Why are you keeping your team off social media?

How often do we hear that HR don’t get a seat at the table, or that they aren’t seen as adding value at an executive level?

Whilst this argument was a lot more prevalent a few years ago, the topic of conversation is still around today. As I was sitting at the SHRM17 pre-conference session about Social Solutions for HR, Sue-Ellen Watts provoked the thought that perhaps HR aren’t being invited because they aren’t bringing anything new.

As HR professionals, we focus a lot on engaging our staff, but if we want to become true business leaders in organisations, we need to truly consider how we can drive commercial results. We looked at that in the context of social media.

Even as we sat in the session, delegates were still concerned about keeping their team and business off social media rather than leveraging it for the benefits it can truly deliver. (Side note: if you have concerns about what your employees will do and say then there’s a bigger cultural problem at play.)

Now, everyone seems to have their reason why not to get on it, but it’s here today, not the future, so we need to find ways to overcome our excuses and find solutions.

By giving some guidance to your team (note – this does not read “rules”) you can amplify your message and increase your visibility (you never know who they are connected with), the more rich and diverse your broader layer of connections, the more likely you are going to reach the right audience (whether that be prospective clients or potential employees). This is where your commercial approach comes in!

To keep the HR spin on why social media interaction is important – if your employees love what they do, giving them the opportunity to increase their own brand, either through content curation or creation, will help engage them more in their role and will encourage them to further develop their knowledge base and skills.

Allowing your team to be part of contributing to and interacting with your social media also demonstrates trust, the company’s responsiveness to business changes and promotes the willingness to allow the team to express their own individuality (the benefits of which are a whole other blog entirely!).

I would love to share more practical ways you and your business can engage in social media through HR, and how you can bring something new to your organisation – tweet me @wattsnextKatie