Category: Technology

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What Is the Future of HR?

Robert Browning’s poem “Andrea del Sarto” describes the 16th-century painter’s love for his wife but laments that del Sarto is limited by the mundane duties of earning money and supporting her, while his more famous (and unmarried) contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael live for their work with greater passion and spirit.

Despite being published in 1855, the Victorian Age poet’s work is relevant to the challenges facing human resources leaders today. The demands of day-to-day HR may be crowding out the focus, passion and spirit that are necessary if practitioners are to take a leading role in helping organizations capitalize on opportunities offered by emerging trends such as big data and gamification. This could hinder an organization’s quest to maximize productivity and be competitive.

Is the HR profession moving fast enough to capture the opportunities in emerging trends? Much of the work addressing this issue has defined the future of HR in terms of competencies, workforce demographics, or professional techniques or practices.

Here we take a different departure point by starting with prominent emerging general trends and examining their potential effect on HR, now and in the future, and HR’s desired and actual role in addressing them. What we found was that while HR leaders generally feel their ideal role is one of broad leadership, their assessment of the current role often is far less than that.

Our research at the Center for Effective Organizations was conducted with a consortium of 11 large companies: Citrix Systems Inc.; Electronic Arts Inc.; Gap Inc.; Lockheed Martin Corp.; Mattel Inc.; Rockwell Automation; Royal Bank of Canada; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Unilever; UPS Inc.; and The Walt Disney Co. Twenty to 30 HR professionals within each company participated in the consortium. We examined the trends of globalization, generational diversity, sustainability, social media, personal technology, mass customization, open innovation, big data and gamification.

Beyond Tradition: Reach Out, Venture Out, Seek Out, Break Out
Our findings suggest that human resources can make great progress by simply allocating more time, budget and expertise to the emerging trends that have the greatest potential effect on organizations. However, at a larger level, lasting change will require fundamentally rethinking how the HR profession and the HR function operate. This includes:

Reaching out: By infusing talent from other disciplines such as marketing, finance, logistics and engineering, and bringing those disciplines to bear on HR issues such as the employment value proposition, options-based leadership development, optimized talent supply chains and risk-optimized performance management.

Venturing out: By exerting influence beyond the traditional role of functional specialist, through direct interactions with constituents such as government, regulators, investors and global collective movements.

Seeking out: By finding and skillfully surfacing unpopular or unstated facts or assumptions that can be debilitating if not addressed. Such hidden assumptions are often first visible among employees, and HR is in a position to “sense” them early.

Breaking out: By leading transformational change. Increasingly, change will be a constant, not a periodic, challenge. HR is uniquely positioned to be the repository of principles and skills for creating change-savvy and agile organizations.

—John Boudreau, Ian Ziskin and Carrie Gibson

We conducted surveys with the consortium participants on all nine trends, asking them to rate HR’s role now, what HR’s role should be, and to discuss the barriers they were encountering to having a role in these trends. Each survey was followed by a webinar discussion of the findings. Our analysis will pull from research gathered within this consortium, which has created communities with HR leaders in several organizations on these issues and established a network of HR professionals spanning multiple organizations.

The four trends in Figure 1 (below) have arrived, meaning HR is participating in them, though often not at the extent HR leaders think they should. The five trends on the right are emerging on the horizon, meaning HR has not yet established a role in these but is reaching into them.

The HR leaders see HR ideally playing a leadership role, even in trends where HR is only occasionally involved, if at all. The work that HR must pursue is significant.

There is a very important role for HR to play in each of these trends. However, it is not always the role that HR plays today. The five trends on the right in Figure 1 sound very technological and may seem on the surface a strange place for HR to engage, but in the rush to become technologically savvy, organizations may have missed the human implications in these trends. This human element is where the real potential for HR exists. These human implications and what HR can do with them stood out in our research. Next we will focus on four of the nine trends: big data, generational diversity, mass customization and sustainability.

Big Data
A large financial services firm traditionally recruited sales people only from the highest grade-earners at top-tier universities. Using “big data” it correlated employee characteristics with unit revenue, and found that grades and school quality were least predictive of unit revenue, with six other variables emerging as more predictive. The company shifted recruitment away from grades and school quality and toward the six more-predictive factors and saw an improvement of $4 million in revenue in the next fiscal period.

While it is terrific to learn how to recruit better, there are two issues on the horizon for HR regarding big data. The first is storytelling as a way to engage people. With no story behind the data, analytics or correctness seldom drive change in an organization.

