Understandably, this Web 2.0 World is moving very fast. There is a host of acronyms, applications, and terminology that can’t be found in a dictionary just five to ten years old. It is with that in mind, I have chosen to compose this post. Suddenly, there is a huge gap in whether companies are engaged in Social Media or Social Networking. The forward thinking company is doing both.
Social Media is how companies are managing their brands and persona in the marketplace. Corporations are joining the revolution by evoking a multi channel communication with their clients, consumers, and nay sayers via Web 2.0 technology (Blogs, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, White label communities, etc.) They mine the data for product enhancements, new ideas, and support information. We all benefit from this. Companies that engage in this behavior range vastly span the gambit of stogie brands to the hip youth seeking ones you would expect. Some examples are Comcast, Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks, Dell, Tyson Foods, and Grey Goose Vodka.
Social Networking is different. This is entities engaging in connections to provide and share information to be able to perform a task faster, cheaper, and better. They may also be connecting for the purposes of simple social interaction. This still can be seen as building that “circle of influence”. The entities are typically individuals but corporations are increasing particpating.
This is all great. Why do you need to care? How will Social Networking make the HR professional’s life easier? How is it going to change the way you do your job each day and the lives of your clients, your employees? There are many reasons. They may all boil down to the simple need to connect with people that hold information critical to your success. Businesses today are more spread out than ever before. Regardless, if you are a multi national company like IBM or a small 50 person company with a host of remote employees, you can benefit from social networking.
As a Human Resources professional, it may be scary at first glance to embrace the world of Web 2.0. My advice is to take a deep breathe and relax. Many people felt the same way about corporate email and websites in the 1990’s. You are going to have some new challenges with the new web applications. In my opinion, the positives greatly out weigh the challenges.
Here are a couple of examples on how your employees can use the tools and applications to benefit their business. They can use their Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts to announce openings your company has putting that referral program on steroids. They can use the same tools to help announce new products, press releases, marketing events, sales, and more. Guess what, that effort cost your company the fraction of the total cost of the employee’s time and they may have done it off the clock. Think about the difference in cost between a referral bonus vs. a recruiting company or an internet ad post. Which candidate is more valuable typically, the employee referral or the blind resume? Booz Allen has stated referrals are the number one best source for high quality new hires.
Smart employees are already use RSS feeders and a well defined Twitter stream to have a daily access to articles their peers inside and outside your company have seen as great content. This equates to daily motivation for professional development.
Let’s take this one step further. Companies like Dow Chemical, IBM, Deloitte, Eli Lily and more have created private corporate social networks to allow by invite only their employees, retirees, and alumni (former employees) to connect, share knowledge, and have access to pertinent information through their networks. You, as a company, own all the data on who is connected to whom. What are their skills, hobbies, and who do they related to within your company.
How do you use this information? Please consider a mid to senior level accounting job that is open. Today, posting this to an internet job site will flood your inbox with possible candidates. It will cost you time to sift through the applications and respond to the vast follow up calls. This will also spur on the calls from the recruiters wanting to do it for you at a 20-30% fee.
By first going to your corporate social network, a simple query might return John Smith. He left your organization five years ago now has the skills and experience to fill your position. John has indicated on his profile an interest in returning. Bingo! John is your proverbial “low hanging fruit”. You can also post this job to your CSN (Corporate Social Network) to have additional candidates and referrals.
Beyond this, statistics prove these “Boomerang employees” are more valuable than new hires as they understand the corporate culture, have connections within the company, and take less time to train. These Boomerang employees are 50% less expensive to rehire, 40% more productive in their first three months, stay twice as long, and have proven to be top performers. Now, think of an employee that has been kept in touch with in their absence… what will those statistics be? Hmmm… (By the way, I have “boomeranged” twice in my career. Both times, I was promoted and considered a top performer.)
If you are doing the reverse of hiring at this point, corporate social networks can help soften the blow by allowing your former employees to connect with each other and help each other find a new career. This allows you also to stay connected with them. It provides an easy access to the knowledge that they leave with as well. In the long term, you will want to be able to rehire possibly these same people or people from their network. Remember, there have been approximately thirteen recessions since the Great Depression.
