Social Media is changing the corporate culture. It's easier to see how this change is affecting marketing and sales, but less so in other functional areas such as HR. This presentation is an intro to WHY the corporate culture shift is a game changer and HOW it applies to HR, with practical suggestions.

1. How Social Media is
Shifting HR and How You
Can Work It.
By Adrienne Corn
Founder of Ventus,
a Career Development,
Education & Research Company
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 1

2. About the Author: Adrienne Corn
Adrienne founded VENTUS, a career development, education
and research company that provides career pathing for
individuals, career education for organizations and research in
these areas for the industry at large (www.ventuscareers.com).
Adrienne is completing a research Ph.D. from Vanderbilt
University in leadership and organizational behavior.
Adrienne is also an instructor/founding faculty member at the
Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia-academy.com) where
she lectures on the intersection between social media/web 2.0 Follow Me!
and Human Resources/Human Talent.
Twitter: adriennecorn
XeeSm: www.xeeSm.com/adriennecorn
About Ventus
VENTUS is a career development, education and research
company that works with both individuals on career pathing
processes and with companies seeking career education for
use in outplacement services and organizational fit/human
dynamics.
VENTUS conducts research in the areas of career
development and human talent, making this information
available to clients and to the public in the form of white
papers and research reports. www.ventuscareers.com.
Follow Us!
Twitter: ventuscareers
Current Research on social media & HR:
Executive Summary (free download): http://xeeurl.com/A01809
Full Report: http://xeeurl.com/A01810
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 2

3. How Social Media turns your company from
resource oriented to TALENT driven.. .(and if you’re the talent, listen up to0)
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 3

4. Today’s Work
Environments
More complex
Globalization
Outsourcing
“Homeshoring”
“Free Agent Nation”
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 4

5. The New Workforce
More technology savvy
Different cultural underpinnings
Different work ideals + priorities
Different perspectives on “authority”
“The future is not about
what older people think, but
what younger people do.”
-Nicholas Negroponte
Tech entrepreneur
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 5

6. 2007
Still Doing It Old School:
23% of HR decision makers are unfamiliar with
Web 2.0 (ouch!)
42% are familiar with them, but do not use them
34% actively use Web 2.0 technologies
Source: Clearswift, 2007, Survey of 700 HR Managers
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 6

7. 2009
Fewer Doing It Old School:
45% of HR are using social media for basic
functions such as background checks…
Χ But not using it for other significant HR functions
Χ But that leaves 55% that are not using social
media in any significant way…
WHY is the shift such an issue?
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 7

8. 1. Training (old school)/Lack of knowledge
about Social Media
2. Legalities (unknown/known)
3. Culture
4. Change can be difficult!
Let’s define social media and
then focus on HR practices
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 8

9. ©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 9

10. For all recruiters
and candidates
that understand
the value of
NETWORKING,
(is that you?)
Social Media
Is the
ULTIMATE
NETWORKING
VENUE
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 10

11. 1. Companies Operate on
Efficiency Models
 “Efficiency” model
 Asset-based approach
 Translated to people as assets –
not Talent
2. HR Reflects the Company
 Organizations inefficiently use
talent (Gallup 2001)
 HR built on Organizational structure
& Reflects Org Values
 Talent in Organization reflect the
Talent in HR
HR feels the
3. People are People
“pinch” between  People bring who they are with
the traditional them to work (assets don’t have
organizational
values (efficiency) personalities and problems)
and people being  Lack of corporate
people…
Purpose/Identification = lack of
Engagement = lack of Productivity

©2009 Adrienne Corn
Workforce is changing (Gen Y)
www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 11

