Social media provides myriad opportunities for the Human Resource functions. Social media is going to revolutionize the field of Human resource management. Most of the functions of human resource management will be impacted by it.

We can start with the recruitment functions of human resource management. By recruitment we mean sourcing the candidates for selection. Various social media platforms like LinkdIn, facebook etc provide a way of sourcing the prospective candidates. Most of the employees in services sector and considerable amount of employees in manufacturing sector have visibility on such social media sites. Social media websites are a good way to sourcing and contacting prospective candidates. It lowers both cost and time.

Orientation of the employee can be another area where social media can be very useful. Various forms and documents required to be signed can be uploaded on intranet or some social networking site account. Even the videos of orientation sessions can be uploaded on social networking site from where the employees can watch at their own convenient time.

Employee engagement is another human resource function in which social media can be highly advantageous. Various informal groups can be made on social media to engage the teams. Employee achievements can be highlighted on social media groups to give them recognition of the work done by them. For example yammer is a private social network that facilitates sharing amongst employees and helps in developing collaborative culture.

Social media can also be used for employer branding both within the organization and outside the organization. It is a good way to disseminate important information for the current and prospective employees. Through this channel organizations can pitch good things about them to the prospective employees It helps them in building employer value proposition.

Some sort learning can also take place through social media network. Some basic ppts and videos can be uploaded on the websites like youtube. Rather than arranging for such sessions again and again they can once be made and uploaded on youtube from where the employees can access whenever they feel like doing.

On the whole we can say that social media can be used very extensively in assisting in HR related functions. The use of social media for different HR related functions will make the HR functions very cost effective and time efficient.

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The digital platform offers myriad ways to connect to potential, existing and former employees. The companies that learn to use digital in an effective manner will have competitive advantage over other companies in the market.

The companies should promote the use of enterprise social media by employees to share ideas and collaborate. This can also be used to develop ties in an organization. Enterprise social network and emails can be used to highlight some good work done by some employee. Blogs and social networking sites can also be used for the above mentioned purposes. If the initiation in the above cases is taken by managers and supervisors then it will result into wider acceptability of these tools by their subordinates. The use of video conferencing should also be promoted for conducting online trainings and meetings. The digital platform can also be used to provide facilities like work from home and flexible working hours which engages employees in a positive manner. Gamification is one such tool which can be used to help employees improve their skills.

Digital platform can greatly contribute in promoting the employer brand. Those things about the company that add value to the individual should be highlighted on social networking sites and blogs. The company should also provide mobile customized job applications to attract the potential employees. UPS is a clear example of how much benefit mobile customized job applications can give.

In order to stay connected with the former employees  groups on social networking sites should be created during the time they are working the company. These groups remain active even when an employee leaves the company. Managers should also be included in these groups so that the former employee also interacts with the manager. This practice is followed informally in Infosys.

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Talent management is the process through which employers forecast and meet their human capital needs. It means getting the right people, at the right time, with right skills, into the right jobs and at optimum cost. Talent management was simpler in 1950’s and 1960’s in comparison to what it is today. With the opening up of the markets and the concept of global companies coming into picture there have come some challenging problems in Talent management. The present day world can be rightly called as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous). Especially in terms of matching Talent supply with Talent demand has become a very severe problem. To forecast the Talent Demand with accuracy is very difficult in certain industries. The uncertainty in business demands has led to uncertainty in Talent Demand so planning for Talent supply and Talent demand has become even more difficult.

Though the term Talent management can be applied to all jobs that are hard to fill but it mainly applies to managerial and executive level posts. The concept of Talent management came into picture when the organizations became complex and moved from family managed to professionally managed era. At this stage the owners needed the trained professionals who could run their organization in an effective and professional manner.

Traditionally the internal development of the Talent used to be the main source of Talent. Especially in American companies in 1950’s and 1960’s when the market demands were stable the scenario of employment was also stable. The employees would mostly stick to one company in the duration of their career. As a result of this it was easier for the companies to ensure the supply of talent through internal development. One of the reasons of this stability was the stability of business requirements because of lesser number of companies, lesser competition, lesser technology related innovation and the concept of globalization of companies was not much prevalent at that point of time.

