I saw an interesting tweet from Mark Krupinski, a Community Manager at Rasmussen College, that really deserves it’s own post:
[“…When you hire someone,…you ‘hire’ his or her network…” -Mark Krupinski]
While this is certainly true in sales and recruiting (professional networkers), how does it apply to other jobs? What I often think about is the highly connected Generation Y millennials. While some of them certainly may not be as public as others (some of my millennial colleagues only “friend” those that they really know) they have access to a much larger network of FoaF (Friend of friends) acquitances all within one or two clicks.
Quantifying the worth of one’s network will be challenging, while it’s easy to measure the size of one’s network, what about quality and depth? I have a large broad network, but how many of these folks do I really know, or can say I have a close trusted relationship with? Without asking me (I do have an answer, by the way) how would a recruiter be able to figure this out?
Regardless of measurement, many of us will come to the workforce with our large networks with us, as a result, we’ll be pre-tied to colleagues, prospects, partners, and competitors. What plans will companies put in place to benefit from these relationships? Even if that 20 year old intern is not an ‘official’ representative of the company, they are very likely to indicate on their Facebook, Linkedin, and Blog where they work. They represent the company –officially or not — as soon as they self-identify their employer.
There’s both an opportunity and a risk for brands: Opportunity) Train, trust, and empower employees to be behave online just as a they would at the workplace. Risk) Do nothing and trust that your employees will separate what they do online from their company, or that they’ll always behave kosher.
Take for example this 20 year old UK worker who was fired for posting a message on a social networking site “F*ck the partnership” (in reference to his own company). The question remains was this worker fired for bad behavior on a social network? Or just being a bad employee?
In the end, our personal live (and networks) are colliding with our work lives, and online, many of us have to give a bit for both.
I think there are two important sides to this issue: both the person making the post, and how they view their own comments in relation to the company they may be inadvertently representing; and also, the viewer, and their choice to associate (or not) the comments an individual makes outside a work setting with that company.
For example, it would never occur to me to associate a comment or position someone held, while maybe offensive, as representative of the company they work for, unless they where specifically making it in a professional setting.
The internet and its social revolution have created a crossover in our personal and professional lives, but for me, it comes natural to assume separation, unless something is specifically clarified as professionally representative.
Thanks Jeremiah, interesting article. I myself use Facebook at my company when hiring co-ops (interns) to try and get a more “real” glimpse as the kind of person they are. I don’t care if they having pictures at party’s, I partied in college too, but you get an idea, are they a social person, outgoing, interesting, what do they really do in their free time (no one really skis, bikes, reads, and writes poetry all the time).
In my previous post, I was looking at things from the employee perspective, and those viewing his online information; specifically not the employer. The point being, if I saw this guy’s photo on Facebook, it would not affect my decision to open an account at that bank.
On another note from Pete’s post – it becomes more and more important to hire good people, not just good employees. A difficult issue with a constantly changing balance between employee and company transparency.
The UK parternship kid has an interesting point that what he said is no different from griping about his job to friends at a pub, and that’s not something that should get you fired.
I disagree though. What he did was more like yelling at the pub, not realizing that his boss and his entire dept were sitting behind him, listening in the entire time. It wouldn’t be a newsworthy story if he got canned after an incident like that.
You always gotta be careful about your words being overheard in the real world…social networks just put more people within virtual earshot.