I’m just back from the HR Florida Conference. I never made it to the pool.
I stood around a simple booth and met several hundred HR professionals — and the majority had never been on any social networking site. I offered very basic advice and guidance on how to get social. It’s pretty easy stuff. LinkedIn is not hard. Facebook isn’t hard. Gangbangers with no formal education are selling meth on Twitter. If they can do it, HR can do it.
So I was feeling pretty good about the experience until I heard, “I’ve never been on Twitter or Facebook but I have to write a social media policy for my company. Can you help?”
I heard this over & over again — and honestly, I started to lose my patience.
You can’t write The Rules of the Road unless you know how to drive a car. You can’t write for The New York Times or USA Today unless you’re a journalist. Who has the audacity to write a policy that governs the lives and behaviors of workers without a cursory understanding the subject?
Oh yeah, right. Human Resources.
I have spent the past three years speaking to Human Resources professionals so they can take their knowledge of social media and do great things for themselves and the profession. Read blogs that have nothing to do with HR. Connect with artists. Think about political issues and how these decisions impact everyday Americans. Get active. Engage with the world. Have something to say.
I expect more from my profession than a basic understanding of technology. Everything we do in Human Resources — from the administration of government policies to the coordination of a company picnic — will eventually happen through some kind of technological platform that incorporates a social element to the design.
I am not in the business of helping Human Resources professionals learn just enough about LinkedIn so they can write a dangerous and complex social media policy that lacks nuance and stifles innovation. I will help you get on Facebook and I’ll give you a Twitter cheat-sheet, but I can’t teach you how these tools will change your life (and your career) while standing at a booth on a trade show floor.
You want my help? Really? That’s awesome. I am a great teacher and I don’t accept lazy students. The price of my services means that you are required to think about why you’re using social tools and how that tool will make you a better and more relevant practitioner.
Anything else is a waste of time for both of us.
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Right on, sister. Can I get an amen?
church of the poisoned mind!
Amen.
tx!
Key point —-> “Everything we do in Human Resources — from the administration of government policies to the coordination of a company picnic —will eventually happen through some kind of technological platform that incorporates a social element to the design.”
These things are happening now HR peeps! I’m saddened by the lack of curioistiy about this shift among the general HR population.
They’re curious in as much as they want to block & control it. Sigh.
So true.
I’m like, “Now what?”
Write a book?
YES!
I can think of another organization that makes policy about something which they know nothing about, Congress telling businesses what is best for them.
Congress should be in the business of ensuring a level playing field for small businesses, women, minorities, and those who don’t have enough money or power to compete against the global monopolies.
AMEN!
I literally spent months researching social media for company branding, and came to the conclusion that if you don’t dedicate a serious budget for a “Social Media Marketing Dept.”, and hire employee(s) who’s sole job is to spend the enormous amount of hours necessary to create a social media brand successfully (blogs, tweets, FB, LI and hundreds of lesser known sites)— you’re really wasting your time. Doing it half assed out of the gate will make your company brand look worse, bad, cheap, ridiculous, unstable, what have you– You need to do it right or don’t do it at all—–
It’s budget and it’s commitment. You can’t have one without the other in today’s world.
Heh. I remember reading something by Rainer Maria Rilke once where he said that artists had to experience and engage with the world in order to learn how to paint. Guess it works for HR as well.
I heart Rainer Maria Rilke.
Amen, sister.
tx tanya!
Can I get an Amen too?! What just kills me are the people lecturing at conferences, lawyers for instance, on social media… who have NO social media accounts whatsoever. Never left so much as an “Amen” on a blog post. Cracks me up.
Should you start to suspect you may be in the presence of that kind of odd, but not rare, animal raise your hand and ask, “What’s your Twitter name so I can add you right now?”
When they shrug and (sheepishly) admit they have no such thing, get up and exit the room. And be sure to ask for your money back if you were dumb enough to have paid to get into THAT snake-oil show.