Should HR know how to tell the story behind data? There are not many business disciplines other than HR that are as appropriate a home for that expertise. The HR profession includes disciplines such as psychology, anthropology and communication. Yet, if HR practitioners fail to develop these disciplines into a practical and scalable ability to tell stories with data, the opportunity may be taken up by other areas of organizations, such as marketing.

Then there is the “art” of the question. Big data is much more about questions than it is about answers. HR has a unique opportunity to lead the organization in asking good questions by developing the art of the question in the way they approach data and encourage others to approach data.

This idea of asking good questions is fundamental to leading through influence, which is again something HR traditionally does well. HR often has “permission” to ask hard questions or to probe beneath long-held assumptions, because the job of forging strategies for talent often requires much deeper understanding of strategy, execution and assumptions.

HR could accelerate this role by developing more systematic and common approaches to questions that connect strategy with talent, such as “where would improving our talent make the biggest difference to our strategic success?”

Generational Diversity
HR already has a fairly strong role within generational diversity. However, there is a large gap between where HR is and where it thinks it should be. The preparation for the multigenerational workforce lags well behind the reality.

Those polled have agreed that organizations will be hurt when the older generation leaves and takes knowledge with it. To counter this, many organizations now have reverse mentoring programs where the younger generation is mentoring the older generation to help with technology skills and to transfer knowledge.

While HR is active in these aspects of generational diversity, coming down the road is the question, “Are organizations willing to make the social investment to make diversity come alive?” Research shows that more-diverse groups face greater challenges and may not perform to potential unless provided more time and collaboration tools.

Diversity can be useful, but it also can be hard to manage. Investment in skills, collaboration and understanding differences is necessary for diversity to pay off. HR should take the lead in engaging business leaders in the story of the benefits of diversity in order to get the resources necessary to make it work.

Figure 1. Lofty Ambitions but Less-Elevated Reality
Globalization: Integrating world economies through the exchange of goods, services and capital. Personal technology: Mobile platforms such as smartphones, laptop and tablet computers, future technology such as wrist devices and Google Glass, and the apps that support them, seamlessly and constantly connecting people and Web-based content.
Generational diversity: The presence of many different age groups among workers, citizens and consumers. Mass customization: Combining mass production with customization for specific individual consumers or groups to meet people’s needs with the effectiveness and efficiency of mass production.
Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Open innovation: The inflow and outflow of knowledge to increase innovation, including user innovation, innovation ecosystems, co-development, innovation contests and crowdsourcing.
Social media: Online networks and two-way communication channels that connect users in the virtual world, establishing new relationships that expand users’ networks and facilitate user participation in interactions and exchanges. Big data: Data that are too big, too unstructured or too diverse to be stored and analyzed by conventional means, processes or tools.
  Gamification: Applying game mechanics to nongame situations to motivate and change behavior.

Mass Customization
There is a lot going on already within HR concerning mass customization, the optimal combination of mass production with customization. We’ve seen companies basing employment arrangements on learning styles and personalities, allowing employees to choose between lower base pay and higher bonuses vs. higher base pay and lower bonuses, and changing from career ladders with a straight shot to the top to career lattices where a sideways move is considered a good career move. Here, HR has done a great job of applying HR principles to its own traditional functional processes.

HR will need to take the tools of marketing around customization for consumers and clients and applying them to the task of talent segmentation. The key is to optimize. At one extreme, a personal employment deal for every individual would be chaotic. At the other extreme, defining fairness as “same for everyone” risks missing important benefits of customization, and in fact may be unproductive and unfair.

Thus, HR should develop principles for understanding the optimal level of customization in the employment relationship. Moreover, because customization will often mean that different groups of employees receive different employment arrangements based on their needs or the way they contribute, HR must develop principles that equip leaders to explain these differences to employees. Our work suggests that while many leaders understand the need for customization and differentiation in principle, they resist it because they simply don’t feel well-equipped to explain them. It is far easier to say, “We do the same thing for everyone, so it’s out of my hands.” The concept of fairness is sometimes confused with treating everyone the same.

Sustainability
Sustainability is a trend that has arrived (HR has a strong role already as shown in Figure 1) but there is room for HR to become more involved and even lead. One sustainability issue on the horizon for HR is fatigue. In this technologically created 24/7 work environment, HR is uniquely equipped to offer principles that define an optimal balance between work demands and “slack” in the system that allows innovation and flexibility.

What is the optimum amount of rest/work? The fight or flight response that employees engage in for most of the workday has immense physical effects on the brain and has negative effects on the way people lead, on their ability to make decisions and their ability to create. HR can optimize the notion of wellness against the notion of work in a way that is more precise.

