HR Doesn’t Get Enterprise 2.0 – But They Should

While everyone I know in this space is at Jive World in Las Vegas, I spent the day at the HR Tech Conference in Chicago.  The expo floor was impressive.  Lots of great booths.

But I was there to see just how well Enterprise 2.0 / internal social technologies / collaborative technologies have made it into the HR profession.

First of all, we have to realize that if there is any place collaboration should live – which is meant to increase employee performance – where sharing knowledge or connecting employees to share expertise should live, it should be HR.

Granted, there are a myriad of reasons why it should NOT live in HR depending on the organization, but if we take it generically, it just makes sense.

So, naturally, you would think that SOCIAL would be all the rage right now – right?  Well, you would be almost correct.  There are many companies on the expo floor which sell software for recruiting.  And SOCIAL is all over their signage – but they are hooking into LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  But I looked for social IN the enterprise software companies’ were selling.

I couldn’t find one.

Until I was leaving.  There was one: Peoplefluent.  I asked them about their social offering (to see if what they really said about “social collaboration” was really internal social collaboration).

I played dumb.

They talked.  I asked a few questions.  They had it.  But I don’t know that they know what they have.  Sure, they know that they have integrated Enterprise 2.0, but from the answers it gave me the impression that it was JUST another feature.

That puzzled me.  Then I remembered: HR (obviously) isn’t looking at E2.0, so Peoplefluent (selling to HR departments) isn’t focusing on it either.

But their software links the collaborative offer with (get this) their recruiting, learning (LMS), performance management, compensation, succession planning, vendor management and compliance offerings.  AND, they have what seems like a pretty good mobile solution.  Pretty impressive.

Granted, I didn’t do a deep dive into their solution, but I am amazed (or maybe not) how they were the only company I talked with that “got it.”

I haven’t talked with all the companies, and I would not be surprised that there is another, but this just shows how little HR understands what E2.0 can do for them when it comes to communication, employee performance, collaboration, etc.

And this goes for HR derivatives, including the learning community.  Sure, there are some that understand, but no many.  I could go on forever, but I wouldn’t want to bore you (even more).

And, it is sad.  To me it is as if Michael Jordan didn’t know how good he could be at basketball and only coaches a middle school team – which, in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the potential is severely unfulfilled.

As a keynote today said, “Ask, ‘What If.'”

Yes – What if?