this is a brainstorm post, so i'm going to stretch things a little bit here and there.
let's take a few web 2.0 concepts and see how they might apply to the HR environment today. i won't concern myself with making the business case here, with debating if this is going to be distracting to employees or not etc. for the purposes of this post it's just about possible examples of how web 2.0 technologies might find application in a business and HCM environment.
systematicHR has a more considered post on this topic here; also check out an enthusiastic post by Thomas.
let's take twitter first, since it's one of the most recent developments. as i said i'm going to stretch things a little here. imagine a group of employees using an internal twitter type feedback system on the job to provide running commentary on what they're doing. what would an organization get out of it? well, a business process expert may be looking at what's coming in from everyone and suddenly find herself with a treasure trove of data about how processes are actually being executed. or a communications manager may be looking at a growing database with valuable data about how employees are working and communicating with each other. instead of mashing this data with google maps, we mash it up with the org chart which helps put where employees are coming from in context.
from the perspective that applications like this help people meet each other and build interpersonal networks we may be looking at a new employee following what the veterans are doing and learn the ropes that way. we may be looking at employees picking up on someone effectively reporting a problem that they have themselves already solved and this person can now get in contact with the person experiencing the issue and help them solve the problem.
let's take tagging and folksonomies. hmmm. ok, in addition to HR annotating jobs and employee records a meticulously detailed skills and qualifications catalog employees are allowed to tag themselves with what they perceive to be their skills. let employees tag themselves - e.g. what their interests are. use these tags in a feedback loop to evolve skills and qualifications catalogs; let them tag the work and training material they come in contact with. we put a tag cloud up on the portal so it becomes clear to portal users which material is being looked at and used and which is the most important or popular.
let's take social networking and media sharing like we have in e.g. LinkedIn and YouTube. establishing a social network within an organization can be very useful to internal recruiters. but it might also be useful to business process experts and organizational design analysts in HR in tracking actual process and information flows.
with an internal YouTube - allow employees to 'tape' themselves performing some task and put it up as training material. instantly we have folks with intimate knowledge of how the job is done posting a personalized perspective on how to do a particular task at work. introduce a ranking system and let users gain prestige in the organization by posting well-made, useful training clips.
let's take wikis, which existed well before web 2.0 but i'll include it here just because it's a prominent part of the web 2.0 ecosphere. instead of letting my static job description just sit there, let me and my boss evolve it over time as my job becomes clearer and changes in rythm with how processes and goals change. notify my boss via email or rss when i made a change and let her decide whether to adopt the change.
give employees more control over the performance management process. let them adjust the goals as organizational goals and conditions shift. notify their managers when they adjust their KPIs or request an adjustment to their KPIs. let their colleagues twitter in quick observations about performance on specific tasks. this makes for a more responsive, dynamic organization.
let's take a voting system like we have in digg, a web 2.0 era phenom - instead of having a steady stream of company news on the internal portal, allow employee to contribute stories related to the organization and to digg stories or bury them. this may result in more folks reading the stories that are most important.
let's take RSS, a web 2.0 precursor. if i'm the recruitment director then push to my internal rss aggregator the persons applying for jobs with their name in the headline and other details in the body of the item. if i'm the HR director then push to my aggregator information about employee turnover - information about the employee starting or leaving, their job, the organizational division they're entering or leaving etc. if i'm the payroll supervisor, then push me information about off-cycle checks so i can see what kind of adjustments are being processed with the payroll system.
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