How to Build Employee Engagement Using Social Media - Workology

How to Build Employee Engagement Using Social Media - Workology Social Media has become an integral part of the way we live and work. It is hard to imagine that it is only twenty years since the Internet was created. According to Nielsen research, social network traffic grew by 43% from June 2009 to June 2010. Social network activity now dwarfs online games, email and search as the number one activity. Every single day more people are also now turning to their social networks, as the preferred way to find jobs. Managers need to realise that social media is much more than Facebook or LinkedIn. There is also a level of skepticism and confusion about the value of social media. A communications manager recently told me that she was one of the first people to get a Twitter account, after attending a conference in New York. Currently she still has no active account, and perhaps due to her confusing initial experience, is now a social media skeptic. The astronomical growth of social media has created new ways for companies and candidates to connect online. In the late seventies, the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie used Hyneks scale of three types of encounters: sightings; observations of UFOs; and human observation of animate beings. Similarly, the involvement of Human Resources with the phenomena of Social Media can best be described and summarized at three distinct levels or types of encounters: compliance; sourcing; and engagement. Level 1 Compliance Legal firms are frequently running workshops, as a number of employers are still working on an effective social media policy. Companies are struggling with dealing with how social networking sites may impact on their workplace, as well as trying to understand the laws and other factors that may impact their approach to social networking. From a compliance perspective, companies may be concerned about the distractions at work, and the consequences of privacy, bullying, and harassment issues that can follow. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia recently released their Social Media Policy, only to experience a massive backswing from employees and unions reacting angrily. Companies need to design a policy framework, which also require education of employees on how to use it in a meaningful way. Level 2 Sourcing A recent survey (The Jobvite Survey: Job Seeker Nation 2010) highlighted that proactive career managers (defined as currently employed and open to a new job but are not actively seeking one) have a very social profile: Facebook (67%), Twitter (28%) and LinkedIn (28%). They are well connected with 52% having more than 50 contacts on Facebook. Younger professionals are using the benefits of technology to build their networks faster, by generating more referrals online, as compared to previous generations that are still preferring more traditional methods. Companies, such as Microsoft, have developed effective recruitment strategies to ensure they manage their online and offline presence to remain an employer of choice. This includes creating a supporting environment for recruits and utilising employee networks to reach those candidates that are not active job seekers. Increasingly, Australian companies, such as Fosters (@FostersCareers), are building strong talent management solution  teams, adept at using LinkedIn and other social media tools to attract top talent, inviting potential employees to learn more about a career with their business. Recruiters are often online for a period, with Ask and Expert segment, to answer any questions that applicants may have. Level 3 Engagement Social networking sites can be great tools for attraction, recruitment, communication, connection and engagement. Social media has also created new business opportunities a recent internet survey confirmed that 68% of users found LinkedIn the most valuable tool. Internal social groups can be connected and engaged through the effective use of social media. Social media is a critical part of communication and collaboration technologies that can help to make people more productive. Clearly there is an opportunity for employees to share ideas, replacing the old style suggestion boxes with a more interactive process, which is being used by many forums to collect views from users. An example is Salesforce.com which is using a Twitter-like product and calling the employees that are using it the Chatterati. These employees are getting their jobs done by using these tools, which creates value for the organization. VicRoads are using Yammer, an internal twitter bringing together all of a companys employees inside a private and secure enterprise social network. According to Judith Pettitt, Executive Director People Services and Internal Communications, more than 20% of their 3,000 employees are engaged in providing valuable shared knowledge on various business topics. It has been especially helpful in organisational problem solving and in seeding ideas. VicRoads has also supported a recent blog project where all staff were able to make improvement suggestions on line, comment on others suggestions and get feedback from the Corporate Leadership Team on implementing the proposals.Using contemporary communication tools makes such a difference to the immediate needs of staff to share their knowledge and effectively engage with each other. Embracing the future Companies need to embrace social media with the same vigour that the internet and websites are today an intrinsic part of the communication within a company. Often it is about making a start. The HR department is the custodian of employee communication. By developing a strategic approach, the HR department can apply social media tools in an integrated way where they have real meaning. Managers often feel a lack of control, particularly when a major change process is taking place. Rather than trying to control the process with zealous compliance, leaders need to embrace change and encourage employees to use it meaningfully to improve engagement. Companies are responding to the growing interest and investment in social media applications, to support the attraction and retention of talent. A few companies are taking a leadership position as visionaries by embedding social media as an integral part of their employee engagement strategy. Charles van Heerden is the founder of WaveBox, a specialist Strategic HR and Social Media consulting firm in Melbourne, Australia. Charles is an HR expert with a strategic focus on Social Media. Most recently he was Social Media and Marketing Director for a HR Consulting firm. Visit WaveBox for more information, as he enjoys blogging about innovative HR practices.

