Are we all really six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon? Yes
Are there other uses of social networking other than Kevin Bacon? Yes
Can HRIT employ social networks into their strategy? No
Social networks are an informal version of the business networking that many of us do, which in turn is a less formal version of on-line networks that have been introduced in the last several years. Not only do they include business networks, but how you relate to friends and family also. For HR, the most obvious, and currently the most prolific use of social networks is in the recruiting space. Recruiters utilize their contacts to find appropriate candidates for their hiring managers. However, these networks exist informally or through external websites like Jobster and Linkedin. These types of networks are best served by being external to the corporate HRIT practice as this allows a broader reach.
However, there’s another path for social networks in HRIT. We’re certainly not there yet, but with Talent Management and related systems on the rise, we’re gaining new peaks in recording competencies within our employee base. Technically the capabilities do currently exist to find the talent needed for a project or job. However, the ability to report is very different than the use of a “social network” framework to locate and validate that talent. Let me explain. Let’s say your benefits department needs to find a CEBS (certified employee benefits specialist) in the company for some work. All that needs to be done is a report or two and a phone call. Let’s say you actually wanted deep expertise in healthcare plan design with a specialization in wellness programs. Now you’d prefer to talk to a few “references” who have worked with the individual before and validate the experience. The project team planning exercise is often a function of “who knows who.” Systematizing this and facilitating warm introductions could increase the overall effectiveness of project staffing.
However, these networks will not only allow companies to share and manage knowledge, but will help individual contributors to seek and find talent, allowing them to become collaborators. Once again, we’ve all sat down in from of a project or task wondering if anyone else had “done this before.” Social networks in the workplace allow us to quickly identify the most likely sources of information and get to them rapidly through known contacts. Bringing competencies closer together by systematically identifying referencable skillsets could increase the use of informal project teams and informal collaboration.
Why did I say “no” regarding HRIT’s employment of social networks? In my opinion, we’ve really crossed a line from HRIT to knowledge management. While pulling heavily from talent management practices, understanding who has knowledge, identifying what knowledge they have and cataloging it is definitely the domain of knowledge managers.
5 responses to “Social Networks in HRIT”
Social Networks in HRIT May 25, 2006 on 2:00 am | by Systematic HR Are we all really six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon? Yes Are there other uses of social networking other than Kevin Bacon? Yes Can HRIT employ social networks into their strategy? No
I couldn’t agree with you more about the relevance of social networks within a corporation, as well as the intellectual separation of those networks from the HRIT. Good article.
[…] Jobster Enter Jobster, stage right (which has been put through of a little contextual analysis over at SystematicHR in a bit of an interesting article). Putting this whole thing in a bit of a recruiting/hr context, we can really liken the meaning of Jobster in contrast to LinkedIn to that of Jobby in contrast to Monster. Monster is huge, and it gives recruiters access to a wealth of potential candidates of any given skill or demographic. Which is nice, because it means that recruiters only have to go one place, and pay one fee, and get what they want, which gives Monster the power to charge huge premiums. […]
Definitely agree about the use of social networks, there’s a lot of potential, but things need to be brought together in a much more cohesive way before things start to really work well. I’ve written my thoughts on my blog too. Great post.
[…] Jobster Enter Jobster, stage right (which has been put through of a little contextual analysis over at SystematicHR in a bit of an interesting article). Putting this whole thing in a bit of a recruiting/hr context, we can really liken the meaning of Jobster in contrast to LinkedIn to that of Jobby in contrast to Monster. Monster is huge, and it gives recruiters access to a wealth of potential candidates of any given skill or demographic. Which is nice, because it means that recruiters only have to go one place, and pay one fee, and get what they want, which gives Monster the power to charge huge premiums. […]