HR and your Social Strategy – Do you even have One?

March 1, 2013 by Susan Avello

I always love to go to my extra-smart friends for guest posts to mix it up a bit. I’m quite boring, in reality, and don’t wanna bore you to tears. Jeff Waldman is one of my go-to-guys in that respect. Check out this outstanding post and make sure to connect with Jeff and his team. You can find them all over the place.

Photo Credit: en.blog.zyncro.

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SocialHRCamp business partner Salima Nathoo and I recently co-authored a 2 blog post series for SmartRecruiters and Blogging4Jobs on “Why HR Needs to Speed Up Social Media Adoption” and “Why HR is Slow to Adopt Social Media”. The former post focuses on the business case and the latter on barriers to adoption. It was a tough exercise to go through because there are so many reasons why HR needs to adopt and why HR has not already done so. The focus of this post is on a simple question that can be applied across all business functions. The question is… “What does social media adoption have to do with strategy”?

Oh Right… Strategy…
Does it not make sense that the activities that you perform during the course of your work day support some strategic aspect of the business you work for? Sure there are tasks that one would describe as mundane, repetitive, pointless, etc… but if you ask yourself “why” you are doing those tasks you probably could, or should come up with some strategic reason for why you do them. The same holds true for social media.

Ah Ha Moment…
Before you dive into the social media maze you need to clearly understand what your core HR business challenges are that you are trying to solve. Forget about social media for a second; every organization has challenges and strategic objectives that are being tackled. If they did not exist there would be no organization to work for.

Ask Yourself…
Pull out the dusty HR strategy and the business strategy and identify the top 3-5 priorities. Are you trying to attract higher quality talent to “hard-to-recruit” jobs? Are you trying to solve a growing retention issue? Are you trying to support the business expand and enter new markets? Will you be tasked with organizational restructuring or acquisition initiatives? You get the point but it’s critical for you as an HR professional to figure this out first.

2^nd Ah Ha Moment…
For all you non-HR people reading this blog post this also applies to you too. It does not matter what area of business you work in, the fact remains that you need to understand the core business challenges you are trying solve before you dive into social media.

Now You’re Ready to Think About Social Media…
You now have a crystal clear idea of why you want to use social media; now it’s a matter of identifying the social media platforms that will enable you to achieve the best results. The task of figuring this out will be so much easier if you have a clear idea of why you want to use them in the first place. Sorry, just slapping up a Facebook page because “everyone else” has one is a complete waste of time, and will ultimately make you look foolish.

So, think strategy first, then social media second.

This blog post was originally published in the Social Media Camp blog.

About the Author:

Social media enthusiast, entrepreneur, social HR strategist and educator, Jeff is the Founder of Stratify, a social HR solutions consultancy and SocialHRCamp, the first-ever global HR unconference. With a background in business, HR and marketing, and a diverse career spanning all facets of HR Jeff has been carving out and leading the way in a growing niche that brings together HR, social media and business. Founded in 2012 SocialHRCamp helps the global HR community adopt social media into HR business practices and will be running events in Canada, United States, Singapore, Philippines and India.

See how General Mills does Social Business #WatchThis

February 26, 2013 by Susan Avello

I’ve been getting a lot of info across my desk on NewsGator and how they’re consistently adding technology into the mix. They are truly one of the ones on the cutting edge of Social Technology. They’re finding out how to incorporate it into the Enterprise (and I don’t mean Star Trek).

My radar is always up when it comes to this topic because I love seeing organizations come up with creative social technology that greater assists us with things like recruiting, engagement, etc.

NewsGater has been around a few years but they’re always innovating, improving and staying relevant. In their own words they’re “Making the Social Workplace a Reality” and not just chit-chatting about it. This is the stuff that rocks my world!

In case you haven’t heard of NewsGator here’s a little history lesson. They came on the scene in 2004 with the hope of transforming the way people consumed information with the use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication). They quickly catapulted into the world of knowledge sharing, collaboration, and ultimately, enterprise-class social business software that extends across the Globe. This is good news for large organizations with employees all over creation.

Just this month (February 2013) NewsGator unveiled the latest version of its Social Sites social business platform that lets people work the way they would prefer (take that YAHOO) while remaining engaged in the important conversations going on throughout the organization. It allows employees to easily monitor conversations, interact with other employees on collaboration and knowledge sharing, and work the way they work best, as individuals.

I love what Daniel Kraft, NewsGator’s president/CEO says about the way we work, saying:

“Not everybody works the same way in the workplace. For social to truly succeed and increase human productivity it must tune to how people work individually. Social Sites lets people intuitively participate and shape social interactions in ways that suit them, helping them add value through this increased connectivity.”

