
Playing It Safe is Lame
The safe play is obviously to hide behind the press releases and stumble out of the office every night dizzy from so much “spin.” But somehow that doesn’t seem right to me. The Human Resources leader is supposed to balance the needs of the organization and the employees. Right? Those employees are bright, committed, and paying attention to everything that happens in the workplace. They don’t speak in press release language, or God forbid, ever use the word synergy on purpose. So who is going to keep the conversation “real” if the HR executive doesn’t?
No one, that’s who.
Social Risk or Social Reward
Enter social media into this mix. Five years ago I worried about the perception of company wide emails I had to release. Now I send several dozen messages per day to the universe via twitter, facebook, foursquare and Linkedin. That’s a huge change in a short period of time. While all of those messages are not specifically directed to employees, they all can certainly track them. Does that pose a risk for me? For my company? For Human Resources?
Yes, yes and yes.

It allows for one of the primary links between the employees and the company to be accessible, real…to be human. Does that create a huge opportunity for me? For my company? For Human Resources?
Yes, yes and yes.
How About You
Are you the Senior Human Resources leaders in your organization? Have you built social media into your work and personal life? I bet it was a bit intimidating at first. Everything new is intimidating. Get over it. Be the bridge that effective HR is supposed to be.
I’d love to hear from you.
No Excuses.