Social Media in Human Resource Management

This report critically evaluates the role of social media in human resource management training. It discusses the benefits and challenges of using social media for both formal and informal learning, highlighting its impact on employee development and organizational efficiency. The report also addresses potential drawbacks and offers strategies for effective implementation of social media in training programs.

Running Head: Human resource Management
Human resource Management

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Executive summary
The paper shows how social media supports trainers in providing learning to their employees.
The report includes the critical evaluation of the social media supports to formal and informal
learning. Social media plays a vital role in changing world. The report also talks about the
benefits of social media learning to the company as well as to the employees. Though there are
some of the disadvantages to the employees that might create an impact on the working of the
company. Along with this companies might face challenges while implementing social media
training process. The companies should try to resolve issues.

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Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Role of social media in formal and informal Learning....................................................................4
Benefits of social media learning to organizations..........................................................................7
Benefits of social media learning to employees..............................................................................8
Disadvantages of social media learning to employees....................................................................9
Challenges faced in implementing e-learning training..................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Human Resource Development (HRD) is the structure that helps workers in building up their
own and hierarchical aptitudes, learning, and capacities. Human Resource Development includes
opportunities for the worker, opportunities such as preparing, representative profession
improvement, execution administration and advancement, training, coaching, progression
arranging, key worker recognizable proof, educational cost help, and association advancement
(Knowles, Holton III, and Swanson 2014). Each and every company perform this activity to
accomplish the strategic goals and objectives of the company. HRD can be formal (classroom
training, organizational planned change efforts, etc.) or informal (employee training by a leader,
internal training, mentoring of new employees by experienced) considering the organization
point of view. An emergence of technology has changed the way of conducting training in an
organization.
Social media plays a vital role in training and development of the employee. Companies are
using different platforms of social media to provide training and development facilities to their
employees (Boyd, 2014). The platform includes YouTube and gamification is mostly used by the
organizations. The paper talks about the critical evaluation of social media role in informal and
formal learning in the organization.

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Role of social media in formal and informal Learning
Today' world is driven by the internet. The Internet changed the mind, thoughts, and views of the
employees. The way now the employees think is totally different. Now employees like to work
with the companies that can provide the facilities along with the better learning & development
facilities. Most of the employees in the world are connected on social media. Formal and
informal learning plays a vital role in training and development of the employees. Developments
in online networking have made conceivable the meeting of formal and casual learning chances
to help representative execution in interesting ways (Wamba, Fosso, and Carter 2016). Utilizing
the components of online networking conditions enables learning associations to plan
instructional projects that are adaptable, drawing in, and altered to the students' individual needs.
Organisation believes in spending amount on the formal learning but when they are at a
workplace. They spend the amount on the informal learning techniques. Observing other
colleagues, asking senior employees, etc. are part of the informal learning. This learning is
reforming with the use of the social media (Kiviniemi, and Kurkela n.d.). For instance, in the
case study the company Beca also uses social media to provide training to their new employees.
There are different tools of the social media that might be used by the companies for enhancing
the convenience.

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You Tube: - You tube plays an important role in learning and development activity. The
employees can take the advantage of seeing videos related to the problems employees face at
workplace along with their appropriate solutions (Arshavskiy 2014). These motivational videos
guide the employees to take the right step at a workplace. For instance, Amazon Mturk performs
learning and development of their workers by creating their own simple YouTube videos. This
enhances the learning efficiency of the workers. The video is formed by the leader of the
companies or by the experienced employees. The workers found it interesting to learn the things,
as they don’t have to read the documents. The company prepared the videos which explain the
task of the company (Russell 2014). After explaining the task through social media Platform
Company takes a test, to check the understanding of the learning of the employee.
Chat/ messaging: - Generally, the employees of the company don't get the answer to the
questions. Tools like Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger (Skype) and Google Talk (Hangouts)
Social
Media
Platforms
YouTube
Chat/
messaging
Google
Plus
LinkedIn