With the passage of time the process of internal development of talent faced a few problems. Some of them have been listed below

• Considering the VUCA world there is uncertainty of currently developed competencies being useful in future
• Uncertainty of forecasted demand
• Change in Business strategy causing change in Talent demand
• Mergers and acquisitions and restructuring causing change in Talent demand and competencies required

Outside hiring has picked as a result of the above listed problems with the internal development. Now-a-days the Talent management has moved from the model of planning to the model of shopping. The concept of outside hiring is more prevalent in small companies in comparison to large ones. The more is the outside hiring at the key managerial posts the more is the change in the Business strategies which further gives push to outside hiring to acquire the most suitable talent matching the changed strategies. Online job searches have made the process of outside hiring even simpler. Executive search and consulting firms have made the task of finding people for executive level posts easier for the companies. Outside hiring also has a flipside to it. The employer employee bond that develops during internal development is missing in case of frequent outside hiring. It also has consequences for the economy as a whole. In the American companies the concept of outside hiring is prevalent to such an extent that very few firms have full-fledged internal development programs in comparison to 1950’s. As a result of this there is shortage of Talent at national level.

In some of the nations there are restrictions on the rights of employees to Layoff and retrench. At such places there is lesser workforce turnover and the average employee tenure is more. In most of the European countries there are such restrictions which make it difficult for an employer to retrench an employee. As a result of this the average employee tenure in European nations is more than what it is in America. Due to this the organizations pay more attention to internal development programs. Internal development programs are more prevalent in European companies in comparison to American companies. European companies pay more attention to career planning and succession planning. European companies stand between Organization man period and VUCA period.

In spite of the uncertainties in predicting the Talent Demand internal development of talent has its own advantages. There are certain competencies which are very specific to the organization and can only be developed. Talent having such competencies is not available in the market. Such competencies are critical for the success of the organization. Even for such competencies organizations need to plan meticulously. The costs of mismatch in this case also can be too high. The probability of mismatch and costs associated with it should be taken into account before going for such internal development programs. There are mainly two kinds of models that are used to make the forecasts. One uses the past data to predict the future and the other one makes forecasts on the basis of likelihood of future events. Now-a-days technology can be very handy in making forecasts. Simulation can help to analyze the impact of various future events on the forecast.

The cost related to mismatch is not the only cost that organizations should be concerned about.

The cost of internal development can be reduced by designing the development programs in

proper manner. Some of the design issues have been discussed below

• Problem of Decentralized Programs: The large organizations operate in decentralized manner. In such organizations it becomes difficult to identify and develop talent for corporate jobs. Work in one unit does not provide skills required at corporate level. The employees have to be rotated across various units but for this corporate leaders need to identify talent at unit level for which they need the help of the management at the unit level. The management at the unit level in most of the cases hides their Talent due to the fear of losing them to corporate. The organizations have now started declaring some employees beyond a certain level in units as corporate assets whose career is governed by corporate team. This has given rise to one more problem. The management at unit level does not let some of their talented employees reach that level from which on their career will be governed by the corporate team. Corporate ownership of the career planning of the talented employees at unit level should be promoted to solve this problem.
• Portfolio Solution: There are so many companies operating as different divisions and each running its own development program. There are mismatches in the Talent supply and Demand of each division. The organizations should run common or coordinated development program for different divisions in areas where talent needs are common. So the oversupply of Talent in some and shortage of Talent in others shall cancel out each other.
• Shorter Forecasts: Development programs based on shorter forecasts are less likely to suffer from mismatch in comparison to the development programs based on longer forecasts.
• Designing shorter development programs: The development programs should not span for a very long period of time. By the time such development programs complete the competencies that they develop in an individual are no longer required for that job

Apart from design issues there are other ways through which we can reduce the cost of the development programs. Some of them have been discussed below

