Finnish Study Shows That Majority of HR Departments in Finnish Organizations Are Unfamiliar with Social Networking and New Collaboration Technologies
102 HR professionals participated in the survey. It highlights that big changes need to occur in most HR departments, as it is difficult for them to stay current with new practices and technologies, build in social networking into critical HR business processes and at the same time meet the increased demand for increased productivity and innovation.
Helsinki, Finland, June 25, 2011 --(PR.com)-- GL Consulting/Ethos Technologies (the later acquired by Symbio Oy), partners in Enterprise 2.0 consulting, and social & collaboration software development, announced the launch of Finnish study that shows many HR departments lack the knowledge of and insights into social networking and collaboration technologies needed for HR to be able to support their business leaders and employees to drive bottom-line impact.
This study was carried out in consultation with Finnish HR association, HENRY ry and Linnapuomi Consulting. The survey was distributed amongst HENRY ry members and 102 participated in the survey. It highlights that big changes need to occur in most HR departments, as it is difficult for them to stay current with new practices and technologies, build in social networking into critical HR business processes and at the same time meet the increased demand for increased productivity and innovation.
Four major areas were the concern of the study: 1) the role of social networking and collaboration in organizations’ in processes such as on-boarding, workforce planning, learning, career & succession planning 2) the use of Communities -of-Practices (CoP) and open networks in Human Resources Practices 3) the use of social networking & collaborative technologies and 4) the role of social and collaborative technology and HR in the Extended Enterprise. Under the technology section the respondents were also asked about brought in the use of means and technologies for knowledge sharing and collaboration. The key findings are:
- 22% of the respondents have implemented social networking and collaboration technology in their performance management,
- 16% has HR software which allows for employees to join communities, collaborate, share information, discuss topics in business context, follow peers and subscribe to relevant information in their subject area
- 12% have integrated their social and collaboration platform with their legacy systems
- 55% do not use social networks in which employees and managers work together to locate logical successors
- 54% of the respondents in the survey answered that they are unable to identify pools of employees with similar levels of expertise
- 22% of responding companies are using social networking to connect experts with new employees to speed up the employee development process
- 53% are not using social networking to enable new employees to share their internal competencies, profile, or areas of interest.
With the above key findings, it is not surprisingly, that 63% of the survey respondents are not leveraging their investments in internal social and collaborative technologies to their partners (customers and vendors), and only 3% are planning to do so.
“The answer to the survey results might lie in redefining talent management. The traditional approach of creating employee performance plans, goal setting, succession plans, and 360 degree assessments are not going away, but it must build into the more agile and networked nature of organizations,” says Leena Malin, Managing Director of HENRY ry.
A recent two year benchmarking study conducted among 720 global companies confirms that the decades-old “HR generalist” model is less effective and that key competencies that drive business results today are HR’s familiarity with integrated talent management, understanding of strategic workforce planning, and comfort with social networking and HR collaboration technology.
“Surprisingly it seems to be a challenge for HR in Finnish organizations to live up to the increased expectations to drive business results through a combination of people & culture, processes and technology. If HR is to take a strategic ownership of knowledge-sharing, collaboration and social networking, it needs not only to continue to excel in delivering traditional HR strategies but also embrace the new HR practices for empowerment and social and collaboration technologies,” says Magdalena Pawlowicz, network partner in GL Consulting/Ethos Technologies.
For more information: tinyurl.com/6jvnltt
About GL Consulting/Ethos Technologies
Ethos Technologies is a leader in development services for social software and cloud computing and GL Consulting is their Helsinki based Enterprise 2.0 implementation partner. Ethos Technologies has been recently acquired by Symbio Oy, and the new and combined offering is one-stop solution to create advanced cloud and social & collaborative applications and services which support all major mobile platforms, ensuring fully optimized user experiences across any Internet-enabled device. Symbio Oy has some 1500 employees.
