The social media revolution continues to transform internal communication, both in our personal and professional lives.
As technology continues to revolutionize everything in our lives and especially internal communication in the workplace, HR professionals realize it’s imperative to stay ahead of the technological curve.
What happens in Vegas . . . should not necessarily stay in Vegas. Especially relevant, trending news about your industry.
This week, Ving went to Las Vegas to attend Human Resource Executive’s 16th annual HR Technology Conference. This HR tech conference is the largest international, annual “town meeting” for anyone and everyone who wants the ins and outs of the latest news in HR technology.
Why? Because embracing tech tools in the workplace is one of the best ways to retain and reward talent, improve employee engagement, and (ultimately) increase the bottom line.
Mobilizing Everything at Work
One of the best ways to go about this is by making everything in the workplace mobile. And we mean EVERYTHING. HR Tech Conference attendee and Forbes contributor Meghan M. Biro emphasizes the need for HR departments to mobilize everything (including the kitchen sink) in her article 7 Hottest Trends in HR Technology.
What’s her reasoning behind the importance of mobilizing everything? “There’s a new generation of talent coming up that views desktops as a relic from the past,” says Biro. “The world is growing evermore global and mobile and HR has to be, too. To reach the right talent, you need to be mobile-friendly in design and ease of usage. HR should always go where the talent is – and these days it’s on mobile.”
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Meeting the Expectations of Your Workers
Why is everybody and everything so mobile? Blame (or praise) the communication revolution caused by social media. The next generation of workers (dubbed “Generation C” and/or “Millennials”) are digital natives who expect constant connection, collaboration, and feedback from everyone and everything, both in their personal and professional lives.
In fact, one of the most revolutionary workplace ideas emerging from the social media era is the idea of “radical openness.” This idea was the theme of the HR Tech Conference’s opening keynote speech, titled “Radical Openness: Previously Unthinkable Principles for Success.”
What does “radical openness” look like? According to the keynote summary, “smart organizations are shunning their old, secretive practices and embracing transparency, widely sharing intellectual property, and collaborating on an enormous scale.”
These practices are precisely in line with the workplace expectations of Millennials to whom transparency, resource sharing, and collaboration are as natural behaviors as breathing, eating, and, well, using social media.
And HR managers are acknowledging the importance of more interactive, internal communication environments where workers can engage with each other through internal social networks, and access real-time information, feedback, and resources.
Adopting New Management Principles
Of course, so much transparency has both pros and cons. I think most of us have heard the term “oversharing” and the occasional “I got fired because of something I posted on Facebook” story. As with any revolution, new management principles must be adopted to govern new ways of life, or in this case, work.
But as social media seems here to stay and transform communication indefinitely, HR professionals, CEOs, and executive managers must be poised to implement as many technological tools as possible to meet the challenges of retention, engagement, and rewards for their most valued human capital.
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