12. “Seeing a
company as a
living being
Take a 21st Century Approach leads to seeing
its members as a
human work
Accept shifting cultural context community.”
Understand that people (Gen Y’ers) change
corporate cultures
New people = New ways of doing things
Basics still matter – but for new
reasons “Globally, only 20%
of employees feel
Purpose: company, each dept, each job their strengths are
in play everyday –
FIT: right people on the bus, right people in so organizations
the right seats on the bus operate at a 20%
capacity.”
Talents/Strengths: Efficiency gains through
core strengths of employees identified and
utilized in the right places in the company
Some New Basics “The purpose of
Trust replaces adversarial compensation
should not be to
approach/control/suspicion get the right
Collaboration is required to keep new behaviors from
the wrong people
people = productivity = marketshare but to get the
People need Purpose right people on
the bus and keep
them there.”
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 12

13. CAUSE EFFECT
What is Shifting (Recap): What is the Effect?
Generation of available employees COMMUNITY IS KING
Values & Attitudes of new gen employees Begin to seek out additional
toward work and company authority characteristics in the talent pool to match
Technology (toward social media) the shifting culture
Overall culture outside of organizational Community Orientation (Putnam)
structure (with influx of social media) Social & Cultural Capital (Bourdieu)
Culture inside organizational structure Socialization Models for how they do
business (big/small co. culture-
community fit)
Values Orientation (Trust)
Strengths & Talents (Buckingham &
Cash is King Clifton)
Begin to view HR differently – not as
managing resources, but managing TALENT
THE NEW HR = THE NEW HT
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 13

14.  Nagging Question:
Do online personas
reflect our offline
“real” selves?
 “Virtual
Authenticity”
 Does social media
info reflect the actual
person using the
social media tools?
 How do people
represent themselves
online © Adrienne Corn, 2009
Human Resources & Social Media Survey
 If not “authentic” WE HAVE AUTHENTIC INFO!
info, cannot serve
corporate purposes 73% of people agree that social media info about
them accurately reflects who they are*
*Survey by Ventus, 2009. Research available online
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 14

15. ACK! I KNOW I’ve Gotta HURRY UP and CHANGE!
BUT…
I’m pretty investing in my old school HR identity:
Adversarial
Controlling
Suspicious
Change is uncomfortable
I want to be a successful HT Manager
Community Oriented
Value Transparency & Trust
Use New Technology to our benefit
HOW?
This is called the
“KNOWING-DOING GAP”
and it requires a BRIDGE…
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 15

16. Let’s Look at HT’s
Key Functions:
Finding Talent
Attracting Talent
Hiring Talent
Training Talent
Benefits Management
Retaining Talent
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS ARE THE BRIDGE
(Engagement)
from
Knowing HT wants to be successful in
Refreshing Talent key functions
(Exit Mitigation) +
Doing what is necessary to be
successful in those functions in the new
environment
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 16

17. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Finding & Attracting Talent
Social Media
Traditional  Podcasts/Blogs
 Search Firms/Talent Agencies  Video (YouTube)/Vlogging
 Newspaper Ads  Webisodes/Webinars
 Posts on Websites  Community Creation – “Playsites”
 Online Posts on Monster, LinkedIn  HT Webcrawler (profile scraping/
Most of these are PASSIVE processes; spidering)
waiting for the candidate to come to you.
 Employee Social Media Networks
These are ACTIVE processes;
Successful HT Managers aren’t just
going to BE where their talent might
be (in the social media space)—they
are going to:
 CREATE those community spaces
 CULL& COMB those spaces for talent
 COMMUNICATE with talent
interactively & transparently
 CONVINCE talent to join through
value-matching (birds of a feather)
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 17

18. LinkedIn
Twitter
Xeesm
Blog
Social Web
Publications
Facebook
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 18

19. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Hiring Talent
Traditional Social Media
 Static Application Process (Paper or online)  Interactive Interview – Conversation in
 Linear Interview Process: 1st interview, Social Media Spaces
Callback, 2nd Interview, Maybe a Group  Interviewee’s social and work
Interview, Perhaps a Skills Test or Assessment identity/persona’s
of some sort  Modeling/Scenario Building
 Controlled Negotiation process over salary,
contract terms, etc.  Done in Community Space
These are STATIC, LINEAR processes; do not show  Hallmark HR
personal, interpersonal or skill dynamics  Skills, problem solving, creative
brainstorming
 “Playdates”: community interviews
 Work-as-play
 Virtual community engagement in
creative or problem solving activity with
current members in a dept
These are DYNAMIC processes;
Realtime interaction with candidates allows
for HT managers and existing employees
to measure FIT: values, strengths,
communication style, work style,
information processing, community
mindedness, skill level, engagement
patterns.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 19

20. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Training Talent
Traditional Social Media
 Employee Manual/SOP’s with tests  Interactive Learning Communities
 Video’s with tests  “Communities of Practice”
 On the Job (OJT)  Employee Wiki – ask and answer
 No real place to learn who’s who, who to questions of other employees
avoid, what’s open to complain about,
etc.  Transparency about processes and
These can be SLOW, OPAQUE, SERIAL procedure
processes; do not allow for dynamic  Allows for knowledge transfer
learning or formation of understanding across employees and depts
and connections across organizational  Concerns community
units. New employees will be more  Glassdoor.com, BestBuy
cautious, less trusting, less productive  Employees have a community to
discuss concerns, frustrations,
issues
 Learning place for new employees
These are TRANSPARENT &
PARALLEL processes that take place
in tandem with OJT – increasing
knowledge, confidence, trust and
productivity QUICKLY.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 20

21. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Benefits Management
Traditional Social Media
 PAPER driven  Video
 Complex Definitions, Plan & Contract Info  Best Buy – 30% increase in participation
 Single Forum for questions: HR or Benefits Mgr with Video
who is overburdened by the single support  http://hrmarketer.blogspot.com/2008/12/
stream social-media-can-improve-401k.html
Benefits information is often complex, dense and
 Interactive Learning Communities
requires dialogue with trusted person over  Employee Wiki – ask and answer
time. Traditional approach is SERIAL and deters questions of other employees
communication and employee participation  Transparency about processes and
procedure
 Allows for knowledge transfer across
employees
 Concerns community
 Employees have a community to discuss
concerns, frustrations, issues
 Learning place for new employees
These are TRANSPARENT & PARALLEL
processes – increasing knowledge,
confidence, trust and participation
QUICKLY.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 21

22. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Retaining Talent
Traditional Social Media
 Incentives based on performance reviews
 Interactive Online Community
 Problem based approach – if there’s a problem,  “Always on” community for everyone –
don’t have to play softball to join
we might discuss it. Or not.
 Community  New School “water cooler”
 Softball or Bowling Leagues  Free from management controls –
allowing for transparency and TRUST
 “DIY” Community –You build it if you need it. building
 Motivation through fear and control  Encourages employee buy-in,
 Engagement via Meeting or Holiday Party engagement
CONTROL & ISOLATION based approach to  Rewards community
existing talent pool. Discourages engagement  Constant employee recognition for
and demotivated employees – no purpose, no ideas, contributions, performance
skin in the game.  Motivating
 Community based, beyond single
manager control
 Shared success = Shared purpose
These are ENGAGING & MOTIVATING
processes that help talent build trust in
the people and organization, thus
increasing the likelihood of STAYING at
the job and being ENGAGED at the job
and being PRODUCTIVE at the job.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 22

23. New School HT Practices: Social Media
Refreshing Talent (Exit)
Social Media
Traditional  Interactive Online Community
 Secrecy around employee’s leaving – not talked  Mitigates fear and rumors
about or addressed directly  Allows for people to dialogue about
 Fear based reactions often spur rumors, issues
additional attrition  Prevents reactive protectionism
 Disgruntled employees usually disengaged for  Protects community
12-18 months prior to leaving
 Reactive protectionism around an employee’s  Allows for better FIT of next
knowledge area to feel a sense of “control” over employee
future of job.  Creates anticipation regarding next
FEAR & CONTROL based approach to existing hire
talent pool. Discourages communication,  Keeps talent engaged and
authentic dialogue about corporate purpose motivated rather than focusing on
and fit and evolution of job, knowledge sharing. the community loss.
TRANSPARENT, TRUST & CARE
based processes that help retain the
community bonds and strengthen
them, thus increasing the likelihood
of STAYING at the job and being
ENGAGED at the job and being
PRODUCTIVE at the job, despite
talent losses.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 23

