Should candidates be assessed on their competency to use social media? Eventually, it may redefine our thinking about a person's 'potential' to make a difference.
Sue Meisinger, former CEO of SHRM, writing in HRE Online, noted that the results of a social media initiative by Whirlpool exposed a serious gap in the company's development of its leaders (hi-pots). Her excellent monthly column (which this month was entitled Pinpointing Leadership Qualities), reviewed the standard concerns and challenges about social media trends before eventually getting around to her main point - that
social media is enabling dramatic changes in the way employees communicate with each other
and the longer term implications for organizational design and performance are profound.
Ms. Meisinger illustrated her point by describing how Whirlpool
conducted extensive employee surveys to develop a map of informal networks within the company -- a sociogram -- to graphically depict the links between people within the organization.
The map surfaced 'knowledge brokers', people who can get to other people in the organization in fewer steps.
However, when this list of knowledge brokers was compared to the list of
high-potential employees that was developed as part of the normal leadership-development program
it suddenly got very interesting. There was little overlap. And so, few hi-pots were also knowledge brokers and vice-versa.
One conclusion the author explored in her analysis is that
employees identified as high potentials are frequently effective at managing up, while knowledge brokers are frequently more effective at managing across the organization.
Another, more cynical conclusion I might offer is that folks tagged as hi-pots are better at using the communication methods that are optimal for being seen by those they report to while knowledge brokers are more likely experimenting with tools that offer the most optimal sharing of information by those who do the work. (But hey, sometimes I read between lines that may not be there.)
As an outcome of the survey research, Sue quoted Nancy Tennant, Whirlpool's corporate vice president for leadership and strategic competencies, as saying that the company is "starting to remodel our leadership and talent model to include social networks as a key development mechanism."
Certainly this is a great case-study I'll be interested in hearing more about and will hopefully see replicated by other firms to make the business case for incorporating social media more widely in the redesign of work.
It also seems to me that improving a firm's Leadership curriculum is only a part of the solution set going forward. Revising the criteria for identifying 'hi-pots' in the first place by researching how early adopters are using emerging technology – might lead to swapping out a few folks who 'dance' well in front of others (but not much else) with a few risk takers looking for ways to get things done.
I’m also of the opinion that interview, screening and assessment scripts for candidates need to be added to, revised or adjusted to better understand whether new social media competencies around differentiate candidates quality for some of the traditional job families we are currently screening…and selecting.
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