By Elisabet Welinder

Is social media for all businesses? Is it really for free and must all organizations be present? The myths about social media are many, and so are the questions on how to best integrate the channels with your communication.

Students’ use of communication channels

On February 22nd in Stockholm, Universum held a seminar about social media and HR ”Do you have to be on Facebook?” Universum´s Director of Nordic and Eastern Europe, Claes Peyron, started by welcoming the audience and presenting data on students use of communication channels when they look for information about potential employers. On average a student uses 6.6 communication channels, including everything from career magazines and recruitment brochures to social networks and live webinars with employers. The different channels have different purposes, depending on if you want to become more visible or get more applications.

Trends in social media and HR

Next speaker out was Universum´s Jacob Andelius, an employer branding consultant who has investigated how companies use social media. Jacob linked macro trends, such as globalization and women’s advancement, to social media and HR. One trend he pointed out is the importance of trust when you build your employer brand; to be successful you need media and candidates to trust your company. Overall, HR is becoming more strategic, measured and market-oriented, a development driven by new technology. In some age groups, almost half of the Swedish population surf on a mobile every day and Facebook has users of all ages.

Martin Dahlgren, CEO at Besedo, presented numbers on how big social media has become. If Facebook was a country it would be the third biggest in the world and over 500 000 comments are posted on the network every minute. He moved on by talking about the benefits of taking an active role in social media and how to listen, understand and act. Martin´s conclusion was that if social media is a threat or opportunity depends on your actions – don´t be passive!

Myths about social media

When Jacob was back on stage, he told us there are hundreds of social media sites today and it´s important you learn to know your target group and where they are. For some companies, recruiting on Facebook isn´t the right thing, but many can get a lot out of it. The myths about social media are many and not always true: social media isn´t enough – you often need more channels to reach your audience; social media isn´t safe – think of the BP scandal, etc. To clarify, social media is a new communication tool, but it doesn´t replace others, it just adds another one to the mix. Moreover, traditional media, as in print, is perceived to be more credible than the online chatter. Jacob ended the session with a discussion on how to build a social media strategy, emphasizing the importance of engagement.

Five social media tips:

1. Use your employees
2. Use all accessible channels
3. Use your recruiters and make them visible
4. Make someone form the marketing team responsible
5. Secure long-term support from the management team

Last week, we looked at Gen Y and the contributing factors they bring to the workforce. Today, we look at what Gen Xers have more of than the other generations. Poll closes on Friday, March 2nd, at 08:00 CET. Please take part in the conversation.

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Every generation looks at the other with critical eyes. We are all too familiar with the generation gap: the lack of communication between one and another, especially between the young and the old, due to differences of tastes, values, outlook, and different world experiences.

Gen Xers and Baby Boomers often criticize Gen Ys, dubbed the Peter Pan, Trophy, Boomerang generation and more. They’re seen as delaying adulthood and have a greater sense of entitlement, wanting to be praised, thanked and rewarded for everything good that they do.

True, generations differ by region, depending on social, economic and cultural factors. Yet, Gen Y has been defined by the revolutionary progress made in communications, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world, Gen Y has also had an upbringing influenced by neo-liberalism, both political and economic.

If we look at the positives and exclude the negatives, what does Gen Y bring more of to the table that Gen Xers and Babyboomers might not necessarily excel in?

From those that participated in the Universum talk, one in two people see that Gen Ys are extremely tech-savvy and this enables them to be extremely productive.

Being entitled the “Net Generation”, they’re enthusiastic users of social media, giving them a strong competitive advantage in networking potential and they also embrace globalization, being more culturally adept than any other previous generation (according to 35% of voters).

Lastly, but not least, being the social media generation, they’re also perceived as being more open, a given for young people nowadays that have no qualms about publicly exposing themselves.

Gen Ys top three competitive strengths in the workforce are:

1. Productivity due to being tech-savvy
2. Networking potential & global mindedness
3. Openness

Click on infograph to see the results of this week’s poll.

Gen Ys benefits brought to workforce

By Neville Henderson, principal consultant at Pasfield Curran

Article was first published in HRZone.

As uncertainty over the Eurozone crisis continues to dampen confidence and fears of a double-dip recession continue to loom, it appears that UK organisations will need to keep on tightening their belts for some time to come.

And as downsizing strategies go, few measures ever seem to receive the same amount of airtime and column inches as job cuts, which have become the very public face of the economic downturn.

The rationale for redundancies is easy to understand when the workforce can account for anything up to 90% of a business’ total fixed costs. But are employers simply taking the easy way out?

