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I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at an all-day HR Summit sponsored by the Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Berks County SHRM this past week. My topic was “Socially Recruiting”, or why HR folks must embrace the social media revolution to source, hire, and retain talent in their organization.

Overall, the topic was well received. One main point I covered was the fears of social networking in businesses. Many fears keep businesses from harnessing the power of social networking in their organization. This is why 60% of Fortune 500 execs said Social Media isn’t even on their agenda.

HR can help. Using the tools out there, HR can be the leader in ushering this communication revolution to its workforce. And for the majority of your employees (80%, to be more precise), this methodology isn’t new. But it isn’t easy. There are many myths and fears about social media that keep it outside the corporate firewall.

To get started, take a look at this terrific PowerPoint presentation on  “Social Media Fears and Overcoming Them”.

What are your Social Media fears? What keeps you from utilizing this technology at your office?

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HRMG customers have asked us to help them look into ways to advertise job openings and tackle the thorny issues of effective hiring in today’s market.

You are probably familiar with advertising jobs the old-fashioned (but expensive) ways in newspapers or on Monster.com or CareerBuilder, but did you know one of the hottest places getting results right now is Indeed.com.

Indeed is a “mashup” site, which means it remixes data from more than one source. Another “mashup” site is SimplyHired.com, which combines job opportunities from individual LinkedIn sites and displays them on the web.

We’ve done our homework and found it well worth a visit to these sites to check out cost effective alternatives to traditional advertising.

If you are planning to hire in 2010, you may also want to consider a strong recruiting system to handle the waves of resumes, applications, interviews, letters of rejection and acceptances that will need to funnel through your chain of command.

Filtering through everything and finding exactly the right candidates to interview could possibly be done manually – but who has the time to get it right?

If you would like to know more about recruiting systems to manage your next hiring wave, we have options to suggest. To get started, we have information on our website.

Email back or call Paula at 610-941-2176 for more details.

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Can’t come to grips with using social media to attract talent? Take a look at how one world class company does it.

This is a terrific presentation by Starbucks on “Using Social Media to Attract and Engage Passive Candidates”. It offers great statistics, real examples, and tips on how to get involved in this revolution of collaboration. The great news is that no matter how big or small your organization is, social media levels the recruiting playing field.

Are you currently using Social Media to attract talent? How is it working?

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Making sure your “C” Team knows HR “Get’s It”.

Be someone who makes recommendations on how to accomplish organizational goals.
Example: Downsizing? Review candidates targeted to leave and provide opinions on the best use of their skill sets to filter and keep the best talent in-house.

Recognize what people do best in your workforce and reward them.
- Be willing to educate yourself in the ways of your organization
- Select, mentor, train and develop great people

Be someone who volunteers to work on special assignments. Stay attentive to changing strategic goals.

Be someone who understands the competitive space in which the organization works.

Understand the risks and liabilities involving your workforce and recommend actions to avoid them.

Be someone who doesn’t think of HR responsibilities as just a calendar of events – think about matching up results from workforce reports, designed to track those events, with the objectives of the organization.

To be sure you “Get It”, know it’s not about tasks – it’s about selling products and providing services to customers. Don’t bog down the process with requirements, which slow workforce progress.

Explain clearly the benefits and priorities for any actions which take time away from productivity.

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Social Networking is an ever increasing subject for Human Resources professionals. I am speaking to various local SHRM organizations throughout the year on this very topic, and hope to educate, enlighten, and enrich organization’s capabilities in this arena. HR departments, now more than ever, need to embrace this major shift in the way we do business in order to increase value to employees, provide increased knowledge to those that need it in the organization, and become more efficient at their jobs.

As I continue my research on social media in the workplace (this thing evolves daily!), I am continually amazed at the speed of growth of social networking sites. There were 250 million Facebook users in September 2009, today there are over 400 million. And what these users say about companies and their brand determines who will win and lose in this experience economy. Whether people like it or not, the future is here – social media is as big a business revolution as the industrial age.

You might tell already I’m a social media activist. I enjoy visiting organizations of all sizes and discussing this topic, and as I question them on their current social media strategy, I sometimes hear a pang of disbelief to the pro’s of social media in the workplace. “Is social networking really necessary in the workplace?” “Won’t social media hurt an organization more than it will help?” “How can I deter the plague of social sites from our company?” Yes, there are potential negative side effects to social media, but when harnessed properly, social media is a very powerful and useful tool.  In reality, whether you like it or not, your company’s customers and employees are already using social networking. What are they saying about your brand?

