The HR Executive Conference - What Wasn't Said
SteveEarlier this week I was fortunate enough to attend the Senior HR Executive Conference organized by The Conference Board, (my summary of the first day of event is here).
While there were so many excellent presentations from the HR Executives on a wide range of topics, read this piece from HR Ringleader on the Unilever 'Agile Working' program for an example, I want to focus on what wasn't said at the event.
In a day and a half of presentations, casual conversations, lunches, and networking the subject of social networking use in HR and the leveraging of social media tools and technologies for HR, was largely absent from the discourse. In total, I think we (the bloggers that were invited to the event) only 
Flickr - JFChenierobserved two mentions of social networking; one a reference to sharing family recipes on Facebook, and two; a representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers talking about how PWC using social networking tools to connect with interns and intern candidates.
That was it.
No discussions on using new tools for workforce collaboration, for internal expertise location, to improving the 'connectedness' of their global organizations, and definitely no talk about implementing innovative strategies and approaches for using social networking to find, attract, retain, and engage top talent.
Last night on the HR Happy Hour show, a 2009: Year in Review, we spent a large portion of the time discussing social networking and social media as one of the most significant themes and trends for HR in 2009, (when we were not playing the Sad Trombone).
What gives? If social media and social networking for HR were really that significant in 2009, shouldn't there have been at least some talk about this development at the HR Executive Conference? Shouldn't have one Senior HR leader talked about how HR was able to exploit employee networks, new technologies, or public sites like Twitter or Facebook to drive some truly innovative solutions?
Why might there be a disconnect between those of us active in social networks and technologies for HR and what we heard (or more accurately did not hear) from the Senior HR Executives?
ROI- On the Happy Hour, Jessica Lee made an excellent point. She essentially said that HR Executives have not seen the real organizational ROI of social media and social networking for HR initiatives, and therefore do not yet consider it important and/or essential. I think Jessica is right on with this observation. These executives don't want to hear 'Look our company recruiting Facebook page is up to 823 fans!'. They want to know how these tools and strategies produce results, better hires, at lower cost, and improved results. That is it.
Echo Chamber - The HR folks involved in social media and active in social networking have formed a nice, tight cocoon around ourselves, and since we keep telling each other this 'stuff' is important, then darn it, it must be important. But we are not doing a good enough job in and out of our organizations reaching the broader HR community, and certainly not the highest levels of HR Executives. Until those of us that are proponents of these approaches start doing a better job on outreach, the executives will simply not even notice, let alone care.
It really isn't that important - So much of the conversation and presentations at the conference centered around implementing consistent performance evaluation processes, identifying and retaining high-potential employees, and managing the workforce through this recession. While at least in theory social technologies and strategies could assist organizations in these areas, it certainly is not necessarily obvious how. In these organizations more tested and traditional approaches seemed to be the preference, and based on the presentations, many companies claimed successful outcomes. Maybe it still is possible to solve important workforce and organizational crises without social networking.
It's still too new - It quite likely could be too early in the widespread understanding and adoption of social networking strategies in HR for them to have 'bubbled up' to get the attention of the average senior executive, or to have achieved the kind of success that an executive would want to actually talk about publicly. Maybe when I attend the 2010 Senior HR Executive Conference (please invite me back!), there will simply just be more to say on the topic. While 2009 was truly a year of dramatic growth in HR's use of social media and networks, it still really has a long, long way to go.
I have to say I was indeed a bit surprised how little attention these ideas received at the conference, but truly after reflected on them a bit, and from the comments and discussion on last night's HR Happy Hour, it does make sense somewhat.
For HR folks invovled in social media and social networking, what do you think needs to be done in 2010 to get these topics on the radar of the most senior leaders in the discipline?
Reader Comments (12)
i have to say, i notice the same thing at conferences for communication professionals. yet i know there are many instances of companies using social media for internal comms -- and definitely for external comms/pr. it makes me wonder whether it still comes back to the value derived from these conferences, and therefore who shows up.
the idea of it being too new is one i struggle with. when does it stop being new?
i just read an article that suggested IT as the barrier -- wanna comment on that? http://www.itchannelplanet.com/trends/article.php/3851741
f
I think that the whole concept of social media/networking is "new" enough that it has not made an inroad into mainstream HR yet, but it will come. If I remember right (at least for those of us in the field for a while) that it took the internet a few years to make an impact in HR. Hell, there are still companies that block the internet from their HR department, thank god not that many.
Social media/networking will be a huge topic in the mainstream in 2010.
Believe me that social networking and networks are already woven into the daily activities at these firms of (1) recruiters doing sourcing, credential checking, alumni relations, etc., (2) learning/development pros planning cost-effective add-ons to their overall training toolset, (3) comp pros trying to find out more about who's paying what than they can get from annual surveys, (4) everyone in IT trying to find out anything, and so on. Lot's happening that these HR execs either don't know about, don't care about, or which didn't rise to the level of relevant at this conference. But I suspect that there's a lot about the entire HRM delivery system, especially its software platforms, that were also not hot topics for those speakers. All the other points here are also valid, but part of this is just the particular set of speakers and their headsets.
I am not surprised. Business leaders do not routinely sit around trying to figure out how to fit their problems into new technologies. My experience is they need to be shown exactly how their problems are solved by technologies. I think in a lot of ways, social networking technologies are still a solution in search of a problem at this point in time. AND I agree with you that social networking technologies are WAY over valued by those who use them (in our cocoons). That's why we think this stuff isn't new, confusing or frighteningly amorphous with regard to how it solves real world business/collaboration problems or unlocks unrealized value.
