dangletech

First off, what is Web 2.0? Well, it is the generic name given to the second generation of internet usage. The first generation (Web 1.0) was about people inputting and sending information via web-pages and emails. It was usually uni-directional, and involved long waits for responses/feedback. Web 2.0 is about interaction; texting, blogging, collaboration, and networking in real time with the instant exchange of thoughts and ideas.

What are the implications of Web 2.0 from an HR perspective? Well, HR has a key role to play in lifecycle talent management. That is, the attraction, engagement, productivity, growth, and retention of talented individuals to contribute to the long-term business success of the organization.

Broken down into its component parts, here’s how Web 2.0 can help organizations from a talent management perspective:

1. Attraction: Organizations can link portions of their external company website (e.g. career openings)  to interactive job posting web sites, thereby saving time and money in terms of getting widespread exposure to hiring needs. Additionally, through networked employees (to sites such as LinkedIn), open positions within your Company can be accessible to “warm” candidates; that is, candidates who are somehow connected to people already working within your organization. Research has shown that new hires referred by/connected to existing employees within the Company tend to get up to speed much more quickly and to be a much better fit with the organization’s values, than those who are completely “cold” (aka “unknown”).

2. Engagement: Engagement of employees is key. What often times leads to low engagement, is the inability to access information, and the inability to provide and receive constructive feedback in real time. Web 2.0 provides multiple means for accomplishing this. Especially where an organization is large and dispersed geographically, the CEO and his/her executive team, as well as HR, have the ability via blogs and tweets, to inter-act with employees quickly and to address needs and issues before the rumour mill goes to work. Have an old-fashioned paper or email suggestion box in your organization? Think about how much more powerful a web 2.0 interactive suggestion process would be. Sites such as “Inno-centive” already provide examples for how you might go about doing so.

3. Productivity: Productivity of employees is enhanced by having the right tools and training. When it comes to training , one of the biggest losses for organizations is the loss of knowledge, when an experienced employee leaves. Think about YouTube though and how short focused videos containing how-to information, as well as a Company’s own Wiki application (to provide an encyclopedia or reference manual), could dramatically help to build and keep current, and have easily accessible, important product and process information. Think about how dramatically this would contribute to risk mitigation. Again, Twitter and its tweets could provide a convenient way to provide performance feedback, not once or twice each year, but daily or weekly, or monthly.

4. Growth: People often times expand their capabilities (apart from experiential training) more through networking with experienced professionals than they do through attending courses and reading books. The power of Facebook and LinkedIn allows organizations to connect with others within the industry or across industries who share common roles and perhaps experiences that help to fill gaps within one organization’s skill set. Even within one company however, often-times, leaders and HR don’t know who within the Company has what skills, knowledge, experience, passion, from prior experiences, based on data provided by traditional HR Information System applications. Bringing Facebook and other social networking applications inside the firewall however, means that leaders now can quickly and painlessly access needed talent in real-time, without time-consuming and potentially expensive searches for such expertise.

5. Retention: The old saying that people don’t quit an organization; they quit a manager still applies. Why do they leave a manager? Often-times it’s due to a lack of communication and/or a lack of fit leading to a lack of trust between the two. While Web 2.0 doesn’t replace the need for sound relationship management skills on the part of the manager, it can help to reduce or remove some of the contributing causes to such lack of trust, and most importantly help to build multiple connections within the company so that people no longer quit on the basis of one relationship not working, but rather only quit if the multiple relationships break down.

Web 2.0 sounds and is a great means for dramatically improving much of HR’s role within an organization. Better yet, often-times, it comes as a lower cost alternative to existing enterprise HRIS applications, and with much greater functionality and relevance for talent management.

A caution though; with great real-time interactive communications tools such as web 2.0, come greater expectations on the part of employees. Organizations that are not committed to transparent, meaningful, honest, and value-adding communications with their employees should not go down this path until they are ready, since while the benefits of using Web 2.0 vs. not using this are exponentially greater, so too are the costs, if poorly implemented.

To get started, have a conversation as an executive team around communication within your organization. Take a look at recent employee engagement survey data. Find out from employees how they feel about engagement and productivity within the organization. Find out what they’re using now in terms of social networking tools. Then think about what you need to do to ensure that talent is aligned with and contributing effectively to the long-term goals of the organization. Finally, build out a plan and engage with experts inside and outside the organization, in social networking applications to adapt or build on Web 2.0 applications that deliver.

Oh…and if we’re not yet connected via LinkedIn…feel free to send me an invite.