staff intranet and HR training.

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Jeanne predicts that this year we will see a new phase of what she calls “the consumerization of Human Resources (HR),” meaning that employees will want to use their mobile devices to change the way they work with peers, communicate with their manager and even interact with the HR department. Jeanne gives us seven social media trends to look out for in the coming year.

  1. Big Data Lets New Jobs Find You Before You Even Know You’re Looking
  2. Mobile Apps Are the New Job-Search Frontier
  3. Companies Use Gamification (using games to teach) In The Workplace
  4. Re-think The Performance Review
  5. Learning Will Be Social and Happen Anywhere & Anytime
  6. MOOC’s Will Revolutionize Corporate Learning & Development
  7. Capture Your Organizational Klout

Callosum picked our preferred three social media trends to watch out for (bolded above).

1. Big Data Lets New Jobs Find You Before You Even Know You’re Looking
According to the PwC’s global CEO Study, 66 percent of CEO’s say the biggest challenge is finding prospective employees who have the necessary skills. As a result, CEOs have sourced recruiting to big data firms. Recruiters not only analyze a job candidate’s Linkedin profile, Twitter and Facebook posts, but also monitor activity on specialty sites specific to the profession. Using this approach to recruitment allows companies to find and evaluate job applicants based on merits and contributions to the social media network – instead of solely on an interview.

2. Mobile Apps Are the New Job-Search Frontier
“According to a study of Fortune 500 companies conducted by CareerBuilder, 39% of the US population uses tablet devices.” This is a staggering high percentage based on the recent launch of tablet products. It appears most are using devices outside the workplace as “only 20% of Fortune 500 companies have a mobile-optimized career site.”

The food-services corporation Sodexo jumped ahead of the tablet trend usage by developing both a smartphone app and a mobile-optimized career site. When I was in college Sodexo was one of the biggest employers for the college students. It’s no surprise they targeted technology-savvy Millennials. With the Sodexo website and mobile app prospective employees can search and apply for jobs, receive alerts, and get an insider’s culture view. In the first year alone “the mobile app downloads totaled 15,000 leading to over 2,000 new job candidates, 141 actual new hires and saved the company $300,000 in job board postings.”

4. Re-Think The Performance Review
In this day and age the annual performance review is dead. “When 750 senior level HR professionals were recently asked to grade their current performance management system, 60% gave it a grade of C or below, according to WorldAtWork. Human resource leaders don’t think that annual performance reviews are an accurate appraisal for employees’ work.” Two ways organizations are getting around the traditional annual review is to leverage the wisdom of the crowds and realize using data from social recognition. Through these channels they are able to continuously collect information on employee performance. Collected information offers a better perspective on the employee compared to a once a year review. Companies are also using a “check-in” process. Which is an informal system of real-time feedback, without having to fill out or submit HR forms. “Instead, managers are trained in how to conduct a check-in and how to focus the conversation on key goals, objectives, development and strategies for improvement and how to leverage the wisdom of the crowds to create a holistic view of one’s performance.” This enables flow of information throughout the organization and uses more experienced employees to help evaluate newer employees.

If you’re looking to recruit, Callosum suggests staying on top of the latest technologies and mobile devices of your target employment market. Knowing the demographics and psychographics may be used to your advantage to attract new employees.

If you’re looking for a new job, Callosum suggests updating your online personal brand, strategically using media profiles to show expertise and engagement. Do your research to see what technology platforms your prospective employer uses and cater to them.

Read about all seven social media trends in Jeanne’s Forbes article http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2014/01/06/2014-the-year-social-hr-matters/

What is your favorite of the seven trends and tips? And how will you begin to activate the tip?

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Clare Hefferren

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