Creative Workplace Trends and Challenges

Innovative Workplace Trends and Challenges Innovative Workplace Trends and Challenges Innovative experts have more alternatives than any other time in recent memory regarding when, where and how they work. This makes the two chances and difficulties for bosses and workers. It's an energizing chance to be working in the inventive business â€" but at the same time it's occasionally scary. The pace of mechanical change is quick and quickening, making serious requests on organizations and imaginative groups. How are associations and experts faring even with advanced disturbance? What are managers' and representatives' greatest concerns today? To discover how innovative experts truly feel about their occupations, organizations and vocation prospects, The Creative Group joined forces with AIGA, the expert relationship for configuration, to lead a study of in excess of 1,000 industry specialists. We likewise counseled innovative pioneers to figure out how they're keeping up and what their organizations are doing to pull in and hold ability in an undeniably serious market. Look at the SlideShare beneath for features and key takeaways from our review. The Creative Workplace: Trends and Challenges from Robert Half Increasingly Creative Workplace posts 6 Key Creative and IT Team Members for Digital Marketing Success Recruiting Freelancers? Here's All You Need to Know Hot Job: UX Designer Configuration Army's Pum Lefebure: 'Change Is Part of a Designer's Job' 5 Ways to Effectively Manage a Team of Telecommuters Man-made reasoning Jobs Could Open Doors to New Creative Careers Why Creatives Need Human Skills as Much as Tech Skills Instructions to Run a Meeting: Tips for Creative Teams

5 Resume Writing Tips for Millennials

5 Resume Writing Tips for Millennials 5 Resume Writing Tips for Millennials 0Resumes are presently changing to mirror the worth and characteristics of the competitor looking for an occupation. The best approach to introduce yourself is very unique contrasted with how your folks composed resumes. New and built up experts need to assess their resumes, and underneath are five resume composing tips to kick you off. The following are some key attributes that separate twenty to thirty year olds' (or age Y) resumes from age X. Also, you will discover a few notes that will help you in separating yourself from different contender for the ever-changing and soaked employment advertise. Here are five resume composing tips for recent college grads! Introducing the Value Statement You might be thinking back to your secondary school resume and thinking, Goodness, you mean a target explanation right? No. These are two totally different things. A target articulation is an obsolete configuration. Resumes are presently intended to give a worth articulation typically a couple of little sections that outlines a competitor's best characteristics and abilities, and afterward approves them here and there. This shows the planned boss what the competitor is offering the organization instead of what the applicant needs from the activity they are applying to-a composing style regularly found in gen X resumes. No Fluff Resumes that are written in an esteemed situated way is a key part to making a gen Y applicant remarkable from the others. Content must be less errand based and greater accomplishment based, as businesses need to realize what you can accommodate them/their organization, and not what you need to escape work. Gen X resumes were frequently composed or introduced such that outlined a synopsis of capabilities or delicate abilities, for example, I am very objective situated, a diligent employee, and I have superb relational abilities. That is extraordinary, in any case, gen Y resumes need to give confirmation of those significant characteristics. Venture Work and Achievements You can feature your venture work to make a greater accomplishment based resume. Undertaking work can be anything from significant however important tasks you finished in school, during an entry level position, or particularly on the off chance that you have just begun working in the field. Activities are additionally comparable to accomplishments since they approve your aptitudes and errand based data. However, recall, contingent upon the activity you are applying for, ensure the undertakings are important or offer some benefit to the organization. Pertinence Initially, gen X resumes showed the entirety of the competitor's understanding. An individual might be going after an office organization position, however will list the entirety of their experience including their late spring secondary school occupations. Your jobs as a repairman (or whatever) don't give pertinent or significant aptitudes to a salesman job. To proceed in following this model, on the off chance that you have specialist and deals understanding, take out the repairman experience so you can move the concentration to your business encounter and accentuate its related accomplishments. The business is going to need to perceive how much cash you can make, not on the off chance that you can fix their vehicle. This will in general concern some in light of the fact that their experience might be constrained. On the off chance that that is case, you should even now attempt to underline the pertinent experience first. At that point to show life span in your vocation you can pull out abilities from your less pertinent occupations that may in any case offer some incentive to the activity you are applying for. Did you give clients incredible help while fixing their vehicles? Fantastic! That is a significant attribute that is relevant to deals. Remaining Simple This point isn't as pertinent to gen X resumes, yet it has become a developing pattern for twenty to thirty year olds. Numerous applicants endeavor to separate themselves from the group by making inventive resumes that have complicated structures with pictures and infographics. While this may look pleasant on paper, don't do it. Since most of requests for employment are finished on the web (a training substantially less normal or non-existent for gen X), most continues are handled through a HR's Applicant Tracking System (ATS). In this way, when you go after a position on the web, any pictures, illustrations, and so on will get mutilated in light of the fact that the framework changes over the document into an ASCII, or all content arrangement. Your resume will at that point look wonky, and some critical data might be dispensed with totally. In addition, HR staff need to take a gander at many resumes. In the event that they go over a wonky looking resume that is missing data, they wo n't take a gander at it. Basically more or less, a fruitful resume requires esteem situated substance that shows what you can offer the business not the opposite way around-just as data that is venture/accomplishment based and introduced in an unmistakable organization with no lighten content. At last, while sketching out your experience and accomplishments, ensure the data is pertinent and directly to the point to outline centrality so don't get excessively extravagant with excessively formal composition. Perusers, are continue composing tips diverse for millenials than they were for age X? What are a portion of your most loved and most valuable resume composing tips? Offer with us beneath! ResumeTarget.com gives proficient resume composing administrations to customers of all profession levels across North America. We are the main resume composing organization that offers an expertly composed resume-combined with the direction of a selection representative to ensure that your resume will get results. Tweet us with any resume addresses you have at www.twitter.com/ResumeTarget â€" we're here to help!