About HENRY ry
The Finnish Association for Human Resource Management - HENRY ry (registered) is a network of Finnish Human Resources professionals with appr. 3,000 members. HENRY supports the continuous development of good human resources management practices by collecting information on the subject and providing it to its members, organization management and for public discussion. HENRY develops the competencies of its members by offering various forums for learning, knowledge sharing and networking.
[1] Bersin & Associates (2011)
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This study was carried out in consultation with Finnish HR association, HENRY ry and Linnapuomi Consulting. The survey was distributed amongst HENRY ry members and 102 participated in the survey. It highlights that big changes need to occur in most HR departments, as it is difficult for them to stay current with new practices and technologies, build in social networking into critical HR business processes and at the same time meet the increased demand for increased productivity and innovation.
Four major areas were the concern of the study: 1) the role of social networking and collaboration in organizations’ in processes such as on-boarding, workforce planning, learning, career & succession planning 2) the use of Communities -of-Practices (CoP) and open networks in Human Resources Practices 3) the use of social networking & collaborative technologies and 4) the role of social and collaborative technology and HR in the Extended Enterprise. Under the technology section the respondents were also asked about brought in the use of means and technologies for knowledge sharing and collaboration. The key findings are:
- 22% of the respondents have implemented social networking and collaboration technology in their performance management,
- 16% has HR software which allows for employees to join communities, collaborate, share information, discuss topics in business context, follow peers and subscribe to relevant information in their subject area
- 12% have integrated their social and collaboration platform with their legacy systems
- 55% do not use social networks in which employees and managers work together to locate logical successors
- 54% of the respondents in the survey answered that they are unable to identify pools of employees with similar levels of expertise
- 22% of responding companies are using social networking to connect experts with new employees to speed up the employee development process
- 53% are not using social networking to enable new employees to share their internal competencies, profile, or areas of interest.
With the above key findings, it is not surprisingly, that 63% of the survey respondents are not leveraging their investments in internal social and collaborative technologies to their partners (customers and vendors), and only 3% are planning to do so.
“The answer to the survey results might lie in redefining talent management. The traditional approach of creating employee performance plans, goal setting, succession plans, and 360 degree assessments are not going away, but it must build into the more agile and networked nature of organizations,” says Leena Malin, Managing Director of HENRY ry.
A recent two year benchmarking study conducted among 720 global companies confirms that the decades-old “HR generalist” model is less effective and that key competencies that drive business results today are HR’s familiarity with integrated talent management, understanding of strategic workforce planning, and comfort with social networking and HR collaboration technology.
“Surprisingly it seems to be a challenge for HR in Finnish organizations to live up to the increased expectations to drive business results through a combination of people & culture, processes and technology. If HR is to take a strategic ownership of knowledge-sharing, collaboration and social networking, it needs not only to continue to excel in delivering traditional HR strategies but also embrace the new HR practices for empowerment and social and collaboration technologies,” says Magdalena Pawlowicz, network partner in GL Consulting/Ethos Technologies.
For more information: tinyurl.com/6jvnltt
About GL Consulting/Ethos Technologies
Ethos Technologies is a leader in development services for social software and cloud computing and GL Consulting is their Helsinki based Enterprise 2.0 implementation partner. Ethos Technologies has been recently acquired by Symbio Oy, and the new and combined offering is one-stop solution to create advanced cloud and social & collaborative applications and services which support all major mobile platforms, ensuring fully optimized user experiences across any Internet-enabled device. Symbio Oy has some 1500 employees.
About HENRY ry
The Finnish Association for Human Resource Management - HENRY ry (registered) is a network of Finnish Human Resources professionals with appr. 3,000 members. HENRY supports the continuous development of good human resources management practices by collecting information on the subject and providing it to its members, organization management and for public discussion. HENRY develops the competencies of its members by offering various forums for learning, knowledge sharing and networking.
[1] Bersin & Associates (2011)
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Magdalena Pawlowicz
+358407403525
Magdalena Pawlowicz
+358407403525
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