This is so true in that you may have employees who prefer to work remotely, those that work from home, or those that still insist on “seat time” in the cubicle – allowing them access to these social tools keeps them engaged, happy and productive.

Take a look how General Mills is using NewsGator for these very things:

As a leader in the social workplace, NewsGator understands that as we incorporate social tools into our organizations and allow our people to be a part of the internal conversation we will see the big ole ROI in greater productivity, increased engagement, and a higher level of connectivity.

It’s a win-win, really!

Photo Credit: OnTheNetOffice

The value of using Google+ Hangouts within your Organization

February 13, 2013 by Susan Avello

It’s been a year and some odd months that Google+ brought us the Hangout which we slowly eased into for fear of folks seeing us in our pajamas. Now, we hear about hangouts happening almost every day. And yes, even in Human Resources.

Sometimes we feel disconnected from employees that are perhaps overseas and we talk with them mainly via email or sometimes Skype and are really looking for a much better approach to talking with those with whom we converse on a regular basis.

I love Google+ Hangouts and here’s why:

They close the disconnect. Let’s face it, you can only do so much with email. And it’s a known fact, we spend tons of hours a day (up to 2 hours) not to mention the costs associated with it, trying to track folks down, see if they’ve read your emails, find out why they haven’t responded. Hangouts cuts out all that and allows for real-time face-time with up to nine folks.

Hangouts can be recorded. This function can be a great asset to holding virtual sales meetings (or any kind of meeting) that can be recorded, automatically saved to Youtube (marked as private) and shared within your organization at any time. This is especially great for those who don’t show up or are late to meetings. Or, perhaps you have sales teams across geographical points, hangouts would be a great tool for management teams to gather together to share knowledge, brainstorm and then share with their teams.

You can share documents, videos and / or presentations within the hangout. Talk about opening new ways to train your team. I’ve used this in several of my hangouts especially with some very cool HR Tech developers to host a demo to those within the hangout. We were scattered all over the globe, yet we were participating LIVE with one another, while watching a presentation, while participating on the demo of the technology within our smartphones and/ or tablets. It’s really a shift in the way we do things…..

I’ve also used hangouts to showcase HR conference speakers and bloggers for an upcoming conference. What this does is allow the rest of the world to spy in on your conversations (if you make them available to the public) and really get to know your speakers and bloggers on a personal level. We’ve also used hangouts for LIVE STREAMING our events to those who weren’t able to make the event. It’s a win-win, really.

The only thing that is limited is your brain’s capacity to be creative in how you can utilize these fantastic technologies. These fantastic tools can assist you in creating better engagement, greater communication with your team members across the globe, and aid you in your everyday first-world problems within your organizations.

And did I mention it was free?

Here is an example of one hangout I did. Take a look and get a feel of what it can do for you!

For those of you not yet on the Google bandwagon, here’s a great guide “The Complete Google Guide.”

Catching up w/@DougShaw1 discussing HR, Culture, and Conferences! #WatchThis

October 9, 2012 by Susan Avello

I love meeting folks for Google+ hangouts and hosting video interviews. Yesterday was no exception.

I chatted with my friend @DougShaw1 right before he was heading to the States to speak at the Ohio SHRM Conference from his hometown of London, and we decided at that time that it would be great to reconnect after his visit here to discuss the conference, the experience of meeting online connection IRL and more and here’s our video hangout.

Shouts out to John Jorgensen for giving insight into the conference planning and so forth during this chat. Take a look>

HERE IS DOUG’s VIDEO on Strategic Planning

I love Doug’s style, humor and insight into Human Capital Management as I’m sure you now do. Make sure to connect with him online:

Follow him > Twitter

LIKE his page > Facebook

Link up with him > LinkedIn

Circle the guy > Google+

Watch his videos > Youtube

See his goods > Website

Photo Credit: socialtimes

Help! My Employees are playing GAMES at Work

May 15, 2012 by Susan Avello

I recently wrote about Using Games, Sims and Virtual Worlds at Work that gave some pretty stiff stats on how many of your employees are playing games on their smartphones and computers at work.

With that being said, why not incorporate games into product development, employee engagement, and utilize technology to drive it home?

Here’s a little video I put together that gives a few great examples of using GAMES to create comraidere and engagement in the workplace.

What has your experience been when incorporating these types of EE tools at work? I’d love to know.

For more information on these companies: Wizard Studios and Go Game Office

Photo Credit: Above and Beyond KM

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