Leveraging Social Media for HR Functions

Social media provides myriad opportunities for the Human Resource functions. Social media is going to revolutionize the field of Human resource management. Most of the functions of human resource management will be impacted by it.

We can start with the recruitment functions of human resource management. By recruitment we mean sourcing the candidates for selection. Various social media platforms like LinkdIn, facebook etc provide a way of sourcing the prospective candidates. Most of the employees in services sector and considerable amount of employees in manufacturing sector have visibility on such social media sites. Social media websites are a good way to sourcing and contacting prospective candidates. It lowers both cost and time.

Orientation of the employee can be another area where social media can be very useful. Various forms and documents required to be signed can be uploaded on intranet or some social networking site account. Even the videos of orientation sessions can be uploaded on social networking site from where the employees can watch at their own convenient time.

Employee engagement is another human resource function in which social media can be highly advantageous. Various informal groups can be made on social media to engage the teams. Employee achievements can be highlighted on social media groups to give them recognition of the work done by them. For example yammer is a private social network that facilitates sharing amongst employees and helps in developing collaborative culture.

Social media can also be used for employer branding both within the organization and outside the organization. It is a good way to disseminate important information for the current and prospective employees. Through this channel organizations can pitch good things about them to the prospective employees It helps them in building employer value proposition.

Some sort learning can also take place through social media network. Some basic ppts and videos can be uploaded on the websites like youtube. Rather than arranging for such sessions again and again they can once be made and uploaded on youtube from where the employees can access whenever they feel like doing.

On the whole we can say that social media can be used very extensively in assisting in HR related functions. The use of social media for different HR related functions will make the HR functions very cost effective and time efficient.