The Importance of Social Media in Human Resource

 

Social media, also known as "the internet of people", is a collaborative term for applications on websites that focus on communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. These are interactive technologies and digital channels that facilitate the creation and. sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. Websites and apps dedicated to social networking, microblogging, forums, social bookmarking and social curation are examples of some types of social media.

As a digital platform, it has had a tremendous impact on how we communicate and maintain dialogue with friends, family and colleagues. The advent of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others have presented to us a democratic platform where everyone has an opinion and an equal chance of being heard. Social media, in the way it is structured, allows people to share their life events, their opinions on matters of political or social significance and their feelings. Because of these benefits of the digital platform, it has become a rudimentary practice for every organization to have a social media presence for marketing or for Human Resource engagement.

Fig. 1.  Importance of Social Media  in Human Resource

Social Media plays more than a supporting role in Human Resource. It redefines employee engagement, communication and recruitment for the organizations. In any organization, Human Resource is the function that deals with all the employees related matters like payroll, recruitments, employee engagement, learning and skill development and work environment. It is also the responsibility of the Human Resource function to communicate and generate conversations about various Human Resource practices such as talent acquisition, leadership, employee communication as well as attracting future employees.

Through social media, conversations have changed both internally and externally in organizations. There is a need to create an engaging two-way dialogue between the company and the employees. Human Resource uses social media to create this dialogue. As we are aware, the main task of any Human Resource personnel goes beyond filling up excel sheets with employee details. There main job lies with knowing the pulse of the employees – what works for them, what doesn’t? With this tool, all the employees can engage, collaborate and react in a public forum in the presence of Human Resource. These online conversations around an organization are very critical for building a company’s image as an employer of choice. This makes social media an apt tool for corporate branding and engagement.

Social media provides Human Resource an opportunity to create a relationship with every employee in the organization, irrespective of their location. As employees become aware that there is a window where they can go for a resolution to any issue, the visibility and credibility of Human Resource as a function increase. It is also a great platform to get a general feel of how an organization is perceived by its employees and potential recruits.

Recruitments is one of the most sought-after areas of HR on social media platforms. These platforms have accelerated the speed of recruitment process which involves steps like posting a job, getting resumes, taking interviews and making offers.

Social networking sites afford potential candidates the opportunity to create a solid profile subsequently assisting greatly with the recruitment process, in particular the sourcing process, by giving the employer an impression of a candidate’s overall cultural fit as well as their technical competence. For instance, the LinkedIn site. Among the social media forms, this remains the most useful for identification of candidates as the most pertinent details are generally available. Often, taking a LinkedIn profile as a base and searching alternate media allows for a well-rounded profile to be created. Since social media channels have this amazing capability, some organizations are embracing its usage with the expected result of targeting potential employees.

In addition to that, social media can also be used for taking a 360-degree feedback from employees. It can drive collaboration between different stakeholders of the company and the employees. It can also aid learning and development through real-time, on-the-go access to training. The implementation of social media in the functioning of Human Resource is not an easy task. This is so because any employee engagement requires the involvement of all other business and support functions. It also requires Human Resource to be adept with handling of digital media skills and competencies.

Fig. 2. Social Media Recruiting Strategy

Human Resource needs to develop the right mix of tools for its social media presence. Having a page on key social media portals is not enough. With a right mix, they will be able to engage with the right audience at the right time. Some channels will target external audience while others will target internal employees. The purpose of some interactions might be corporate brand building and talent acquisition, while for other channels, the purpose could be dissemination of valuable information regarding employee benefits. Hence, knowledge and skill are important aspects while developing the Human Resource strategy on social media. The right strategy also takes into account different facets of social media campaign execution such as deciding the media mix, content type, channels, target audience and tools.

Social media also allows for an informal way of interaction compared to official meetings and emails. Human Resource emails often get lost in the barrage of emails employees receive every day. On a social network, it is easier to stay abreast with topics that an employee may follow. Human Resource may make employees follow relevant topics and pages related to the organization on social media to ensure no one misses out.

The use of social media such as blogs, networking sites and micro-blogging is on the rise through the enterprise environment. Benefits have been seen particularly in the areas of recruitment and brand awareness with some companies reporting increased sales after initiating a targeted online strategy. Not only did it have a positive impact, but it is also inexpensive. Amid the current economic hardships plaguing organizations across the globe, Human Resource professionals are challenged to do more with less and for this very reason using social media as a tool for recruitment are a cost-effective way. Remember, when business conditions change, company strategies need an equal and corresponding change just to stay even. With recruiting, this is equally as relevant. Agility and flexibility are important to coincide with fluctuating economic conditions and this is when having a clearly defined social networking strategy will pay dividends, both from a candidate generation and employment brand perspective. The speed at which social media tools could grasp the attention of the targeted compared to traditional methods is zero to none.

Fig. 3. Social Media to Evolve Human Resource Strategy

Human Resource personnel need to ensure administration of social media forums as well. As employees interact outside of their offices about their organization, a social media policy needs to be set in place and employees need to be educated on it. As social media is a vivid and highly interactive platform, the onus of engagement lies with employees to act as influencers and make it count. While it is easy to get oneself engrossed in the daily chores at work, it is helpful to follow and learn from the leading industry thought leaders who are making a profound difference in their respective fields by voicing their thoughts through their blogs, pages and articles.

While some companies initially considered social media to be little more than a distraction for employees, many are now realising the power that lies within a system that is so closely intertwined into the fabric of our modern digital society, to the point where we carry these networks around with us all day on our indispensable mobile devices. The realisation of this kind of power has meant that companies are increasingly appreciating the need to have an active and engaging corporate presence on social media in order to attract top professionals for open roles.

Social media websites are time-efficient, inexpensive and customizable which significantly increases the efficiency of recruitment of employees. They can easily analyze the thousands of resumes and applications through the system where they could be able to filter and view the information in more meaningful way. When used properly, social media is a valuable addition to human resource communications strategy. 

****

 

 

References:

Sherrie A. Madia, “Best Practices for Using Social Media as a Recruitment Strategy, 2011

Bruce Tulgan, “Finding Roles for Social Media Tools in Human Resource”, 2007

Angela Moore, “The Role of Social Media in Human Resource Management”, 2012

Peter Pedroncelli, "The Importance of Social Media for HR", 2018