For quite some time now, it’s seemed like you can’t turn around without finding someone tweeting, re-tweeting, or updating their Facebook status. The reality of social media has sunk into every corner of our culture.

Every corner, apparently, except one: HR. It’s hard to believe that the workplace could be so slow to deal with the social networking phenomenon, but a new study reveals that 75 percent of employers say their business has no formal policy instructing employees on the appropriate use of social networking sites on the job.

The study, “Employer Perspectives on Social Networking,” is being released along with the report “Social Networks vs. Management: Harness the Power of Social Media,” and compiles data from 34,000 businesses in 35 countries.

Beginning in October 2009, these employers were asked four key questions:

• Does your organization have a formal policy regarding employee use of external social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?
• In which of these areas has your policy been effective?
• In what two areas do you believe external social networks can provide the biggest boost to your organization in the future?
• Has your organization’s reputation ever been negatively affected as a result of employees’ use of social networking sites?

Three out of four employers reported their business had no policy governing social networking, and on top of that, another five percent couldn’t determine if such a policy existed or not!

The implications of these results are huge, for both businesses and workers. In a world where many people don’t think twice about regularly logging in to these sites, employers stand to lose a significant number of number of man-hours to shared Flickr streams and Ashton Kutcher’s latest posts.

In fact, 63 percent of employers who did have social networking policies in place reported that those policies improved productivity. More than a third also said their social-networking policies had helped to protect their company’s intellectual property and other proprietary information.

HR professionals should also consider that the lack of a policy can leave both managers and their employees feeling vulnerable. Many workers have already adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to social networking at work, and may think the lack of specific guidelines protects them from disciplinary action. Managers may be frustrated by a perceived lack of support when they think social networking is leading to a loss in productivity. This is one case where any policy may be better than nothing — only 2 percent felt that their company’s guidelines were not effective.

About two-thirds of the existing policies cover only restrictions on the use of social networking. However, the study also revealed that many employers feel this type of site, when properly regulated, has potential in the workplace, and that this upside should be considered when drafting a policy. Nearly 60 percent saw a bright future for social networking in their own business, believing it could be useful in building their brand (20%), improving collaboration and communication (19%), recruiting talent (15%), and hiring (13%).

According to MarketingVOX, there are even bigger possibilities — and pitfalls — for social networking in the corporate world:

“Social networks have become a goldmine of information for companies skilled in the art of connecting the dots - a little-noticed development that is beginning to concern companies. In many cases mining such information is completely legally. For example, one can examine public statements by company staffers - especially if they are inconsistent - that can point to new initiatives under way.

Bob Fox, head of a competitive intelligence program for Canadian entrepreneurs advises firms to monitor competitors’ comments in the media, on industry blogs, at conferences and, yes, on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.”

The study concludes that, in general, employers are taking a “wait and see” attitude toward social networking. That may be true, but “wait” is a word that doesn’t mean much in the 24/7 culture of social networking,

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Although the U.S. closed out 2009 with steep unemployment, some recently announced year-end data indicates that hiring is set to rebound in 2010. The encouraging news comes from this 2010 Job Forecast, which surveyed more than 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals about their staffing plans for the coming year.

While the forecast warns that employers are still keeping a cautious eye on the economy, their general reluctance to hire seems to be abating. Fully 20% of the employers surveyed said they plan to add permanent full-time employees in 2010 — up from 14% in 2009. Meanwhile, on the job-loss side, just 9% of the respondents said they plan to cut headcount, which is down from 16% in 2009.

These numbers, taken together, show plans for a 11% net gain in companies that are hiring full-time workers, which would bring welcome relief to our unemployment situation.

The sunny news is not confined to the U.S. According to The Wall Street Journal, a similar survey of our northern neighbor offered even better numbers: 29% of employers indicated that they plan to increase permanent full-time employment in 2010 — up from 18% in 2009. Only 9% plan to cut positions in 2010, making their “net hirers” number hit 20%.

