Tag Archives: Social HR

Check out this hangout with the @Gozaik team discussing the new Twitter Resume and Job Posting product Gozaik

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gozaikA few weeks ago I came across a new product for both sides of the hiring line – job seekers looking to find jobs and connect with recruiters online and for the recruiter and companies looking for prime candidates! I’m talking about a new kind of Google filtering within Twitter that narrows the job search for the above mentioned folks.

I immediately connected with the founder Joe Budzienski and asked if he would join me in a hangout to discuss it further, which we did. Here is the recording – it’s only around 30 mins!

I love anything that has to do with social and new technology! Check out the cool ways this is going to help you as Employers, Recruiters and Hiring Managers:

Promote Your Job Tweets

  • Gozaik job search displays job tweets to job seekers. Sign up now to validate your Twitter handle and drive more traffic to your Twitter job posts.

Search Candidates (COMING SOON!)

  • Identify active job seekers that meet your criteria. Review rich multimedia resumes. Watch video introductions.

Spot Trending Talent (COMING SOON!)

  • We spotlight ‘trending’ job seekers. Individuals with the most activity trend within your dashboard, highlighting job seekers you may be interested in.

Tweet Job Announcements (COMING SOON!)

  • Increase your job tweet response by delivering your job announcements through our ‘Job Announcement’ service. We structure tweets to optimize candidate response.

If you’re a job seeker or someone wanting to hire the best talent – do yourself a favor and check out Gozaik. Make sure to connect with them online. Get in on the ground floor!

 

Social Media ROI – Perhaps it’s not what we Thought

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yomamaI recently came across a fantastic article titled “The New ROI for Social Media Recruiting” which not only gave great insight into this year’s ERE Recruiting Conference & Expo but shared a little of why folks still are not jumping on the social media bandwagaon, especially executives. Perhaps we are trying to measure the wrong things.

This article talks of discussions that took place at the Conference that even big named brand representatives are still having a hard time getting their senior corporate managers and leaders involved or even understanding the ROI of social media and how it affects their organizations. We’re still looking at it as an end all, cure all as opposed to a valuable tool and channel of influence to our overall efforts. Perhaps that’s because of how it’s been presented to us.

Social is a grand tool for getting your brand out there and as this article surmises you can’t not be there.

You can’t not be on social because candidates, potential candidates, and those whom you hope to attract and someday hire will see your absence from the social media landscape as a negative. Doing it poorly is equally negative.

When a company fails to post regularly, and especially when comments and questions go unanswered for days or never, or when a company indiscriminately dumps all its job postings into Facebook’s news feed, it says, in the words of one recruiter, “This is a lame company that has no idea what social media is all about. Who wants to work for a company people think is lame?

The great thing that social enables us to do, and especially for brands and organizations, is telling the employer story and building its brand. Things such as the culture of the organization and what to expect in the hiring process on through to the day to day “what it’s like to work there” kind of things. These are the very particulars potential candidates are looking for when deciding whether or not to even begin the hiring process.

We may never be able to obtain ROI in how many folks we’ve hired through Facebook or Twitter (social in general). Instead, we should be looking at the value in branding and reputation building.

What does your company brand look like online? Are you a ghost town?

If you’re looking into a few easy ways to start, check out Glassdoor’s free resources.

Yo! I’m firing my current and only employee, Myself!

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firing yourselfSome of you know that last summer (2012) or somewhere around there, my friend and cohort Sabrina Baker and I started Discovering Social. Our idea was to assists Job Seekers through Webinars, in person and online workshops, training classes, and whatever else we could do to help them incorporate social media into their job search strategy. We have seen amazing things happen in this endeavor and are running full-speed ahead.

After a few months of diving in and getting the word out we noticed that there were still a few Human Resource and Recruiting folk running  around still looking to learn more about how to build their personal and professional brand and online footprint and trying to determine how to use social themselves (in recruiting and other sorts).

We then began to serve both ends of the hiring spectrum in building our Linked In groups and focusing our training to assists both sides in their endeavor to use social media with work, finding jobs and in sourcing for potential job candidates.

We are seeing tremendous success in helping folks around the globe in this endeavor and it’s what’s keeping us up at night. We’re passionate (to overuse an overused word) about helping others in understanding the what, why’s and how’s of doing social and we’re making some headway.