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are becoming the easiest way to get the quick responses. The employees can easily get the
answers to the work related issues which helps the employees.
LinkedIn: - This is a stage for amassing experts and associates, and after that interfacing with
them through Social Media. The workers get to know more about the companies while
interacting with experienced workers (Razmerita, Kirchner, and Nabeth, 2014). This platform
enhances the sharing of ideas and thoughts related to a workforce.
Google Plus: - Google plus is emerging for social learning. There are many e-learning
professionals who believe that this is becoming a most popular platform that is used by trainers
for learning purpose. There are many employees who want to keep their professional and
personal life separate. This is the reason they don't use their social networks for learning. This
platform host community with video embeds comments that help employees in understanding
concepts.
Social media support the training management that is essential for effective learning &
development. Companies should follow some of the strategies that might help the company to
develop skills in more effective ways. Standardization; Company should introduce standards for
their tools. The reason behind not every company uses the same social media tool. Security;
some companies provide social media learning tools to their employees. Then, companies should
address the concern of security issues. These strategies will helps in reducing the issues of the
employees. Apart from these strategies company should also bring innovation in the training
with the use of the social media. For instance, IBM has made 2 innovations in social media
training (Cox. 2015).

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Benefits of social media learning to organizations
Social media training is conducted by many organizations. This is beneficial for the employees
but seeing the other side of it; it is beneficial for the organizations that implement social media
training. This is the reason most of the companies want to implement social media learning.
Some of the benefits are discussed below.
Cost efficient: - Online learning is cost efficient, this is the reason it is attracting many
organizations. The organization can replace their instructor-based training with e-learning.
Trainers need to prepare videos and material only once. The same material can be used by them
for training purpose. To increase efficient skills in employee's trainers can focus on creating new
training courses. To provide training to a large number of new employees company need to
appoint more trainers. The demand for the trainers decreases by the company after the
emergence of the e-learning (Treem, and Leonardi 2013). Ultimately the amount paid by the
company to the trainer's decreases. This makes the process cost-efficient for the organizations.
Personalized training experience: - In face to face training the trainers need to adapt the
courses according to the demand of the learners. Learners come from a variety of backgrounds.
On the other hand in e-learning learners can advance their knowledge on own pace. Trainers can
show a path to learn and try to provide the personalized experience (Clark, and Richard, 2016).
Better understanding to employees: - Trainers and organization will be able to achieve their
strategic goals by providing a better understanding to employees. E-learning provides a better
understanding to employees about their work or task that they have to perform in the
organization. I believe that this is human tendency whenever they get see any video then they
can easily recall it (Dron, and Anderson, 2014). Apart from recalling they can understand things

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quicker than verbal communication. This better understanding will help the organization in
enhancing profit or revenue.
Increase reach: - Instructor based training is possible for an only limited number of new
employees. E-learning can solve the problem by providing training to a large number of new
employees at the same time. So the efforts of the company for repeating the sessions, again and
again, will decrease. Social media platforms are easily accessible on mobile phones. This makes
employees utilize the benefit of mobile learning (Seaman, and Tinti-Kane 2013). They can
access learning matter across the world no matter where they are.
Benefits of social media learning to employees
Most of the employees use social media website to read the latest news or share life events.
Social media plays an important role in enhancing the knowledge and skills of the employees.
Nowadays organization also uses social media for training purpose. There are some of the
benefits to the employees which are discussed below.
Improve online collaboration: - In the today’s busy world, employees don't get time to interact
with each other. This increases the gap between the employees and their colleagues. Social
media training provide an advantage to a company to communicate and collaborate without any
restriction. The virtual meeting can be host by the company with the use of the video
conferencing. This will enhance the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the new employees
(Friedman, and Friedman, 2013).
Keep employees up-to-date: - Social media make the employees up to date by providing them
online training and company news. YouTube videos improve the proficiency or podcast of tasks.

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This makes the employees aware of the events that going to take place in the company
(Behringer, and Sassenberg 2015).
Increase employee motivation and engagement: - Platform such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Twitter provides to our social nature. Employees get an opportunity to interact with peers and
work collectively to resolve the problems. Instant support through online platforms will help in
enhancing the motivation and engagement (Schaufeli, and Salanova 2007). This makes
employees take part in the online training process. Motivation plays a vital role in enhancing the
morale of the employees.
No requirement of traveling: - There are some companies who send their employees out of
town for the training process. Though, social media training makes it easier for the employees as
they don’t have to travel anywhere. E-learning can be done wherever the employee is capable of
doing so.
Disadvantages of social media learning to employees
Social media learning activities are providing benefits to the employees but apart from the
benefits, there are some of the drawbacks to the employees (Christoforos 2015). Some of the
drawbacks are discussed below.
Social media becomes a distraction for employees: - Most of the organizations don't want to
apply social media training in their organization. The major decision behind this is they found
that social media is becoming a major distraction for the employees. An employee can start up
with the research but end up with chatting (Bradley, and McDonald 2011). The organization can
try to form some of the rules for the employees which resist them to get involved in changing.
Incorporate social media activity can be implemented into online training strategy.

