The document discusses how companies are increasingly using social media for internal communication and employee engagement purposes beyond just talent recruitment. A KPMG report found that social media is being used to improve internal effectiveness, enable mobility and collaboration, and facilitate true 360-degree feedback. Many large companies like Nokia, Singtel and Red Hat are leveraging social platforms internally to improve information sharing, collaboration across locations, and feedback exchanges between employees and customers.

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Cover Story Cover Story
Employee Communication
In today’s digitalised and highly-connected world of social media and Web 2.0 technologies, it is no
secret that firms are devising social media strategies and platforms to engage with stakeholders,
including in talent recruitment.
However, a new KPMG report titled, “Human resources and social media” sheds light on several
newer practices companies are increasingly utilising via social media outlets.
While talent management and acquisition have long been championed as hallmarks of businesses’
social media policies, the KPMG report highlighted that “increasingly, social media is being offered
as an innovative solution for internal effectiveness”.
“Internal effectiveness” refers to how firms’ strategy and governance are aligned with social
media tools.
In addition, the KPMG report heralded the rapid rise of social media tools to engage in mobility
and collaboration, as well as acknowledging that “social media tools make true 360-degree
feedback a reality.”
Miranda Lee, director of People
and Change Management at KPMG
in Singapore, says social media is
redefining the way organisations
interact and engage with their
employees.
She says they are designed to help
engage employees and customers on
key aspects such as performance,
collaboration, culture and values.
“This collaborative approach of social
media will further enhance employee
engagement and help drives up the
effectiveness and productivity of
your business,” Lee says.
“In order to effectively manage the
risks and maximise the rewards of
Firms adopting
social media tools
are no longer a new
proposition. However,
an increasing number
of companies are
utilising social media
techniques for more
unorthodox purposes,
in a bid to stand out
from the pack
By Sham Majid
The boom of crowdsourcing
In the midst of enhancing collaboration via social media tools and techniques, a new phenomenon known as
“crowdsourcing” is increasingly taking precedence on social media platforms. Crowdsourcing is the process whereby
ideas, knowledge, services and practices are exchanged and contributed from a plethora of people, particularly within
the online sphere. According to Epi Ludvik Nekaj, founder and CEO of Crowdsourcing Week, social productivity is no
longer about having a presence online. “We are moving away from the world of simply being on social media and
saying who you are and what your actions are,” he says. “It’s about the work on demand, the types of talent such as
coding, design and development and the different standards of how they have built their social currency.”
Epi says crowdsourcing completely eliminates the notion of exclusivity and champions participation of the
masses. “The whole supply chain is changing and there is no more mass production,” he says. “You can have the best
skills but if you cannot belong to the environment and if you are not a collaborator, you are going to screw up the
cycle.” Epi adds that firms must focus on adopting a “culture DNA”.
“Companies must understand the culture very well in order to understand the complexities of crowdsourcing,”
he says. Epi brainstormed the idea of crowdsourcing in New York in 2011 and Crowdsourcing Week was founded in
2012. Since then, it has grown into a leading global conference, facilitating crowdsourcing conferences across three
continents and championing the global phenomenon.
social media, policy, governance and tools should be
seamlessly integrated within your corporate strategy.”
Telecommunications giant Nokia is a prime example of
how firms can assimilate social media into their internal
communications.
Nokia’s Social Media Communications team was formed
in early 2008 with the aim of improving inter-company
communications and engaging employees.
Three major social media tools of the Finnish
telecommunication conglomerate include its BlogHub,
VideoHub and Infopedia.
Molly Schonthal, who worked on the company’s Social
Media team in North America, says BlogHub is Nokia’s
most efficient and powerful social media tool for internal
use. This platform allows employees to comment on blog
posts and bounce off ideas and expertise on matters that are
important to them and the company. It also acts as a
powerful collaborative tool and increases awareness of
what employees are working on.
“The BlogHub lowers barriers for employees to find
conversations relevant to them,” Schonthal said.
“In a massive company like Nokia, people can find out
who inside this large organisation is doing something
beneficial to them to make their jobs easier, and likewise,
which colleagues can benefit from their own knowledge
and experience.”
Expanding the social media scope
“Internal Social Media” (ISM) is now a key buzzword among
firms looking to exploit the spurt of social media tools.
