Hire Strategies Blog

Building a community - what technology platform should you choose?

Although you need to have a strategy that dictates the need for you to build a community, assuming you do, what about the technology?  You can use Ning which is great and starts off as a free platform or you can get Jive which is the market leader with a Gucci price tag to match.

A good start point is the Gartner, Inc.'s 2009 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace which you can get from Jive if you register here.

There is also the Enterprise Social Media event on 15/16 March at Olympia in London where you'll be able to check out various vendors that offer community software.

The number one consideration for me is data security.  Not how secure is it, but how open is it.  If for example you want to run an internal workplace community a platform such as Ning is not ideal whereas Jive will be too expensive for a lot of companies.  Whilst a lot of companies are taking a strategic view of such ideas they are not necessarily expecting to invest £250k to achieve this with a yet unproven outcome.  We are very much in the "land grab" scenario at the moment with very few UK providers but there are some.  As I'll be at the event in Olympia I will be looking out for some alternatives as community building, internal and external, is key to any talent management strategy.

If any one is also going or wants to meet up post TRULondon I'll be around on 15/16 March.

Building a community - you get out what you put in - yes it takes time!

The next time a recruiter complains they do not have time to use social media to build a community of great candidates remind them why vegetables are often tasteless these days; a bit much like most of their (candidate) relationships.  You can force nature but you ultimately pay the price!

Social Media World Forum - London - Enterprise Solutions

Just over 12-months ago I wrote a report about Social Media in the Workplace hoping that social networks would be freely available to all employees.  So how does it look now?

Who's buying who in the ATS market? Stepstone and Mr Ted anyone?

It is only a matter of time before Axel Springer finally acquire Stepstone. For further details read:

STATEMENT BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF STEPSTONE ASA IN CONNECTION WITH THE MANDATORY OFFER MADE BY AXEL SPRINGER AG

The other rumour on the mill is that Mr Ted are being acquired by Success Factors.

Onboarding new hires

A long time ago we put in place a system for a client called the First System.  It was designed to improve retention of new hires as they could show that where someone stayed beyond 12-months, they would often stay 3+ years.  But, 70% of new hires left BEFORE the first 12-months!

I'm running Sainsburys (badly)

I'm not sure what Justin King is hoping to achieve by this latest Apprentice style TV programme; maybe at the end he will tell all TV stars they are actually fired.  He states that colleagues will have the best ideas for how to improve their business which I would agree with but, based on what they have shown maybe this is not the case.  Or was it deliberate? Hide the best ideas, show the sad ideas, let your competitors think you are weak?  Bit of Sun Tzu; appear weak when strong?!

Even the Google ad goes to an error page - how ironic is that. (click the image to experience it)

So, would the TV programme make you want to work there or would it now put you off?  Last night was however very funny as Joseph was thrown in at the deep end as was pretty much ripped apart by some very competent and committed staff.  In the end he survived and is probably back in Derby reliving the adventure.

Global Healthcare Provider Bupa Unleashes Employee Knowledge with Jive Social Software

PRESS RELEASE FROM JIVE SOFTWARE

PORTLAND, OR, May 28, 2009 – Jive, the Social Business Software leader, announced that Bupa is connecting its worldwide network of employees to promote new initiatives and company values with Jive’s Social Business Software platform.

Will communities take over from unions but with greater power?

As communities get bigger what collective power will they have?  Unions have traditionally been a way for the people to have a collective voice but do they always get the deal they feel is right?  Or do their leaders sell them down the river?  Big debate I know but what if communities get so big they become the voice of the people?

Corporate social media assessment

We recently launched a corporate social media assessment to look at how HR feel about the use of social media as part of their people strategy but also how comfortable they feel as individuals in using the same tools.  We had a fantastic response (much greater than expected) but you can still complete the assessment and qualify for a free copy of the report (due April 09). In the meantime here are some of the highlights:

• 94% of respondents want to stay abreast of how social media can be used as part of their people strategy.
• 12% are comfortable with social media and see how it can be used to achieve their strategic HR goals i.e. not that many!

Looks like the report will make interesting reading.

Why British business will exploit web 2.0 in 2009.

There is one compelling event already of this year that will result in British businesses utilising web 2.0 and social media technologies.