It would appear that the HR profession needs to get out more. Browsing through a crop of HR blogs I came across a recent poll of HR professionals asking if they had heard of Twitter - see the link - http://tinyurl.com/c9cws7 - nice find Mr Ingham. Now wait for it. 90% had never heard of Twitter. I practically choked on my slice of banana and walnut cake. (home made, delicious) 90%! Ill say that again, 90%! What the fuck?! And there's more - 0% think its useful for business comms! Zero, none, no one, nada. Not one person in the poll thought it useful for business comms. Well not surprising given that no one knew what it was I suppose.
Duh! It's how most of your younger generation workforce (And many of the not so young) are communicating!! Hello!! This cant be true! If I had a £ for every talent specialist who has waxed lyrical in recent times about 'the millennials, gen Y' etc etc like they were some sort of expert in the field I wouldnt be listening to corporate types spouting bollocks for a day job that's for sure. If they know so much about them, how can they be so ignorant about the way they communicate?
But then again, that's where our function leads the way - ignorance. Most have been so busy working up policies to outlaw most social networking tools in the workplace they have missed the obvious - this is human communication in the noughties. Social networking tools are as fundamental to business and personal communication today as the letter (Paper, real paper, sometimes even hand written - remember that?!!) and the phone (With a wire attached and most definitely not mobile) were to me then back when my body hair grew only where it was supposed to. I'm showing my age - shut up already.
If your employees are spending all day on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other site then banning them or restricting them will have no impact whatsoever, except a negative one. If, in the old days I was spending too much time on the phone to my mates, or spending all day writing them letters, they didn't take my phone away did they? No, they kicked my arse and made sure I was busy!
And of course there is that old chestnut engagement. If they were truly engaged, committed and culturally well aligned employees, if they believed that the organisation had their best interests at heart, they wouldn't be taking the piss in the first place.
Anyway, I'm off to check out my twatter. Sorry, Twitter.
Ballbag
Duh! It's how most of your younger generation workforce (And many of the not so young) are communicating!! Hello!! This cant be true! If I had a £ for every talent specialist who has waxed lyrical in recent times about 'the millennials, gen Y' etc etc like they were some sort of expert in the field I wouldnt be listening to corporate types spouting bollocks for a day job that's for sure. If they know so much about them, how can they be so ignorant about the way they communicate?
But then again, that's where our function leads the way - ignorance. Most have been so busy working up policies to outlaw most social networking tools in the workplace they have missed the obvious - this is human communication in the noughties. Social networking tools are as fundamental to business and personal communication today as the letter (Paper, real paper, sometimes even hand written - remember that?!!) and the phone (With a wire attached and most definitely not mobile) were to me then back when my body hair grew only where it was supposed to. I'm showing my age - shut up already.
If your employees are spending all day on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other site then banning them or restricting them will have no impact whatsoever, except a negative one. If, in the old days I was spending too much time on the phone to my mates, or spending all day writing them letters, they didn't take my phone away did they? No, they kicked my arse and made sure I was busy!
And of course there is that old chestnut engagement. If they were truly engaged, committed and culturally well aligned employees, if they believed that the organisation had their best interests at heart, they wouldn't be taking the piss in the first place.
Anyway, I'm off to check out my twatter. Sorry, Twitter.
Ballbag
Posts
Very very funny. Now how do we get it to change?
ReplyDeleteChange it? CHANGE IT??! Mmmwwwoooaaaaahhh! (Imagine loud, patronising voice comin' at ya from the clouds)
ReplyDeleteWe could do more of what these guys have done - use it internally. http://mcarthursrant.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-all-hr-departments-need-blog.html
Ironically, we started using wikki's and other tools as a result of losing heads. And it works better! Sshhh. Don't tell anyone i said that.
Other than that, lets just nail the bastards that don't believe.