And if your company paid good money to send you to an act, just leave and go have a drink at the bar. Look for the person with the iPhone4 to strike-up a chat with. You’ll learn plenty more than you ever will in that badly-lit auditorium… and have way more fun too.
I like the drink at the bar.
I’m going to an EEOC seminar next week in Charlotte. One of the workshop sessions is titled – Employer Rights and Responsibilities Related to Social Networking.
I moved to Charlotte 2 months ago from Florida but if I was still there, I would have seen you at HRFlorida. I would have come by your booth and asked if you had any good swag
.
Ha! I didn’t have swag but I gave away two netbooks (via Aquire) and a social media survival kit (via SHRM) so it was okay.
No Jimmy Dean Sausage Clock???
not this time.
I agree with what you are saying, but there is a fundamental flaw. Following this logic, unless someone in HR was/is a drug abuser, then they shouldn’t be able to write a drug free workplace policy either.
I do agree that too many times things are done on our behalf, by people that haven’t been in our shoes, but I don’t see HR people getting the opportunity to write employment laws (SHRM’s “influence” doesn’t count, because like leperchauns, it ain’t real). Don’t we as a country willingly abdicate to congress, a body of wealthy individuals for the most part, many whom have never lived pay check to pay check, or worked a demanding manual job in their life, permission to pass binding laws that effect our employment and finances?
It seems an HR Manager that’s never been on Twitter writting a social media policy, may be by conventional wisdoms standards, be ridiculous, but I submitt, truly it is the norm.
Pssstt, your strawman is showing.
Writing policies around new communication techniques is slightly different than writing policies regarding illegal or prohibited activities that have been covered by numerous laws & regs over the years (e.g. Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988) .
Well I get Puff’s point.
I think you can’t write a drug-free workplace policy unless you’re sober.
One of my favorite posts in quite some time. Awesome!
!!!
Bashing Congress is a fool’s errand. We get the government we deserve. Don’t like it? Run for office, or actively support someone who reflects your views and values.
More than half of us can’t even be bothered to put down the cheezpuffs, turn off the teevee, get up off the couch and vote, fer cryin’ out loud. Let alone spend time and effort to get informed, engage with other points of view or confront our own assumptions and biases.
In the meantime, lack of social media chops is the least of these HR dinosaurs’ problems: somebody needs to clue them into “the Google.” A straight keyword search for “social media policy” yields 378 *million* hits — with a free online database of `em right at the top of the pile!
Thank you.
I mean, duh.
Cmon cynical girl, you were suprised about HR people who wanted your advice about writing policies for soetning they never experienced? Not really?
A lot of HR people have become essentially compliance weenies.
It cracks me up to hear internal OD people get really offended when C level executives don’t take them up on their offer of “coaching”.
You and I were both raised Catholic so we know where they got the model- I mean having never been married or in a relationship shouldn’t prevent you from giving advice on birth control or marriage- right?
I have a colleague who is coaching an HR “professional” on her personal brand. He calls me and says- “this chick’s background is totally in IT, education and experience. How in the fuck did somebody make her an HR manager?”
Maybe she really likes people……..
BTW, I disagree with you that most people are stupid. I think many are compliant and codependendent, but that is a result of generations of deliberate corporate strategy in full partnership with the education system. It was created to provide compliant, moderately trained serfs who could be “shaped”
Your generation and the following ones are smart enough to break the code….
Be loyal and compliant and we will give you security.. oops we don’t want to give you security anymore…
You’re right about education. Our current education model is based on the Prussian model, whose compulsory education system was created to teach children how to follow orders so they’d listen to the generals when in battle. It’s a shame that wildly successful companies like Google don’t inspire other companies to offer some of the same treatment and services.
Also…Laurie was raised Catholic? Dude, that explains SO much! I was raised Catholic as well. I never got over the guilt of being born.
I was raised Catholic (sorta). I was raised by a few different people and it’s not like religion had any sort of meaning in my life. And my family’s religious beliefs are complicated. That’s probably part of the problem.