• Peer Learning: Arrangements should be made where employees can learn from their peers the skills that they need for their current job or for future requirement. In such arrangement some of the brightest of the lot would be trained and given the responsibility to train others.
• Separating the work from Job Title: The work should be separated from the job title. This approach of job designing will help to rotate employees across various jobs easily which help them in enhancing their skills and broaden their experience. Job titles should be based on hierarchy and not work.
• Opportunities outside the organization: In case of small organizations and sometimes even large organizations do not have enough development opportunities within the organizations. In such cases work related experiences outside organizations should be considered. Some organizations lend their executives to some charitable organizations to do some project which not only helps its employee in developing but also enhances the brand value of the organization. Some organizations also allow their employees to work on the payrolls of its clients which not only enhances their relationship with client but also the experience of its employees.
• Getting Employees to share the cost: Sometimes some development programs help employees in gaining such skills which are very much in demand in the outside market. There is high probability of employees leaving the organization after undergoing such development programs. In such cases sometimes employers make the employees to share the cost of such development programs. Employees happily share some percentage of the development cost as it increases their market value
• Tuition assistance: In this arrangement employees take tuition in their own time. The cost of such tuition is shared by both employer and employee. It has two main advantages. One is the development process does take place at working hours, so it does not affect productivity in the current job. The second advantage is the productivity of the employee increases gradually and it helps him to increase his productivity in his current job. By the time he completes his tuition course he has given back some amount of investment in terms of increased productivity during the course of tuition. Now even if he leaves the organization some cost of investment made on him has been recouped.
• Education and development contracts: Some companies pay for the higher education or specialized courses of their employees and sign contract with them to serve for a minimum amount of period in lieu of that to enable the organization to recoup the investment made on him.
• Training before Hiring: In some recruitment drives the companies keep conditions that candidates having the specified certifications should apply. This way they shift the cost of development to the employee even before he is hired.

Merely controlling the cost of development programs is not enough. Steps should be taken to retain the developed talent to maximize the benefits of the development programs. Following steps should be taken to retain the trained and developed.

• Better Matches: The organizations should ensure that no employee leaves the organization just because he wanted some other job at the same level and it was available within the company. Just because of this reason no employee should go to the competitor. So the companies should ensure best employee job match
• Social Relationships: It is said that employees don’t leave organizations they leave managers, supervisors or superiors. So superiors should ensure they maintain healthy relations with their subordinates and help the company in reaping the maximum benefit out of a development program.
• Compensation:  Giving strategic and attractive compensation can be one of the ways to retain the competent workforce
• Preventing poaching: Such measures should be adopted which make the star performers of the company less visible to its competitors. This measure can prevent poaching. The employers should not offer those courses normally which increase the visibility of the employees in the outside world.
• Development in pieces: The organizations should divide their development programs in different chunks. So that when the employee finally gets certified he/she will have already spent great deal of time with the organization
• Making Turnover Predictable: If the companies can make the turnover predictable by signing some bond with respect to tenure then they can manage talent in a better way.
• Leaving without letting go: Companies should keep the relationship with their alumni intact for they may anytime in future join the back with new skills

The companies can maximize the value internal development by spotting talent through high potential programs and other opportunities at an early stage. Self-nomination can also be one of the ways but subject to certain conditions. Internal market for opportunities can also be created to identify talent. Internal job market can be managed through internal job boards. Employees feel empowered through such things which also help in employee retention.

There are some challenges ahead on the way of talent management. The Talent management requires a comprehensive and consistent support from the higher level management to be able to support the strategic business decisions. Approaching talent management without a proper vision will lead to wastage of money. Also the approach to buy talent from outside whenever required will not take nations ahead for a longer period of time. If every organization starts purchasing talent and no body develops then where will talent come from. There will be acute shortage of talent then. Organizations need to strike a right balance between hiring and developing talent.

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The aim of this paper presentation is to identify and analyze how this phenomenon is going to impact workforce management in the new age. We have tried to take into account all the relevant trends in workforce management practices from over the world. We have also tried to extend the scope of this report to identify the various employment relation challenges in the Indian context owing to the sectoral shifts in employment to the service sector.

Recruitment related implications: The Contrasting Tale of Two Neighbors

India’s young workforce will form the major portion of the total workforce. However, in China the proportion of the young workforce is reducing consistently due to the population control measures of the Chinese government. Naturally the corporations of these two countries will have very different approaches in tackling Sourcing and Recruitment related issues. This is because in the future the countries like China will face workforce shortage as the existing employees retire and they will not have the appropriate number of people to replace them. Moreover, an experienced workforce also comes with a substantial cost implication towards the companies.