One way to optimize wellness at work is mindfulness. Mindful meditation — taking two minutes to breathe and focus — has immense effects on stress-related biometrics and diseases and has been reported to make leaders feel more focused, less reactive and open to new ideas. HR should take the lead in better understanding how these potential benefits affect organizations, and how they fit into an optimum balance.

Barriers and Opportunities to Close the Gap
What are the barriers to closing the gap between where HR is and where it thinks it should be regarding these nine trends? Based on the data, it is not because HR is seen as irrelevant or other functions have already taken the lead. HR relevance was among the lowest-cited barriers. The prominent barriers were more traditional: lack of time, budget and expertise.

Recall the story of del Sarto. Browning wrote of the painter: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/Or what’s a heaven for?”

Is HR at the risk of spending so much of its resources on the day-to-day that it misses the big opportunities? To paraphrase Browning, does HR’s reach exceed its grasp? Of course, conquering such shortcomings is just the beginning.

John Boudreau, Ian Ziskin and Carrie Gibson are researchers for the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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Five Points to Train Your Staff

Human resources managers are a business’ front line for employee complaints, which all too often involve discrimination or harassment claims. Training managers and the workforce on how to avoid complaints and effectively address those that do occur is critical. These five points will help employers avoid discriminatory harassment among employees.

1.    Preventive Action. In 2014, HR managers know that employers need an anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-retaliation policy. But creating a sound, comprehensive policy is just a necessary first step. Supporting and enforcing that policy is where the rubber meets the road. Therefore, ensuring HR managers are trained to support, communicate and enforce the policy is a vital second step. HR managers must be able to distinguish complaints that may have legal consequences from complaints that need professional attention but do not require escalation to legal counsel. Training, whether done internally or through an outside resource, can assist managers and supervisors in learning and acting on these distinctions.

2.    Responding to a Complaint. An anti-harassment policy should provide a detailed explanation of the complaint procedures. HR managers, supervisors and employees all should be trained to understand the complaint process and the importance to the business and the employee of following the established complaint procedure. In particular, HR managers and other supervisors must take complaints seriously, be objective and fair towards all parties involved, and show concern. An especially sensitive area is learning how to respond when an employee does not want her name to be used in an investigation. Seasoned HR professionals are trained to assure the employee that the investigation will be confidential to the extent possible, but that complaints must be investigated. At the same time, they know how to let potential victims of harassment or discrimination that their jobs are safe from retaliation when they cooperate in an internal investigation.

3.    Retaining Records. All complaints of harassment should be well-documented and preserved. Not only is retention of employment records required for certain time periods under the law, these records will be helpful if an employee files a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or an equivalent state agency. In today’s workplace, harassment can occur in emails or tweets, and, therefore, any potentially relevant electronic data as well as paper files must be preserved. HR managers can help train supervisors and employees to understand that deleting or destroying potentially relevant emails or documents can have serious legal consequences.

4.    Distinguishing Between Workplace Bullying and Actionable Harassment. When does a conflict between employees rise to the level of harassment that violates anti-discrimination laws? If the harassment is based on the victim’s race, ethnicity, gender, religion or other protected category, it might be illegal as well as inappropriate. On the other hand, employee conflict, bullying or intimidation based on other characteristics such as personality traits may hinder workplace productivity that requires prompt professional attention but not legal input. There can be a fine line here, so training can teach supervisors and employees that what seem to be innocent comments concerning issues such as clothing or hair style, could lead to a claim of unlawful discrimination or harassment. As mentioned before, well-trained HR Managers can separate workplace issues that can be resolved through professional concern and discretion from those that may require legal input.

5.    Addressing Electronic Information and Social Media. HR managers can help employees understand that company computers and mobile devices are company property, and that employees have no reason to believe that any information on any such computer or device will remain private, including posts on social media on company-owned computers. However, before taking any action based on an employee’s posting on social media, consult with legal counsel, as this is a rapidly developing area of law.

Cary Donham, Rachel Schaller and Richard Hu are attorneys with the employment law group at  Shefsky & Froelich in Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Floats an Idea of Delivering by Drone

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, floated an interesting trial balloon on "60 Minutes."

I understand all the chuckles and “Are you kidding me’s?” floating around cyberspace regarding Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos’ revelation on “60 Minutes” that in the next five years people will be able to order goods and have them delivered in 30 minutes or less — by way of drone.

Or should that be, “buy way of drone”?

Anyway, it does seem a little pie-in-the-sky or perhaps a publicity stunt to generate a buzz for Cyber Monday, but it also sounds pretty cool to me. According to Bezos, the drones, which he calls “octocopters,” will be able to deliver packages that are 5 pounds or less up to 10 miles.

So will this idea fly?

