The HR Blog Exchange - Guest Post from Lyn Hoyt

NOTE: This Guest Post authored by Lyn Hoyt is part of the HR Blog Exchange, a fun project that was cooked up a couple of weeks ago, details on the project are here.

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Like so many businesses today, my business continues to evolve its strategy to include technology in all aspects of business function. Not only has it played a role in marketing our framed recognition products on the web, but also in streamlining warehouse functions, customer service and of course HR. Some of these small business functions Steve has written about here. Steve’s recent interview with Beth Carvin  also does a great job talking about the benefits of “social networking” as a component of technology within business environments. We are all continuing to understand the power of technology to connect people through communication significantly impacting HR today. It is a very exciting time to be working in HR.

Does technology in HR offer the ultimate platform to fundamentally transform how we treat each other as employees and colleagues through transparent feedback of work performance? While some of this feedback opportunity already exists, are we maximizing the transparency or does it just exist in a document in a performance review file? DeliverMagazine.com terms “the 4 C’s” of connectivity, communications, creativity and collaboration. To humanize these 4 C’s by bringing real opportunity for employee content, commentary, recognition and collaboration to HR could create a real peer-to-peer platform for authentic work performance feedback and recognition. And it can bring better access to management.

There is a methodology emerging with Facebook and Twitter that cannot be ignored. Can employees build appropriate content for online communities in the workplace? Can they be trusted? While there is much to resolve with security, privacy, rules and moderation in a business environment, with the right spirit, I feel knowledge sharing and community building through HR technology can grow authentic corporate cultures that can ultimately transform the way employees perceive their own value.

Social Networking in the workplace is already moving even beyond blogs in some corporations, becoming mini news feeds, tagging search, and video uploads. Employees move from desktop to phone, posting texts, photos and video in real time that for Gen X and Gen Y is part of the energy of teamwork that enhances work performance and collaboration. Key to fostering the use of this social networking platform is recognizing and valuing there will always be content creators and content spectators, yet both are participating. One of my personal favorites that illustrates this workplace trend are Zappo’s Blogs http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos.

Recognition is reinforcing the power of the positive. As a discipline HR must harness technology beyond data crunching. Real people are associated with that data. Forming recognition communities through technology can ultimately strengthen teamwork and job performance that, by nature, is the purpose of recognition.

Lyn Franklin Hoyt is co-owner, designer & marketing director for Berkeley Tandem, Inc. a small manufacturer of framed recognition products located in Nashville, TN. You can see her company’s products on the web at http://www.awardcertificateframes.com and http://www.fusionframes.com . You can also follow her on twitter at designtwit and awardframes.

The HR Blog Exchange

 

Many bloggers from time to time find themselves 'stuck', or lacking a source of inspiration for their blog, and get into a bit of a slump creating new content.

It happens to me quite often.

Most blogs have a particular angle, or Point of View, and sometimes after dozens or even hundreds of posts on your topic of choice you can easily find yourself at a loss for what to write next.  Hasn't it already been written, maybe even by you already?

Sometimes taking a fresh approach, examining a new subject, or mixing up your writing style a bit can help give you a shot of creativity and inspiration.

So in this spirit a few fellow HR Bloggers have decided to participate in a little 'blog exchange', a simple idea where two bloggers are paired up with each other, and each submits a 'guest post' to their Flickr - JasonDGreatpartner's blog, hopefully done in more of less the style and using the 'normal' subject matter of the host blog.

So each blogger gets a chance to stretch a bit, potentially writing about something new, and perhaps altering their style a bit, and hopefully most of all having some fun.

Getting to the point then, here are the bloggers that have agreed to participate in the blog exchange:

The Participants

Steve Boese - Steve Boese's HR Technology Blog - Twitter user name - sbjet

Lisa Rosendahl - HR Thoughts - Twitter user name - lisarosendahl

The HR Maven - HR Maven - Twitter user name - thehrmaven (The Maven really knows how to brand)

Trish McFarlane - hr ringleader's blog - Twitter user name - Trish_HR

designtwit -Fusion Frames- Twitter user name designtwit

Steve Urquhart  - Talent for the 21st Century - Twitter user name workforce101 and Talent421

Beth Carvin - Nobscot's Weblog - Twitter user name bncarvin

ImJustAGoyle - ImJustAGoyle - Twitter user name imjustagoyle

Margaret Murphy - MYFUTURE MYSELF - Twitter user name murphymargaret

Lois Melbourne - Aquire Blog - Twitter user name loismelbourne

The Pairings

Since the original thought was from one of my Tweets (lucky me), I was nominated to choose the pairings, so here goes:

HR Thoughts - Talent for the 21st Century

HR Maven - Nobscot's Weblog

Steve's Tech Blog - Fusion Frames

imjustagoyle- MYFUTURE MYSELF

Aquire Blog- the hr ringleader's blog

There were also a couple of folks who expressed interest in 'playing' but are not currently blogging, but would be interested in guest posting.

Ben Eubanks - Twitter user name beneubanks

I have a standing offer open to Ben to guest post on my blog, and I encourage other bloggers to consider opening up some 'guest' slots for new HR professionals and students.

For the actual writing and publishing of the posts, here are a few steps that I think make sense, feel free to ignore these completely if you disagree:

1. The 'pair' should contact each other via e-mail or Twitter DM to go over how they want the process to go and review any specific details that they care to discuss (length of post, timing, etc.)

2. Each blogger should spend some time reading their 'hosts' blog, looking at the content and style etc.

3. An agreement should be made for a target date to publish the guest posts

4. I think the 'pair' should try to publish on the same day, I think for the best impact and exposure that makes sense.

5. Once the posts are published, make sure to announce them on Twitter and use the hashtag #blogexchange in the Tweets, and the other participants in the #blogexchange should RT for further exposure.

I think that is it.  I am not 'in-charge' of this little project, I just agreed to help organize.  I don't plan on badgering anyone if the guest posts don't get done quickly. It is up to each blogger to make sure that the guest posts get written and published in a timely fashion.

Thanks everyone who agreed to participate, and let's have some fun!