Hm.
Holy crap, Laurie!
You should start a blog. or a business writing great social media policies, or something!
That sounds like work.
I LOVE IT!
I have been tasked (after 2 YEARS of trying to get my company on board) with putting this together for our HR/Recruiting group. THe best part, only 2 people on my team of 10 have any idea of what Social Networking is outside of LinkedIn and Facebook. Our executive team is asking for KPI’s on this. WHAT!?!
So thank you. I SO needed this today
Schwoo. Good luck.
So, what happened when you started to lose your patience?
I wrote a blog post.
Confession: I didn’t drink the KoolAid yet. I’m not opposed to social media, but I’m not a fan of many of them either (and yes – I’ve tried and still am trying).
Warning: this reply is not about writing policies. It’s about the negative judment levied on those who simply do not hold the same opinion about the so-called ‘necessity’ of social media networks.
Networks can be a fantastic tools -whether electronic or not. And they can be fun. But, I am not convinced, that we are all actually benefiting so much by them (unless you are selling something) and am absolutely over the top sick of people being so obsessive about social media and judgmental about those who don’t follow suit.
Any media are tools and only that. They are not the holy grail. If every single HR wonk got on board, it still wouldn’t solve most real problems. And – like any tool – they need not be used for every facet of work or life in general.
No, I’m not a Luddite. I DO believe we are ‘twittering’ our lives away; failing to make meaningful IN PERSON connections as we become more and more isolated while we ‘connect’ virtually. Many blogs are simply narcissistic time sinkholes (yours = a notable exception most of the time, although I did have to take a several month hiatus from it). And many posts or blogs or sites are simply an embarrassment to the creator.
Of course, few are embarrassed because one byproduct of all this blogging, etc… is that it creates the impression that ANYONE can write. Since this is obviously not the case (I include myself) – it results in lowering standards overall.
The “in person” is the most critical aspect of the work I do in HR. A high volume of response to a job posting has no direct corrolary to quality of hire. Virtually every policy, issue, problem, innovation, approach and recruiting effort has its genesis in the nuances of real people connecting IN PERSON, sizing each other up and coming away with some sort of feeling about the experience that steers how the act going forward. Is that objective or ‘business like’? Can it be graphed or charted, measured or assessed by the number of “hits” or replies? It doesn’t matter – it IS how people ‘tick’. You can make a case for an execute any idea you FEEL sufficiently important. So, ‘mechanics’ take a back seat for me.
I believe much (but not all) of the on line ‘communication’ and media have created yet another element of artificiality to life in general and specifically to making a business case for many items. (“Oh look! I have XXXX number of followers!! This is going to be HUGE!! “Oh look – no posts
We better ditch this and refocus on something else RIGHT AWAY!!!”) And it’s creating an unprecendented level of attention deficit disorder.
Talk with someone, maybe read an article and take time to carefully consider or perhaps even – GASP! – change your mind? Guess again – not in this world. No – we must reply to our followers! We must form an opinion immediately! We must “be out there”!
So – at the end of the day – we are all preoccupied and busy. Are we actually any better? Jury is still out on that, in my opinion. And this is without mention of the inherent associated erosion of privacy. I won’t go on and on about it. Suffice to say – I want to throw up my hands and ask “How soon do you think it will be before that concept no longer exists and do you even care?”
Please, folks – stop judging HR folks who simply have another opinion and do not agree that everyone must be connected via electronic social networks. We are still managing to do our jobs competently, believe it or not. And – since we’re not stroking a handheld constantly, we even manage to pay full attention look you in the eye when we see you in the flesh
.
No one is judging a lack of connectivity. I’m judging a lack of intellectual curiosity.
You were in Florida? How did I miss that?
All kidding aside what you and Mark did was great. Looking forward to more.
Meth on twitter? How on earth did I miss that?
Oh and Amen.
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