I remember back in college in the early ’90s when we talked about a “newspaper” that could be transmitted into some sort of electronic device and be updated daily or even every minute when news breaks. My eyes rolled so many times that I think they modeled the Yahoo IM rolling-eyes smiley on my dumbfounded expression.

It seemed pretty far-fetched to me then, but with the explosion of tablets onto the marketplace, it is now a reality. And in the ’60s, the only portable phone that I am aware of was Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, while today mobile phones are as common as shoes on feet.

Does Amazon’s drone service have the wings to fly? I think it might.

Yes, there are logistics to work out: Will the FAA allow these devices to fly through the skies? How are you going to guarantee they don’t fly through people’s windows or crash when the weather gets rough? What happens when junior takes aim at them with a paint gun? And people will surely go on about Big Brother, but if those details get worked out somehow — and granted these are no small questions to be answered — imagine the possibilities.

Beyond the consumer-goods realm, envision the potential for business.

Remember that “Brady Bunch” episode, “Call Me Irresponsible,” where Greg Brady wants to buy a new car, so he gets a job working for his dad making deliveries? Of course, he loses the blueprints on his first and second attempts and gets fired. People aren't always reliable, although, to be fair, technology isn’t always reliable either. But imagine having to get a contract out quickly. Drone service could really come in handy, especially in cities where bike messengers aren’t omnipresent.

As a journalist, I’ve heard the “In five years … ” line dozens of times regarding out-of-this-world innovations. People like to throw it out to get attention or generate a buzz. And futuristic stuff sounds cool. Am I skeptical about all this? Of course. I think it’s unlikely drones will be flying around delivering packages in five years, but I wouldn’t bet against it in the next decade either. When Bezos turned Amazon into a buy-just-about-anything retailer from a bookseller, people were rolling their eyes, too.

We’ll just have to wait and see if this idea gets off the ground, but, until then, let’s not drown out the drone talk with the prime delivery of pessimism.

James Tehrani is Workforce’s assistant managing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Tehrani on Twitter at @WorkforceJames and like his blog on Facebook at “Whatever Works” blog.

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The Legal Reason Why You Shouldn’t Force Employees to Turn Over Social Media Passwords

There has been a lot of ink spilled out on the supposed practice of employers requiring employees to provide access to their private social media accounts. I’ve long espoused both that this practice is not occurring with sufficient regularity to justify a legislative fix (despite New Jersey just becoming the 12th state to enact a legislative ban), and that employers should nevertheless avoid this practice because it erodes the trust that is necessary to build a workable employer/employee relationship.

Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (D.N.J. 8/20/13) provides further legal justification for employers to avoid this practice.

Deborah Ehling worked as a registered nurse and paramedic for MONOC beginning in 2004. Beginning in 2008, Ehling maintained a Facebook account with approximately 300 “friends.” She chose restrictive privacy settings on that account so that only her Facebook friend could see her wall posts. While Ehling had no MONOC managers as Facebook friends, she did add many coworkers, including a paramedic named Tim Ronco. Unbeknownst to Ehling, Ronco was taking screenshots of her Facebook wall and printing them or emailing them to MONOC manager Andrew Caruso. Caruso never asked Ronco for information about Ehling, and never requested that Ronco share Ehling’s Facebook activity. Nevertheless, once Caruso received copies of the Facebook posts, he passed them on to MONOC’s Executive Director of Administration.

On June 8, 2009, Ehling posted the following statement to her Facebook wall:

An 88 yr old sociopath white supremacist opened fire in the Wash D.C. Holocaust Museum this morning and killed an innocent guard (leaving children). Other guards opened fire. The 88 yr old was shot. He survived. I blame the DC paramedics. I want to say 2 things to the DC medics. 1. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? and 2. This was your opportunity to really make a difference! WTF!!!! And to the other guards….go to target practice.

After MONOC management learned of the post, it temporarily suspended Ehling with pay. After MONOC fired Ehling for unrelated attendance issues, she sued, and claimed, among other things, that MONOC’s access of her private Facebook wall violated the Stored Communications Act and her common law right to privacy.

The SCA covers (1) electronic communications, (2) that were transmitted via an electronic communication service, (3) that are in electronic storage, and (4) that are not public. The Court had little issue concluding that the SCA covers non-public Facebook wall posts.

The SCA, however, has an exception for “authorized users.” This exception applies where (1) access to the communication was “authorized,” without coercion or pressure, (2) “by a user of that service,” (3) “with respect to a communication … intended for that user.” Ehling had no evidence to support her claim that MONOC’s access of her Facebook page was unauthorized. To the contrary, the evidence showed that Ronco voluntarily shared the information with Caruso, and, therefore, was “authorized” under the SCA. Thus, no violation of the SCA occurred via MONOC’s possession of wall posts from Ehling’s private Facebook page.

