HR Community Management4 min read

The sector of Human Resources is in constant changing and cannot avoid digitalisation. Companies can’t afford not to have a single presence on the Internet and on the different social networks. Sometimes made for professionals or open to everybody, social media are consulted every day, at any time of the day and can allow companies to develop a good internal and external brand image in order to be more attractive in its business activities as well as for its colleagues and future colleagues. In this article, we will see what exactly the HR Community Management is and we will explain to you why companies should have at their disposal an HR Community Manager.

What is HR Community Management and what is it for?

For a few years now, recruiters have been using almost systematically professional and non-professional social networks to find the best candidate. They constantly look on online Job boards and they have been looking on LinkedIn, CV databases, on Twitter or Facebook and even now on Snapchat or with the help of YouTube videos. To use these social networks properly, they have been hiring specialists in digital communication for Human Resources. It is an activity which is getting more and more in vogue.

Branding strategy is now adapting to the HR sector. The aim is to attract the candidate and let him or her come to you on his or her own, and therefore to avoid the long and laborious recruitment process. We often only talk about social networks but actually, this web global strategy adapted to the HR field gathers everything that can be offered in the form of online communication, just like this blog post, or interviews, article, shared experience, accomplishments. You must keep people informed and updated.

In a nutshell, community management, according to Wikipedia, is the “activity of maintaining communication, motivation and efficiency among a group of remote individuals, often only linked together by the Internet”. You need human skills, that is to say a “Community Manager” that will be able to use an adapted pool of tools such as social networks or other tools of instant messaging in order to share information.

The community manager’s missions, in any sector of activity, is to try to create a community without the human link, and therefore to gather, attract, seduce, involve and win the loyalty of people from your company or out of it thanks to your company’s reputation, public image or communication so as to keep your community members’ all together.

Why is it essential for you to have an HR Community Manager?

According to Follow Us, a web marketing and social media agency, 7 out of 10 web users are widely active on the different social networks. This is a considerable number. So having an HR Community Manager is a “strategic necessity”. New technologies have changed HR and communication, everything is now instantaneous. An article on HRvoice.org even explains that “communication is the key to the success of all HR functions”. Also, do not forget now that younger generations are at work with the oldest one, and that companies need a combination between both generations that have different “communication style and preferences”.

On your professional social networks, you must show your company at its most attractive and show how it is proud of its employees, or we should say collaborators. Keep in mind that in order to have a good external image, you must already have a good internal image and be on the same wave length with the whole company. This will definitely help you distance yourself from other companies and show that you are “the place to work in”. Showing the strong culture of your company will make candidates coming to you. Letting people aware of the culture of the company will let them know about it already before sending an application for example. Have you ever wondered why Google, EA or Starbucks receive so many applications while they only offer only a few positions? Thanks to their powerful and strategic communication plan, and their good brand image, of course.

We will finish this article by quoting HRvoice.org again: “Those in HR who are working in tandem with Communications and leaders of organizations will be the most successful”. So go ahead, and look for a good HR Community Manager!

Author: Anne-Marie