“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

]]> Co-authored by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

“Once upon a time, customer contact was centralized around the switchboard, and the phone was the preferred method for communication between companies and customers. When it rang, you answered, because it was likely a customer or a potential customer on the other end of the line. Now, the calls are coming through online, via the social phone.”

That’s wisdom from Radian6 CEO Marcel Lebrun (disclosure: Amber’s employer) about the changing dynamics of communication via the Web, and the importance businesses need to place on paying attention to discussions online via social media listening. And not just the basics.

Here are 6 areas of your business that should be listening.

1. Sales

Although social media is rarely a direct sales channel, it can be a fine way to uncover prospects and meet them where they are. Listening programs give you the opportunity to find prospects when the timing is perfect and when they’re actually asking for answers you have.

For example, say you’re the owner of a local home improvement store and you’d like to see a lift in your lawn and garden sales. Monitoring for phrases such as “new lawnmower” or “recommendations for a grill,” can help you, well, be helpful. It’s like consultative selling. But here’s the thing: you’re approaching people when they’re ready for you. You’re focusing solely on hand-raisers who are expressing need through the phrasing of their social communication.

2. Marketing & PR

Marketing and public relations professionals spend a lot of time trying to craft and deliver the perfect message.

Listening helps make sure that the language you’re using as a company is the same language being used by the people you’re hoping to hook. If you’re calling yourself a digital strategy consulting company but your prospective customers know you as an advertising agency, there’s a fundamental disconnect that you can uncover and address. Listening also gives team members ambient awareness about the buzz around their organization and what’s resonating with their community that can not only inform marketing decisions but help anticipate emerging needs.

3. Customer Service

When someone’s microwave goes on the fritz, the 1-800 number is no longer the exclusive conduit for their frustration. Increasingly, individual customers are airing their concerns, questions, and grievances over social media channels, especially if traditional channels prove less than helpful. Listening gives you the ability to find those comments when and where they happen; it also helps you respond quickly and in the medium that your customers are choosing to use.

As listening platforms become more integrated into customer service, keep a lookout for connections with call center systems, customer relationship management (CRM) software, and other information centers that can help track those all-important customer interactions and experiences in social media.

4. Research and Development

Product and service development is a constant, iterative process to respond to the competition and market demands. And every company wants to claim innovation, right? You can fuel your idea engine by harnessing the input, thoughts, and creativity of the online audience. They don’t have to be your customers to give you inspiration!

This is where competitive and industry listening can come into play. Are there unmet needs in your market that a new product or service could help serve? Could you add new features or create an entirely new offering that addresses some of the shortcomings of the competition? Are you customers talking among themselves to suggest improvements or changes you haven’t thought of yet?

5. Human Resources

Human resources isn’t typically the first place most companies think of when discussing social media. But even in passive, information-gathering mode, HR can glean an awful lot from simply paying attention to the discussions that happen online.

The obvious potential here is talent recruiting, in both finding potential employees and examining their online social graphs. HR professionals can search for people in the appropriate sector or with the right titles and responsibilities. They can see how connected and networked those people are online and how they make use of the available social channels. Or they can watch the impact factors that can influence their hiring: talent on the move in the industry, big layoffs, hiring freezes or surges, or key new positions being developed in competing companies.

6. Executives and Management

Based on what company leadership learns through listening, they can identify potential adjustments to the strategic plan, or even to the company vision overall. They can understand market trends through the unfettered viewpoint of the online masses and determine whether they’re behind, ahead of, or riding the curve.

They can even get a sense of the balance between internal culture and external perception and learn whether the two feel like they’re in balance.

How many listeners do you have in your company?

Originally published at ConvinceAndConvert.com

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/which-parts-of-your-company-should-be-listening-to-social-media-2011-01/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/yahoo-puts-new-spin-on-the-recruiting-process-2009-06 http://www.webpronews.com/yahoo-puts-new-spin-on-the-recruiting-process-2009-06#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:56:12 +0000 Chris Crum http://www.webpronews.com/?p=50449 Today Yahoo! released what it refers to as the first performance-based online recruitment product, Yahoo! HotJobs Pay Per Candidate. The new HotJobs feature lets recruiters pay for candidates instead of just per listing.

