On The Job

What's Facebook got to do with human resources?

There was a time when a human resource manager was more a name than face. The only people who could put a face to the name were people in the HR fraternity and lifers at workplace. For most employees the HR manager was a person one probably met (during interview) once or perhaps never, only sending that occasional mail or making that call if some compensation related matter needed to be escalated. One bore the image of HR managers as the ones wearing boring suits/saris and speaking a language that could give you enough material to write a book on jargon.
But like many other things, HR professionals too have undergone a makeover over time, thanks to the increasingly strategic role human resources play in businesses today. Today’s HR managers are smart, articulate and nattily dressed. They are increasingly seen and heard on various HR forums, newspapers and television and are pretty much keeping pace with changing times. Many HR managers I speak to extensively use technology and new medium of communication such as social networking sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace et al) for their work. See today’s story in campaign. They are well networked not just in their home ground but also globally.
There are still those old school boys, who are not present in these new media spaces or lagging behind their technology savvy peers but given the past, one can see these reticent mangers too joining the bandwagon. What do you think? Do let me know.