The Court disposed of Ehling’s invasion of privacy claim on similar grounds. In doing so, however, the Court made the following interesting observation:

The evidence does not show that Defendants obtained access to Plaintiff’s Facebook page by, say, logging into her account, logging into another employee’s account, or asking another employee to log into Facebook. Instead, the evidence shows that Defendants were the passive recipients of information that they did not seek out or ask for. Plaintiff voluntarily gave information to her Facebook friend, and her Facebook friend voluntarily gave that information to someone else … This may have been a violation of trust, but it was not a violation of privacy.

In other words, the Court may have found a privacy invasion if the employer had used surreptitious or coercive means to gain access to its employee’s Facebook page. Thus, whether or not a statute specifically prohibits employers from requiring the disclosure of social media account information, this court makes it clear that an employer’s demand of such information is nevertheless illegal. Or, to put it another way, please don’t ask your employees to turn over their online passwords.  

Written by Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. For more information, contact Hyman at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com. You can also follow Hyman on Twitter at @jonhyman.

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2013 Game Changer: Monica Sauls

As human resources and talent manager at pharmacy retail giant Walgreen Co., Monica Sauls has helped hundreds of employees manage and grow their careers.

Her specialty is change management, guiding employees through changing job roles and other career transitions. Sauls, 35, who is based in St. Louis, manages HR operations for 8,000 employees at 300 store locations for the retailer. She oversees a team of nine HR practitioners specializing in training development, staffing, succession planning and workforce planning.

“Leading cutting-edge human resources and talent programs that promote an environment where all employees can discover peace, happiness and excitement in their work is the most rewarding aspect of my career,” Sauls says in an email.

And she has shared her knowledge beyond Walgreen, discussing careers on a local television show that also streams on YouTube.

Rita Pyrillis is Workforce’s senior editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Pyrillis on Twitter at @RitaPyrillis.

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2013 Game Changer: Katie Nedl

Just like the investment professionals she serves, Katie Nedl saw an opportunity others might miss and seized it.

Nedl, 33, is global head of benefits at BlackRock Inc., an asset management firm. BlackRock recently rolled out a brand campaign targeting individual—rather than institutional—investors. Viewing BlackRock’s own employees as individual customers as well, Nedl decided to piggyback on the external initiative with an internal campaign that would call attention to the firm’s financial benefits.

In just six weeks, she snagged buy-in from senior management and created a global financial wellness program for employees.

The program repackaged existing benefits, made resources and benefits available to workers’ immediate family where possible and included informational events. BlackRock financial resources, educational programs and benefits have been brought together on financial wellness pages accessible through the firm’s HR portal.

Nedl’s work seems to have paid off: Employee surveys indicate the perceived value of the benefits program increased significantly after Nedl launched her campaign.

Ed Frauenheim is associate editorial director of Human Capital Media, the parent organization of Workforce. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Frauenheim on Twitter at@edfrauenheim.

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2013 Game Changer: Matthew West

Many experienced employees know their role and responsibilities. But ask them to define it? That’s when the blank looks and shrugs of “I just do what I do” begin.

Enter Matthew West. The chief talent officer literally wrote the plan/do/review book at pharmaceutical advertising firm McCann Regan Campbell Ward, defining all systems and tracking the process from a staffer’s first inkling all the way to a published piece. The process wasn’t merely an exercise searching for a formula. Rather, West, 37, ultimately compiled a comprehensive training program so new employees could quickly assimilate into the company.

Even before his promotion to chief talent officer six years ago, West created training and mentoring programs as well as career tracks with defined milestones. Because of his time invested in training and mentoring programs, the company can commit to hiring from within—a big cost-saver on the open talent markets.

More than supplying and nurturing the company’s talent pipeline, “Mr. West is the keeper of our corporate DNA,” says Nelson Hunter, chief financial officer.

Rick Bell is Workforce's managing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Bell on Twitter at @RickBell123.

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Facebook Posts as Evidence of Retaliation

I’ve written before about the dangers of employers accessing employee’s social media accounts without appropriate controls in place. One of the biggest risks is that an employer will learn some protected fact about an employee (e.g., medical information) that could lead to an inference of a discriminatory motive if that employee later suffers some adverse action.

Deneau v. Orkin, LLC (S.D. Ala. 5/20/13), illustrates this risk in practice. One week before Orkin terminated Tammy Deneau for repeatedly working overtime without authorization, Deneau posted the following on her personal Facebook page: “anyone know a good EEOC lawyer? need one now.” At his deposition, Deneau’s branch manager testified that he saw the comment on her Facebook page and faxed it to the division human resources manager, who, in turn, recalled that management-level discussion about the Facebook post preceded Deneau’s termination.

