MTCHRO Event – A New Beginning !

Nowadays there are several conferences happening around and with exigencies of work, it becomes extremely difficult to attend. Also some of the conferences are quite boring especially when the topics are not contemporary, thought-provoking, research based and futuristic. However when it comes to conferences organised by the talented team of More Than HR (MTHR Global), there is always something unique and different. Therefore when the invitation for the maiden MTCHRO Event came to me, I was determined to attend it. The theme of the event was Lessons in Leadership and saw attendance from several imminent personalities just to name a few; Vivek Paranjpe, Ulhas Page, Dr. Sanjay Muthal, Vijay Kanbur, Anubha Parekh Kini, Anand Pillai, Radhakrishnan Pillai, Deepak Deshpande, Ophelia D, Shamik V, Tanaya Mishra, etc and therefore despite heavy rains and traffic, I was glad I didn’t miss it. Surprisingly there aren’t many CHRO forums and therefore I was delighted to see MTHR organising its maiden MTCHRO Event. With HR professionals playing a key strategic role on the executive leadership team and even on board, it was imperative to establish an exclusive, coveted forum to bring senior HR leaders and other CXO’s together. The MTCHRO Event is an invitation-only forum that provides networking and education opportunities for C-level Executives not just within HR but even for other CXO’s. More importantly it promises to disseminate knowledge, share experiences and promote collaboration to seek solution on various contemporary HR and management issues. The value of MTHRO Event is the information, interaction, insights and inspiration one gains by hearing other people’s perspectives on a host of topics. Since it was the first event, the organisers were also interested to solicit ideas from all attendees which could help further shape the forum and even plan future events to elicit maximum participation. With the inimitable Rajesh Kamath compeering the event with his characteristic humour and wit, there wasn’t any dearth of ideas, suggestions and they came in abundance with lot of enthusiasm, just like the incessant rains outside the conference hall. Many of these ideas aimed to impart knowledge management strategies and discuss the megatrends shaping the HR and various business strategies. The event started with Amber Wigmore from IE Business School, Spain speaking about international trends in B school Talent scouting. Her speech was indeed insightful. Amber emphasised that we must,” Devote most resources to those who show maximum interest in their careers!". She further hit the nail on the head by stating "A Business School is an educational tool, not a placement service!" The next session had the amazingly talented young leader Jithin Krishnan, Founder Director, Make a Difference. Make A Difference is a voluntary organization with over 12000 GenY volunteers, with less than 10% attrition! Incredible! Today CSR has become extremely important and it is here where HR professionals can play a critical role in promoting community service. Jithin’s speech would definitely motivate everyone to practise volunteerism. In his speech he brought to light the plight of orphans and orphanages. He further added,” What orphanages really need is family support - Family our first conduit to the world!” Jithin narrated a touching story and expressed how youth are tired of being told that they are selfish. As a matter of fact, he stated that younger generation is striving to make an impact and the fact that 12000 volunteers in 23 cities devote their weekends to volunteerism attests this. Jithin also spoke about the 3 M’s: Being M.A.D., Mallus and Mass volunteerism. The final session saw the unassuming, humble and experienced Sunil Gupta, COO, Net Magic speaking passionately about his experience and emphasizing the importance of Balance. Working in large process, system based organisation for many years and then moving to a mid size organisation was a challenge. However Sunil perspicaciously shared his personal experience and educated us as to how leaders must adapt and find the perfect balance and harmony. He shared some interesting examples of office life at Net Magic which ‘possibly’ (the pun un-intended) made the audience realized the importance of finding and maintaining balance between who we are and what we want to be! Sunil also spoke about the importance of process and managing by exceptions provided there is a customer need and then regularizing it immediately is so that it doesn’t become a norm. In the same breath, he also mentioned that all Processes can be quantified but having a human touch is very important. It was an exciting event, organised at plush Courtyard Marriott hotel in Andheri Mumbai and had about 40-50 leaders and senior professionals attending it. The organization was spot-on, the dinner was delectably delicious and the speeches were very incisive. After the short speeches, everyone was busy with individual networking over fantastic cocktails. It was wonderful to come across different leaders and the evening provided them with a splendid opportunity to relax, make new acquaintances and enjoy a few in-depth conversations. Well what really started as an idea has truly transformed into a massive movement. It makes me immensely proud to see MTHR Global blossom into a sought after forum not just by HR fraternity but even by professionals from various walks of life. The fact that MTHR has been in existence for more than a decade and relentlessly continues its mission to disseminate knowledge freely is indeed remarkable. While the co-founders and core members deserve umpteen compliments, the success of MTHR Global largely rests on the prolific speakers who speak on various contemporary issues and subjects. At the same time its success is also dependant on the various sponsors and the audience who ardently attends in large numbers and participates in various deliberations and discussions. Let me profoundly thank the organisers and sponsors for their efforts in making the MTCHRO Event a great experience for all. So when you get the invitation for the next MTCHRO or even MTHR Global event, don’t hesitate; just sign up – it's definitely worth attending! Until then…Cheers !

Leveraging Social Networks for Recruiting !

“The secrets of twenty-first century economics lie in the servers of the companies that are all around us…”
– From ‘The Long Tail’ –Chris Anderson

From the development of telecommunications to emails, chat rooms, instant messaging, discussion boards, group calendars, blogs and social media, internet has come a long way revolutionizing our lives and shrinking a boundaryless world into our cosy rooms. Come to think of, social media isn’t new but rather, an intelligent combination of various applications using latest technology that appeals to human desires and foster interactions in real time. It works better, faster and is accessible from mobile phones making Social Networking truly pervasive.