How to Determine What Your Business Idea Is Worth MONEY

Instructions to Determine What Your Business Idea Is Worth â€" MONEY This story is section two of a five-section arrangement on the most ideal approach to dispatch your own business. As another entrepreneur, you may have little thought of what to charge for your item or administration. Making sense of that is a significant bit of prelaunch legwork. Here's the manner by which to do it. Name the correct cost In case you're remaining inside a similar field, one alternate route is to approach whoever employs outside merchants for your organization what the ballpark value go is for administrations like the one you intend to offer. That will give you a feeling of what the market rate is, says Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners, a firm in the Washington, D.C., territory that gives innovation and different administrations to self employed entities. Some exchange associations put out reports on the going rates in their industry. The administration's General Services Administration site distributes rate plans for organizations that agreement with government offices. Seeing what they charge takes burrowing, yet it merits the exertion. Go to gsaelibrary.gsa.gov. Snap on a branch of knowledge in the class direct, for example, office arrangements, and afterward pick an item for a rundown of contractual workers and costs. At last, you can likewise essentially go windowshopping. Put yourself in the job of a client and request value cites. Taking a gander at your rivals or comparative items is the spot to begin, says Barbara Roberts, a business visionary in living arrangement at Columbia Business School and a co-creator of The Owner's Journey, an investigation of firmly held organizations. Know your objective Before you set your value, consider your consequences of working together. Whatever pay you need to gain the main year, you have to charge 1.5 occasions that, says Zaino. In the event that, state, you make $120,000 per year in your present place of employment, you'll have to charge about $180,000 to take care of costs like medical coverage, independent work or manager assessments, protection, and running an office to keep up your way of life. Connect for a rude awakening Business people are appropriately known for their good faith. The most ideal approach to decide whether your energy is supported is to compose a marketable strategy, says CPA Paul Gevertzman, a duty collaborate with the bookkeeping firm Anchin Block Anchin. This record normally incorporates a depiction of your item or administration, your promoting plan, a market examination, and budgetary projections. For help, utilize the SBA's Business Plan Tool. At that point get criticism from a guide or a bookkeeper who serves different organizations in the field. (Recall the professionals you met about the market for your thought? Tap that pool for a coach.) The key is to make sense of if all the things you expect are reasonable, Gevertzman says. If not, you must give genuine idea with respect to how to make it work. On the off chance that it doesn't turn out to be on paper, it's presumably not going to work. Investigate what's to come Another motivation to do a marketable strategy is that it can enable you to gauge what you'll procureâ€"year one and past. Your projections ought to be founded on the business you have just arranged, assuming any, or hope to arrange soon, just as statistical surveying that recommends the amount more business you could sensibly procure in the following year or two. Next in this arrangement: 4 Smart Ways to Fund Your New Business