The court concluded, with very little discussion, that the Facebook post qualified as protected activity to support Deneau’s retaliation claim, and that she had made out a prima facie case of retaliation:

Based on the close temporal proximity between Orkin learning of the Facebook comment and Plaintiff’s termination, the Court finds that Plaintiff has established a prima facie case of retaliation.

Nevertheless, Deneau lost her retaliation claim, because she could not prove that the employer’s legitimate non-retaliatory reason (the repeated unauthorized overtime) was a pretext for retaliation.

Even though the employer won this case, it nevertheless illustrates the dangers employers face when reviewing employees’ social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels can prove to be treasure trove of protected information—information about an employee’s personal and family medical issues, religious issues, genetic information, and, like this case, protected complaints about discrimination.

If you have a legitimate reason to review an employee’s social media accounts (e.g., is the employee trashing your business online, or is the employee divulging confidential information?) do so with appropriate controls in place. Have a non-decision maker conduct the review, and provide to the appropriate decision makers a report sanitized of any protected information. This simple control will insulate your organization from any argument that the decision maker was motivated by an unlawful animus based on protected information discovered in the employee’s social media account, and could prevent an expensive and risky lawsuit.

Written by Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. For more information, contact Jon at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.

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I am a Worker Seeking an Employer: eHarmony and the Job Search Industry

Ed Frauenheim is on assignment.

Online dating company eHarmony recently announced plans to get into the job search game. The company hopes to be successful by using methods similar to how it pairs compatible customers for serious romantic relationships.

Here’s what the Washington Post wrote about the subject: “At a time when many Americans are still struggling to find work, eHarmony is gambling that it can win users over with an approach that prioritizes the kind of personal, emotional qualities that are difficult to discern from a résumé or a LinkedIn profile.”

The new service isn’t set to launch until the second half of 2014. And most of the big questions about how it will work apparently remain unanswered.

So, considering all the question marks surrounding the proposed job search service, we decided to have a little fun with how job seekers will go about actually submitting applications.

Here’s some goofy stuff I came up with:

  • Entry-level millennial with eight months of administrative experience requires mid-level executive position at a totally hip software company operating in a 100 percent environmentally friendly, sustainable building. Company must offer free meals, nap time and three-day weekends.
  • Frustrated human resources officer looking for a fresh start and the chance to have a long, fruitful and happy career at any company where the workforce is comprised of mostly robots. Is willing to work with androids too. 10-human maximum. Maybe.
  • Chronically unemployed human simply yearning for the chance to remember what it’s like to truly connect with an employer again. Pleasantly proficient in Microsoft Office, enjoys working long hours and having intimate conversations about ROI.
  • Annoyed IT assistant seeks position at a company where no technical problems ever occur and all future co-workers are entirely tech-savvy—preferably as much as I am. Future employer must allow access to Netflix instant streaming in the office. Other hobbies include: the Internet.
  • Former CEO looking to serenade new, young employees with motivational ballads at any West Coast startup. A real wiz with corporate culture improvement and increasing employee engagement. Other hobbies include: yoga, looking at pictures of cats and turning down billions of dollars in buyout offers.
  • Fed-up Gen X midlevel manager sick of being taken for granted by unattached employer and tired of playing second fiddle to an older boss unwilling to retire. Looking for a new company that can give me the opportunity I deserve to grow. Still young, fun and full of life. Not afraid to be adventurous or try new things.

All levity aside, the idea that an impressive résumé doesn’t necessarily translate into a successful employee is what intrigues me most about this future eHarmony career service. I mean, regardless of how it’s fared since its IPO, Groupon was started by a guy with a music major. So who knows, maybe eHarmony will revolutionize the way companies hire. Maybe the service will flop and they’ll decide to just stick with the dating scene. I guess we’ll just have to wait a few years to see.

Max Mihelich is Workforce’s editorial intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Mihelich on Twitter at @workforcemax.

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Companies That Don’t Embrace Social Media Might Be Treading Water, Experts Say

A couple of years ago, General Electric Co. wasn’t satisfied with how it was bringing good ideas to life internally.

Like most global organizations, GE struggled to create connections and share corporate information among its 300,000 employees.

So, in January 2012, the company launched GE Collab, a custom social media platform that is fundamentally changing the way GE employees communicate and collaborate. The platform features centralized dashboards and calendar-sharing tools to foster easy collaboration, and innovative user environments, called Streams and Canvas, that mimic the way consumers interact on popular social networking sites. The tools allow employees to follow each other, add hashtags to comments for easy searchability and link discussions to documents so the context of the conversation remains with the file.