HR tackles the online sphere
Social Media
Offensive
The

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Employee Communication
APCO Worldwide, an independent, global
communication, stakeholder engagement and business
strategy firm, together with Gagen MacDonald, a strategy
execution consulting firm, polled adults in the US who work
at businesses comprising of more than 1,000 US employees.
The report revealed that 58% would prefer to work at a
company that uses ISM, while 61% of workers said their firms’
social media tools allowed them to effectively collaborate.
Reinforcing this notion that social media has extended
beyond the usual platforms, the report highlighted that
besides the internet, the most used tools are blogs, wikis
and “Facebook-like” sites.
Closer to home, firms are broadening their social media
horizons to beyond only recruitment aspects. It is no
surprise that telecommunications firm SingTel is at the
forefront of those actively championing and
implementing the use of best social media practices.
For example, it has introduced “Espresso”, an internal
knowledge platform for collaboration and communication
across the group with blogs, wikis and communities of
practice, says Cara Reil, Vice President – Talent and
Leadership Development, SingTel.
Reil says that with SingTel operating in a fast paced
industry, the telecommunications firm “actively leverages
the contributions of the 22,000 employees across the globe”.
“It not only keeps colleagues updated on what is
happening across the business, but they can also search
for people with knowledge or skills they may need and
collaborate on projects through the site,” Reil says.
SingTel recently won the coveted “Best Use of Social
Media” prize at the recent HRM Awards 2014.
At genetic research firm Illumina Singapore, social media
policies are closely streamlined towards talent performance
and management. Foo Wah Teng, Associate Director – HR,
Asia-Pacific says that social media has great potential to
transform talent management and performance
management “as it focuses on niche recruiting”.
The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) first started
adopting social media platforms to attract, retain and
develop talent in 2010, says Zareena Brown, Vice-President
– HR, Asia, Middle East and Africa. She says Instagram is
the most recent platform to be launched “as a way to
recognise and celebrate IHG colleagues who had completed
courses we run in partnership with Harvard University”.
“Since then, our Instagram page has grown to become a
platform where IHG colleagues share and celebrate each
other’s achievements and initiatives, no matter where they
are across our Asia, Middle East and Africa region,” she says.
Over at Red Hat, a multinational software firm, the social
media programme is embedded in a plethora of platforms
such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Weibo.
LJ Brock, Vice President – Global Talent Acquisition and
Infrastructure says Red Hat is engaging in a variety of
social media platforms geared at enabling its associates to
share and discuss via blogs, documents, video and
comments. “Interaction is key – people want to forge real
relationships and feel a connection to others,” says Brock.
“Red Hat is set up and operates as a community – we
have a lot of communication and feedback, but that doesn’t
mean we’re not always looking for new and better ways to
encourage collaboration and sharing knowledge.”
360-degree feedback
Companies are also using social media to provide
360-degree feedback and enhance communication with
both internal staff and external customers. Illumina’s Foo
says, the company’s sales and commercial colleagues are
utilising a business app to manage the communication and
feedback channels with customers.
“We are certainly keen to explore using social media
tools as one of the feedback channels from our candidates
or potential candidates as well,” says Foo.
Reil says that SingTel has also made 360-degree
feedback a core aspect of its communication frameworks.
“We have very active discussions with our customers on
Facebook where we have 260,000 followers,” explains Reil.
She cites an app called “Starfish” which enables employees
to become true ambassadors for SingTel.
“If they meet a friend or family member who has a question
on SingTel, they can log the details in the app and the customer
service team will quickly contact the customer,” she says.
Reil believes that employees and managers appreciate it
when technology can be utilised to simplify a process and
allow people to engage more effectively with each other.
However, while she affirms that SingTel uses social media
to improve this experience, she believes that “nothing can
replace a face to face discussion” when it comes to notions
such as talent and performance management.
Brock agrees that 360-degree feedback is an essential
component of Red Hat’s communications arm.
He says it can see in real time what customers think of
their products and gauge how they are using them, before
giving them the priceless opportunity to zoom in and
demonstrate a commitment towards delivering a superior
customer experience via different ways of engagement.
“In a company like Red Hat, where open source is a way
of life and collaboration with our customers is highly
valued, it is necessary for our company to be able to
interact with our customers in an open, real-time way
through our multiple social channels,” Brock says.
Social recruitment: the proverbial agenda
While firms are admirably delving deeper into seemingly
endless realms of social media, it is no secret that perhaps
the most common objective of adopting such platforms
constitutes the need to recruit highly-skilled candidates.