Here are some other hiring practices the survey identified as growing trends for 2010:

• Rehiring laid-off workers
• Replacing low-performing employees
• Rehiring retirees / delaying retirement
• Continuing to hire contract workers to mitigate risk
• Increased need for bilingual workers

Not every field will see gains equally. Fields that the survey found were most likely to increase hiring were:

• 32%   Information technology
• 27%   Manufacturing
• 23%   Financial services
• 22%   Professional and business services
• 21%   Sales
• 21%   Healthcare
• 18%   Transportation
• 15%   Retail

In a related article, “The most secure jobs for 2010” describes careers likely to be in high demand in 2010 and beyond. While some made perfect sense — occupational therapist to our growing population of senior citizens is a needed specialty, and being a gas/electric/utilities strategic planning analyst in a time of energy crisis is surely secure — others came as an interesting surprise to me (for instance, I was not aware that there is a projected demand for more interior designers in spite of economic pressures, but the profession is on the rise). Check out the whole article to read their take on the most recession-proof jobs for the coming year.

What’s your sense of these numbers and trends? Will 2010 be the year we turn unemployment around? Do these “more companies hiring than firing” predictions seem feasible to you, based on what you’re seeing out in the field? Let us know in the comments, and please be sure to note your location, too. Not all regions are suffering unemployment equally, nor will they recover at the exact same pace. We’re interested in your eyewitness reports.

Human Resources has core functions around the beginning and end of each employee’s job, but no one should overlook all that HR has to offer during one’s tenure.

HR professionals can assist individual workers and entire teams with training, benefits, job satisfaction, and more — and you have help to offer them in return. So let 2010 be the start of a more symbiotic relationship with HR!

As pointed out in the Work Awesome blog post “Using Human Resources as Your Resource,” HR is the only department that actually exists just to help you.

With current employment trends, there’s a good chance that downsizing or hiring freezes have left HR with less to do temporarily (do a little research to see how your HR department has been affected, of course). Naturally, allowing them to assist employees in transition is more time-sensitive and trumps your needs, but if they have time to help you develop your skills, teamwork, and satisfaction, take advantage of their expertise.

Here are Work Awesome’s top tips to utilize HR effectively:

• Ask for their expertise on benefits: learn about flexible spending, 401(k) accounts, and more
• Inquire about training: they may be able to help with core skills such as communication or time management, or college courses in your specialty
• Offer to help them with employee satisfaction: by volunteering to help on a committee that measures worker satisfaction, you can make your own voice heard while helping the organization

It’s not just factual info that you can get from HR, either. You can cultivate a real partnership with someone in that department:

Today’s HR pros are business-focused. They help engineer ways to make the business better, and to do that they have to understand the business — and all its components. That means that someone in HR can offer you a lot more than just accurate information about the vacation plan. She could help you redesign jobs, create an incentive plan to drive up profits, or find an assessment tool to improve your hiring success.

That’s what the ABC News article, “How Human Resources Can Help You Get the Most Out of Your Team,” says — and it lists specific, actionable tips for you to begin bonding with HR and start working toward your mutual benefit.

First, they advise, figure out the structure of your HR department: who are the specialists, and who are the generalists? Try to bond with the person in the most appropriate role, as defined by your needs.

Then, after building up some trust and interest, offer to take them out to lunch specifically to teach them something about your sector of the business (HR likes to learn about different parts of the organization as much as you do).

Eventually, shift the relationship by asking them to teach you something about your company’s HR function: how are policies arrived at? What are company-wide priorities? Who are the decision makers? As the relationship develops, keep them in the loop about your department’s progress. The goal is to be equally looped into their policies and culture.

Perhaps the best tip I read in this article was the suggestion to volunteer to pilot new programs that HR is considering. If they want to try out flex time, job rotation, job sharing, or any other unconventional arrangement, people who have previously partnered with HR and offered helpful feedback are a natural fit for experiments. This is a great way to stay cutting-edge within the company and make sure that your opinions are heard.

Human Resources has a lot more to offer employees than simple hiring functions and lists of holidays, but many people never invest the time to build a mutually supportive relationship with HR. Try to see that the department is a resource for you, and respectfully use it to better your career, your team, and your entire organization.

If one of your business resolutions for 2010 is that your company should grow as a learning organization, developing a mentoring program should be high on your to-do list. Mentoring is useful and popular because it benefits the individual mentors and protégés alike, all while helping the larger organization. Whether you are focused on grooming existing talent or simply sharing organizational knowledge, mentoring can help your organization grow, thrive, and change.

