Social Media and HR

I have neglected this blog due to upheavals - some good, some bad - in my life. But I am back, with a vengeance if I may say so! The past months have been immersion - or should I say 'swimming' with my head barely above water - on education, work, health and life issues. I have to admit though that even with all those swirling factors, I was still also involved in a lot of social media (Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter). I will always be a social media entity, both in the personal arena and at my work environment, and so I bow my head in shame for not giving blogging even a minutiae of attention for the past 9 months.

So...what has transpired while I was 'away'? Still grieving over my beloved dog Charlie who passed away in May 2011, but I have now adopted his "cousin", Curley. He looks like Charlie as they are both bichons, but that is where their similarity ends. Charlie was a gentle quiet soul while Curley is a sweet, frisky firecracker. Please check out my past posting about lessons we can learn from our dogs on how to behave in the workplace to see a picture of Charlie.

I am in a new and exciting position at my workplace!! It is so exciting it makes me giddy!! I am in a position where I can be innovative, turn visions to fruition, bring forward new-fangled crazy ideas and not be frowned-upon and viewed as an errant 'Bolshevik.' What more can I ask for? Well, aside from constantly wishing that there are more than 24 hours in a day so that I can act on everything blazing in my mind, there is nothing else I can ask for with regards to work at the moment.

I have been approached by the BC Human Resources Management Association to be one of 5 Council Leads for the Greater Vancouver Advisory Council and this is another development in my HR career that has been giving me a buzz! I will share my experiences as Council Lead in future postings.

I've gone on and on about inconsequential me. Let's now talk about Human Resources. I would like to impart my thoughts on how HR is evolving and what I envision HR will be 10 years from now. I see social media playing a huge huge role in the evolution of HR. Here's why:

a) Print ads, Workopolis, Monster and it's ilk will be dinosaurs soon. Employers are being more pro-active and are using Linked-In, Facebook,etc.. for recruitment.

b) We currently see some leaders of organizations maintaining blogs that are open to employees, and in the future one of the recruitment requirements that will be looked-at for leadership roles will be their social media capability.

c.) Employee intranets are dying (or may already be dead by now) and are being replaced by internal social enterprise platforms like Yammer which are more effective for an organization in terms of work collaboration, employee engagement, breaking-down of silos, crowdsourcing, recognition, learning and development, onboarding, and flattening of an organization.

d.) The need for personalization of the employee experience, from recruitment to onboarding, orientation, benefits choices, professional development, to retirement is becoming more and more prevalent, and it is the web and software developed to stay attuned with employees' needs that will be employed for this purpose.

e.) Social Learning is a buzzword that has been going around lately, and together with this is a culture of life-long learning. This will be the norm in the future for workplaces, and employees who are not life-long learners will be left behind or forced to ship-out.

I am sure there are more examples I have not observed, read about or envisioned yet. but if there is one thing I am certain of, it is that social media is not a fad. Social Media is a revolution...it is our future.