Social media offers numerous opportunities for HR teams to do their jobs
more effectively, and a fundamental part of this is the talent community. A
talent community is a place that is created for targeted, qualified individuals
to engage with company representatives to develop a sustainable pipeline for
sourcing, recruiting, training and development.
Having a strong talent community affects pretty much all segments of
your talent management tasks. It allows you to plan your workforce, manage your
employer branding, develop strong cultural fit and maintain relationships with
alumni.
As with any community, however, there are some things that help to make
your talent community viable. Here are five things I think you have to ensure
in order to build a productive talent community.
1. A clear
purpose. Understand what you want to achieve with your community.
2. Boardroom
buy-in. Social media needs to be an accepted part of your organizations’ culture
for initiatives like talent communities to work. A Chief Social Officer can help you achieve
this level of cultural acceptance.
3. Know what success
looks like. Clear goals for your community will help you determine success metrics.
4. Good community
management. Community management is like tending to a garden; if left unmanaged,
weeds will grow. Having at least one community manager will help keep things
operating smoothly.
5. Living to learn
rather than living to win. Becoming social means opening up,
being honest and transparent. Mistakes here are inevitable, but how you respond
to these mistakes will determine the longevity of your talent community. Research by Stanford underlines
the importance of focusing on how things are done as opposed to whether you
succeed.
Suffice to say that this isn’t an exhaustive list, but I believe that if
you get these five things right then you have a good chance of succeeding with
your talent community.
Source: HRM Today
