Social Media in Leadership Roles

In business today having social media skills is important for many different reasons - HR professionals can use it to look at potential candidates for employment through LinkedIn. Managers can use social media tools to advertise jobs and the business and also as a tool to connect team members together. 

"Only 7% of managers viewed social media skills as being the most important when evaluating an employee's performance. This compares to 61% who felt the same about soft skills and 32% for hard skills. Clearly, social media skills aren't viewed as important in the modern day organization, even though everyone already uses them whether managers like to or not."(Schawbel, 2013). 

It would seem that it would be more realistic if managers could use social media in business practice in order to stay with the technological advances and stay up to date on changes in the business world by using social media. As a manager I would try to use social media tools such as LinkedIn and SharePoint in order to put information in a place for everyone to see and have a cloud based area to where all employees (whether on my team or not) could see policy changes and business goals. 

References:
Schawbel, D., (September 4, 2013). WHY DO ONLY 7% OF MANAGERS CONSIDER SOCIAL MEDIA SKILLS IMPORTANT FOR EMPLOYEES?. Fast Company. Retrieved From:http://www.fastcompany.com/3016145/work-smart/why-do-only-7-of-managers-consider-social-media-skills-important-for-employees

SHRM Connect Week 4

Below are the areas of SHRM connect that I posted in and reviewed on this weeks topics.

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MessageKey=9bf38336-a822-4a3c-8835-caed34357ce1

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MessageKey=f5fbc8cf-7b98-4bfc-8644-5296fd72d855

http://community.shrm.org/blogs/beverlye-horton/2013/09/13/byod-bring-your-own-device-allow-or-dont-allow

Social Media Tools

When my previous employer started using Microsoft SharePoint I was excited, finally feeling like "YES, they get the importance of social media!" For those that do not know SharePoint is a place that you can connect with other employees, company peers and managers in a single place, where ideas and projects can be shared and where policies and procedures can be managed. SharePoint is a great tool to connect employees and allow brainstorming and project work remotely - which can be a great assist with employees that work near and far. With the way the future of business is moving SharePoint is able to bridge the gap between remote and office workers, and allow for real time access to new policies and business practices. Using SharePoint allowed me to work on projects with people of other departments without actually having to leave my computer, we were able to create better workflows and all have an input on the data that was submitted for final approval, without using different programs and structures.

Reference:
Microsoft, (2014). SharePoint Overview. Retrieved From:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013-overview-collaboration-software-features-FX103789323.aspx


The References used this week focused around remote access to work and how that changes human capital - such as Forbes Magazine that allows for real life resources of leadership and HR professionals. By having people that are leaders in their industry writing the article you are able to see how companies actually work and the areas that they focus on. This allows for greater understanding of improvement and procedures.

Communication in Management and HR

Often times being in management means you need to make an exceptional effort to lead by example, but with that managers need to build their communication skills. This week looking into communication, innovation and change we learned that it is vital to be able to do all these things when in an HR professional role. Using communication audits throughout the year allows HR professionals and managers to see where people are and what they need. Surveys are an effective way to gauge where improvements are needed. I also liked the idea of focus groups for certain tasks and having that in-depth results of where improvements can and should be made. Although it can be time consuming and labor intensive but the outcomes have the ability to allow for big change.

Learning and discussing how important communication audits and change agents are this week made me realize that I need to do a lot more research on communication factors and effective ways to bring on change and include employees. Leaders need effective communication skills and bringing knowledge of communication audits to a company will be a great benefit.

Figure 7.1 on page 163 in our book HR from the Outside In, gave a greater understanding on how an innovation matrix works and how that can allow HR professionals to find areas that need improvement and these were a good lesson for the future for me as well.

Reference:
Ulrich, D., W., Younger, J., Brockbank, & Ulrich,M . (2012).  HR from the Outside In: Six
Competencies for the Future of Human Resources. SRHM.  ISBN978-0071802666

SHRM Connect Week 3

Thanks to SHRM this week I was able to understand others thoughts on Communication Audits and ask questions in order to better comprehend the use and need for them. Below are the links of where I had posted to SHRM connect.

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=23821

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=23809&SuccessMsg=Thank+you+for+submitting+your+message.#bm0

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=23823


Being cautious not to repost about topics that were already discussed on SHRM connect I replied to many posts. Although these posts were older so I am still awaiting a response from the original poster or others. When and if they repost I will update this entry to reflect that.

SHRM Connect and Feedback

After reviewing SHRM connect this week I found and discussed to two threads about "credible activist", this was a topic that was easy to find and there were many threads already posted about the topic. See the links below for the threads that I responded too.

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=23533
http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=23534

I also posted a questions about signature experience and how it relates to different industries, I wanted to know if there was an industry that handled signature experiences better than others. I have yet to receive any feedback on my post but if I do I will revisit this blog post to update. The link below will lead you to my discussion thread on this topic.

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=25&MID=23532

Crediblity and Signature Experience

When you are able to tie topics back into your professional life it allows the information to become "real and tangible". This week we discussed credible activist and signature experiences, what I found most interesting is that companies understand the importance of both for their success but only a small portion of companies currently enact and maintain both.