The idea is that this will help recruiters tie their dollars directly to their results. The recruitment community will get its first look at the product at the upcoming Society for Human Resource Management conference starting June 28 in New Orleans.

]]> Today Yahoo! released what it refers to as the first performance-based online recruitment product, Yahoo! HotJobs Pay Per Candidate. The new HotJobs feature lets recruiters pay for candidates instead of just per listing.

The idea is that this will help recruiters tie their dollars directly to their results. The recruitment community will get its first look at the product at the upcoming Society for Human Resource Management conference starting June 28 in New Orleans.

"Recruiters are being asked to find top talent using fewer resources than ever, and Yahoo!’s Pay Per Candidate model gives them the tools to increase the accountability of their listings," says Yahoo! HotJobs Vice President and General Manager Chris Merritt." With recruiters facing resume overload in today’s job market, the Pay Per Candidate solution will allow them to spend their time and budget on only the best candidates."

According to Yahoo’s site, Pay Per Candidate lets users:

- Closely manage costs for your online recruiting needs.

- Cap the number of Applies per job and re-allocate unused Applies to other jobs throughout the term of your contract.

- Save time, because when you use the HotJobs application process, you no longer have to evaluate candidates that haven’t been pre-screened by your questionnaire.

Recruiters can choose one of two application methods when using Pay Per Candidate: candidates complete the entire job application on the HotJobs site, or candidate clicks-through to their company’s hire site. With the first option, recruiters have the ability to pay only for pre-screened candidates. With the second, recruiters keep candidates on their career website for the application process.

More information about Pay Per Candidate can be found on this FAQ page (pdf). What do you think about the concept? 

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/yahoo-puts-new-spin-on-the-recruiting-process-2009-06/feed 1 http://www.webpronews.com/linkedin-launches-set-of-hr-tools-2009-02 http://www.webpronews.com/linkedin-launches-set-of-hr-tools-2009-02#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:17:46 +0000 Chris Crum http://www.webpronews.com/?p=48512 LinkedIn has introduced a new set of tools for HR professionals called LinkedIn Talent Advantage. The release reflects LinkedIn's mentality that the best job candidates aren't always actively seeking new jobs, although job posting responses on LinkedIn have doubled over the last six months.

]]> LinkedIn has introduced a new set of tools for HR professionals called LinkedIn Talent Advantage. The release reflects LinkedIn’s mentality that the best job candidates aren’t always actively seeking new jobs, although job posting responses on LinkedIn have doubled over the last six months.

Included in the suite, are:

- LinkedIn Recruiter, which helps corporate recruiters source top passive talent, with extended search, full profile viewing, direct messaging and team collaboration tools.

- LinkedIn Jobs Network, which consists of job postings on LinkedIn that deliver precise targeting, candidate match recommendations and viral distribution of job postings throughout the network.

- LinkedIn Talent Direct, which consists of "InMail" campaigns to reach more potential candidates faster and more precisely.

- LinkedIn Employer Advertising, which can be targeted to specific groups of professionals

- And the new LinkedIn Custom Company Profiles, which are rich and extensible company profiles with viewer-aware information that can adapt to the viewer’s location, industry, function, etc. to build an employment brand

"LinkedIn Talent Advantage lets recruiters unlock the power of LinkedIn’s extensive professional network so they can uncover quality passive candidates who are unlikely to be on traditional job boards," says LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Enterprise Marketing Francois Dufour. "Over 900 leading companies already depend on LinkedIn’s recruiting solutions. The hiring market has changed, and the new LinkedIn Talent Advantage is a game-changer for the human resources community."

LinkedIn has developed a reputation as the go-to social network for professional networking. This new package should do nothing except build upon that. With the economy in the shape its in and job cuts announced left and right, tools like this have never been more relevant.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/linkedin-launches-set-of-hr-tools-2009-02/feed 5 http://www.webpronews.com/companies-using-universal-search-internally-2008-02 http://www.webpronews.com/companies-using-universal-search-internally-2008-02#comments Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:47:58 +0000 Bill Hartzer http://www.webpronews.com/?p=43953 If you use Google to search, then you have probably seen their universal search, which shows more than just html documents in the search results.

