HR Challenges Created by Social Media

Last week, I published a paper in Hotel Business Review (HBR) about the HR challenges created bysocial media. I believe that social media has made significant impact on almost every HR function, including job analysis and job design, recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation plans, performance appraisals, discipline and retention management, social responsibility, and ethics. Here, I am not going to restate my discussion in HBR. I, however, would like to hear your thoughts on this topic by asking some of the questions I raised in the paper.      

HR Challenges

• When companies are adding social media in their daily operations, what responsibilities should be added or deleted from current positions?
• What positions or departments need to be created or eliminated?
• Is it necessary to re-design a company’s organizational structure? If so, how can it be done?
• If it is necessary to create a position called social media manager, what tasks and responsibilities should be included in the job descriptions?
• To whom should a social media manager report to?
• Recruiting and selecting candidates on social media could be effective, but how can companies screen candidates without collecting their sensitive demographic information? Are companies able to defend their hiring decisions in front of EEOC (equal employment opportunity commission)?
• How much training should be provided to those who manage a company’s social media accounts?
• If some internal-communication content (e.g. benefits) needs to be shared on social media for targeted employees, how can it be done? Who should manage the content?
• How do companies design the rate structure for social media officers?
• Since the ROI (return on investment) of social media effort is not easy to measure, how do companies evaluate the performance of a social media officer?
• When every employee is “visible” for competitors on social media, what can a company do to keep its top talent?  
• What is a company’s social media policy?
• Who should manage the content about social responsibility and ethics? PR? HR? Marketing? Or a new department called Social Media or Communication?
• What can companies do to ensure that the content about social responsibility and ethics are communicated effectively and efficiently on social media?
• …

What other questions do you have? To help companies cope with these HR challenges, what suggestions will you offer?

In the end, I believe that companies must put every functional and operational department, including HR, into consideration when they are planning for a comprehensive social media strategy. Do you agree?

References:

The picture is downloaded from ArrowPartnership.com