The simple point is employees, customers, partners, clients, retirees, and alumni are engaging in conversations, connecting and discussing your company. How long are you going to let the conversation go on without you?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Goals are coming together My Wheel of Life
I haven't forgotten about setting goals. I have been thinking about them in the quiet moments of my day for weeks now. I finally have said out loud to two important men in my life, my husband and my boss. I want to write and set goals that I know deep inside myself can and will be achieved this year. In reflection of the 2008 list, I went through the motions of doing it. As a result, they got lip service. The result is I wasn't able to say I achieved my intended result.
Rob Vaughan, my boss at SelectMinds sent each of us a great exercise on giving points to goal or resolution categories called "The Wheel of Life" . They include: Family, Financial, Career, Social, Health, Mental, Spiritual, and Personal / Prestige. These equate to general areas relating back to personal happiness and success. In our discussion on the way into a client appointment yesterday, I found myself saying, "My primary objective is to set goals that are achievable and will encourage me to be a better person both professionally and personally by my own standards at the close of 2009" Here goes a quick sample of the goals I am still tossing around metrics and specifics for myself:
1) Health: I want to strive to be healthier. This means following doctors orders. Getting more physical activity. Eating smart. Taking my vitamins daily. Moisturizing! Finding positive outlets for disappointments and stress. If I am able to fine tune measurable actions to create better habits, this will stir results. I have been off to a great start this year with taking care of some nagging medical issues.
2) Family. Fiona needs to complete obedience training. I need to see my family more both my parents and cousins.
3) Spiritual - Last year I forced myself to read Eat, Pray, Love. I was surprised how much it impacted me. I would like to re read it and take notes and develop goals from it. Beyond this, I would like to do a bit of Church shopping. Although, I was brought up in the Congregational Church, it isn't aligned with my current philosophy and I don't agree with many of the edicts coming from the UCC Conference. Time to look around for a new spiritual home. I am thinking Church of England, perhaps or "Catholic light".
4) Social. For the past couple of years, adding new friends in Connecticut has been a goal. I have tried a ton of things. This year, I am going to relax this effort and concentrate on being a good friend to the people in my life already. Especially, those long lost friends from New England College I have connected with through Facebook. They were like family for four years. I am not losing them again.
5) Financial. For me, this one goes hand in hand with professional. First of all, I want to continue to build the savings account outside of my investments and 401K. Second, continue to be prudent about credit cards. Finally, I want to help others get on the path to financial success by assisting people in making smart decisions.
6) Career. I want to really have a successful sales year from a numbers stand point at SelectMinds. It is crucial to have a success here in spite of the economy. Beyond this, I want to be seen as a leader and an expect on Corporate Social Networking. I want to continue to educate myself and others by promoting the SelectMinds brand and my own personal brand in the space. NOTE: One combo goal between financial and career is to feel like I deserve my cleaning service back!
7) Personal or Prestige. This one is really about hobbies and interests. I guess I want to travel some place unique this year outside of Florida and the Cape. I want to check a new experience off my things to do and see before I die list. One thing that is already scheduled is taking a pistol permit class. Yup, I am going to be a gun toting blogger shortly.
8) Mental. Having just found this as a new category I am still formulating ideas. This is about personal growth, i.e. Professional Development courses or other education.. self help type books. My initial thought is this isn't a total priority this year. I will put some "Mental" effort to looking into possible goals.
From this, my next steps are to formalize the actions and steps for my primary and secondary list of objectives this year.
Rob Vaughan, my boss at SelectMinds sent each of us a great exercise on giving points to goal or resolution categories called "The Wheel of Life" . They include: Family, Financial, Career, Social, Health, Mental, Spiritual, and Personal / Prestige. These equate to general areas relating back to personal happiness and success. In our discussion on the way into a client appointment yesterday, I found myself saying, "My primary objective is to set goals that are achievable and will encourage me to be a better person both professionally and personally by my own standards at the close of 2009" Here goes a quick sample of the goals I am still tossing around metrics and specifics for myself:
1) Health: I want to strive to be healthier. This means following doctors orders. Getting more physical activity. Eating smart. Taking my vitamins daily. Moisturizing! Finding positive outlets for disappointments and stress. If I am able to fine tune measurable actions to create better habits, this will stir results. I have been off to a great start this year with taking care of some nagging medical issues.