Social media emerged as a major source to find potential candidates in India because of this very reason. The employable workforce has biases for companies that provide them challenges and opportunities to grow. The organizations willing to lure the best talent should project the quality work they can offer and the opportunities of growth available with them. Therefore it is very important for the companies to communicate their values and work-ethics to the prospective employees. For example Pepsico through initiatives like “Be Indra’s Advisor” and its summer internship programs have tried to connect to its target audience with much success.

China’s corporate houses on the other hand are automating some of their processes. These firms are thinking on these lines because of aging population coupled with annual wage hikes of 20% for nearly a decade.  Companies like Lever Style are of the view that operating in Southern China is a break-even proposition at best. In 2013 Crocs reduced its share of colorful shoes to be made in China to 65% down from 80% last year. Lever Style is in the process of shifting its production to Vietnam. Outsourcing is therefore one of the results of this disparity of Labor force demographics.

One way to offset the challenge is to develop new ways and methods to source potential candidates from countries where there is surplus workforce available. It requires changes in the visa related policies.

Recruiting people from different countries would a bit of a challenge for the managers because it would involve some more formalities related with visa and citizenship of their country.

Economic Cycles also have a major impact on recruitment patterns. In countries like the United Kingdom where the total workforce is relatively stable but with number of jobs reducing the practice of testing first and then interviewing has started making inroads. In 2012 in England 7 million applied for 260000 Call center jobs.

Processing such a large number of resumes where most of them are embellished is a very time consuming task. So some companies are conducting online psychometric tests even before considering the resumes.

The Quest of the “Employable Skill”: The Cost of a Young Work-Force?

The reality of what the industry refers to as employable skill in India is very bleak. According to the Planning Commission’s report, just a tenth of those looking to join the work-force receive proper training. A report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) states India has the capacity to train about 13 lakh candidates through its vocational training institutes which is less than 10,000 in number. Contrasting these numbers with the fact that 60%-90% of the workers in developed nations receive some form of skill training. Establishments like Raviraj Foils in Sanand, Gujrat which has a requirement of 250 trained employees to cater to the needs of the pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries are forced to employ untrained local populace. In this process such firms have to incur heavy losses by way of wastages since one untrained employee requires up to three years in becoming proficient with the processes as the work demands high levels of precision.

Pallam Raju, India’s former Minister for Human Resources has gone on record

“I think the problem has been particularly acute in India, both in terms of the education and skilling. And this is where I think we need to get our act together”. The Government has set an ambitious target to impart skills training to 50 crore people by 2022 and hopes to get the industry involved in some way.

The crux of this observation being that there is a huge skill shortage in the blue collared class of employees. Contrasting to this phenomenon the economic slowdown of recent years has resulted in the drying up of the traditionally higher paying white collar opportunities. Industry leaders and recent independent reports like the “National Employability Report on Engineering Graduates” by Aspiring Minds have gone to suggest that less than 20% of a total sample size of 55000 respondents are actually employable. To understand this phenomenon we have to look at the issue from two perspectives.

The first being that the economic slowdown has indeed taken its toll. As the Business cycle shifts the unemployment will effectively correct itself. However, there is another localized issue particular to India is the mismatch in expectations between the academics and the industry.

Prof. S. Ganapathy,  Dean (Placement), SRM University says –

“As academicians, it is our job to produce good clay and not beautiful dolls for the industry. It is for the respective industry to shape the right dolls suiting its need and preferences.”

The Industry on the other hand has an expectation that the graduates will contribute in some meaningful way from the commencement of employment. Another issue that aggravates this matter is perception.

Traditionally the Indian Corporate toiled to secure the best candidates for their positions as evidenced by the fact that most of the recruitment at entry levels of white collared in the Government Sectors happen by way of a competitive examination which can be a test of skills and knowledge of subjects which have no implications on the actual employment that is offered to the successful candidates.

