The issues surrounding electronic devices and social media continue to pop up in HR news.  The Society for Human Resource Management  (SHRM) featured a couple of articles of interest this week.
 The first was a follow on to an earlier one covering National Labor Relations Board rulings on social media.  These rulings relate to employer social media policies and to employee discharge after they posted comments to Facebook.  The NLRB release that accompanied the latest report emphasized two main points:  employer policies should not be so sweeping that they prohibit protected activity, and an employee’s comments are not protected if they are mere gripes.  The main issue here seems to be that there is a significant difference between the old “water cooler” conversations among employees at work and the posting of comments on social media.  The difference, of course is the vast audience reached via social media, outside the workplace.
So how do employers create policy to protect the company and the employee’s right of free speech at the same time?  It appears that social media policies should reflect the same standards as workplace policies against discrimination and harassment.  These policies are based on federal and state regulations regarding the various types of discrimination.  The policy also can prohibit employees from disclosing confidential or proprietary information, including personal health information about customers and employees. 
Eric Mayer, attorney with Dilworth Paxson in Philadelphia, is quoted in the SHRM article and provides tips based on the NLRB report.  First it is ok to prohibit employees from sharing confidential and proprietary information online.  It is also ok to prohibit employees from using vulgar and obscene language, or posting intimidating or harassing material – provided they use the NLRB-blessed language to pass muster. If your company is struggling with these issues a review of the NLRB rulings might be helpful – and then consult with your employment legal advisors.
As if life weren’t complicated enough, now employees want to use their personal technology devices at work – reasoning that their home device usually is much more current than work-provided tools.  And some employers decided to let their employees bring personal devices (labeled the bring-your-own-device policy).  Another SHRM article cites research conducted by one human capital research firm regarding the prevalence of the new policies and provides interesting stats.  Of the 415 organizations surveyed by the firm, 75% were allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for business purposes.  Experts expect this trend to grow, considering the mushrooming popularity of tablets and other devices. 
So, how to you manage the issues that will naturally arise – such as an employee leaving the company and still having sensitive date on their dual-use device?  What if hackers prey on the less sophisticated security features of personal devices?  If an employee breaks copyright law in downloading material from the Internet to a PD while on the job, is the company  liable? I think that human resource, legal and line executives are going to be busy reviewing these issues before they allow employees to use their personal devices.  It’s always something!

Tags: change management, For Employers, social network

The Wall Street Journal (Marketwatch, January 1, 2012) suggests that job seekers need to be creative and flexible to land and keep a job.   There are a number of reasons given for this statement, and I thought they were worth reviewing. 

Employers are staying lean, and staff levels aren’t expected to increase much in the next months.  That means that the existing staff will have to respond to a wide variety of demands.  As workers shift around some of these positions may be available, but they may have changed significantly in breadth and skill requirements.  Employers also want workers who are able to adapt quickly to new responsibilities as companies try to stay competitive in a changing economy. 

Opportunities may be there in industries that the job seeker isn’t familiar with.  Economists do project growth in the health care market, professional services such as accounting and legal, retail sales and management and certain manufacturing jobs.  For each of these industries there are some special skill requirements or education.  Manufacturing may require some occupational training, but that can be accessed thru many community college programs.  The retail industry, sales in particular, requires interpersonal skills.

So, what is a job seeker to do?  Ideas presented in the article include highlighting the applicant’s creative skills to show their ability to adapt to new duties.  Technical literacy is really a basic must in most companies, including health care, where much of the business end of the industry is going automated.  If you are well versed in electronic data handling – they will want you! 

Project management and communications skills are abilities that are valued across many industries, and finding workers able to communicate clearly is getting harder to find among today’s applicants.  Job seekers need to work hard at honing their verbal and writing skills to differentiate themselves. 
Then, use marketing skills to get the point across.  Use social media (with taste and skill please) to reach prospective employers.  Understand in advance what the company values.  For example, a law practice will want to add skilled members that can bring in more business.  That asset is also valuable in other industries, so use your contact list appropriately.  Package your skills to show how you will add value to the organization – and be able to back it up with examples.  No “puffing”!
As always, good luck.

Tags: applications, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, job seeker, social network

Ok, on the one hand social media is creating havoc in the workplace.  On the other hand, it is the latest job recruiting tool for professional recruiters.  An article in the Wall Street Journal talks about recruiters and the sites they turn to when “trolling” for candidates. 

In recent history Monster.com was a major player.  There was a fee for employers to post their jobs online.  Then things started changing.  Craig’s List was one place where jobs started appearing.  Then companies developed their own accounts on LinkedIn, touted  as a professional site for networking.  There they posted jobs and participated in discussion groups related to their businesses.  LinkedIn developed a hiring solutions segment with tools to help recruiters in their search.   The site has a reputation for having a comprehensive resume database, and is a go-to site for executive talent.