2) Family. Fiona needs to complete obedience training. I need to see my family more both my parents and cousins.
3) Spiritual - Last year I forced myself to read Eat, Pray, Love. I was surprised how much it impacted me. I would like to re read it and take notes and develop goals from it. Beyond this, I would like to do a bit of Church shopping. Although, I was brought up in the Congregational Church, it isn't aligned with my current philosophy and I don't agree with many of the edicts coming from the UCC Conference. Time to look around for a new spiritual home. I am thinking Church of England, perhaps or "Catholic light".
4) Social. For the past couple of years, adding new friends in Connecticut has been a goal. I have tried a ton of things. This year, I am going to relax this effort and concentrate on being a good friend to the people in my life already. Especially, those long lost friends from New England College I have connected with through Facebook. They were like family for four years. I am not losing them again.
5) Financial. For me, this one goes hand in hand with professional. First of all, I want to continue to build the savings account outside of my investments and 401K. Second, continue to be prudent about credit cards. Finally, I want to help others get on the path to financial success by assisting people in making smart decisions.
6) Career. I want to really have a successful sales year from a numbers stand point at SelectMinds. It is crucial to have a success here in spite of the economy. Beyond this, I want to be seen as a leader and an expect on Corporate Social Networking. I want to continue to educate myself and others by promoting the SelectMinds brand and my own personal brand in the space. NOTE: One combo goal between financial and career is to feel like I deserve my cleaning service back!
7) Personal or Prestige. This one is really about hobbies and interests. I guess I want to travel some place unique this year outside of Florida and the Cape. I want to check a new experience off my things to do and see before I die list. One thing that is already scheduled is taking a pistol permit class. Yup, I am going to be a gun toting blogger shortly.
8) Mental. Having just found this as a new category I am still formulating ideas. This is about personal growth, i.e. Professional Development courses or other education.. self help type books. My initial thought is this isn't a total priority this year. I will put some "Mental" effort to looking into possible goals.
From this, my next steps are to formalize the actions and steps for my primary and secondary list of objectives this year.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Goals Part Deux
I am still greatly struggling with this topic. In my quest to put together goals that fit with ability to complete them, I have done a bit of Internet research on goals and resolutions. The web news is full of items on this.
I have looked at celebrity goals. Brittany is going to try to stop biting her nails. Okay, there is the only thing the pop icon and I may have in common. That would be a good goal. I do bite my nails but do I care enough to make it a priority? After all the big 40 is looming this year... Cameron Diaz wants to "start wearing a bra". Well, I have had that one managed. Otherwise, it would be a necessary goal. After reading this one, I decided I needed other mentors to help form the goals.
I read a couple of articles on About.com on resolution and goal writing. Here is what I got out of my research...
1) Goals should have stretch and growth built into them but unattainable goals are worth the time and effort. In fact, unattainable goals can have negative results.
2) Work to develop a limited number of goals. Don't develop a grocery list of goals. Finish them and move on. There was also a good idea of an "A" list and a "B" list of goals. I would list "not biting my nails" on the B and even C list.
3) In order to be able to check them off, goals need to have measurement. Otherwise, how will you be able to move on to another set or realize that even though you haven't obtained completion you have made efforts to get there. The best example I have of this was my goal to meet and develop friendships outside family and cycling friends locally. I know I have taken steps to do this that have worked prior and tried other avenues. I haven't succeeded ... yet.. However, I have learned to knit! I call that effort and progress.
I am feeling better about actually getting into the nitty gritty of putting together a plan for 2009. I am also encouraged by the clips from Oprah yesterday. She seems to be facing the same challenges I have. The best thing I can say is I haven't given up on goal setting. I still want to improve my performance and hopefully satisfaction with life. Stay tuned ...
