Social Collaboration: The Future of Talent Management?

Knowledge Infusion analyst Jason Corsello explains the power of combining talent data with social tools – and how this is driving an evolution in talent management strategies

One of the more buzzed about trends at Convergence 2009 was enterprise social networking and Web 2.0 collaboration tools – such as blogs, wikis, communities of practice, instant messaging (IM) and more.  How can organizations use these tools to support their human capital management strategies?  Is there a measurable impact?  Or is it all just a bunch of hype?

Observes Adam Miller, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, “Ultimately, the point is to embed user-generated content with traditional data.  It is taking organizational data that everyone uses and meshing it with user-generated content to give you a holistic picture when making decisions about your talent as well as your business.”

Knowledge Infusion analyst Jason Corsello addressed the topic of social collaboration tools and their impact on talent management strategies during a lively and compelling keynote at our client and partner conference.  Of particular interest was his suggested approach to getting executive buy-in and tips for how to get started. 

Significant Shift in Talent Management

According to Jason, in the next three years, there’s going to be a significant shift in talent management.  Because of what is happening in organizations today, there are shifts in how decisions are being made.  While companies may have a hierarchical structure, how the work really gets done is flat – people go up and down the chain in order to get things done. 

This is also impacted by the way people use technology.  Technology has impacted how work gets done, how managers manage and how decisions get made.  In the past, organizations used to be siloed.  Innovation gets stuck in these kinds of organizations.  We’re moving from a transactional to an interactive world, one that requires collaborative, team-based structures.  Many organizations are working to adopt this model, where performance becomes collaborative and team-focused rather than placing an emphasis on the performance of an individual silo.

Social collaboration is where the evolution in talent management is occurring.  The four elements Jason views as falling under social collaboration include:

• Portal Self Service -- More focused on the organization versus HR topics, this is a central place to engage, share information and get work done.
• Social Networking – Beyond Facebook and Twitter, this is about connecting with colleagues you know – and more importantly, the ones you don’t know. 
• Profiles and Expertise – Talent profiles help people get to know more about different employees and identify business expertise.
• Knowledge Sharing – This can mean many things to many people.  Wikis are one example. 

Improved Insight for Making Critical Business Decisions

Whether it is communication, conversations, collaboration or capturing intellectual capital, organizations can use these tools to build on the foundation of their talent management strategies.  Employing these tools provides ways to see clusters of high and low performers, as well as future leaders – and it provides more information to make critical business decisions. 

Jason had a very interesting “social map” of an organization comparing one organizations formal vs. information structure.  The map revealed that even though an employee (Cole) may be ranked lower in the company, he/she may be the most critical person when it comes to productivity and who interacts with them to get work done.  In this example, the SVP (Jones) is connected to only two people in a department – one of which is Cole.  And Cole, while further down the reporting chain vs. department heads and managers, is at the center of information exchanges with people not only his divisions , but in two other groups.  If you were to remove Cole from this social map, production in the division would be cut off from the rest of the organization.

Whether it is performance management, compensation management, succession planning or learning management, today’s organizations tend to be very process oriented. 

The future is in wrapping conversational elements into that talent data.  Combining talent data with social tools can be powerful and contribute to changes in the business.  It can foster innovation and the speed of production.  And it can improve the way people learn or how the organization engages employees. 

Getting your people to use these tools is important, and Jason suggests using technology to get them addicted – constantly tapping into and contributing to these networks.  One example he shared was that while his mother-in-law is on Twitter and Facebook, his wife doesn’t have a page because she doesn’t want to get addicted.

Building a Business Case

So how do you build a business case for investing in social collaboration tools?  According to Jason, there are three types of skeptics in an organization:

• Skeptic 1 is the finance guy:  “What’s the ROI?”
• Skeptic 2 is the risk controller:  “It’s too risky and uncontrollable!”
• Skeptic 3 is the late adopter:  “It’s a fad… a waste of time.”

The key takeaway here is this: You need to start to rethink / socialize some of these concepts within your organization.  These types of skeptics don’t know about the technology Millennials are using today, like YouTube or LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter.  Skeptics generally haven’t tried these tools, so there’s a gap.  The trick is in how to close the gap in order to have the conversation.

How Do You Address ROI?

• Tie social collaboration to your organization’s strategies and goals
• Keep the “I” in ROI low – this will reduce the dependence on “R” because if the investment is relatively low, then you don’t necessarily need to prove “R” 
• Identify incremental vs. “big bang” opportunities, with quick wins such as executive blogs or work groups
• Secure an executive sponsor who has clout and an interest in the project 

How Do You Debunk the Risk? 

• Social collaboration should be viewed differently than existing collaboration models, such as email, document management tools (SharePoint), virtual meetings, etc. 
• Identify the top 5-10 worst case scenarios and build contingencies so you’re prepared in advance
• Embrace and prepare for failure – think about how to adapt to change

How Do You Create Rationale & Justification? 

• Focus on proficiency instead of technology tools or platforms
• Identify the potential impact to all business units – sales, service, product development, HR, etc.
• Look for synergies and unification vs. a siloed build out – ways these pieces can come together in a unified way

Additionally, you should look to pair different social media mindsets as part of the project team.  Get skeptics and evangelists to work together – look for these people at moments of truth and crisis to have a more productive conversation. 

Ideas for How to Get Started

Some suggestions that Jason provided for how to get started when adding social collaborations into the talent management mix include:

• Creating a lightweight governance model
• Avoiding a large, formal launch and training in favor of a progressive viral launch
• Assuming people know how to behave in the real world
• Exploring with consumer-centric technology – use the tools to build the strategy
• Positioning it as a series of incremental investment scenarios that, over time, will be adapted based on lessons learned

One example of how social collaboration has impacted an organization is Mars Inc., who was looking at ways to grow and change the company and inspire innovation.  Holding a large company offsite, organizers forced people from different areas of the company to have conversations and discover expertise.  Each attendees wore a name tag with a photo on it, such as a picture of their yellow Lab puppy, to reveal commonalities among the group.  The idea was that social ties create more of a willingness and openness among people to collaborate. 

As a result, 1,400 new connections were revealed, leading to new product innovation – customized M&Ms – and the creation of a new direct distribution channel.  Other results included the development of a new product and business line; tighter alignment between sales, marketing operations and product development; a streamlined distribution model; higher profit margins; and improved marketing innovation.

Like Mars Inc., collaboration tools already are being used by today’s workforces.  They’re no longer just a fad.  Organizations have an opportunity to embrace these technologies and supplement their talent management strategies in practical and effective ways for managing and developing high-performing workforces. 

Charles Coy is the Product Marketing Director for Cornerstone OnDemand