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I should point out that I’m, not, never have been and never will be an early adopter. This, and the fact that I am approaching grumpy old man territory, may inform one or two of my observations! I’ve included the Twitter handles of the speakers where I know them. This isn’t an outline of all the sessions but rather a personal take on some aspects of the day.
Statistics can be a tad tedious. Yes, I sort of know that Facebook is omnipresent. But one stat that made me sit up and take notice was thrown in early doors by the impressive Bill Parsons, EVP HR at Arm Holdings. Talking on why employers need to take notice of social media, he told us that more content is uploaded to You Tube in 60 hours that Hollywood has created in the last 60 years!
One constant theme throughout the day was the urging from speakers to trust their staff and not get hung up on drafting policies and guidelines to ‘control’ what staff can and cannot do on social media. Neil Morrison (@neilmorrison), Group HR Director of Random House, said that HR too often fell in to the trap of relying on ‘dumb’ policies influenced by legal advisers and that social media was one area where things should be done differently. He pointed out that social media policies don’t stop staff doing daft things: ‘the tiny minority of people who are going to misuse social media and do something silly are going to do it anyway’. Maintaining productivity is, according to Neil, ‘the single most stupid argument for trying to restrict social media’. This was echoed by Mathew Davies (@RafaDavies), HR Director at Logica, who told us, pithily, that even if an employer bans social media ‘employees will find other ways not to be “productive” ’! Doug Shaw (@dougshaw1) liked the IBM social media guidelines, not least because IBM employees were involved in their creation.
On the legal point, I did stick my hand up to point out that the law does have a role to play and that light touch guidelines might be advisable. Where having a social media policy helps an employer ‘win’ an unfair dismissal case having sacked someone who has slagged them off on social media, it’s bound to encourage a compliance mentality. And when an employer ‘loses’ a social media dismissal case, partly due to not spelling out what is and isn’t acceptable, it’ll have the same effect. See also our Top 10 Tips. Of course, having a policy is not the be-all and end-all, but to my (employment law) mind it certainly doesn’t hurt. And don’t forget that LinkedIn does pose slightly different issues, especially as regards the ‘ownership’ of contact lists.
Mathew Davis said that we are in the middle of a communications revolution. Websites such as employeeleaks.com mean that employees will build the employer brand, not the employer. Bill Parsons said that we are seeing a world where the employer brand is being debunked by true transparency on the web and cited glassdoor.com as an example of this.
The transformational power of social media was championed by Alison Chisnell (@AlisonChisnell), Group HR Director at Informa, who told us that it helped break down hierarchical barriers. She used the example of staff interacting with the CEO who has a Twitter account. For her, the real challenge was helping and coaching staff to get involved.
Throughout the day a live twitter stream displayed on a large monitor near the speakers. Delegates were encouraged to tweet away (with the hash tag #cipdsocial11) and these (and others’) tweets then appeared in real time. Not being able to tweet from my antique mobile, I did initially feel a bit left out. But then I became fascinated with the ability of some delegates to seemingly be always tweeting from their smart phones. I’m pretty sure that even if I had one I wouldn’t do this. Is this because as a man I cannot allegedly multi-task? Possibly. But more likely it’s because I don’t think I can really focus on the presentations and twiddle with a mobile. Ho hum – each to their own. I did find the tweets from hungry delegates as we neared lunch quite amusing!
The speaker’s presentations were all illustrated in the usual way with slides. Many delegates then used their smart phones to take pictures of these slides on the OHP, holding them up in the air as if at a gig. I this found truly strange. But again, I might have done the same had I anything approaching modern technology.
Best part of the day – the speakers challenging delegates to think differently and in a more positive way about social media. Best presentation of the day (and with apologies to other speakers who were all inspiring in their own way) – Doug Shaw who had the graveyard, post-lunch slot. He was amusing, engaging, and walked around while presenting - which I rather like. He started with a great story illustrating the power of social media which involved a dry cleaner, a song or two and Barclaycard – I cannot remember the exact sequence but tweet him and I’m sure he’ll share it!
As grappled with the Central Line on the way back to Oxfordshire, the clarion call of the event was ringing in my ears, ‘Don’t be afraid, just try it. And trust your staff’. Thanks to the CIPD for arranging such a stimulating day.
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