All You Wanted to Ask About Web 2.0 – But Were Afraid to Ask

Recently, I have found quite a few folks blogging about the influence and impact of social networking in the corporate world, specifically how it relates to HR. Most talk about how there is generally a heightened awareness among HR and talent management professionals regarding the benefits of social media technologies for finding and attracting talent, as well as for corporate knowledge sharing (wikis, blogs, etc.)

However, in the HR world user adoption is still quite low and knowledge levels vary widely from professional to professional.

Kris Dunn at the HR Capitalist says,

What I’ve found in talking to the average HR pro about social media is that usage is very, very low. If you read this or other blogs centered around the HR and Recruiting professions, you’re bleeding edge. I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth repeating – when I asked how many folks knew what a blog was in a fall 2008 presentation, every hand went up. When I asked how many of the HR pros had read a blog in the past month, only about 5% of the group had. LinkedIn? About half the hands went up when I asked who had a LI account. When I asked how many had invited a colleague to join their LinkedIn network, half of those hands went down. When I asked how many had used LinkedIn to recruit, one hand in a big group remained in the air.

Fistful of Talent‘s Jessica Lee looks at the issue from another perspective. She talks about the hypocrisy of using social media like Facebook to recruit hot new talent, but having corporate policies against employees using social media at the workplace. She says,

Recruiters talk a lot about how to use social media/social networking to step up your recruiting game. Let me ask you a question though – for the HR or recruiting pro who also does more than talent acquisition – let’s say for you generalists or business partners who dabble in employee relations… what happens once you recruit someone via social networking and you’ve got them in the door? Your candidates-turned-employees were on some kind of social networking site when you found them and today, as they sit 20 feet down the hall from you in their nice, little cubicle, they are still online. They are still on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and/or Twitter. And guess what? They’re on these sites during the day – during work hours… More rules and policies won’t fix the problem. And that is, if you consider this even being a problem. Are they getting the job done? If yes, well then…

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be sharing more of our thoughts on Web 2.0 in the workplace. In the meantime, tell us what you think – do you use social media as part of your HR work? Do you allow your employees to access it at work? And are there any ways you’ve been able to integrate it into your talent management?

Let’s open the discussion. Because Web 2.0 is here to stay and we don’t want to get left behind!