A notable expert in the field of mentoring is Lois J. Zachary, Ed.D. Dr. Zachary is the author of the books The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You, and Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide. She regularly blogs about mentoring at Lois Zachary’s Mentoring Expert Blog. She writes:

A mentoring culture is a vivid expression of an organization’s vitality. Its presence enables an organization to augment learning, maximize time and effort, and better utilize its resources. The relationship skills learned through mentoring benefit relationships throughout the organization. As these relationships deepen, people feel more connected to the organization. Ultimately, the learning that results creates value for the entire organization.

Her article on mentoring culture delves into the eight hallmarks of an organization that can support a successful mentoring program. The eight points are covered in depth here in Part 1 and Part 2 — and really deserve their own full reading, because they’re that good — but a quick look at what’s necessary is right here:

• Accountability — Determine goals, responsibilities, desired outcomes and accomplishments
• Alignment — Ensure a cultural fit within your organization
• Communication — Use consistency in your message, but express it using multiple modalities
• Value and Visibility — Employ branding, messaging, and rewards for your program
• Demand — Use buzz about your program to create a “multiplier effect”
• Multiple Mentoring Opportunities — Support multiple types of mentoring (both group and one-on-one, for instance) to appeal to a wide population
• Education and Training — Integrate the program with other training opportunities while remaining flexible and diverse
• Safety Nets — Anticipate challenges and provide pro-active support to participants to ensure success

This is just a short preview of Dr. Zachary’s wisdom; for elaboration on these themes, you’ll want to look into her books or her mentoring blog.

As you plan a program, you will undoubtedly find yourself asking: why do some mentoring programs thrive, while some fail? How can I ensure that I am doing what’s necessary for my fledgling mentoring program to thrive?

HR consultant and writer Judith Lindenberger tackled this question on Evan Carmichael’s blog in the thought-provoking post “Play ‘20 Questions’ to Develop a Successful Mentoring Program.” She recommends you ask yourself her 20 illuminating questions before you seriously embark on a mentoring program. Some of the questions are far-seeing and strategic, while others are extremely down-to-earth and practical. I guarantee that among the 20 questions, there are at least a few you haven’t considered yet. You’ll consider issues such as these:

• What are our business reasons for developing a mentoring program?
• How will we pair mentors and protégés?
• What are our criteria for success?
• How will we motivate our employees to participate?
• What should we do to support long-distance mentoring?

…and 15 more. Launching a mentoring program can bring great value to your organization, but because it affects so many individuals, you’ll want to thoroughly research the issue first, identifying resources, goals, mechanisms, measurements, and more. If you use the mentoring culture resources we have provided here, you’ll be much better prepared to meet the challenges of introducing mentoring to your team and furthering your collective journey into becoming a true learning organization.

Any experience launching a mentoring program? Share your best tips in the comments!

The impact of social media cannot be denied. The 2009 word of the year was “tweet,” and the word of the decade was “google,” according to the American Dialect Society. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube—which are defined by their user-generated content—have wiggled their way into most people’s working hours, and thus onto many workplace computers.

In the field of Human Resources, most talk of social media has to do with pre-employment: talent sourcing, advertising job openings, and performing background checks. But social media is now integrated with each stage of the employee lifecycle: before, during, and after. HR practitioners should study their proper use (and possible misuse), and learn what steps to take now to maximize their benefit while heading off potential legal problems.

An excellent article on this topic was just published in The National Law Journal. In “Social media permeate the employment life cycle: Employers must address their use and misuse before, during and after an employee’s tenure,” labor and employment attorney Renee M. Jackson writes about the simultaneous opportunities and risk presented by social media. Here are some of her top thoughts, as well as those of HR pros, on points you should consider at each stage of the employee lifecycle.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT

The networking power of social media is undeniably helping people find jobs, and helping companies find talent. If you’re ready to take full advantage of it, check out an article like Fistful of HR’s “5 Must-Use Social Media Tools For HR & Recruiting Professionals In 2009.”