24. WHO & HOW
Companies that are using Social Media today
(and are set to incorporate it into their HR practices, if they haven’t already)
1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain
Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon,
Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages,
groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 24

25. How is “new school HT” like graffiti?
If you want someone to get the message,
Put the message where the someone will see it!
If you want your HT to be effective, HT has to be
where the HUMANS are…
and that is smack dab in the social media space.
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 25

26. A Few Final Thoughts:
Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap requires a
company to LEARN from their current failures
If they don’t learn, they are bound to repeat
mistakes by using new tools in old ways
Using Social Media Information for control rather
than to build trust and gather real information
Trust is a two way street
People won’t immediately trust an organization
that says it is transparent – too much baggage!
Organizations are going to have to commit to
“Community Development” for the long run (not a
diet but a lifestyle change!) for it to work and reap
rewards
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 26

27. Road Map: Bridging the Knowing Doing Gap
A general roadmap for creating a web 2.0 strategic plan for HR:
1. Summarize their corporate culture
 Key corporate values
2. Determine their current, prevailing HR processes
▪ Recruiting, Screening/Vetting, Interviewing, Hiring
▪ Community-oriented activities currently utilized
3. Based on current culture, values and HR Practices, build a consulting proposal
to help the company revamp their HR into an HT Department utilizing social
media.
Be specific about which key functional areas of HT you are addressing and
which types of HT social media they will use to address them (a Mashup of
different types is best).
Give examples of how it will work, how it would be rolled out to the
company and timeframes. (Point to existing companies that are using
social media – see resources on the next page).
Don’t make the plan too crazy or overarching – include some practical, low
cost things they can do NOW and a timeline of the later or more budget
oriented ideas
Budget everything – Create a Pro forma showing low financial investment
(people’s time and energy has a cost!), mid level investment and higher
level financial investment. Show the cost savings or return on that
investment as well.
Be sure to note what measures will be used to understand whether the use
social media was successful. BE SPECIFIC.
BE CREATIVE! Choose Wisely!
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 27

28.  Mashable - http://mashable.com/
 Delicious - http://delicious.com/
 Google – http://www.google.com/
 Facebook - http://www.facebook.com
 LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/
 Twitter - http://www.Twitter.com/
 SlideShare - http://www.slideshare.net/
 Visual CV- http://www.visualcv.com/
 Xeesm – http://www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 28

29. About the Author: Adrienne Corn
Adrienne founded VENTUS, a career development, education
and research company that provides career pathing for
individuals, career education for organizations and research in
these areas for the industry at large (www.ventuscareers.com).
Adrienne is completing a research Ph.D. from Vanderbilt
University in leadership and organizational behavior.
Adrienne is also an instructor/founding faculty member at the
Social Media Academy (www.socialmedia-academy.com) where
she lectures on the intersection between social media/web 2.0 Follow Me!
and Human Resources/Human Talent.
Twitter: adriennecorn
XeeSm: www.xeeSm.com/adriennecorn
About Ventus
VENTUS is a career development, education and research
company that works with both individuals on career pathing
processes and with companies seeking career education for
use in outplacement services and organizational fit/human
dynamics.
VENTUS conducts research in the areas of career
development and human talent, making this information
available to clients and to the public in the form of white
papers and research reports. www.ventuscareers.com.
Follow Us!
Twitter: ventuscareers
Current Research on social media & HR:
Executive Summary (free download): http://xeeurl.com/A01809
Full Report: http://xeeurl.com/A01810
©2009 Adrienne Corn www.xeesm.com/adriennecorn 29