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Stuart Lauchlan

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Talent Management: how to channel the force of social media

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Talent Management is becoming ever more “social,” driven by mobile and tablet computing.

That’s one of the main conclusions of the ‘State of Talent Management 2013’ study conduced by SilkRoad which polled 5,753 people, both dedicated HR professionals and other employees.

The findings showed that most employees access social media sites from personal mobile devices frequently during working hours.
 
The result is that talent management professionals should now routinely expect the 2013 and beyond workforce to demand 24/7 access from tablets, cell phones, and other handheld devices, such as wireless personal readers. 
 
 
The study found that 60% of workers check personal social media more than once a day on their mobile devices while three out of four workers check social media once a day or more on personal mobile devices. 
 
Employees’ top three purposes for using social sites at work were cited as: 
  • Connect with co-workers (49%)
  • A fun social platform to connect with others (47%). 
  • Use social media to connect with customers (44%)
  • Social media as a “collaboration platform to drive new ideas,” and “platform to track goals, contribute content, and gain recognition,” did not rate highly.
Asked what the most popular talent management process for use or future use of social technology is, respondents said: 
  • Recruiting and Hiring (64%).
  • Learning and Development (54%). 
  • Performance Management (34%).

The SilkRoad report notes: “Social media is causing a seismic shift in the business environment, as companies attempt to leverage the benefits of this technology. In our survey sample, we found that a substantial percentage of companies had completely open social media access. Most of the companies that exerted controls had instituted only partial blocking or surveillance, such as social media monitoring or restrictions to certain work-related sites.
 
“As subsequent survey findings show, large numbers of employees use personal social media at work through personal or mobile devices, and therefore, blocking, restricting, or monitoring use is not an effective corporate policy. Because employees will access social media regardless of restrictions, talent management professionals have an opportunity to determine how to channel the power of this technology, so that employees are using it productively for business.”
 

Diagrams (c) SilkRoad 
 
 

2 Responses

  1. Talent mangement in emerging markets is mobile and social

     Bottom line sourcing, assessing, developing and deploying staff across 23countries in Africa, Middle East and Asia increasingly highly mobile and becoming totally mobile given that in many territories access to internet is only or predominantely via smart phones hence large enabler for talent mangement sourcing, assessment and collaboration via range of solutions eg. Web  video interviewing etc. LinkedIn, Facebook, Pininterest, U Tube etc all have been invaluable in driving costs down and quality of hire as well as time to productivity down. Talent management in emerging markets is definitely social and undoubtedly mobile.

  2. 24/7 access

    I wonder if also, apart from requiring access 24/7, people will also require a response 24/7?  As an independent with international clients, I often find myself routinely working way into the evening.  Are recruiters finding that their day is lengthening as a result of social media as a recruitment tool?

    — Karen Drury

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