Know this, though: because people now publicly disclose much more information than they did in the past, organizations must take care, writes Jackson in The National Law Journal:

… Applicants may reveal more information about themselves through social media than they normally would during the hiring process. In making hiring decisions, employers can lawfully use information relating to an applicant’s illegal drug use, poor work ethic, poor writing or communications skills, feelings about previous employers and racist or other discriminatory tendencies. Employers may also lawfully consider an applicant’s general poor judgment in maintenance of his or her public online persona.

Employers, however, may face liability under federal, state and local law for using any information learned from social media about an applicant’s protected class status — race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, etc. — in a hiring decision. It may be hard for the employer to prove in later litigation that it only viewed, but didn’t actually use, the information obtained in a social medium when making its hiring decision.

Your organization must seriously consider whether you want to use social media in your talent searches at all. If you do, Jackson recommends that you follow these guidelines:

• Conduct uniform searches that are just and consistent
• Use a non-biased third party to perform social media research
• Do not “friend” applicants to gain access to non-public information
• And other important points

DURING EMPLOYMENT

One of the biggest issues caused by social media during an employee tenure is the simple theft of working time. There are also matters of privacy, nondisclosure, taboo topics and hostile work environment, brand protection, and many more. The good news is, this is the stage when you have the most control over the situation. Most organizations would benefit from a well-researched, clear, and fairly applied social media policy. To research the matter, I recommend  beginning with “10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy” by Sharlyn Lauby, who you may know as The HR Bartender, or “How to Develop a Social Media Policy” from About.com. There are a wide range of policies, but one thing all the experts agree on is that a successful policy is not arbitrary, but is a genuine expression of the needs of an organization which has considered both the risks and rewards of this new media.

Some of Jackson’s top recommendations for points to include in a policy are:

• A prohibition on disclosure of the employer’s confidential, trade secret or proprietary information
• A request that employees keep company logos or trademarks off their blogs and profiles and not mention the company in commentary, unless for business purposes
• An instruction that employees not post or blog during business hours, unless for business purposes
• A request that employees bring work-related complaints to human resources before blogging or posting about such complaints
• And others

AFTER EMPLOYMENT

Then, there are the former employees. Some will be nice, and some will be not-so-nice.

The best defense against nightmare scenarios like this and like this is a having had a good social media policy in the first place—one that lasts beyond employment, if at all possible. But if you are dealing with a situation that falls outside of that, you might want to read an article such as “Dealing with Disgruntled Ex-employees via Social Media.”

Another huge issue is recommendations. Increasingly, people are asking former colleagues to write them recommendations on social media such as LinkedIn. Is that the same as an official post-employment recommendation? Jackson says yes—although it’s difficult to define when people are speaking for themselves, and when they are speaking on behalf of the organization. It’s a good reason to have a solid policy in place.

The warmest and fuzziest scenario is positive relations through social media in the form of corporate alumni networks. In Computer World’s article, “The new word for tech’s ex-employees is ‘alum’” large, successful sites catering to groups of ex-employees are examined. Microsoft’s alumni network, for example, has 10,000 members—what an incredible opportunity for networking and goodwill!

THE TAKEAWAY

What HR should take away from this, writes Jackson, is that the risks of social media are too great to be ignored any longer.

First, employers must understand the myriad issues surrounding social media in the workplace in order to strike the appropriate balance in the eyes of their employees and the law. Then, employers must craft appropriate policies and procedures regarding social media that are consistent with their industry and firm culture, and apply such policies in a consistent, objective and nondiscriminatory way.

Workers are tweeting, googling, and friending, and they’re doing it at all stages of employment. We need to acknowledge this, and craft good policies in response.

Affiliated Computer Services, a Fortune 500 company and global leader in business process outsourcing and information technology services, has introduced a new service offering, ACS Transition Services - Powered by RiseSmart.

Said Mark Squiers, executive managing director of ACS Human Resources Outsourcing services, in the company’s press release:

This is a new model for transition services, one that is geared to providing strong returns for both employers and employees. By eliminating costly traditional services like office space and group seminars, which have been found to be of low value to employees, the focus is on aggressively helping workers find a new job. Valuable services such as professional resume writing and personalized support for individuals remain, while companies have the ability to quickly deploy the additional services without dealing with infrastructure issues.

We are delighted to partner with ACS as we continue to transform the way outplacement works, both for employees and employers.