It was found that in the Carter Morris Survey that there are extremely low levels at which Human Resources interact on social media sites. The survey was given to 2,797 individuals and 14% of those individuals answered and returned the survey. (a relatively low number of return)
Over the past months Human Resources Global has been involved with social media within organisations and working with their teams of HR professionals identifying possible alignments and also risk areas. I therefore found the Survey from Carter Morris very interesting, BUT very shocking.
The Survey Questions and Results
For the first question, the individuals were asked if they used any form of a social media channel. 97% responded with a yes and 3% responded with a no.
The second question asked what media site the individuals used. LinkedIn was the most popular with 99% of Human Resource responders using it. Facebook followed after with just over 60% and Twitter with 33% of responders using it. To Carter Morris and me as well (as most of my business comes in via twitter), it was suprising that only 33% used Twitter, when it serves as a news, debate, and controversy outlet.
On the third question, responders were asked how much time was devoted to these media sites each day. More than 50% of responders only spend an hour or less a day on social media sites and only 10% spend more than two hours. This was astounding to Carter Morris, as the average person spends more than three hours a day on social media sites. Are Human Resources professionals so traditional or just have different life interests?
The fourth question followed the third by asking how often a responder posted on any type of social media site. With 46% of responders posting less than once a week, followed by 34% posting between 2 and 10 posts, 12% never posting, and then only 2% posting more than 20 times. (My business posts a minimum of 20 times a day and that is a lot less compared to some of my global competitors)
The fifth question asked if the individual has different social media accounts for both their personal and business life. 56% had different accounts and 44% did not have separate accounts. (Organizations really need a social media policy in place to make sure that what is written on company social media accounts is their vision/mission and not a personal account. Individuals will need their own personal accounts and an individual business social media account)
The sixth question followed with the fifth in asking if they maintained those different accounts. The most popular site that was maintain was again LinkedIn with 78%, followed by Facebook with 68%, and then 23% with Twitter. (LinkedIn is definitely handy, however do not forget google plus, which has great communities as well)
In the seventh question, individuals were asked if they searched for Human Resource jobs using the three mentioned social media sites, company job sites, Changeboard, Personal Today, or other means. 97% of responders used LinkedIn when hunting for jobs while only 8% used Twitter and 3% used Facebook. Many responders, 71% of them, stated that they used company sites while 29% used Changeboard and Personal Today. (my response to this was utter shock, there are so many different channels out there that have a lot of potential for organisations to use and can really do some good whilst recruiting talent – vice versa)
The eighth question asked if they succeeded in their search for jobs using social media. 50% of responders stated that they found job ads by chance while just over 42% did a manual search to find jobs and 8% did not look for ads on social media at all.
The ninth question was if the responders searched for Human Resource news on the three already previously mentioned social media sites. It was found that LinkedIn was the most popular again, while Twitter and Facebook was used much less.
For the tenth question, responders were asked if they search for Human Resource connections and if so, how often using social media site. Again, LinkedIn was the most used site with over 40% of responders using it to search daily and 30% using it to search weekly.
For the last two questions, responders were asked if they regularly read a Human Resource blog and if they wrote Human Resource blogs. JUST over 33% read blogs, but fewer than 5% of responders wrote blogs!!
(Whilst in my master mind group with other (online) HR professionals, I presented these figures ** utter shock ** we all get a minimum of 3500 people reading our blogspost each month, some even 10,000+ (I let you guess who is part of this group), I just mentioned to everyone that we should be very thankful for the 33% of HR professionals that do want to move forward with the times and read our writings – the suggestion was also that perhaps many other professionals in different industries and functions read HR blogs to keep them updated with news and law).
I have to be thankful to Carter Morris as it did show why my focus on online HR business is of less interest in certain regions of the world and that it is nothing personal!
This survey shows that Human Resource employees still have a VERY traditional way of thinking (stereotyping). That is that social media does not matter or that LinkedIn is the only social media site that matters. Just be very wary that people outside of the HR arena do use all these other social media channels and if HR is not aligned or at least knows where to look for or use these tools – your position may change very quickly when a company is moving forward.
It is astounding how little HR members interact with people on social media sites, such a waste of real international collaboration opportunities. This is (in my eyes) troubling news and Human Resources truly needs to move forward and should not fall behind in the global market.
For a full review of the Carter Morris Survey – please click here! (with thanks to Carter Morris)
By Nicole Dominique Le Maire – @NicoleLeMaire
(c) 2014 Human Resources Global Ltd.
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