core sector communique

Companies moving to social media for talent acquisitions and retention

FORE School of Management, New Delhi and National Human Resource Development Network together organized a daylong seminar on leveraging HRD on Social Media. The summit sought to deliberate and discuss hitherto untapped opportunities for HR professionals to use social media effectively and make a unique and positive difference at workplace. 

Four highly interactive sessions were planned with presentations and Q&A sessions with an emphasis on real life examples and experience sharing. HR heads of 14 leading corporate houses shared ideas on adopting the new platform to foster a culture of innovation and bring positive difference at workplace.

Dr. Jitendra K Das, Director, FORE School of Management, New Delhi, welcomed the over 200 industry leaders stating, “Instead of saying Good Morning ladies and gentlemen, it will be more appropriate to say good morning netizens. We are today the most connected generation with people logging into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter as soon as they wake up, follow or like their connections and update own status through the day. 

Dr. Das further added “We are witness to a phenomenon similar to the choupals of villages in olden days where people met every evening and work could be assigned or asked for. As the prospective talent pool increase their virtual presence and spend longer time exploring new and exciting features, it makes business sense for organizations to increase their presence in social media to tap them. Industry is now creating specific and sustained social media sub-strategy as part of their Employer and Employee Branding initiatives.”

Mr. C Mahalingam, Hon. President, NHRDN Bangalore Chapter & Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer, Symphony Services Corporation said, “The traditional hiring method is like a funnel, when what we need is a tunnel. Advanced technology and Social Media platforms finally provide such opportunity.” 

Aadil Bandukwala - Talent Acquisition Social Media Advisor - India, Dell explained trends in hiring how couple of decades ago HR managers used print ads but they were proving to be very costly. A decade ago job portals came up as a cheaper and quicker means. Today the trend is social media. It is a killer research tool, one can incorporate interactive widgets and track the effectiveness using Boolean search and all at a much lower cost. 

K Raghavendra – Head- Human Resources, Infosys BPO spoke on importance of content on social media stating that candidates are already posting video resume on You Tube and using interesting slideshare presentations. He also demonstrated how ‘infybubble’ is being used for employee engagement and their ‘campus connect’ initiative has been enhanced for better industry-academia collaboration using social media technologies. 

Praveen Kamath, GM & Global Head, Talent Acquisition of Wipro informed that his organization has given a special mandate for hiring via social media in April 2012 and the results are very encouraging for all levels of recruitments. It can be used to advertise job opportunities, identify talent, conduct reference checks amongst many others. Besides, Nasscom is planning to make a policy framework for such hiring. 

Ranjan Sinha, Chairman & CEO, MyParichay believes that social hiring as subset of hiring is a distinct and disruptive change. LinkedIn, one the most used networks, will overtake Monster.com in earnings this quarter as per their projections. Since most social networks are in sync today, it possible to log in from a single id and send and receive job opportunities from multiple networks or groups. Advanced mobile technologies enables social media access on the move. 

Das informed, “Leading corporate houses are creating their own privacy policy and connecting their website to social media sites. An innovative way is to use alumni groups to spread the word, try to get back people who have left the organization in the past or those who were given joining letters in the past but could not join. 

To drive innovation in organizations one needs to cross-fertilize ideas from several employees. While such ideas can be generated through brainstorming or workshops, many speakers demonstrated how it can be facilitated online. Besides, Global organizations have several virtual teams working together across countries & cultures which entails a strong and urgent need for sustained collaborative working, continuous learning and resources at your ‘fingertips’! Social media can be used for Employee Insights and used in unconventional ways to drive employee engagement & communication efforts. 

Other HR heads who shared their ideas included A Sreekanth - Britannia Industries, Srinivas Bikkina - AT&T, Anshumal Dikshit - iGATE, Abhay Valsangkar - Avaya India, Kaushik Gopalan - Symphony Teleca, Sudeesh Venkatesh - Azim Premji Foundation, Padma Rajeswari Nandi – Dr Reddy’s Labs, Surya Prakash Mohapatra - HP Global Business Services., Namrata Gill - Mahindra & Mahindra, KG Umesh – The Himalaya Drug Company to name a few. 

About FORE School of Management, New Delhi 

Foundation for Organizational Research and Education (FORE) is committed to the advancement of Management Education, Research, Training and Consultancy. Incorporated in 1981, as a non-profit institution, FORE has been working with industry and academia for developing new domains of managerial thought and education and contributing to building leaders in today's global business environment.