HRviews

One of the first speeches I attended at PodCamp Toronto this year was addressing the social media in corporations presented by a 21 year old Community Manager. Yes, this is a real job title and while she took us through her job description, I realized a new job category has opened up: social media officers. Let’s see what this is all about and why companies should start paying attention to this new “add value” and trendy type of job.

The opportunities in corporate social media are popping out more and more. It’s an absolutely booming industry. There are many companies that are opening up to this possibility and realize it’s time to have a social media strategy in place.
What can a community manager or officer do for your business? Firstly, you need to ensure you hire the right person. There are lots of self proclaimed social media rainmakers who appear at job interviews. A high number of Facebook friends, Twitter followers or an interesting blog is not enough to cut through. The person needs to be business savvy, understand the business context and possess excellent marketing skills. They would need to speak the marketing/PR language in order to be able to successfully complement the marketing strategy.

How would a social media group look like in your company:

- social media director: this is your business strategist capable of identifying your company’s needs and solving them using social media tools. If you wonder how much this person should earn, well in between $100,000 and $120,000/annually.
- community manager: this person oversees your company’s day-to-day social media operations. Offer them between $60,000 to $80,000/annually.
- cub twitter manager: this person is a copywriter with little business experience however great social media knowledge. They typically earn between $30,000 to $50,000/annually.

The social media job category will continue to expand, new job titles will appear and it will attract individuals with a unique skill set, individuals who pretty much have a good grasp of what the future holds.

Progressive companies have picked up on this new trend and they clearly see the benefits of head to heart messages handled through the social media tools. If you/your company are not there yet, there is still time to catch up, however the future is closer than you think. :)

Starting a career as a woman and being able to sustain its growth despite the detours that life throws in the way, it’s quite an accomplishment. This is a subject that is being paid attention to more and more as the number of women leaders starts to grow and their value is increasingly appreciated. Last month the Harvard Business Review published a research on off-ramps and on-ramps. Quite a number of companies/corporations place a conscious effort in finding the best solutions in supporting women’s careers. For example, here are some of the strategies companies have adopted to address this:

Childcare
● programs like Goldman Sachs’ “Great Expectations” Maternity Strategy strengthens the firm’s comprehensive maternity leave with “Keeping in Touch” days for returning mothers, assigning maternity mentors (women who have successfully returned to work after childbirth), and training managers to support their employees throughout the maternity cycle
● Intel’s “New Parent Reintegration Program” supports new parents — both fathers and mothers — struggling with the transition back to full-time work by permitting them to coordinate flexible work arrangements, including telecommuting and part-time and staggered hours

Eldercare
● Moody’s “Backup Childcare and Eldercare” makes a huge difference. Through a partnership with Bright Horizons, a national provider of work-life services, the program offers employees up to 20 days of care, at rates far below the average market price

Career Breaks
● a large number of single, never married women have a break in their careers (i.e. career shift, going back to school)

The majority of women, regardless of the reason, do take a break in their careers. The comeback is usually not an easy one, as the potential outdated skills and loss of networking might prevent them for finding a job or being successful in finding the right one.

Most university degrees are going to women nowadays and with this in mind we know that the future talent will predominantly be female. Therefore companies could secure a strong competitive advantage by providing the right programs to support the female talent retention and success.

I was reading this fact in the latest edition of the HR Professional: 43% of the Canadian workers prefer to stay with the same company for their entire career span. Now here is a question for you, would you stay, yes, no and why?
As for me, like with anything else in this life, there is a yin-yang aspect to it. So I have gathered some thoughts on the pros and cons of staying with the same company for a long time (10+ years).

The Pros (yang)
- stability (questionable aspect in the current economy)
- vacation time
- seniority
- loyalty (questionable by future potential employers)
- comfort (knowing the business, being an expert, experiencing little change)
- good internal networking system

The Cons (yin)
- loss of interviewing skills
- being questioned on your interviews “why” you left the job after having spent all this time with the same employer. First thought could be that something has gone wrong
- outdated/stale skills. Old joke: “He doesn’t have 10 years of experience. He has 1 year of experience 10 times.”
- small salary increases (these days 3% is great and 2% is common)

Staying at the same company for many years is certainly not a bad thing especially when you consider the current economic climate. However, when you start your job search, you need to be prepared for perhaps a longer search and you need to consider a good strategy to stand out and be successful in obtaining that new job.