Archive for the ‘Human Resources’ Category

Uncovering Your Company's Hidden Assets…Your Social Employees!

Friday, August 28th, 2009

HiddenCompanies have spent decades building out organizational charts that focused on a few select individuals hired as experts.  These experts hold significant knowledge that is typically more Macro is scope.   Their public voices are certainly respected and are typically very rehearsed and linear. 

Today, the new reality is that employees from all corners of the organization are able to  express themselves in many ways across the digital world.  These new voices are also expert in many cases but from a Micro perspectives and equally important.  Some of these employee’s expressions are associated with the company, some are not and this is exposing the public to a new view of the culture of the company.  This new view is having affects that are impacting customers, partners, shareholders & potential new employees in dramatic and often positive new ways.  The companies that are embracing their corporate legions digitally are beginning to uncover talents of their employees that had long gone unrealized. 

Social Media is unlocking a treasure trove of hidden value for businesses with their employees.  Southwest Airlines is promoting the voice of baggage handlers, flight attendants and other jobs that were never before thought of under the traditional guise of Corporate Communications.  The results are significant with real ROI in terms of reduced service calls, increased loyalty, more sales, and widespread digital evangelism (earned media).   So how do you take advantage of employees who have a hidden knack for communicating and can add value to the face of your new digital organization?

We are delighted to get Valeria Maltoni of ConversationAgent for this event!  Valeria is more than qualified to lead this discussion as she is an outspoken expert in new media, marketing and corporate culture on her 3 yr old blog and understands Marketing Communications from a hands-on, practical standpoint.  She will help us understand the following:

 

 

Topic:  Uncovering your Company’s Hidden Assets…Your Social Employees!

 Q1:  How do you find them?

Q2: How can you enable them?

Q3: Do we need to change the skills we recruit for? 

Plan on participating Tues 9/1 @ 12 noon EST by going to the LIVE page or using the #socialmedia tag on Twitter.

Posted in Human Resources, corporate | 1 Comment »

Corporate Cultures & Social Media – How to become a Change Agent for your company

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

changingdirection_250x250Thinking about incorporating social media into your company?  This session is a must, if not for the topic, then certainly for the moderator, Geoff Livingston.  Geoff brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the topic of affecting change within organizations related to social media.  He is an accomplished writer, authority and practitioner on public relations and change management within organizations.

 

Just like we know that some people are naturally social, some companies are going to be naturally social.  Some are not.  Is it possible to get an un-social company, well, social?  That is what we will explore today at noon.  If it is possible to get a company social, then how you can get it done. 

 

Description:  How do companies embrace social media? Is it from the bottom up, top down? Is there a strategy? What department handles it?  All of these questions create so much tension that companies simply do nothing.  All along we know that it almost doesn’t matter what department it starts in, who drives it or how long it takes if the company is not willing to change the way they operate, think, culture, etc around becoming interactive with their constituents.

 

Questions: 

  • 1. What are the challenges with adopting a culture suitable for becoming interactive?
  • 2. How can you prove that it works…What are some examples of how SM has positively changed work flows, processes, departments, companies?
  • 3. Source a list of actionable items to help an advocate become a change agent within a company.

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Follow up to Unpanel session #4:Transparency in Job Search Efforts

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Michael Long, aka “The Red Recruiter”,  hosted a lively, and up to this point,  our most energetic and active Unpanel.  We asked Michael what his takeaway’s might have been from the 1 hour session:

The transparency issue is a big one and we are all trying to figure
out what we can and cannot do. From a candidate perspective, employers
range in the weight that they put on your social media presence. With that
said, the future looks bleak for those who want to hide their online
presence. Advancing tools and search savvy recruiters are quickly learning
how to dig in deeper. The buzz would indicate a future filled with both
your paper resume and an online characterization.

The second takeaway from our discussion on transparency was about being
yourself. If you have to pretend to be someone else in order to get that
perfect job, it probably isn’t the perfect job for you. With that said,
social media has created a platform for people where they can be themselves.

Generational judgments and differences aside, as a recruiter I have learned
that there is a perfect work-home for almost everyone. It’s a matter of
matching up with a culture that suits your desires and a company that
dedicates to something you are passionate about. Long-term, this is the
situation that works out best for all parties involved.

