Web 2.0 and HR
Web 2.0. You may have heard this buzzword a lot recently. It is a common term used to define the trend in the use of the web for information sharing and collaborating among web surfers. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Reader are the predominate Web 2. o applications, and the generation of “millenials” (20-somethings) and Gen-X’ers (30-somethings) are widely using these applications to keep connected.
The internet is now a platform, and companies must start using that platform for better business strategies. Jason Averbrook, CEO of Knowledge Infustion, recently pointed out these facts during a session at the International Association for Human Resources Information Management:
- One out of eight couples married in 2006 met online.
- MySpace is the 11th largest country in the world.
- There are 2.7 billion Google searches monthly.
- Daily sent text messages exceed the total population on Earth.
With software tools getting better and better, Web 2.0 technology will begin to seep into businesses. Concerns of proprietary information leaking and other security issues are the largest reason for companies not to embrace the technology, but an employee does not need Web 2.0 applications to violate a companies ethics policy. The medium is always there for an employee to break the rules, whether it’s via printing/mailing documents, emailing, or faxing. Web 2.0 is just another platform, and because this is a new way for employees to violate company policies it does not mean they will be more apt to.
What is your company doing to embrace these technologies? Do you currently allow your employees to access their Facebook or LinkedIn pages from work? Do you use a blog (like us at HRMG) to communicate to staff, clients, or others? There are no easy answers to Web 2.0, but the reality is that it is not going away, and HR will need to adapt to harness the power of this rising technology.