“For years, we dabbled in virtual collaboration tools, but this pulls it all together,” says Ron Utterbeck, GE’s corporate CIO. “It’s solving the basic problem of how to find the right expert in a large organization.”

GE is among the many companies tapping trends in social networking to alter the way work is done and people are managed. And while few companies have the resources to build custom internal platforms, business leaders around the globe have begun to integrate social media tools into their business processes to improve collaboration, engage potential recruits and promote the corporate brand via employees’ own social networks. From posting company updates on LinkedIn and Twitter to collaborating with far-flung employees via SharePoint or Yammer, these technologies have infiltrated and improved the way employees do their jobs.

Despite success stories like GE Collab, many HR managers remain skeptical of the benefits social media brings to the workplace. According to a new report by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania, a majority of HR professionals complain that young employees abuse social media in the workplace, citing text messaging, inappropriate use of the Internet and excessive use of Twitter and Facebook as the most common violations. Some companies go so far as to ban all social media use in the workplace and block access to them via the corporate network in an effort to stop employees from wasting time online. But the data suggests that trying to deny today’s social media reality means missing out on better business results. Consulting firm Towers Watson & Co. has found that among employees who use internal social media tools for work-related purposes, 41 percent report improved productivity.

What’s ultimately needed is a new approach to management, experts suggest. Employers can reap the rewards, such as greater engagement and productivity, and avoid pitfalls if they embrace the new “social” paradigm, says Kathryn Yates, a global practice leader for communication and change management at Towers Watson. “Managers have to stop being afraid of these tools,” she says. “The key is to train managers and employees about how to use social media in a productive way.”

In just the past decade, social media has surged from a college student pastime to a full-fledged corporate phenomenon. Facebook was founded in 2004, but by December 2012, it had an average of 618 million daily active users. Similarly, LinkedIn and Twitter also have experienced skyrocketing growth.

To be sure, the explosion of social media activity carries risks for organizations. They range from tricky questions about whether companies or employees own social media content and contacts to the possibility that employees will embarrass the brand with ill-advised tweets to concerns about complying with National Labor Relations Board guidelines on protected employee speech. In addition, young employees in particular are defiant about their social media activities. In a recent survey, nearly 3 out of 4 millennial workers said they don’t obey corporate information technology policies, and 66 percent said IT departments have no right to monitor their online behavior, even if that behavior is conducted using company-issued devices on corporate networks.

And as the York College of Pennsylvania survey shows, there are legitimate fears that social networking equates to “social not working.”

“It is often a concern we hear that employees will spend their time playing on social networks rather than working,” says Adam Wootton, director of social media and games at Towers Watson.

But to ban all social media use in the workplace and block access to social media sites is not the best approach, Wootton says. “A blanket ban on social media or draconian rules is more likely to lead to employees just using their smartphones or other channels to use their preferred social networks.”

On the other hand, companies should not adopt a complete hands-off approach, experts say. Improved productivity will only come when employees understand the right and wrong way to use social media on the job, and managers provide guidance on what’s expected, Yates says. “Most people will respond appropriately if you communicate that social media at work is OK as long as it’s used to get your job done and doesn’t compromise your performance or that of others,” she says.

Companies increasingly are getting that message. They are welcoming social media and weaving into the way they do work.

Consider network communications technology company Cisco Systems Inc. As part of its new-hire training, every employee at Cisco is educated about the appropriate way to use social media, and unless they are blogging as a spokesperson for the company, they are instructed to note that their comments do not necessarily reflect those of the brand.

But after that management trusts them to do the right thing, says Brett Belding, Cisco’s senior manager of IT mobility solutions. “It’s not our responsibility to police how people work. It’s about whether they get their jobs done.”

This willingness to trust employees is part of the broader corporate culture at Cisco, which acknowledges that employees’ work and personal lives bleed together, he says. “We don’t care if someone checks Facebook at work, because we know eventually they are going to work a 10-hour day or take a 9 p.m. call.”

Cisco also recognizes that when employees post to social media, it can benefit the brand. As Belding points out, he is just as likely to tweet about his next speaking engagement as he is to post pictures of his kids—and both types of posts bring value. “It humanizes the company,” Belding says. “It shows the world that we are not just a logo. We are people.”

Cisco’s employees are also experiencing greater productivity through the use of the company’s internal WebEx Social platform. The tool makes it easier for dispersed teams to collaborate virtually, which cuts downtime, reduces travel and face-to-face meetings, and enables them to get feedback from a broader circle of Cisco experts in less time.