I have looked at celebrity goals. Brittany is going to try to stop biting her nails. Okay, there is the only thing the pop icon and I may have in common. That would be a good goal. I do bite my nails but do I care enough to make it a priority? After all the big 40 is looming this year... Cameron Diaz wants to "start wearing a bra". Well, I have had that one managed. Otherwise, it would be a necessary goal. After reading this one, I decided I needed other mentors to help form the goals.
I read a couple of articles on About.com on resolution and goal writing. Here is what I got out of my research...
1) Goals should have stretch and growth built into them but unattainable goals are worth the time and effort. In fact, unattainable goals can have negative results.
2) Work to develop a limited number of goals. Don't develop a grocery list of goals. Finish them and move on. There was also a good idea of an "A" list and a "B" list of goals. I would list "not biting my nails" on the B and even C list.
3) In order to be able to check them off, goals need to have measurement. Otherwise, how will you be able to move on to another set or realize that even though you haven't obtained completion you have made efforts to get there. The best example I have of this was my goal to meet and develop friendships outside family and cycling friends locally. I know I have taken steps to do this that have worked prior and tried other avenues. I haven't succeeded ... yet.. However, I have learned to knit! I call that effort and progress.
I am feeling better about actually getting into the nitty gritty of putting together a plan for 2009. I am also encouraged by the clips from Oprah yesterday. She seems to be facing the same challenges I have. The best thing I can say is I haven't given up on goal setting. I still want to improve my performance and hopefully satisfaction with life. Stay tuned ...
Monday, January 05, 2009
Achieving Goals
For the past five years at least, I have been putting in writing goals for both my personal and professional life. This started while I was in Georgia, I think. I hated the idea of a "New Year's Resolution". They always seem to be focused on the negative rather than a positive start to the next 365 days.
I have found myself struggling this year to put down the objectives for 2009 for both sections of my life. I want to blame this on a number of things. Today, I have gone from being excited to a bit depressed over the need to put these down. I am very lucky to have a manager that completely believes in the goal setting process. I think this may help me this year. Typically, I am the one writing them and then trying to get a friend to join me in the activity and setting up meeting times to review our progress or lack there of progress.
My dismay in writing these goals has been building over the last couple of days. I want to actually NOT have to put the same ol' goals on the list for 2010. I want to knock them off once and for all or get to the next step. I have been reading over and over the lists from 2006, 2007, 2008. Some years, I was very detailed and put steps in place. Last year, I was very vague and tried to keep the list short and manageable. This year... I am going to do a mixture of both.
My general themes are around:
- Health and Fitness
- Networking and friends
- clean house and happy family
- Financial success and hitting financial targets
I have made fits and throws at the health and fitness goals. For example, I joined a gym here in New Milford in late April. I went faithfully until we got Fiona and came down with Lyme disease this Summer. All progress stopped. I started again in October only to have another medical issue come on the scene. I am back at the gym again but fear that I will stop going again. The best I can say to that goal is that I haven't given up on it. It is still important to me.
Networking and friends.. Over the past three years, I have had goals about establishing a network of friends here in Connecticut that don't have anything to do with our family or Mr. B's cycling. I have certainly tried! Here are some of the things I have tried to build the network:
Knitting classes, Book clubs, movie club, puppy obedience, charity events, joined the gym, joined the New Milford Republicans.... Short of adopting a 6 year old child, I am at a bit of a loss.
Clean house and Happy Family... Well, my home is cleaner than my parents (not a hard thing) and not as clean as my in laws. I will always fight to get the laundry done. There is nothing in this world that is going to make me enjoy cleaning the bathroom. I am going to be happy with the efforts I make moving forward. I will be adding to my professional goals making enough money to justify having a cleaning service again.
Finally, financial success is my own to master. I need to hit my daily and weekly targets for activity and staying motivated. To date, this is seemingly easy because I am loving every minute of working at SelectMinds and more importantly the conversations I am having with prospects.
I am wondering if others have trouble writing goals. If so, let me know. I will be posting a sample of the 2009 goals here to my blog. Please feel free to keep me in check. My primary goal this year will be to have progress on each of them and to check some hangers off the list in 2010.
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