Conundrum Ahead

That being said, I have found myself overworked and running in a million different directions between my usual HR Conferences, Speaking opportunities, Blogging both here and elsewhere, holding Webinars, training and workshops for Discovering Social and my own business > Social Buzz Concepts. Add to that all the social media management of not only these two companies but my clients as well, and to be honest my head is about to explode. I’m sure you’re exhausted just reading that. So….

I have taken the last few months to really seek out where I need to go and feel that I am to do away with my current company and business “Social Buzz Concepts” and migrate strictly over to Discovering Social as of today.

announcement

I will continue to blog here and over at Discovering Social, as well as SHRM We Know Next, and will continue to manage a  few client social media accounts as I can.

I am excited about where we are taking Discovering Social and I’m passionate about helping others incorporate social in their Job Search strategies, online networking and brand building and developing strategic planning into implementing social into their business initiatives.

Do Your Part

Now we sure could use your support so make sure to check out the NEW DESIGN on our Website, Follow us on the Twitters, Give us a “LIKE” on Facebook Page and join our LINKED IN groups to show your support!

I understand that this is a HUGE leap of faith for me and that thrills me – to no end. I’ve never been one to play it safe – and I’m cool with that!

We thank you for your support – you all are a fantastic community! Stay tuned for more updates.

Finally an App to gauge Employee Morale

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morale.meWe’ve heard for several years now that employee morale is at an all-time low due to cut backs, cramming more work on our existing employees and employees are all like “I just want to be heard. This place sucketh.”

Unfortunately, we’ve been thinking that a $5.00 gift card was the answer to all of our problems (How’s that working for ya?). Let’s face it, giving your employees a gift card to Target or KFC isn’t the end all to your dilemma. We are insane to think that if we keep doing the same thing over and over one day it is bound to work. It’s not – it’s just not.

Smart folks are consistently looking for the best ways to solve problems especially in the way of technology. I love keeping these alerts on my radar so I can share them with you when I come across them.

One of my online connections Joel Cheesman, who I met a few years back at the Talentnet Conference in our fine city of Chicago, announced this past March a new tool for helping HR (among other managers) gauge employee morale by his new mobile app morale.me. Joel has been in the Recruiting/HR space for a zillion years and knows the ins and outs. He understands that this has been a real issue with getting crucial feedback and his new app is genius.

hangout with joel cheesman

In fact, I hit Joel up on Facebook and asked  if he would join me in a Google+ hangout to discuss employee engagement,  morale and his new app morale.me.

Here is the recording from the Hangout, in case you missed it (and I’m pretty sure you did).

I can’t wait to hear how this app explodes into our workplaces and changes our levels of engagement. After all, who doesn’t want to be heard and to know that somebody gives a crap about how they are feeling at work?

Now, hop on over to morale.me and check em out.

Social Media Policies – Are they absolutely necessary?

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Social MediaYesterday, I had the privileged of hosting a LIVE Google+ hangout with two of my friends and employment attorneys in the HR space Heather Bussing and Mary Wright, discussing Social Media policies. It was a fantastic discussion on privacy, legalities and best practices of Social Media in the workplace.

Here are a few things we discussed:

  • Is incorporating social policies the cure all?
  • Who owns the social media accounts – the Employer or Employee?
  • The Applebee’s fiasco
  • BYOD (Bring your own device) Who has rights?
  • Monitoring Employees Social Media
  • Is anything really private once it’s on the internet?

Take a look:

I’m a huge advocate of incorporating social technology into our everyday workplace and these gals made valid points from both an Employer and Employee perspective.

We concluded that the best social media policy is simply “Be Professional.” I think we can all agree that’s something to keep in mind and that most of us should think before we post.

About my guests:

heatherHeather Bussing is an employment attorney and the Editorial Advisory Board editor at HR Examiner. Heather has practiced employment and business law for over 20 years. She has represented employers, unions and employees in every aspect of employment and labor law including contract negotiations, discrimination and wage hour issues. She regularly advises companies on personnel policies and how to navigate employment discipline and termination issues. You can connect with her on twitter @heatherbussing.

maryMary Wright is the editor of HR Gazette, a daily newspaper for HR Professionals and Employment Lawyers. She is an Employment Attorney who has been practicing law for 25 years. Mary is passionate about helping make sure Employers and HR professionals who struggle daily with all kinds of issues and wants to make sure they get a fair shake in the courtroom as well as the break room. Connect with her on twitter @hrgazette.