Major companies are now seeing the benefits of using universal search to search their internal resources. Professional services firms, especially law firms, are using universal search tools to instantly locate content, wherever it’s located.

]]> If you use Google to search, then you have probably seen their universal search, which shows more than just html documents in the search results.

Major companies are now seeing the benefits of using universal search to search their internal resources. Professional services firms, especially law firms, are using universal search tools to instantly locate content, wherever it’s located.

Back in August 2007 I talked about Interwoven Universal Search, an “intuitive search solution uniquely designed to meet the demands and expectations of professional services firms”. Now, in 2008, we’re seeing an increase in demand for these types of search appliances.

Interwoven Universal Search has a fairly simple web interface where you can search, access and use any content in any system in your organization, from document management to mail, to time and billing. There’s no problem with maintaining systems security. Interwoven’s Universal Search is architected for “today’s content-intensive enterprises”. It’s actually much faster and more accurate than using other search engines that might spider PC’s content.

With Interwoven’s Universal Search, their “personal alerts” and “role-based” search increase its effectiveness. The Personal alerts allow you to save a search query–and get an mail alert when new information is identified based on your original search query. Role-based search gives you more of a “customized” search experience. It essentially tunes” results to be more specific for your group. If you’re in HR, for example, you’ll see one set of search results–which would be different than someone who is in IT.

Interwoven Universal Search – Professional Services Edition is an intuitive search solution uniquely designed to meet the demands and expectations of professional services firms. By providing professionals with a solution for instantly locating important content throughout a firm, Interwoven is delivering a powerful tool to improve firm efficiency and enhance the client experience. Interwoven Universal Search – Professional Services Edition is powered by Vivisimo Velocity.

Interwoven is a global leader in content management solutions. Interwoven’s software and services enable organizations to effectively leverage content to drive business growth by improving the customer experience, increasing collaboration, and streamlining business processes in dynamic environments. Our unique approach combines user-friendly simplicity with robust IT performance and scalability to unlock the value of content. Today, more than 4,200 enterprise and professional services organizations worldwide have chosen Interwoven, including: adidas, Airbus, Avaya, Cisco, DLA Piper, the Federal Reserve Bank, FedEx, HSBC, LexisNexis, Microsoft, Samsung, Shell, Samsonite, White & Case, and Yamaha. Over 20,000 developers and over 300 partners enrich and extend Interwoven’s offerings.

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]]> http://www.webpronews.com/companies-using-universal-search-internally-2008-02/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/encourage-career-selfmanagement-take-the-heat-off-of-hr-2007-01 http://www.webpronews.com/encourage-career-selfmanagement-take-the-heat-off-of-hr-2007-01#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:44:49 +0000 Jill Frank http://www.webpronews.com/?p=34938 Is tackling talent management one of your goals this year? Employees are becoming more demanding, and topping their list is professional growth and development.

These are the employees you should be striving to keep. They want new challenges, interesting work, and the opportunity to develop new skills. Even if you don’t have the resources to implement a full-scale career development program, you can still provide your employees with the tools and support to manage their own careers.

Provide a Dedicated Resource

This can be as simple as adding a new page to your intranet or as elaborate as a career development office. Offer as much as your budget will allow, keeping in mind that you can expand as time goes on. Include resources, referrals and tools to aid your employees in their development. With the amount of information available on the Internet, you can easily assemble a wealth of career-related articles, assessments, and planning tools. If you haven’t done so already, publish your company’s internal information. Organization charts, job descriptions, salary ranges, and training schedules are great resources for employees to use in planning.

Because career management may be new to your employees, include detailed instructions for using your system and a list of resources available to them in their planning. If you can’t provide a career development consultant, make certain that HR and managers are able to answer any questions that may arise.

Programs & External Resources

There are several initiatives you can incorporate in your career development program. Executive Career Coaches specialize in helping organizations manage their talent more effectively. They will help your employees determine the most appropriate career path and develop the skills necessary to grow within the organization. Partner with a career coach to provide services for key employees or arrange a reduced fee schedule for employees who wish to hire a coach at their own expense.