Throughout the next few months, I’m going to leave tools, tips, and advice on social networking in HR. Hopefully as you read my commentary on the subject, you can take at least one idea and begin implementing it immediately.

In the meantime, test your initial knowledge on social networking sites. Can you name the nine social sites from their icons at the top of this entry?

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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What the C Team wants to From HR – Part 2

4. Ascertain and understand the risks – what is the financial condition of your workforce costs. (For a list from HRMG Solutions of Key Performance Indicator Reports go to http://www.hrmgsolutions.com/white-papers.asp. For assistance to compile reports using your Sage Abra data, contact us at 610-941-2119).

5. Know Which Indicators Are Most Important – Discuss with your C team which KPI numbers are the most valuable for your organization and be proactive in communicating unfiltered information.

6. HR must not be a disconnected department, separate from the rest of operations -
To become a trusted partner, get away from process orientation.
Don’t be just a calendar of tasks and events.
Example Story from one of the panel members: The organization was starting an exciting new international venture with all divisions working overtime to make it a success. At the same time, the HR department insisted on sending all senior officials through routine safety training sessions, which indicated a lack of understanding of the needs of the organization.

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Yes, according to a recent study conducted by Microsoft.  In the study, Microsoft surveyed 2,500 HR Managers and Recruitment Professionals, and 70 per cent of responders said they rejected a candidate because of their online behavior. 28% said they terminated an existing employee due to content found on a social networking site.

However, responders also said that building a strong personal brand on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn can help candidates. Peter Cullen, of Microsoft, said: “Your online reputation is not something to be scared of, it’s something to be proactively managed. These days, it’s essential that web-users cultivate the kind of online reputation that they would want an employer to see.”

“Eight-six percent of HR professionals believe that online reputation has had a positive impact on an applicant,” said Cullen. “Having a positive online reputation can be just as influential [as having a negative one].”

How do you manage your online reputation? What have you done to build your personal brand?

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Following a group of other states, Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell signed into law Act 2 of 2009, also known as Mini-COBRA. This law extends health coverage to employees who work for companies under 20 employees.  Key provisions to this law:

• This law goes into effect July 10, 2009
• Applies to employers with less than twenty employees
• Provides benefit continuation coverage for a period of nine months
• Applies only to insured group major medical, hospital or surgical policies
• Permits an employer to charge up to 105% of the of the group rate of the insurance being continued
• Individuals who elect Pennsylvania Mini-COBRA may be eligible for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) premium assistance. This translates to a 65 percent reduction in COBRA premiums for a qualifying employee under the ARRA.
• This is a permanent law, unlike ARRA which expires December 31, 2009.

For more information on Mini-COBRA, visit the Insurance Department for the Commonweath of Pennsylvania

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The Healthy Families Act (HFA) has been introduced in the both the House (H.R. 2460) and Senate (S. 1152).  Sponsored by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the bill would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide employees with up to 56 hours of paid sick leave. Leave would be accrued at one hour for every 30 hours worked.

Under the Act, paid sick time can be used for the employee’s own needs or to care for a child, parent, spouse, or any other blood relative. An employee begins accruing the sick leave at their start date and is able to begin using it after 60 days. The leave would not be able to be counted under an employer’s absence control or no-fault attendance policy.

While many Democrats and President Obama are for this Act, Republicans have voiced their opposition. SHRM has also spoken out against the Act, and you can read their position here.

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Last week, Congress introduced H.R. 2028, named the “New Employee Verification Act” (NEVA).

This act would replace the current E-Verify program with the Electronic Employment Verification System (EEVS). The system would be based on the state ‘new hire’ reporting process used for child support enforcement. The bill would allow employers to confirm eligible employees through the Social Security Administration database and Department of Homeland Security database.

The bill would eliminate the current Form I-9.

In addition, the bill also would create a voluntary biometrics option for the verification process. A standard background check and thumbprint could be obtained to secure an employee’s identity and preven fraudulent activity. To protect employers from liability, the legislation would provide employers a safe harbor.

SHRM worked closely with members of Congress to develop NEVA.

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