HR will go through massive transformation over the next decade, as companies transform to use social.

Social media has transformed society.  Today, when I switched on the television there is an interview with somebody that had posted a photo of the burning bush in Australia.  He had captured a house burning, with a kangaroo in the photo.  It's a great photo, that is going "viral" after being posted on Instagram.  The BBC had found the photographer and were interviewing him.

It made great television.

Not only were people talking about a very serious situation the other side of the world but we are talking about a social media post.

Welcome to a social world.

Social has also changed the way we do business and especially Human Resources (HR).

Gone of the days we putting job ads out on Twitter or using LinkedIn jobs ads are seen as good practice.

Today we are using social right across the business, strategically.  Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Procurement, Finance ... and Human Resources.

Social enables us to change (transform) our business, do more for less.

In 2020, Human Resource departments will get a grip of social and the importance to transform their companies using social.

We live in changing times, while there is a bigger and bigger focus on employee experience, it's clear that using 1990 techniques in the 2020s just won't make the cut.

Look at how the world of business has changed in terms of diversity, the amount of tech that is "table stakes" to actually function.  Being able to use Powerpoint, Word, Email, Slack, social media.  The need to understand our own roles and responsibilities in terms of leadership, how we work with other people and respect them.

Some of the people I've worked with in the past and their behaviours of what they thought "good behaviour" looked like, they would soon now end up under discipline, be fired or end up a tribuneral.  So how can we make sure we are using the technology we have to make our employee efficiency the most effective and efficient?  How can we make sure we get getting the most from the assets we have?

For all employees have a sense of purpose must be the number one motivation?

Doing something that you believe in and working with people that help drive that passion.

The best thing to support this, isn't a new cloud system, Blockchain, IOT, data analytics or whatever the tech suppliers are selling this week.  It's a culture of collaboration and a set of processes that support each employee, but also supports our fellow employee.  I see articles on how data, or AI will solve all of the Human Resources (HR) departments woes.  Really?

There are issues in the workforce that can be sorted now. 

How do we get our teams to work together in a frictionless way?

How do we increase the employee experience?  How do we reduce cost at the same time?

How do we support all employees?

How do we get the best talent and before the competition?

How do we retain the talent we have?

This can all be enhanced using social media.  What do I mean?

Like Health and Safety, Diversity and Inclusion, Sexual Harassment, etc, Human Resource Leaders can no longer hide from the fact that employees use social media and a business now needs to recognize this and rather hide from it and pretend it does not exist, they have to embrace it and proactively support it.

If we look at Simon Kemp's Q4 Digital Snapshot 

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-q4-global-digital-statshot

There are 3.75 Billion people in the world active on social media.  Your staff are on it, your alumni are on it and your future employees are on it.

So here's a thing.

Why don't we start using social?  Why don't empower people to use it and use it for our own advantage?

How do I mean?

We can use social to support maternity returners, make them feel welcome and get them contributing quicker.  In fact we can use social to enhance the employee experience across the business, supporting new starters enabling them to contribute faster.  We can also use it to get salespeople to contribute faster.  This, often is a game changer and the business case for this change in business.

Empowering your staff on social will also enable you to get access to the talent faster.  It will probably even reduce the amount you spend on recruiters and job adverts.  It might even make you the employer of choice in your industry.  This again is often a business case, based on the savings.

But emphasizing the employee experience, social is often a driver to help retain employees and impacting on the recruitment process. 

Finally we would expect a 25% increase in employee efficiency in using social.  That's 25% more employees for free!  Again, another business case.

In 2020, let's be smart.  Let's start making our people and process more efficient and effective by using social.

Oh, and by the way, there is a crazy (do more for less) business case as well.