A Social Recruitment Poll 2013 conducted by the Institute
of Systems Science at the National University of Singapore,
lends credence to this theory.
The survey found that a sizeable 63% of firms polled utilised
social media for recruitment. For firms that did engage in
social media for recruitment, LinkedIn was the most popular
platform used. A staggering 73% of surveyed firms had
successfully hired candidates from social media platforms.
The power of social media to drive recruitment is
certainly not lost on Reil.
She says SingTel launched its “Robo G” app as part of
graduate and scholar recruitment last year.
“It is an app that enables us to create awareness about
our graduate and scholar programs and to keep candidates
informed and engaged throughout the recruitment
process,” she says.
“Within the company, we have also gamified learning and
have launched Robo apps for a number of programmes.”
Reil says the company has been pleased with the results,
with both potential candidates and staff, and it is now
actively sourcing for new ways to use the app.
LinkedIn has also struck a chord with SingTel in its
social recruitment strategies: Reil says SingTel has been
successful in recruiting qualified candidates via that
channel. Adding that the company has also set up LinkedIn
groups to engage with alumni of SingTel, Reil says it has
close to 70,000 members on its group sites.
Brown says IHG received 5,000 applications directly
via the company’s social channels last year, with figures
increasing year-on-year.
“Our dedicated social team also uses these channels to tell
our employer story and engage people in why we’re a great
company to work for and the right place for them,” she says.
In its attempts to collaborate and nurture knowledge among its estimated 125,000 employees
globally, Nokia has fostered several tools into one of the world’s most envied internal social
media juggernauts. Three of Nokia’s more famous tools are BlogHub, VideoHub and Infopedia.
The BlogHub is primarily the voice of employees, with staff at Nokia allowed to
communicate with anyone within the company and learn new ideas and information. This
adds a sense of dynamism and creates a powerful collaborative tool. From a management
viewpoint, the BlogHub serves as a valuable method to collate employee feedback and
monitor conversations that are occurring within the company. One of the major ways that
is done is through a built-in voting system, whereby employees rate blog posts, with the
most popular blogs reaching the top.
Externally, the Nokia Conversations blog is also an efficient way to enable workers
to be aware of the latest Nokia product news. “We track the number of readers who read
the blog at work and there is a substantial amount of people who are reading it,” Phil
Schwarzmann, Editor-in-Chief, Nokia Conversations, has said. “To see what’s going on in
company, there is no better way than to read the blog. What we do is give a big overview
of all the topics going on at Nokia.”
Internally, the company has unveiled VideoHub, an outlet that has quickly struck a
chord with employees, with postings able to be updated every day. Furthermore, Nokia’s
Infopedia wiki also facilitates easier collaboration and knowledge empowerment among
workers in the firm.
Nokia
In a league of its own
She adds that IHG talks about its new hotel openings
across the world, the extensive number of employee
engagement activities taking place across that network, and
the real-life success stories of colleagues who have built
their careers with IHG.
Brock says that Red Hat’s use of social media in hiring is
“multifaceted”. He estimates that about a third of
applicants find the company through outlets such as
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
“The other side of this equation are our referral numbers
and we’ve consistently had over 50% of our hires come as a
referral through a current associate,” Brock says. “The way
Red Hatters share open jobs and get their contacts to apply
relies heavily on social media – using those tools to make
the application process accessible and easy.”
According to Foo, Illumina is also ramping up its efforts
in social recruitment, particularly in “niche recruiting.”
“We use social media to mine data in order to determine
exactly what we should be looking for in a potential hire,
and then use social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn
to find candidates that match that,” says Foo.
Adding that about 10% of Illumina’s recruitment is done
through social media, Foo explains that the company is at
the early phase of “riding on this social media trend”.
“We will be embarking more actively given the
sophistication and dynamism of the talent pool,” he adds.
Reil concurs that SingTel sees its social media
recruitment numbers increasing year over year, saying it is
a particularly effective way to attract and engage with the
younger generation.
“We all have our mobile devices with us all the time, by
using social media, you really can connect with candidates
anytime, anywhere,” she says.
63%
of firms polled
utilised social
media for
recruitment
Source: Social
Recruitment
Poll 2013 by
Institute of
Systems
Science at the
National
University of
Singapore