Signature Experience, in my opinion, is such an important aspect of a company culture and it needs to be implemented and maintained by the leaders and HR professionals. Creating an environment that people enjoy working in and where they feel needed and appreciated is vital to the happiness of a company culture - it would benefit more companies to create a signature experience and then make sure their employees understood it. "Your company's signature experience is what you do especially well; it's the odd or unique process that makes your company stand out in people's minds." (Johnson, 2007). As an HR professional I would make sure that there was a thorough and unique signature experience in my company, in order to attract and maintain staff.

One thing I am understanding is a vital piece of every aspect of business in every industry is the communication and trust. Talking about earning trust through results spoke loudly to me this week. I have always been a believer that actions speak louder than words - and even in business this is true. In order to gain and maintain trust you must deliver what you said you would and receive the results you expected and projected on others. Becoming a credible activist by using this factor as well as 3 others means that you are willing and able to prepare and influence people through trust.

Reference:
Johnson, L., (Jul 01, 2007). What Is Your Company's Signature Experience?. Harvard Business Publishing Newsletters. Retrieved From: http://hbr.org/product/what-is-your-company-s-signature-experience/an/U0707C-PDF-ENG

HRM - Capability Audit

Capability Audit of Generic Capabilites

                                        1=low, 5=high
Talent:  2
Speed: 3
Shared Mineset: 4
Learning: 3
Collaboration: 3
Innovation: 3
Accountability:  3
Leadership: 3
Strategic unity:  3
Efficiency: 2
Customer connectivity: 3
Social responsibility:  4
Risk: 2

As you can see from the audit above my previous employer could use some work in their capability and how they engage employees, which would lead to a stronger business. The turn around rate for employees was high - I believe that if they were to create a more solid signature experience they would be able to score higher on a capability audit.

References this week --

Using SHRM I have been able to find some great references that have been able to speak directly to our curriculum for the week. One article I found most useful was 'Credible Activism' Is Key HR Skill, Study Concludes. This article was able to relate directly back to our topic on being a credible activist and the factors of credible activists. 

Gurchiek, K. (April 26, 2007). 'Credible Activism' Is Key HR Skill, Study Concludes. Society for Human Resource Management – HR News. Retrieved From: http://www.shrm.org/Publications/HRNews/Pages/CMS_021378.aspx 

Six Paradoxes - Analyzing One Paradox - "Business and People"

This week we read that effective HR must learn to master six paradoxes, being able to simultaneously produce multiple outcomes. (Ulrich et al, 2012). 
I found that the paradox that I wanted to explore more was between the business and people. HR is known as the area of an organization that is the most concerned with people and how people do business. After reading and doing research this week - HR needs to focus and maintain knowledge about business and incorporate that into how they deal with the people side of their job.

HR professionals are being asked to be more strategic and business savvy in today's economy - this paradox of creating a balance between personal relationships and business performance allows for a successful paradox.

When an HR department can handle all 6 paradox's successfully they are able to handle many different areas of the business at once all working interconnected where HR strategy and HR creditability go hand in hand. Understanding how the six paradoxes work in order to strengthen the way HR does their tasks, make my understand HR practices more. I found this to be valuable in my understanding that HR is not just about hiring and firing anymore - they are really about development, training and finding ways to stay relevant in the current world marketplace.

If I was a manager tasked with working with HR this information about mastering the six paradoxes is extremely important in order to understand what areas need improvement and how the HR department needs to function. It is a balancing act between gaining loyalty and credibility with the employees while also keeping the goals of the business in the forefront. HR needs to be available and able to be at the table when the strategic meetings take place, and understand the business needs, as well as, the staff needs - this is where there is a blurred line and the effectiveness of simultaneously delivering the multiple outcomes necessary to become and stay successful.





SHRMconnect already held many topics and discussion about the paradoxes - it was nice to see how other people were reading the same textbook and what questions they were asking. Like the examples below - I was able to find the answers to many of my initial questions without having in inundate the discussion boards with repeat questions.

http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=19&MID=21250
http://community.shrm.org/communities/viewdiscussions/viewthread/?GroupId=595&MID=16945


Reference:
Ulrich, D., W., Younger, J., Brockbank, & Ulrich,M . (2012).  HR from the Outside In: Six
Competencies for the Future of Human Resources. SRHM.  ISBN978-0071802666

Resources and SHRM connect - Week 1

One of the resources I found useful in this first week of Strategic HR Management has been the leadership section of Forbes Magazine online. In a few discussion board posts I was able to use this section to find articles that correlated to the topics being discussed. Victor Lipman, who writes for this section of Forbes gave insight to areas of HR such as the "outside in HR approach" and "Employee Development".

Reference:
Lipman, V., (2013). Why Employee Development Is Important, Neglected And Can Cost You Talent. Leadership Section. Forbes. Retrieved From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/01/29/why-development-planning-is-important-neglected-and-can-cost-you-young-talent/

Lipman, V. (2013). Surprising, Disturbing Facts From The Mother Of All Employee Engagement Surveys. Forbes, Leadership Section. Retrieved from:http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/23/surprising-disturbing-facts-from-the-mother-of-all-employee-engagement-surveys/

Creating Profile on SHRM

Today I was finally able to figure out how to create an online profile for the SHRM website. My profile allowed me to attach my LinkedIn account which made the process easier and more streamlined with information. You can see my profile here: http://community.shrm.org/myprofile/profile/?UserKey=bcde0a56-77c8-4ff4-b56a-062f4e747aee