The emergence of digital platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have democratised communication to a greater extent. People today are in a much better position to share their views and express their opinions in a free and independent manner. It would not be an exaggeration to state that social media has become an integral part of our daily existence. 

In a largely connected world today with a large part of our personal and professional lives spent online, it makes perfect sense for any modern-day organisation to have a social media presence. A robust social media strategy enables the HR departments of companies to establish seamless connectivity with employees, convey company policies and programs, leading to a better employee engagement and cohesive workplace team relationships. It has the potential to motivate workforces in working towards achieving business growth and expansion in alignment with organisational goals and vision. 

A transparent social media framework in any organisation helps in fostering a healthy two-way communication process between the employees and management. Apart from bolstering employee recognition and retention, social media provides a window for employees to share their views and resolve their grievances. It can help in creating close-knit online employee communities within the organisation facilitating peer-to-peer recognition and feedback.

Any HR manager will wholeheartedly agree with the fact that the greatest challenge faced by them is sourcing the right candidates and matching them with the right job. Social media platforms can prove to be effective talent acquisition tools as companies increasingly compete for hiring qualified talent within limited timespans. Conventional hiring methods like posting job advertisements in print media are getting increasingly outdated. Social media offers a wider scale and expansive outreach making talent acquisition a cost-optimised and time-efficient process.

Plenty of active and passive job seekers, mostly millennials and Gen Z, have a compelling online presence in professional social networking platform like LinkedIn. Leveraging the power of social media platforms can help HR personnel network effortlessly with potential candidates, scan their profiles and shortlist the right candidate from the vast applicant pool for the specified job role. A well-defined and implemented social media recruitment policy helps in reducing the stress and tediousness in candidate onboarding, making it a structured and seamless exercise.

The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic on an unprecedented global scale has permanently changed perceptions of conventional work practices and operational processes of organisations. Systems and business trends that were considered relevant to date are likely to be rendered obsolete and antiquated.

As corporate organisations deal with the ever-increasing complexities of a volatile business ecosystem, the focus will need to be on the continuous upskilling and reskilling of workforces. Social media can be a powerful tool to facilitate self-learning among employees by enabling access to online training modules and study programs. Companies will need to ensure the importance of social media in strengthening the operational resilience of employees to deal with new-age workplace challenges, plugging skill gaps to improve productivity and competitiveness while boosting employee morale and confidence.

To sum up, in a nutshell, the overarching role of social media in the contemporary corporate ecosystem cannot be undermined. Social media is clearly an emerging trend in human resource management covering all aspects of employee relations, behaviour and engagement.

This article was first published in November 2021.