Owing to the surplus of applicants for highly desirable jobs many companies have tried to reduce its recruitment costs by restricting its applicant pool to limited sources which they classify as premier. In case of India these sources can very well be the premier institutes. Ideally the companies would have looked at Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 3 of the Exhibit 2 for candidates that have high employability. However due to the artificial restriction they now have access to only Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 as their applicant pool. Thereby giving rise to a perception of lack of quality talent pool. A shift in trying to hire the best fit for a role should be able to alleviate at least some of the issues with regards to this perceptual bias.

Gender Related implications

The participation of Women in workforce particularly in the Indian context has been on the rise only recently. It is therefore only now a structured effort has been seen to bridge the gender divide. However this is not a problem that is particular in India. Gender issue have been felt in many major economies including the United States of America as women participation started on a significant level in the work-force. For instance a renowned corporation like IBM till 1951 required its female employees to resign after marriage and did not consider employing a married woman.

The cost implication of ignoring Sexual Harassment regulations can be wide spread and absolute. The first ever class action law suit on Sexual Harassment at Workplace in USA Lois E. Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co resulted in a settlement of $ 3.5 Million in favor of the fifteen women.

It can be seen that historically the legislation and the judiciary has had close involvement with the process that dealt with such issues across most countries. Indian Legislations like the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 has provisions of setting up of Grievance Settlement Authorities (Section 9C) for industrial establishment with 50 or more workmen are there for addressing individual grievances. The act further states that as far as practicable one woman member if there are two members in the committee and a proportionate representation if more. A breakthrough in achieving gender diversity at workplace was achieved with the new Companies Act. The new law passed in 2013 requires a certain class of companies to have at least one Woman member on board. The act demonstrated the need of this timely inclusion by the vacuum for Indian women leaders it has exposed. Ex:- In this past year a former partner at McKinsey Irena Vittal has joined the boards of Axis Bank, Godrej Consumer Products, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare , Tata Global Beverages, Wipro and Titan. Several companies now have extended the pipe-line to train and prepare Women leaders to assume positions at the board.

In Conclusion: The Trans-Nationality and Cultural Integration

Shifts in the workforce demographics have brought about considerable impacts on strategies of work-force management. What it has actually done is that it has exposed the lacuna in personnel management that was already present for everyone to see. India’s job market throughout the past century has been dominated by the employers. So much so that in those situations one could get away with a lot of deficiencies in terms of employment conditions. However with the opening up of the economy and the empowerment of the employee it is only natural that such practices would change. Since this workforce is not afraid of changes and taking chances. India has around 9 companies with asset base greater than 500 million and 3 companies with asset base less than 500 million that can be called truly trans-national i.e they have more than 50% of their assets invested abroad. One of the indicators of this index number of Foreign Employees as compared to its total employees is significantly low as well.

The observation is consistent with our findings that India by and large is going to be the talent pool of the Global Corporations. The Young Indian Workforce which values Growth above everything else therefore requires a concerted effort from the Government and the Industry to be able to carry out its responsibilities.

References

• HBR, November 2013, When Hiring, First test, Then Interview
• BBC November 28, 2013 , Training India: Is the skills gap holding the economy back?
• Wall Street Journal May 1,2013 China Manufacturers Survive by Moving to Asian Neighbors
• Business world, December 2013, Paying the China Price
• Economic Times- Cos Rush to Buy cover against sexual Harassment Liabilities
• Economic Times-Social Networks, Referrals are India Inc’s Hiring Hotspots
• HBR, September 2013, From the Editor, Where are the Leaders
• Stanford Center on Longevity 2010, “Population Age Shifts will reshape the GlobalWorkforce”
• The Hindu, August 11,2013, A question of employability
• Hay Group 2013, Preparing for Take-Of,
• The Economic Times 2013, New company law gives a big push to gender diversity atworkplace
• National Women’s History Museum, “Real Women of North Country”

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Recruitment can be defined as the process of generating a pool of candidates for a job. It is a kind process whereby the prospective candidates for a job are sourced and informed about it so as to attract their attention to it. The aim of this process is to have a large number of applications for a job out of which the suitable candidates could be chosen.

