People first, social second

 

  So I’m at another social recruiting conference today where I was chairing a panel on engaging employees through and with social media, with Charlie Elise, Heather Taylor and Doug Shaw.

I was trying to keep an eye on the twitter stream behind me (and on my iphone), but didn’t manage to catch them all.  Eg this tweet from Peter Massey:

#SRConf Do u think companies' values more impt than social media? If they are transparent and open, social media will work in rec 4 them

 

This is the key point to me.  Social businesses, social recruiting, whatever you want to add here, and whether you’re thinking about social media or broader use of social approaches, aren’t going to work unless you’ve got the right values (or mojo) too.

You need to trust your people, and assume they’re not going to abuse your brand.  Yes, there’ll be a penalty if they do, but it’ll be no worse than the penalty of not trusting them, and not enabling them to communicate or collaborate etc.

You need to invest in your human capital – which is about helping your people be everything they can be – before you’re able to maximise your social capital – ie the relationships between them.

Strategic HCM – then Social Advantage.  And values / mojo underpin them both.

 

Also see the live stream.

 

Photo credit: Lucian Tarnowski

Technorati Tags: Charlie Elise,Heather Taylor,giffgaff,Doug Shaw,social,recruiting,conference,November,2010,employee,enagagement,values

 

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