Secure Enterprise 2.0 Blog

Traditional HR is no more!

There, I said it: “Human Resources”, “Personnel”, “Talent Management” – all the old job descriptions are taking on a new meaning.

Your organization today needs to find new ways connect people with people; allow collaboration between peers; empower workers to drive business units forward; share responsibility without letting it fizzle; let teams and leaders drive initiatives and innovation. And the glue that must hold all of this together is a shared positive experience with personal and professional satisfaction. In fact, you could call that Enterprise Social Glue, if you’d like.

In the new world of work, the average employee is busy interacting on enterprise social networks, crunching numbers off an RSS feed, keeping up with news through a desktop gadget and off-and-on IM’ing with offshore partners. Employees simply cannot tolerate the tedious expense reports, the impossible-to-update time reporting and other annoying tasks.

In other words, a fundamental change in the way an organization interacts with the individual employee is necessary, especially if top talents are to be coaxed and recruited into the mix.

And if you thought money is the best incentive, think again – a recent Deloitte research shows that retaining and attracting talent depends significantly on allowing employees “to control when, where, and how they work. They’re happy to work hard, but want to do it on their terms.”

To empower employees and enable self-service mechanisms to such a degree, without loosing HR’s control and corporate guidance, organizations need to adopt Web 2.0 and social tools as part of the daily work routine. And it’s time for HR to drive this change inside the organization.

So, whether you are surrounded by a field of cubicles or wondering a desert of open office space, keep in mind that for your company to keep growing, you need to provide employees with the right tools and a fair amount of social glue.

Think about it.

Yonni