Internal Communications – HR 2.0?

Over the last few years, new opportunities have arisen for HR teams to leverage social media and Web 2.0 in internal branding. Social media is now being used extensively through corporate platforms to unify, establish collaboration, create innovation and even to establish corporate standards across large multinational corporations. While the uptake of social media is most apparent in the US, adoption by global companies is increasing awareness within Europe. Rapid technological development is also bringing social software tools within the reach of smaller businesses.

In a survey of 20,000 HR professionals, Birkman International found that many people working in HR are fully aware of the potential of social media technologies, such as blogs, social networks, social bookmarking, wikis, content syndication, mobile computing and online video (83%). However, opportunities exist to improve their knowledge and experience and turn awareness into effective usage.

When asked which Web 2.0 technologies they use more than once a month, the clear leaders were LinkedIn (75%) and Facebook (66%). More surprisingly, almost half (45%) are also using Google Reader and 28% use Twitter. Using social media for recruitment purposes is the obvious starting point for web thirsty HR professionals and LinkedIn, Twitter and videos distributed through platforms such as YouTube are the most popular platforms for this.

Best practice for social media requires a clear distinction to be made between internal and external communications. For external communication HR teams need to work closely with marketing teams to contribute to building a strong, branded community that brings consistency of brand experience from recruitment to customer support. While businesses tend to have clear distinctions between departments, audiences are oblivious to such lines of demarcation and will wander freely through the information available through online channels.

The first requirement for internal social networking is a social media policy to give employees clear instructions about what is acceptable and what isn’t in their use of social media. The next requirement is to set objectives and to develop a content strategy that makes the best use of each of the available media to ensure your communication brings a rich user experience. Video is an important component internally as well as externally, whether it is to improve internal understanding of your brand by demonstrating values in action, or by using video to bring a closeness to communication across distant locations or from senior personnel.  Blog content can also be valuable to bring access to leaders within the business to develop better managers and nurture best practices.

Above all, web 2.0 is about collaboration and two-way conversations. This is where concerns about privacy often inhibit participation and companies can miss out on the benefits of social media. However, with an internal online infrastructure, managed or closed to external participation, companies can enjoy the benefits of social media without the downside. The HR team can encourage managers and employees to get involved and send as well as receive tailored messages building closer ties across the organisation. It’s also a great way to deliver various types of e-learning to the employee’s desktop.

For a bit of inspiration, here are a few examples of companies who have developed internal social media platforms:

1) IBM has created a social media platform called Beehive. The team created the site in order to help IBM employees to meet the challenge of building the relationships that are vital to working in large, dispersed enterprises today. They’re also exploring whether Beehive can help discover people with common interests or the right skills for a particular project. Incorporating functionality people are familiar with on Facebook, such as a profile page and photo uploads, Beehive allows employees to schedule events and write commentaries in a private, closed environment.

2) Pixar, the Acadamy Award-winning animation studio, has a video wiki for animation collaboration. The company started with text based sharing and then moved to video-based wikis to share information about films in production and to document meeting notes. Once the system was installed, they found it led to increased efficiency and faster film development.

3) Leading IT company, EMC, has an internal social platform called Global/One. Their goal was to create a platform for building relationships on a one-to-one level amongst staff and the corporation with virtually zero-budget toward branding. Over the last three years it has become the driving force behind a cultural shift in a collaborative environment that is spurring innovation, global collaboration and solutions that solve client’s problems. It has created social media “rock stars” within the company who are becoming recognized leaders for their blog writings as the go-to opinion leaders who people respect and follow for their thoughtful ideas and inspiration.