It's VERY new and the value has neither been articulated nor realized at this point.
Great post Steve. Love your observations. I wonder if this is just another reflection on HR not taking a leadership position by being more connected to broader business and societal trends. There are so many aspects of social networking that can advance employee engagement and leverage the collective intellect of the organization's workforce to drive innovation. If HR tied this to business imperatives, leading a cultural transformation to advance collaborative practices is exactly where they could deliver increased value to their organization. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that for most companies, CEOs should be demanding this of their HR groups if HR hasn't stepped up to say to the CEO - "we need to do this, now". Just look at this study by PWC (http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/index.jhtml) and specifics about what CEOs want. Whether its due to fear - aka risk adversity, or an insular outlook HR is missing a significant opportunity to advance their organizations competitive capability by not taking a proactive position with social networking.
As people become increasingly connected and realize the value from social networks, personally and professionally, organization's that don't embrace this will begin to look out of touch, have a more difficult time attracting and retaining talent, and risk losing market positioning.
Ian got it completely right, I think.
I'm surprised that you were surprised, Steve, that a senior HR executive audience would care little about technology and less about the cutting edge of social media. It's always been this way and very slow to change.
That's why exhibitors at the HR Technology Conference are so shocked when VP's show up at their booths. And why we try to focus the conference content on teaching how to get business benefits from the use of technology in HR.
When you look up above the "Happy Hour" audience, you'll find a world of older HR professionals (dare I say Baby Boomers?) who are not on your wavelength at all. Another example of the generational divide? Or digital immigrants and digital natives?
If your readers want to start talking to them (and can stand another shameless plug) join our new HR Technology Conference group, currently on LinkedIn, and happy to have you already as a member and contributor. Hardly the best platform for a social network. But we're there because it's largely the only network more senior HR executives will join. Or isn't blocked by their companies.
How do you expect them to care about this stuff, when they can't even see an example on their desktop? The current (but certain to change) sad facts of life. Hell, I only saw the light in October as I wrote in my column: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=289144605
@fran - Thanks for the link, I will need to check out the article you referenced and see how it reconciles with what we heard (or did not hear) from the HR execs
@John - I suspect you are right about how much more mainstream these ideas will be in 2010
@Naomi - Interestingly I did hear a fair amount of 'technology' talk, almost all of it around these large organizations progress in consolidating disparate systems and rolling out (via technology) consistent processes for performance management or comp planning. It could be that there is still lots of foundational technology work that is still dominating the HR agendas.
@Ian - Thanks, I think your point is well-made and was echoed by Jessica's comments on the show last week
@Susan - Thanks very much for sharing your observations and the PWC study. I hope that in time, we see more of a recognition and realization of the importance of these technologies and strategies in the HR executive arena.
@Bill - Great points, and I think perhaps I should not have been surprised at all as you say. Hopefully next year and going forward I won't get so many strange looks when I talk to HR leaders about the HR Happy Hour show!
Great post, Steve. I think you raise some excellent points. (And I'm glad you are going to be blogging for the HR Florida Conference in 2010! :) Regarding execs and their collective lack of enthusiasm for SM - social media and/or sado-masochism, depending on your viewpoint - we've got to develop some metrics to demonstrate the ROI. Preferably in three minutes, one chart, so to speak. Show contribution to bottom line and they'll start to listen. Yes, execs are slow to change, but demonstrate to them a way to either, (a) make money or (b) save money, or sometimes even a (c) get better talent for less money, their ears will perk up. So, how can we do that?
@Heather - those are great questions, and thanks so much for raising them here. I think I will try to flesh them out a bit and write a follow-up post around those questions. They are challenging ones for sure, but likely ones that will need some easy to digest answers as you say. I am really looking forward to HR Florida as well and am delighted to be participating.
Steve,
Your three-monkeys visual is perfect for this post! I can see, from the other comments that have been posted, that there's a general agreement that social media needs to gain some visibility at the top of the HR organizations. But the visual terrifies me because of what I've seen among my own friends and connections in the HR community... Organizations seem to be remaining blind to these unstoppable technology trends until they take away jobs and turn HR service models upside down.
We hear about the new business world that will emerge after the "great recession" and how the jobs are just NOT coming back. If you take a historical-technology view of this situation it makes complete sense. Powerfully hard times (and warfare) cause us to make major moves in the application of new technology. Today, the biggest players are implementing HR info systems that deliver self service to huge organizations (lost jobs); talent management groups implement distance learning systems and assessment systems that 'flatten the world' in global companies (lost jobs), and recruiting organizations push job postings out to be found by the most talented candidates on new social platforms (more lost jobs).
There is no going back... But that's exactly why thought-leadership groups should be helping the most influential HR leaders consider these earth-shaking changes right NOW... before they are blind sided by having to dismiss half of their HR workforce in order to keep up. The saddest part is that when the high-level HR exec is blind sided, often their whole team is blind sided too.
HR is still a people-to-people function, even if social technology can help it do more with fewer team members. Professionals in this business need to know where to move next with their skill sets. High level thinking groups can help people at all levels, not only by letting them see where to move their skills, but also by signalling that the change is real and its time has come.
Ray
@Ray - Thanks for sharing your thoughts , I think you make some excellent points. Will embracing these new technologies result in HR job loss? Hard to say, it could be be driving the implementation of these tools that HR professionals can make themselves more valuable to the organization, and less likely to suffer from a RIF. Something to think about.
The best way to avoid buying replica handbags is to actually go to an official replica bags Store.