Another effective and low-cost tool is a mentoring program. You can structure a mentoring program in many ways. An informal program that simply matches a mentor and a mentee can be incorporated into your intranet site. A more formal program may have a coordinator dedicated to pairing the participants, training the mentors and overseeing the process. Regardless of the structure you choose, a mentoring program enables an organization to leverage their existing talent to impart their knowledge and expertise to one another.

Support & Communication

For any talent management initiative to be successful, it is imperative to garner the support of management from the top of the organization down to line managers. This goal can be achieved by communicating the organizational benefits and the anticipated return on investment from the outset.

It is essential to roll out a formal communication plan to employees. They can’t take advantage of your program if they don’t know about it. Promote your program consistently and encourage managers to do the same. Publicize this information in your recruitment literature and on your company website, and it will attract high-potential candidates.

Encouraging employees to manage their own careers won’t put a strain on internal resources and the benefits far outweigh the costs. In addition to building a pipeline of future leaders, you are addressing retention issues, meeting the demand for employee development, and making your organization more attractive to prospective employees. It’s a win-win for everyone.

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Jill Frank is “The Promotion Coach.” Get her
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]]> http://www.webpronews.com/encourage-career-selfmanagement-take-the-heat-off-of-hr-2007-01/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/a-balance-between-hr-and-risk-management-2007-01 http://www.webpronews.com/a-balance-between-hr-and-risk-management-2007-01#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:39:04 +0000 Margaret Spence, CWC http://www.webpronews.com/?p=34138 Human Resources Directors are often charged with hiring employees, ensuring that the employee is properly trained, and delivering the bad news when the employee is not working out.

HR Directors are usually the last ones to know that a problem employee has now become the company’s worst workers’ compensation claim ever. Many managers assume that Human Resources and Risk Management are synonymous; they are not.

The impact of HR decisions are often felt on the desk of the workers’ compensation adjuster, who can become embroiled in unnecessary litigation because someone did not weigh both the HR decision and the risk management exposure. Unfortunately, adjusters are often forced to manage the claim and manage the HR issues simultaneously.

As a consultant, I often find companies are at one extreme or another – they are either, good historians with no HR guidelines, or they are strict enforcers of HR rules. Both extremes are detrimental when managing an injured employee.

Is there a balance between HR and Risk Management? I believe so. A true understanding of the roles that the each area plays is the first step to creating a cohesive balance, between the need to adhere to the HR guideline, and the need to protect the employer from unnecessary workers’ compensation litigation.

The role of the HR Director should be to manage the daily employment issues for the company as they arise; the Risk Manager should have a good grasp of the HR rules, as well as an understanding of the work site dynamics and the financial exposure workers’ compensation, will have on the company’s ability to compete within its particular industry.

Several years ago, while managing claims for a large self-insured employer; I was given permission by the Risk Management Department to settle a claim for what appeared to be a reasonable amount. I secured authorization from the Risk Manager and scheduled a mediation. I arrived at the mediation, quite confident that I would use all my negotiation skills as an adjuster to satisfy my client (the Risk Manager). Two hours later, after much give and take, I left with an excellent settlement – and even had money left over. I immediately contacted my client to give him the good news. The Risk Manager was pleased. He phoned the HR Director, informing her that the file was settled and the settlement included a severance package of $2,000.

The dismayed reaction of the HR director caught him by surprise. She advised him that the employee was not entitled to severance. In fact, the employee was indebted to the company for several advances he was given at the onset of the workers’ compensation claim! Another problem arose, when he advised her that part of the settlement was an agreement to continue the health insurance benefits for the employee until the end of the month and to provide him with COBRA information. The HR Director advised him, that the employee declined health insurance benefits during the open enrollment; he was not entitled to COBRA benefits.

The result – we had to rescind our original offer and the employee refused to accept the revised settlement. Our diligence in this situation was for naught; we missed an opportunity to settle a file because the Risk Manager did not communicate with HR before authorizing the workers’ compensation settlement.

A key point that one should take away from this discussion is the need for all areas within an organization to work together. The Risk Management Department and the HR department must create a system of cross-reporting even minor issues. Every claim impacts both HR and Risk Management – the Departments have no choice but to work together.