“I can post a configuration on the network, and five minutes later an engineer will tell me why they wouldn’t do it that way or what I should do to improve it,” Belding says. “It’s a lot more efficient than emailing documents back and forth.”

Cisco’s internal social network also provides Belding with a customizable dashboard that lets him see his newsfeed, check meetings, review work streams and approve purchase orders or vacation requests in a few clicks. “It takes a lot of friction out of the process when you put all of that information into a single view.”

At GE, Utterbeck started building the custom collaboration tool in 2011 in an effort to improve teamwork and make it easier to access corporate knowledge. GE Collab is helping to make those searches easier, and to bring the GE community closer together. “It’s like crowdsourcing information,” he says. “I can ask a question, and within one minute, five different people in the company will tell me what I need to know.”

And it’s only just the beginning; Utterbeck’s team continues to roll out new features and is working on advanced search tool that make it easier to identify expertise in the employee population by looking at what people write, the groups they participate in and their past work experience.

Cisco and GE may be leading the trend to embrace social media for workplace management, but many organizations are just beginning to figure out how these tools can support their broader strategic business goals.

In most companies, social media as a corporate tool begins with recruiting. Talent managers use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube to educate potential recruits about the company, promote the corporate culture and mine potential candidate pools.

“It’s a great way to put your message out there,” says Corey Munoz, the Arlington, Virginia-based director of talent management for BAE Systems, a global defense and aerospace company with 100,000 employees worldwide. Just two years ago BAE blocked the use of Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms on the company’s network. Now, however, it supports employees’ use of social media, and takes advantage of popular sites to woo new recruits. “Because we are a U.K. company, we are less visible in the U.S., so we use social media sites to engage potential recruits and to communicate with them about our company.”

His team posts videos on YouTube featuring employees talking about their roles on cutting-edge projects. They also have corporate profiles on Facebook, Flicker, Twitter and LinkedIn, and host a LinkedIn group for high-performing BAE alumni. The LinkedIn group serves two roles, Munoz says. It helps BAE’s best employees stay connected, and at the same time it demonstrates that the company values and supports its top talent. “It sends a signal to potential employees that we have a robust high-potentials program,” he says.

Putting a strong corporate message out via social media is vital for attracting top talent in today’s workplace. Forty-seven percent of employees say a company’s online reputation matters as much as the job offer, according to a recent survey from staffing services firm Spherion Staffing.

Employees are looking for a clear corporate mission that is reinforced by a company’s social media profile and practices, says Sandy Mazur, a division president at Spherion. “Both of which have significant implications for how well businesses attract and engage their workforce.”

Munoz credits BAE’s change in attitude about social media to the leadership of Linda Parker Hudson, the company’s president and CEO who came onboard in 2009. “She is driven by technology, and has set the tone” for social media use around that, he says. She also blogs regularly, and encourages employees to post comments and repost company updates to their own social networks, and to use tools like Yammer and SharePoint to build communities of practice and network with each other. “It energizes employees and makes them feel connected,” he says. “It’s not like the old email discussions threads that no one ever read. These tools generate discussions.”

Being able to connect with peers is a vital piece of the corporate social media value proposition, says Hope Koch, a Baylor University associate professor of information systems. And those connections don’t all have to be directly related to a specific project or business outcome. Social media tools can also serve to build a stronger corporate culture by fostering more personal connections, she says.

Koch studied the use of social media at a large financial firm where new recruits built a homegrown network to connect and collaborate. The employees, who had been recruited from college campuses all over the country, used the site to share information about apartments and restaurants, help each other get acclimated to the company, and build new friendships in an unfamiliar environment. “It humanized the workplace,” she says.

These softer connections benefited both the employees and the business, because it led to a greater sense of organizational commitment and better employee engagement. “For millennials, mixing their work life and their social life via online social networking created positive emotions for the employees who use the system,” Koch says. “These emotions led to more social networking and ultimately helped the employees build personal resources like social capital and organizational learning.”

This type of personal engagement drives direct business value, Yates says. Research from Towers Watson shows that highly engaged employees generally produce better business outcomes than their less-engaged co-workers. The research also shows that organizations with high levels of sustainable engagement—which describes the intensity of employees’ connection to their organization—enjoyed an average one-year operating margin close to three times higher than that of organizations with low levels of engagement.

GE is already seeing such benefits because of Collab. The platform has more than 200,000 active users, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “We solve problems faster, and we have more confidence in the business choices we make,” Utterbeck says.

GE’s leadership is equally impressed, giving Utterbeck full support for the project. “They want people from all levels of the organization to be able to collaborate and communicate just as if we were a small company,” he says. By harnessing the power of social media, he’s enabling just that.

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.