HR, IC, social technology and the We society

  Today is going to be a busy blogging day as I'm at the Melcrum Summit for some inputs on internal communications from GE, Shell and a range of other companies (Rebecca Edwards from GE has just been talking about the 'lots of conversations' they needed to have HR to open their internal communication site, http://ge-works.com out to the public.  I take it these were difficult conversations so not the greatest start to what I was hoping would be evidence of growing integration between HR and IC!).

But we've started with Anne-Lise Kjaer.  Now I wasn't going to post on her -  firstly because I already have, and secondly because I've been thinking about some things I've been reading about what's been going on at the US' HR Technology conference in Chicago and have been wanting to post on these.  But actually I think they're pretty much the same thing. 

 

So the main point I wanted to comment on from the HR Tech conference is about the integration between HR and social technologies.  I liked the post from Yvette Cameron arguing that HR needs to be more interested in social technologies like Atlassian, Jive, NewsGator, Socialtext andTelligent.  I agree!  That's why I've been attending and speaking at a range of Enterprise 2.0 conferences in US and Europe over the last five years.

However I don't agree with Yvette's reasoning for why we (HR, and IC too I guess) should be interested i.e. that these systems are having increasing impacts on 'social HCM' e.g. social learning and social talent management.  Well yes, they are, but that's still not the reason why these systems are so interesting.

The bigger reason is that these tools are changing the way organisations are working.  Companies are becoming more social and HR needs to lead this change.  So we need to understand and get involved in how our companies are using social technologies too.  This is what I think Marcia Connor will be talking about at HR Tech later on today.  (And well done to Yammer for being at both HR Tech and the Melcrum Summit today.)

 

But there's more.  And this is why I've changed my mind and want to comment on this morning's speaker too.  Anne-Lise made a very powerful case for why we need to broaden out our thinking - from logical to emotional, and from me to we i.e. that we're now living and working in a we society, not a me society (see her slide if you can read it).

This is the bigger shift for all of us - HR, IC, HR tech, Enteprise 2.0 etc etc etc.  It's transforming our organisations into true social businesses, through the use of technology, but also by adapting and updating our processes, changing our leadership models, redesigning our workplaces - lots of different things.  I still think we should be seeing more of this agenda at HR, HR tech, IC, IT conferences and beyond.  I'm certainly going to do what I can to continue promoting it from my end!

 

Also see:

• My presentation on HR 2.0 at the USA' s HR Technology conference last year
• My presentation on people, culture, behaviours at the USA's Enterprise 2.0 conference

 

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Technorati Tags: HR technology, Internal Communication, Melcrum, social technology