We have witnessed Social Media spark revolutions, establish connections, renew old relations and even topple governments. Social networks have facilitated easy content creation and publication which aids organisations in establishing deeper levels of engagement amongst users. The rapid mobile revolution in Asia will yield significant increase in mobile internet and social commerce thereby making social networks to become major shopping centres. The manifestation of social media will have tremendous implication on economy, business, organisations, consumers and individuals. Social networks seamlessly integrate the virtual and real world thereby making it a catalyst for change and defining the future of internet technology. Little wonder, organisations, business and individuals are relentlessly striving to capture space on various social networks.

Today social network generate strikingly different set of challenges for individuals and organisations. The laws for social networks are not properly defined. There are grave concerns about data privacy and inappropriate usage of personal and professional information. But this hasn’t deterred people from subscribing to various social networks.

Interestingly Social network propels ‘disintermediation’ wherein companies approach customers directly with their products and services instead of any intermediaries or partners or resellers.

Disintermediation appears advantageous because companies can directly learn more from customers by engaging them and such interactions help to serve customers better. While traditional branding focused on logos, social media branding essentially is focused on users. This aspect of engaging with users can be extended and creates an opportunity to develop a strong employer brand.

With millions of people subscribing to various social networks, leveraging these networks to tap potential recruits is popularly known as ‘Social Recruiting’. To harness these networks, it is extremely important for HR to understand the various social networks and develop an effective social recruiting strategy. At the moment, these “Big Five” social networking sites viz; ‘Linked In’, ‘Facebook’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Twitter’ and ‘Google +’ are very popular.

LinkedIn is the leader in connecting experienced professionals from around the world, while Facebook at the moment is the largest of the social utility sites with over 700 million users that connects people with friends, family and professional colleagues. Facebook has also included connections to organizations, businesses, and interests. YouTube provides individuals and organisations with amazing opportunity to stream videos. Many organisations have started showcasing real life videos that displays their work culture, work ethos, business practices, domain expertise, case studies etc. These videos are created to provide compelling reasons for customers to do business and for candidates to apply. Twitter is more of information networking service and acts as microblogs that shares user experience using 140 characters ‘tweets’ or messages. Google + appears similar to Facebook and promises to be much more in future.

Biz Stone, CEO of Twitter once said that “Openness is important for the future of a company”. This means social network is no longer a trend but a necessity, a tool not just for recruiters but predominantly a resource for candidates to research information about companies. It provides recruiters with a wide pool of readily available talent, allows them to target passive candidates and develop talent pipeline. Social networking is also cost effective tool that enhances communications by developing good content, providing online updates using blogs, podcasts, and videos. The number of “likes” helps organisations to monitor perception about their brand

HR professionals have gradually started realizing the impact of social network for employer branding. But before they subscribe to social media, it is extremely important to delve on the following aspects:

 Create an effective global social media policy: A social media policy outlines for employees the corporate guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world. HR must play an active role along with communication department to design and roll out an effective social medial policy.

 Train Employees: Invest in training employees on different social media platforms. Educate employees to respect privacy, protect information and follow the law. A great example is ‘Zappos’ where employees are encouraged to have Twitter accounts so they can interact with current and potential customers. Interestingly they also train their employees on the proper use of Twitter during new-hire orientation. ‘Dell’ has a social media university that renders certifications across different platforms to employees once they complete their training.

 Create Content: With content becoming the king, it is critical that organisations invest in creating high-quality content which can benefit the organization. This can be done by using leadership and employee blogs, podcasts or uploading videos that help in improving employer branding. Remember videos encourage more sharing than text.

 Advertise Jobs: The simple way to use social media for hiring is by posting job vacancies and search for candidates. Linked In also has separate hiring solutions and exclusive suite of tools for recruiters. You can even post a job for free in the Facebook Marketplace.

 Transparent Information to candidates: HR must ensure that candidates are notified, in writing, about the companies use of social media to gather information, e.g., on job applications. Ensure employment decisions are made based on lawful, verified information. Follow hiring policy or incorporate best practices in identifying a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the hiring decision with the documentation supporting the decision.

 Provide company information: Regular information and updates must be provided on social networks. This can be done by creating a Twitter account for the organisation. The objective of tweets is to communicate about the organisation and what topics are important to organisation. This will help in reaching out to customers and potential hires. This will also help to engage with potential candidates and see what topics they tweet about.

 Focus on building communities of talent: This is done by encouraging job seekers, subject matter experts and hiring companies both to participate in a dialogue using discussion boards. The quality of discussions and community membership is important for HR. HR and line managers must join various interest groups to connect with potential candidates.

 Reputation Management and Monitoring: The emergence of social media and arrival of tech savvy millennial generation at workplace has made it important to monitor perception of company brands. This can be done by subscribing to agencies that provide reputation management service and by even conducting online polls and feedback surveys.

 Facilitate collaboration: Web 2.0 technologies promises to spread social media amongst employees and interest groups. HR must facilitate such collaboration and become a change agent in promoting this technology.

Demography, attitude of the potential candidate, Generation Y and Employer branding are compelling companies to change recruitment methodology. Social networks can improve communication, bring greater efficiency to the workplace and provide great insight about people’s interests and motivations. It offers immense opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing. It is therefore imperative that HR has to adopt and integrate social media quickly. At the same time, HR has to subtly integrate both social recruiting and traditional recruiting including job boards, company sites and search firms to evaluate talent. Social media is here to stay. Both marketing and HR will have to play a crucial role in becoming leaders in harnessing various social networks to build brand and recruit talent.