It is not the adjuster’s job to determine if an employee it entitled to an offered benefit during settlement negotiations. The company must relay the parameters of the settlement to their insurance carrier. Most – if not all – problems such as those detailed above, could be eliminated if the Risk Manager and the HR Director meet regularly to discuss items, which overlap between their Departments. If both Departments disconnect from each other, the only winner is the employee, who is looking for a litigation angle.

A balance between HR and Risk Management is an achievable goal – it up to both managers to establish guidelines, keep the lines of communication open, and understand that you are both working towards the same goal – minimizing the companies’ exposure to costly litigation.

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Margaret Spence, CWC., is President/CEO of Douglas Claims & Risk Consultants, Inc. Her company specializes in educating employers on workers compensation, risk, & litigation management. They offer seminars, training programs and training resources. You can find her strategies for injury prevention and litigation management at: http://www.workcompseminars.com

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/a-balance-between-hr-and-risk-management-2007-01/feed 0 http://www.webpronews.com/keep-your-office-i-compliant-2006-11 http://www.webpronews.com/keep-your-office-i-compliant-2006-11#comments Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:56:38 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=33202 In the time that I have worked as an HR Consultant, I have stumbled upon a large amount of employers who do not know how to properly fill out their I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) documents.

This poses a rather large problem in the event that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent would come through the doors for a file audit, because each incorrectly filled out I-9 will cost an organization between $100-1000 in fines and penalties. Therefore, a company with only 50 employees could be looking at fine amounts in excess of $50,000.

Avoiding fines of this nature can actually be very easy. However, it does necessitate that you follow a few simple rules about I-9 compliance.

Document Appropriate Forms of Identification

This is easily the most common error that I have encountered in my many years of HR Consulting. Simply put, companies are not checking the appropriate forms of identification that verify both the employee’s identity and their right to work in the United States. Without verification of these two characteristics, individuals are legally ineligible to work within the U.S.

The I-9 document provides two options when it comes to documenting an employee’s identity and right to work. The first option is to document a piece of identification that verifies both characteristics. Examples of documents that fulfill this requirement are U.S. Passports, Certificates of U.S. Citizenship, and Permanent Resident Cards.

The second option is to verify each requirement through separate forms of identification. To implement this option, you must first document a form of ID that establishes the employee’s identity. These documents would include a Driver’s license, State ID card, or a Voter’s registration card. Next, you must record a form of identification that verifies employment eligibility. These documents include U.S. social security cards, Birth certificates, and Native American tribal documents.

After having checked the proper forms of identification, be sure to transcribe the information into the appropriate fields. While this sounds a little elementary, most professionals would be shocked by the amount of employers who have taken the time to verify the correct documentation only to fill out the form incorrectly. Though this might be little more than a mental error, I assure you that the fines are no less stiff.

Fill in Form Completely and Correctly

Another problem that I often find with my client’s I-9s is that they have failed to fill in one or two of the major components of the document. The most common of these errors occur in two distinct places.

The first common mistake is that employers forget to fill in the employee’s start date with the company. This field where this date is to be inserted is in the middle of the paragraph labeled “CERTIFICATION”.

The second most common mistake I find is that employees forget to check the box which declares their citizenship status. Thus, employers need to make sure that they are not only doing their part to complete the document, but that the employee has also filled in their portions of the document correctly as well.

Keep I-9s Together

Keeping your I-9s compiled in one location can prove to be very convenient if you happened to be visited by the government. One suggestion that I make to all of my PEO clients is to compile your employees’ I-9s in a three-ring binder. This way, if an auditor would happen to stop in for a visit, you will have all of the documents ready and on-hand for a quick and painless audit.

Destroy All Copied Forms of Identification

This last suggestion is more of a “best practice” than a federal compliance issue. Due to the fact that identity theft has become such a pressing issue in our society, destroying all copied forms of identification is an easy way to limit your liability in regards to employee identity theft. Since you do not need to have your employees’ identification documents on file to be federally compliant, there is no reason to keep them around.

If you follow these rather easy steps and suggestions, you will keep your organization out of court and in the green – a winning combination by even highest of standards.

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Aarik Ames, http://www.nationalpeo.com/ – National PEO, Arizona Human Resources Consultants: http://www.nationalpeo.com/ provides HR services to hundreds of companies including PEO services.

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