HRMS Social Collaboration: A Carnival of Communication

If social networking is essentially focused on the individual – sharing, posting, commenting – then social collaboration is using the same technology and techniques for a group purpose. Not so much look-at-me as look-at-us-and-what-we-can-achieve-together. HRMS social collaboration functionality is quickly changing how things get done in the workplace and HR has to be in control of these changes.

Traditionally, e-communication between employees has been via email; often from one individual to another, the use of email to send wider messages with bulk, all-user mails just tends to lead to clogged inboxes, overtaxed servers and testy messages from IT departments begging you not to click on Reply-All. HRMS social collaboration tools offer a much wider variety of flexible ways to communicate: network posts, videos, blogs, wikis, podcasts, instant messaging, forums, etc.

A Quantum Leap

This is a whole new world of business communications, multi-faceted and fast-moving. Corporate messages can be broadcast across social networks (internal and external) and the variety of responses, through multiple channels, gives the organisation new ways to interact and engage with its people. On the HR level, this allows a number of new options for old functions.

Process and workflow management can be integrated with employee data and profiles, making knowledge management and service provision a much more responsive and fluid affair. Social networks have long been used to make the recruitment process more effective and collaborative but HRMS social collaboration can make the subsequent onboarding stage much richer for new employees and their new colleagues. The communications options available allow for a more tailored experience in which the starter receives all the necessary information but can do so through their preferred channels; thus catering to different learning styles.

Given that HRMS social collaboration is a potential quantum leap in terms of how employees work together and do business, as a people-oriented change, HR departments really should be leading from the front.

The two-way nature of communication in a social workplace has an impact on how information is shared and used. Firstly, it creates an appetite for more employee self-service; enrolling employees in their own record-keeping and data management. Secondly, the interaction on projects – both formally managed and ad hoc group working – is transformed by collaboration in the social environment.

Given that HRMS social collaboration is a potential quantum leap in terms of how employees work together and do business, as a people-oriented change, HR departments really should be leading from the front. However, what often happens is that there are concerns about how the technology will be utilized (the traditional HR desire for management by policy!) and the HR people themselves are often far from being early adopters of the new possibilities. The danger is that this leads to change being driven by the technology rather than the strategic business aims that the technology could achieve. Food for thought, perhaps.