Various ways have been used in the past for recruitment. Advertisement in newspapers has been the most common way of recruitment in the past both in public and private sector. Now-a-days technology has changed the scenario drastically. The methods of conveyance of information have changed to a great extent. This thing has impacted the recruitment also. The changing needs of corporate sector due to globalization, frequently changing consumer demands, increase in the level of awareness of employees etc. have also impacted the process of recruitment. In the following paragraphs have been mentioned a few such recent trends in recruitment.

The Employee Referral Program (ERP) is one of the latest trends which is emerging fast. Some organizations believe that the existing employees understand their job very well. They also have links in outside world with the people belonging to the same profession. Employees recruited through referral program not only reduce the cost of recruitment but also help in motivating the workforce. The existing employees feel motivated because they are able to secure job for their known people and also get bonus from the organization. The new employees would also be motivated to work with the people they already know. The Blue Ambassador Employee Referral program of IBM is one such good example. Seventy percent of IBM’s hiring is done through internal sources. In eighty percent of the total cases of successful hiring through referral employees bonus is paid on the completion of 90 days service of the referred employee. They are also considered to be faster than other channels. Aircel’s Chief Human Resource Officer says “ employee referrals work faster than consultants”. The cost associated with them is also far lesser. The retention rate of employees employed through employee referral program is also higher in comparison to other sources.

Social media is also emerging as one of the latest trends in recruitment. As per the statement of Irfan Abdulla, head of hiring solutions at linkedIn, an average Indian company has about 70 percent of its employees on LinkedIn and even more percentage is available on Facebook. Now –a –days some of the companies are closely monitoring the activity of current, prospective and even past employees on the social media. This gives them an insight about the personality and skill set of the candidate to a certain extent which helps them in making decisions regarding recruitment. As per the survey of Microsoft Research and the Reppler Company, 7 in 10 recruiters have disqualified job applicants after finding some objectionable material on the social media. Following graph shows the increasing importance of direct hiring channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, company websites and employee referrals.

Globally, some of the companies like Salesforce even upload the video description of the Job directly from the manager’s mouth on youtube. They even have a dedicated playlist for this. Dell India also makes the extensive use of the social media for recruitment. According to Savneet Shergill, head, talent acquisition, they regularly post job openings on LinkedIn. It also uses Careers at Dell Facebook page to disseminate career related information to the prospective candidates.

Outsourcing of the HR functions has been in vogue for quite some time. These days Recruitment Process Outsourcing is gaining prominence. Outsourcing firms create a wide pool of candidates for the organizations from which they can select the appropriate candidates. This service given by the outsourcing firms relieves the companies from doing a human resource planning much in advance. Pontoon Solutions is a major in RPO in terms of scale, flexibility, size, customer service. The client engagements by Pontoon solutions accounted for more than 73000 hires in 2012. They provide RPO services in various industries like Healthcare, information Technology, financial services, Pharmaceutical etc. Pinstripe Inc. is the example of another major player in this field.

While going for RPO companies should be careful in choosing the outsourcing firms. Sometimes some firms use the responses to the request of the company to serve the requests of the company’s rivals. While going for RPO companies should also consider the fact whether requirements are standardized or organizational specific and which activity to outsource and which not to. Following shown table can help in taking this decision

Networking mainly involving HR personnel also helps a lot in sourcing the right candidates. Sometimes HR personnel even in rival companies network with each other so that they could help each other in sourcing the right candidates at right time.

We can conclude by saying that recent trends like Employee Referral Programs, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Social Media etc are some of the methods which are making inroads into recruitment very fast. More change is likely to come in recruitment process even at a faster rate considering the ever changing nature of technology and global trends. Companies should be cautious while choosing a particular recruitment method.

References:-

http://www.coolavenues.com/hr-zone/blue-ambassador%3A-employee-referral-programme-@-ibm

http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/hiring-3-0-112101500069_1.html

http://www.ere.net/2013/12/09/the-top-25-recruiting-trends-problems-and-opportunities-for-2014-part-1-of-2/

http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/referral-hiring-can-bring-down-hiring-costs-for-india-inc-113072100620_1.html

Social Networks, Referrals are India Inc’s Hiring Hotspots

Outsourcing Recruitment by Padmaja Palekar

HeadHunters Court tricky Mandates in Economic Times

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