Photo Credit: Bizfest

A lesson in Collective Leadership from the band Mumford and Sons

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Mumford-and-Sons-l-to-r-W-010It’s important that we surround ourselves with others that can encourage and inspire us to see things from a different perspective.

We’ve heard folks tell us that “It’s lonely at the top.” We’ve had discussions with many leaders who have shared their personal stories of feeling lonely and that they were the ones who took on the bulk of what happens in our organizations because it seemed as if no one else cared as much as they cared.

But isn’t leadership really more about inspiring others to become a part of the process? Isn’t it more about team-building and getting our organizations and people to work as one collective body? Heck, even pop groups understand that it takes more than one voice or one guitar player to create a whole?

I was recently encouraged by the music group Mumford & Sons in a documentary when they shared  “We try to always remember that our success lie in the collaboration of each member making the whole one really unique experience. We understand that each of us feeds off of each member and their unique piece of the puzzle and energy. This is what makes us who we are today.”

The collaboration model is nothing new and according to “Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis,” by the Building Movement Project, younger leaders are not attracted to hierarchical structures and are trying to find new ways to organize and structure work, ranging from entrepreneurial models to shared leadership and broader participatory structures. And more millenials are entering the workforce today than any other era.

Perhaps the time has come that we dissolve the lone hero leader mentality who comes in just in the “nick of time” to “save the day.” That instead, we take the opportunity to think of ourselves as facilitators of a process that engages everyone in our organizations. This can be quite challenging to leaders who are used to doing everything themselves or micromanaging out of fear that no one else can do it “quite like us” or that they are going to screw everything up and we’ll be left to clean up the mess.

Collective leadership empowers employees and teams and can in fact ease our burden.

Figuring out how to adopt this model is not an easy task but can be a tremendous asset to our cultures and the greater good of our organizations. Distributing leadership and responsibility is a balancing act, knowing when and what each of us needs to communicate to the team without overloading each other.

Collective leadership is the result of a process that brings diverse communities of people to create change, begins with a shared dream that forms the heart of a group of skilled and passionate individuals and emerges from our relationship building.

It is amazing what a handful of people can do when everyone’s leadership is tapped and others are allowed to share their insight and ideas. Who doesn’t like to be heard and feel as if they have a voice, especially at work?

This post originally aired at SHRM WeKnowNext. 

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

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???????????????????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.

2nd 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:

jeffSocial 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.

Maybe it’s time to dumb down our Social HR presentations

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social 101When it comes to adoption of Social tools into our organizations some folks may be a little behind in adapting. That’s okay, because that was us at one time or other.

I have spoken at my share of events and conferences especially in regard to technology and social tools in the workplace. Something I have to keep in mind is that “Not everyone is on the same level playing field.” We’re all at different levels of adoption and knowledge of these things. And that’s okay.

At a few recent events we (those of us who have been involved in social and technology longer) seemed to have forgotten this and really seemed to have taken it over the top of the heads of the attendees.

Sometimes we talk to our audiences in our own language and they’re sitting out there looking at us like a young calf looking at a new gate.

I try to remember when presenting that it’s best to “keep it simple, stupid” – because you don’t want to lose your audience completely.

When holding social presentations there will probably always be a mixture in the crowd of the following:

  • Those that have no clue about social adoption (as it regards internal collaboration and social media at work)
  • Those that understand the need for adopting but have no idea how to begin
  • Those that think these tools should never be incorporated into the cubicles and spend tons of dollars on “how to block it” at work
  • Those that have jumped in and are getting their feet wet
  • Those that have fully adopted technology (mobile, internal tools, etc) and have seen great success

This will more than likely always be the case. That being said, it does make it difficult when presenting to this kind of crowd. Perhaps it’s best when planning our events to segment our presentations into (a) (b) and (c) groups instead of lumping them all together.

At one of my most recent events I had a few folks (ladies) come to me in the lady’s room afterward to tell me “Thanks for talking on a level we could understand. Most of us aren’t up to speed and you kept it simple and very easy to understand.”

HR is rapidly advancing in social technologies but we must remember to share on a level that folks can understand not only in the need for incorporating these tools, the benefits and ROI’s but also share the “Here’s how to do it” as well.

Cause let’s face it – we can pretty much Google stats and the “WHY you need to do Social” – am I right?

Photo Credit: JohnHaydon