4 Ways for HR to Use Social Media

While SAP HCM represents an incredible opportunity for HR departments to manage their workforce when used correctly, there are other tools and strategies that HR can deploy for recruiting, branding, and even management.

In today’s day and age, social media is a great tool across all of those aforementioned categories. From recruiting new employees to managing current ones, social media has a surprisingly large number of uses in HR.

If you’re struggling to find ways to effectively use social media, don’t worry. See below for a few of our suggestions about ways for HR to use social media to better their organization:

• Use big platforms for employer branding. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are great for showcasing current employees and talking about your company culture. By using them to post photos around the office, discuss stories about your company’s accomplishments, and showcasing the ‘about me’ side of your company, you can build a strong following of recruits interested in your company, and help remind current employees why they love working within your organization.
• Find new recruits–even if they’re not currently looking. Thanks to social media, it’s easier than ever for HR to find potential recruits. If you know what kind of recruits you’re looking for, social media search tools offer you the opportunity to follow relevant people based on their social profiles and public work experience–even if they’re not looking. And if they are looking, social media is an absolutely incredible recruiting tool. Both because of positive employer branding opportunities and the powerful connective capabilities it offers, social media is fantastic for finding new employees.
• Use games and gamification to help retain current employees. While this tactic is used primarily by a few forward-thinking companies, gamification, or “using video-game techniques… to make your HR connections more interactive” is great for employee retention and satisfaction. Whether for helping employees get in shape, or for fostering teamwork and peer recognition, HR departments can use games to produce measurable results when combined with traditional recognition and rewards.
• Manage your employees’ personal use of social media. Finally, although this is less of a ‘use’ than it is management, all companies should be prepared for the potential challenges that social media can bring. That means planning in advance for any situations that could arise from the new connectedness that social media offers. In setting up a company policy for social media, individual members of HR may want to think about getting active themselves to set an example for other employees about the correct use of social media. That isn’t an all-encompassing solution, but is certainly a step in the right direction.

HR departments today are tasked with managing employees in an increasingly connected world–no small task, especially with social media thrown into the mix. Even so, the best way for HR to stay on top of employee management moving into the future is to embrace social media. These methods discussed here are only the beginning of an effective social media strategy for HR, but should provide a good start for companies looking to dive into the mix.

Would you like to learn more about how ICG’s SAP HCM solutions, or how we can help your entire business–HR included–run more efficiently? Let us know on Twitter or LinkedIn–we’d love to hear from you and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

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photo credit: Johan Larsson via photopin cc