The final major takeaway about this topic… and the one that stuck with me
the most, was regarding the “issue” of transparency existing at all. One
comment specifically pointed out that the “issue” has remained a topic
simply because the X and Baby Boomer Generations make it one. Once their
voice has faded in the marketplace, the issue of transparency won’t be an
issue at all. At first (since I personally sit on the boarder of X & Y)
this comment caught me off guard. However, once I thought about it more, it brought up some good questions.

Do the Y Gen’s have any issue with being transparent? If not, then perhaps this issue is something that early generations have to deal with.

Perhaps we are staring change in the face and we are just having a hard time accepting it.

PERHAPS, that should be another UnPanel!

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Posted in Human Resources, social media | 3 Comments »

Drawing the Line with Transparency in Job Search Efforts

Monday, April 20th, 2009

social

The terrain of hiring job applicants, applying for positions and evaluating talent is changing. Social media is now a tool that can be used by all those mentioned above, as well as others in the HR space.

But does everyone know how powerful and to what extent these new tools can be used? People trying to get jobs now need to decide whether they should create a social media persona, dial back their personas, or hope their prospective employers do not dig too deep.

Do applicants care? Do HR professionals now use social media and social networks as a determinant in hiring? HR and social media are hot button issues these days, so lets raise the level for everyone and talk about the role of social media in HR, hiring and job searching/applying.

All of these questions  as well  as the following will be asked tomorrow at 12 noon eastern at our 3rd #socialmedia Unpanel by Michael Long aka @theredrecruiter

1) What level of transparency is expected of a candidate? In other words, How visible should you ( the candidate)  be with your social media participation?

What are the new expectations? For the hiring manager and the candidate?

2) Who should and who should not be transparent in their efforts?  OR  Who benefits the most from a candidate being transparent?  Is it industry specific? Are there any limits?

3) How will being transparent change the way people are hired in the future?

Tomorrow’s Unpanel should be one of our Liveliest yet! Look forward to being there and make sure you bring your “A” game for this discussion.

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Event #3 Summary: Adapting Corporate Cultures for the Social Enterprise – an Action Plan

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Jessica Lee was  our esteemed moderator for Unpanel Event #3 in which we discussed Adapting Corporate Cultures for the Social Enterprise –  Specifically an Action Plan. The questions were:

Are there generational differences / digital divide issues with employees / customers? and How to manage them? From this question the answers varied from, “start with education” to bridge the gap to “find a champion”. Still others thought there really wasn’t that much of a divide yet some thought that encouraging everyone to get their hands dirty with social media might be  better than any formal training that one could get. The bottom line: some type of hands on training and education might work best:

But here’s a question. that’s the obvious answer but what else is there?

The next question was, In the social enterprise, what are the skill sets needed, attributes, values to look for at each level? Do you need a janitor that can also relate to a customer in person / digitally? An interesting comment arose from this and that was: Do we hire/promote “connectors” for an org as ability to find, connect, combine knowledge of others inside/out? Great question! and then this comment which was very insightful-”Are you hiring a noun or a verb? If you view #socialmedia as a thing, you hire a noun. If personality, a verb (talkative)” and finally, It’s easier to teach someone how to use Twitter than it is to teach them to be outgoing and friendly. The bottom line here is that ideally people need to possess the skills going forward but even if they don’t, they can still ramp up.

And lastly, given that there were certainly some technological challenges that prohibited the discussion to flow the way it should, we think that Jessica did an awesome job in Unpanel #3


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Event #3: Adapting Corporate Cultures for the Social Enterprise – an Action Plan

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

We are excited this week to have Jessica Lee from APCO Worldwide moderating our UnPanel event this Tuesday @ Noon EST.  The topic this week extends last week’s discussion on adapting corporate cultures for the Social Enterprise and will focus on building our a roadmap for companies to consider.

jessica-leeJessica is a leader in the industry, a sought after speaker and editor of the blog Fistful of Talent, a leading talent management and human capital blog with over 50,000 visitors per month.  Her experiences with clients worldwide and insightful contributions to her site Fistful of Talent will make this a can’t miss event for companies looking for direction on where to start in adapting their organizations.

Our questions this week will include:

  • 1. Are there generational differences / digital divide issues with employees / customers? How to manage them?
  • 2. In the social enterprise, what are the skill sets needed, attributes, values to look for at each level? Do you need a janitor that can also relate to a customer in person / digitally?
  • 3. What items are needed to create an Action Plan to adapt your corporate culture? Who needs to own it?

Don’t miss this week’s event with Jessica Lee moderating at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com.

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