Now..we have Facebook entering the market.  Companies have also developed accounts on these sites, and post jobs and videos of current employees on the site.  There is much discussion among the various website companies as well as recruiting professionals about using this tool.  On the one hand, LinkedIn execs said that users regarded LinkedIn as their professional life, and Facebook as personal.  In their focus groups, job candidates were sharply averse to being contacted through Facebook for jobs.  On the other hand, Monster.com execs acknowledged that the Facebook recruiting platform is growing rapidly.  Their company has launched their own Facebook append it has grown to 800,000 users in a couple of months.

Right now all the players are seeing an increase in activity and revenues.  The future, however, seems to be in the social networking arena, with more and more companies adding those skills to their recruiting departments.  As individuals spend more time on the social networks, the recruiting power of these sites can only grow.  One reason Facebook is a target for the recruiters is that individuals spend a lot more time on the site, and one company found that candidates are 50% more likely to apply for positions found through Facebook than other means.

The result of all this discussion seems to be that both companies and job seekers are going to have to spend some time developing their skills in using the social network sites.  Just what we all need – more lessons to learn!  Good hunting, all of you.

Tags: applications, Facebook, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, job application, job seeker, recruiters, social network

The National Labor Relations Board is entering new territory as workers across the country file complaints because they were fired over Facebook indiscretions.  Although the Board has taken up the cases of a number of workers, others have been told they have no one to blame but themselves.
There are few guidelines in place.  General Counsel for the  NLRB is currently drafting a report outlining certain Facebook scenarios and how the board has acted on the complaints.
According to an article in the online Huffington Post August 2, the NLRB has been inundated with worker complaints, and has been handling them on a case-by-case basis.  Employers, meantime, need some idea of what the guidelines will be for dealing with this issue.
Two cases in point:  a Walmart worker who referred to his manager using a rude Spanish term for a female  on the social networking site after they fought over store displays, and a frustrated Illinois bartender who took to Facebook to complain that he hoped the “redneck” patrons choked on glass as they drove home drunk. 
The latter worker was canned, and the former admonished for their respective outbursts.  When they appealed to the National Labor Relations Board, the board declined to intervene, saying the punishments were legitimate.
In another case where an employee criticized her boss on Facebook (categorizing him as a psychiatric case), the firing was based on a company policy forbidding employees to criticize the company online.  The NLRB held that this policy was too broad and took up the employee’s complaint.  The argument was that the posting was no different than gossiping around the water cooler – what we used to do in the old days!
A spokesperson for the NLRB had some advice for employers.  “You can’t stick your head in the sand and tell your  workers to abstain”.  We  know that won’t happen, so work with your leadership to come up with some reasonable guidelines.  The NLRB should be releasing its report on Facebook cases in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.  Such an interesting world!

Tags: industry news, performance management, social network

The movie “The Social Network” has stirred interest again in the many ways social networking can be used.  One market that is expanding rapidly is online recruiting and hiring for corporations and even small companies. 
An increasing number of recruiters and organizations are turning to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more obscure niche social networking sites to speed up the recruitment process and reduce costs.  The process does, however, need to be managed appropriately. 
As I browsed LinkedIn I saw company (group) memberships that allowed current and past employees to join, and there were job listings on the site.  Some provided alternative links for non-employees to check out  jobs. I also noticed that companies join professional organizations in their industry and through that link attract more-qualified candidates for their needs.
There are a number of ways to use the social media to recruit.  Company blogs may include job opportunities with links to social media sites provided.  For a specific set of skills a company may post a technical question on their network and use the responses to identify a potential recruit.  The social networks also provide another way for a company to highlight their organization to attract a specific group of people.  Organizations may encourage employees to create a LinkedIn account to enhance its employee referral program. 
Cautions for companies diving in to the new social media – don’t stop using your other sources, but allocate efforts among the different recruiting tools.  Also, make sure that your application process is sophisticated enough for the new group of tech-savvy applicants.  Seamless processes help insure that the folks you are interested in will get through.  Otherwise they may  just get impatient and move on to another opportunity.
For job seekers, the trick is to get involved in these networks by searching for appropriate groups and individual links that further your career search.  As mentioned above, getting involved in discussions related to your experience could get you noticed by a recruiter.  Make sure that your own social network page is professional and targeted to the market you are interested in. 
As always, good luck!

Tags: applications, candidates, For Employers, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, industry news, job seeker, recruiters, social network