Perceptive HR Technology

I have two snipets about Web 2.0 that I found interesting this week.  One had some work relevance, the other didn’t (but I ended up finding some anyway).  Here it goes:

First 
Great article in the current edition of HR Executive (not yet available online — why do they do this?) about Web 2.0 and how organizations are going to have to inevitably deal with the changes that are coming.  Lots of discussion about how HR leaders are going to have to consider the privacy, compliance and cultural dimensions of change management(I’ve blogged on this topic previously).  

It’s fascinating to me how rapidly this topic is penetrating the thoughts and minds of HR folks.  I was at a customer today, and we were talking about how to use Facebook to get employees to promote the company’s job openings on their individual Facebook pages.  Six months ago, that would be met with a blank stare.  At the HR technology conference in October, it got lots of interest as something new and innovative.  Today, when I showed it to my customer it was ‘we were just talking about that yesterday!’  Times, they are a-changin’ — and fast!

Second
I was in Nice (France) last week at a sales meeting, showing our EMEA sales team the new Strategic Human Capital Management product, and while I was setting things up to demonstrate our Facebook widget, I saw a friend invitation from someone I hadn’t been in contact with for nearly 20 years.  In this case it was a good thing — I enjoyed reconnecting with this person, and we had a lively e-mail exchange catching up on each other’s lives.  But at the same time, I had to identify with the HR executives I’ve been talking to, because true privacy is becoming a thing of the past.  If you’re going to be ‘out there’ in cyberspace, you’re going to sacrifice your anonymity.  I don’t have (too) many skeletons in my closet, so I’m not sweating it.  But I have an enhanced appreciation for how corporate executives feel.  But I must say that it didn’t stop me — I’m jumping off the cliff on this one!