As we all know, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. It is almost impossible to go anywhere these days without seeing at least one person using it, or hearing about how big of a tool it has helped them in their career or life.
It seems like every major company uses some form of social media for engagement and marketing with the users, followers, and subscribers they have. Many large companies even hire individuals to manage their accounts so that they can focus more on business related matters!
As such, there are now many people who feel that working for a company which does not use social media as an asset is limiting their professional growth. Employees are sometimes made to feel uncomfortable using the tools because their superiors do not understand the value it brings to the organization.
Furthermore, since most employers advertise jobs via social channels, this can put off qualified candidates who find the advertisements boring or vague. If you’re looking to advance your career, using social media is important- whether you work for a company that already does or would like to start using it.
There are several ways social media impacts human resource management. Let us look into them here.
As we know, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. It is almost impossible to function socially as well as business-related activities without it.
It is also increasingly common for employers to ask their employees if they have a Facebook or Twitter account, if they use them, and how they are affiliated with the company. In fact, some companies even require workers to have accounts so that they can do their jobs!
While having these online profiles is not necessarily illegal, it can be considered unethical when used in relation to your employer. This can hurt your career, even potentially damaging your employment relationship.
On top of this, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allow others to see what you are posting, which can give away valuable information about you. Yours employee profile may include things such as your salary, retirement plans, and family members. All of these things make your profile visible to everyone else, which can spread rumors or false information.
As seen with the recent Facebook scandal, there is an ever-increasing amount of exposure that employees are giving away through various profiles.
This is very concerning for employers as it may expose sensitive information about your company, individuals within the company, and even people outside of the company.
Information such as salaries, potential legal actions, and possible criminal activity can be exposed when someone accesses a profile.
It is important to note that although not illegal, sharing this type of information publicly is definitely unethical.
As mentioned before, your company uses social media as an outlet to showcase who it is and what you stand for. This includes promoting your organization, its products, and engaging in conversations with others about things that matter to you.
By having these conversations, people will connect how this business cares about education, experiences its product line, and why it should be invested in. All of these emphasize how important this company is to individuals and the community.
This sets up longer term relationships which can lead to repeat purchases or even referrals. By offering rewards for referring friends, word-of-mouth advertising can be stimulated.
If someone encounters any problems while shopping, these peers are likely to go somewhere else because they’ve been contacted already. As more people buy from this source, so does the rest of the staff!
The opposite also applies. If there are bad reviews, people will choose not to purchase the item unless they are compensated for their time. This creates a negative image for the brand and can cost them sales down the road.
There are many ways companies can incentivize social engagement and reward talkative workers, but making promises like tuition reimbursement or additional training is usually too vague.
Instead, offer direct benefits to those that refer friends, promote the company, or talk about it publicly. The possibilities are endless! A simple way to do this is by creating an employee advocacy program where participants get points towards prizes or bonuses.
It’s no surprise that people share their personal lives with social media, but some may be hiding part of who they really are. Employees can include things like poor performance or lack of performance, bad attitudes, and other unethical behaviors in the workplace.
It is important to note that most employers are not allowed to access employee Facebook profiles nor are they permitted to check professional accounts such as LinkedIn.
However, it is very common for employers to run into issues when trying to determine if something isn’t true. For example, looking at someone’s Instagram feed might give you an idea of how they live their life outside of work, but you never know what pictures were edited and why.
By allowing yourself to have idle conversations about what you see online, you could find out lots of secrets! Luckily, there are ways to help prevent this.
As mentioned before, social media use can have significant impacts on your workplace and HR professionals are no exception. What works for one company may not work for yours so it is important to be clear about what kind of culture you want to create at your organization.
Are employees allowed to say how they feel in the break room? Is there open talk of politics and religion? If yes, do these conversations influence other workers’ perceptions of teamwork and trust?
These are just some examples of things that can be affected by social media usage at your organization. Make sure to discuss potential pitfalls with staff so they understand their legal rights and how to handle situations when such laws are broken.
We all enjoy spending time on social media sites where we chat with friends and family. It makes us feel good and helps take our mind off of everything else. That is why it is so crucial to limit access to only those sites that are necessary for employee productivity.
Some examples of productive sites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Companies should make an effort to avoid letting people interact or connect with others outside of the office as this has a negative effect on morale.
Consistency is one of the most important things you can work on as an online influencer. This means not only sticking to certain brands, websites, and forums, but also keeping content production steady!
As we mentioned before, your social media presence is a continuous process that requires consistency in order to see results.
You will need to monitor and manage your accounts on a constant basis at least once per day, if not every few hours depending on how much time it takes to refresh the page to make sure you’ve updated your posts.
This is especially true during busy times for your business or career, when your workload may fluctuate.
As we know, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. It is used for both personal and professional purposes to consume content and communicate with people.
As companies grow larger, they need to make sure that their workplace environment is supportive and encourages employee engagement and productivity.
This means creating a productive work atmosphere that allows for discussion, collaboration, and communication. They must ensure that there are clear goals and expectations, as well as opportunities for advancement.
It’s important to note that most employers can be sued if they create an unattainable or intimidating working environment.
Utilizing various tools like Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, employees should feel free to interact and discuss what matters to them. This creates an engaged workforce and more efficient operations.
At the same time, companies cannot monitor everything online so it is up to each individual employee to determine how much information they expose themselves to.
As mentioned before, social media use has become almost universal. It is present in most nations around the world at this time! This makes sense as we live our lives online now.
Many employers look at what people are sharing about their workplace on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to determine if they want to recruit or not for positions.
This goes beyond looking at how someone dresses for work – that’s been done to death before. What people share about their employer, their colleagues, and the leadership of the company get more attention today.
It’s easy to see why so much focus is placed on social media when you consider some of the things that have happened due to posts.
A recent example is the employee who posted pictures of themselves with alcohol at an off-site event. The event was considered work related and outside normal hours, so it was investigated.
The person was let go and the posting made the situation worse because everyone could easily confirm the drink outing.