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Computer competency: - Some of the employees might not feel comfortable in using
computers. They face a problem when they found that their training requires the use of
computers. These employees might learn less during the training sessions.
Technology issues to employees: - Employees might face technology issues while attending
social media training. The reason being some employees find that their device doesn't support the
training module that is provided to them for the training purposes. Poor internet connection and
random faults can spoil the training program for the employee (Optimus learning services 2013).
Challenges faced in implementing e-learning training
Conducting training programs for batch full of employees is very difficult. The company needs
to rethink before taking steps for the use of social media at the time of the training. There are
some of the challenges which are faced by the companies like Intel, Dell, constant contact etc.
Selection of Decision-making team
The recruitment of the team is essential who have the skills and capabilities to execute and
maintain the social media training. The company spends the amount on the recruitment of the
team who takes care of all the strategies and work related to social media. For instance, Steve
Pratt; director of employee training and development at constant contact said that he agrees to
the point that integration is a key to success. Till the time new employees complete 3 weeks of
onboarding training related to the history, culture of the company. That time can be utilized by
the company in giving knowledge about the social media courses that help the employees in
understanding the task. The team appointed by the company need to take care of the following
strategies.

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 Marketing; to retain company messaging consistency
 Legal; to evaluate social media strategies and guidelines
 Product; to combine the offering into the training
 Web development; to create online portal for training
Setting of goals
Once the needs of the company get clarify, a team tries to set goals so that they will able to
achieve the goals effectively. For instance, Ekaterina Walter, strategist of Intel said that some
companies form goals related to Digital IQ training program. The company decides to enhance
the awareness among the employees so that they will understand the use of the social media.
This is difficult to connect the strategies to complete the strategic goals. The company focuses on
providing training to almost 5000 customers who completed set of mandatory courses. 80,000
employees of the company contributed in social media on the behalf of Intel.
Selecting Benchmark employees
Benchmark employees are selected by the companies. This will helps them in understanding the
required skills that they need to develop in their employees. This is difficult for the company to
select the employees who fulfil the requirement of benchmarking employees (Ammons, 2014).
To identify the IQ level of the employees, companies for different strategies. For instance,
Constant contact conducts one-time quiz to all the employees. So that company can check the
understanding of the employees and conduct training according to their existing knowledge.
House Training Materials Centrally
The company needs to maintain the training material that enhances the work load of the team.
The team needs to fetch the e-learning material according to the capabilities of the employees.

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The learning material includes power point presentations, videos, case studies, etc. Some
companies suggest their employees stay in touch with all the social media platforms. Some
companies perform this function in a convenient way (Ward, and McGrath Jr. 2015). For
instance, Dell accumulates all the required training material on its intranet and user's sales force's
collaboration tool – Chatter. This facilitates the trainees to visit the group and post media stories.
The company gave training to more than 5,000 employees through university. This was possible
because of the use of the e- learning skills.
Creating social media training involves different strategies and skills. To accomplish the e-
learning activity through the use of the social media needs lots of efforts. To maintain
sustainability and capabilities of attaining Goals Company needs to enhance their knowledge.

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Conclusion
Revolution of a world is visible with the changes in working of the organizations. The way of
work life is reaching on a hike along with the way of training. Training plays a major role for
employees as well for companies. This is the only way through which employee gets to know
about goals and objective of the company. On the other hand, employees get to know what and
how they have to accomplish the task.
Implementation of the social media in learning program was possible because of the technology.
The technology plays a vital role in enhancing the usage of the social media platforms.
Companies found that usage of social media platforms will enhance the learning capacity of the
employees. (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp, and Agnihotri, 2014). Though there are certain
disadvantages that employees may face. But an organization can try to limit the utilization or
employees may try to get similar with the software and technology. This will reduce the
problems that might be faced. Implementation of social media training in an organization is not
an easy task. Companies might face some challenges while implementing the same. To
overcome these challenges company should act after understanding the condition.

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References
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