There is mounting evidence to suggest that significant efficiencies – amounting to millions of pounds in cost savings – can be achieved just by managing the workforce more effectively. Cutting headcount is not a cheap proposition and it is an agonizing process in any organisation. Worse still, losing important knowledge and skills can come back to haunt you in the longer term. Read the rest of this entry »

If you had to compare generations and look at the strengths of each, how would you objectively evaluate each cohort? If you belong to one generation, what would you say are your unique strengths, unmatched by other generations? Or would you think that all generations are in fact the same and there are no real differences?  Let’s find out in this week’s poll.

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The results of this week’s poll are interesting:

• Six out of ten people believe that employees work more if given flex time and the opportunity to work from home
• Over a quarter believe that there is no difference and that employees work the same amount
• A little over one-tenth (13%) feel like employees in fact work less, than if they were obliged to go to the office and fulfil their regular working hours.

One could guess that if employees worked less, Microsoft wouldn’t have created the “Work from Home Day”. As Kate Kalmstrom mentions, there are many benefits, namely:

• Avoid wasting time commuting to and from work
• Better focus on tasks at hand, as an open office can be distracting
• Perhaps an even more cosy and comfortable setting to work in,  again allowing the person to produce more

Surely on the employer side, there is a lot of trust involved, i.e. that your employees will be working. One could assume  that certain employees would abuse the benefits. But in general, so long as employees deliver on projects and meet deadlines, why should it matter when and how they work, right?

Click on infograph below to see results

Thanks to Sirona Says I came across this very amusing, but true video on why we should avoid communicating anything that is judged:

• Worthless
• Uninteresting
• Boring
• Nonsense
• Gibberish.

To avoid blah blah, Dan Roam recommends that the words should be 1) clear, 2) the idea should be simple and 3) the intent should be to clarify.

For employer branding professionals, this should remind us of what we need to communicate to top talent:

• What they’ll be doing on the job if they get hired
• What benefits they’ll get by working for you instead of someone else
• What type of employer you are

Do you agree? Comments are always welcome.

There is a  lot of talk around how flexible working hours and giving employees the opportunity to work from home is beneficial, or is it really? Let’s see what the common view is in this week’s poll.

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The deadliest sin – knowing zilch about the job or company you’re going to be interviewed by. Seems like a no brainer, but don’t take it for granted – many candidates, unfortunately, don’t come prepared. More than one and a half believe this is the unforgivable gaff, so let’s communicate that to job-seekers.

Don’t be greedy either because too much talk about money is a put off, says nearly every other second person. Why though? Should a candidate be primarily motivated about the job and not the reward, or? If money isn’t a motivator, why should employees, particularly salespeople, strive to make their employer richer? You tell me.

To top that off, signs of fatigue aren’t appreciated either for every third or so person. Yip, for all job candidates, drink plenty of coffee and make sure you have the fight in you. You don’t want to come across as being bored or tired before you’ve even started the job – seems like another no brainer.

Interestingly, candidates don’t have to worry about being overexcited – due to a caffeine overdose – because gesticulating frantically, being overconfident and speaking excessively, doesn’t seem to bother the most of us.

To sum-up the top three abominable mistakes for job-seekers: 1) know zippo about the job or company; 2) obsessive about getting cash, and 3) look like you’re going to fall asleep in your chair by yawning too much!

To see infograph of this week’s poll, click on the image below.

Click on infograph to see mistakes by job-seekers

In the workplace, and from a business perspective, having a diverse workforce is no longer a question. The world is interconnected and due to the huge advances in international travel and communication, people easily move and work across borders. This article serves to remind people of the pros and cons to having a diverse workforce and provides five recommendations for recruiters and managers on how to manage one. Yes, having a diverse workforce may sound obvious, but it’s not so straightforward to manage as some might think.

Struggling with Human Nature

Diversity means difference in all manner and form. The antonym to diversity would be uniformity. In the workplace, diversity refers to the composition of your workforce – people of dissimilar background, culture, experience, psychical and mental characteristics, etc. Whereas uniformity would involve cloning Mr. One & Only – we all think the same; we all do the same; we all look the same…how boring! Why is having a diverse workforce so important? And what can backfire if people are too different? Let’s explore.

In an article about the challenges of having a diverse board, WSJ sums-up brilliantly the benefit and obstacles: diversity leads to more out-of-the box thinking; yet, it also creates contention and disunity. Although this is an article about how diversity can backfire on company boards, the same obviously applies to employees and large to small project teams. WSJ reports that if a company has a board of like-minded individuals, the following arises:
“They look at problems—and solutions—the same way. There’s no one to challenge prevailing ideas, or to speak out on issues important to certain groups of customers and employees.” Read the rest of this entry »