The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social, Mobile, and Tech Collide

The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social,
Mobile, and Tech Collide
Jessica Miller-Merrell
© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.21359
Social networks and technology are infil-
trating every facet of our personal and
work lives, and human resource profession-
als, senior leaders, and business executives
are struggling to understand the full impact
of this in the workplace. Some may feel
that the explosion of social media and
the technologies that support them pose
a threat to productivity, security, and busi-
ness culture.
A recent study released in March 2012
from Harris Interactive and ESET reported
that more than 81 percent of employees
work using their personal mobile device,
with an increasing number of them working
virtually or as part of a results-oriented work
environment or work-from-home program.1
Add that to the 340 million tweets posted via
the microblogging social-networking site
Twitter.com2 and the conversations of nearly
900 million Facebook users,3 and it’s easy to
see why these new engagement platforms
demand our attention. However, instead of
seeing the explosion of social media, which
use smartphones, tablets, and other mobile
devices, as workplace liabilities, I propose
that businesses embrace this new communi-
cation shift and new role of technology and
learn how to use it in a way that advances
business strategies and realizes business
goals.
GENERATIONAL FACTORS AND THE NEW
WORKFORCE
It is likely that four generations of workers
are sharing the same workspace today—
traditionalists, boomers, Generation Xers,
and Generation Yers (millennials) are all
likely working at your office, making the bal-
ance between employee engagement, recruit-
ment, communication, and technology com-
plicated. Millennials, born between 1984 and
2002, now outnumber their boomer parents
in the workforce and in most cases are the
driving factor in the rapid change in social
media, mobile, and other technology adop-
tion.4 Millennials, even more so than their
Gen X predecessors, have had access to
higher education as well as technology and
grew up during an era of iTunes and the per-
sonal computer. The millennials’ childhood
was based largely on familiarity with a wide
range of technology, so it is understandable
that their comfortableness with this same tech-
nology would shape the future of their work-
place and life outside of work.
Because millennials are currently the
largest group in the workforce and will make
up 75 percent of the workforce by 2025,5
HR
professionals and business leaders must rec-
ognize them as a significant segment of their
audience for current and future employment
1
ert21359.qxd 6/26/12 5:37 PM Page 1

Employment Relations Today
branding campaigns and recruitment and
employment-engagement efforts.
WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
AND METHODS
Regardless of the generations represented at
your office, there are essentially two types of
communication channels: internal and exter-
nal. These two channels are nothing new but
help frame the different types of technologies
described below for HR use and likely future
trends.
Common internal communication mecha-
nisms when I first began my professional
career in 2001 included e-mail, interoffice
mail, faxes, company memos, scrolling
employee message boards, and paycheck
enclosures. Although the cell phone was in
use, it was not yet mainstream. Texting was
available, but the costs were outrageous, as
unlimited text packages had not yet become
available to mobile phone users.
External messaging vehicles included the
fax machine, press releases, newspaper arti-
cles, job-board postings, and online job
boards and forums. Although blogging had
been invented, it predated the first firing of
an employee (Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce)
for mentioning employees in her blog.6 This
incident was the first indicator that technol-
ogy and the Internet, especially blogging,
could spell trouble for employers and their
employees.
Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert
2
In the current social-media- and technology-
based workplace, communication technolo-
gies and best practices are nearly as different
and varied as the millennials, who are most
familiar with the newest technologies. Cur-
rent internal communication vehicles still e-
mail, fax, and interoffice mail, but these do
not appeal to the millennials’ world of work.7
Many of the newest internal communication
tools used today (e.g., microblogging plat-
forms, internal social networks, wikis, and
internal instant-message services) are similar
to their external counterparts, except that
they are private and secure tools to reach
employees in a way that best suits their
lifestyles and interests. These internal tools
offer a way to reach employees instantly
without the hassle, character/word-filled, and
time-consuming channels like e-mail. Internal
social networks have also experienced a rise
in popularity, offering employees and man-
agers a knowledge-share opportunity and a
virtual collaboration platform that keeps
e-mail inboxes from being overwhelmed.
Also, mobile services and platforms are
being developed to reach employees regardless
of their location. Managers and employees can
connect securely without being tied to a desk-
top or laptop computer. And because, as men-
tioned previously, 80 percent of employees
are using their mobile device for work, it
behooves companies to make work communi-
cation as simple and productive as possible on
smartphones and tablet devices. It is not sur-
prising that smartphone adoption as a whole
for the United States is growing. Pew Research
found that 46 percent of the US population
owns a smartphone as of February 2012.8
Companies are taking advantage equally of
external communication platforms like social
networks Facebook and Twitter to reach their
employees, making them aware of press
In the current social-media- and technology-
based workplace, communication technologies
and best practices are nearly as different and
varied as the millennials, who are most familiar
with the newest technologies.
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Summer 2012
The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social, Mobile, and Tech Collide
3
releases, corporate announcements, job open-
ings, and company messages using the social-
networking platform that appeals to the
employee’s preference. Blogs also remain a
popular option for companies to communi-
cate internally as well as externally while
providing job seekers the opportunity to learn
more about the organizations to which they
are submitting job applications.
Mobile technologies are providing compa-
nies opportunities to engage employees using
text messages sent to employee personal
devices, alerting them to emergency
announcements or important messages seg-
mented by location, group, or job title with
employees exercising the option to remove
themselves from receiving messages at any
time per the Federal Communications Com-
mission’s CAN-Spam Act, which is described
in greater detail later in the article. Mobile is
a growing area of opportunity for companies
to also engage job seekers using either text
messaging, mobile apps, or mobile-enabled
websites that help make reading and surfing
a company’s careers page easier for those
who are heavy mobile users.
These mobile technologies are not just for
millennials. Different segments of the popula-
tion are drawn to these technologies for
different reasons. In 2012, the US Hispanic
community is expected to spend $17.6 billion
on mobile and smartphone devices. Twenty
percent of all social-media activity happens via
these devices for Hispanic consumers, with 79
percent of Hispanic social networkers listing
Facebook as their social network of choice.9
Internal Engagement Methods
Since the adoption of computers and the
Internet at work, e-mail has been the pre-
ferred method of internal communication for
employers and organizations updating their
employees on company announcements,
acquisitions, policy, or organizational
changes. For many managers, e-mail serves as
a management and monitoring tool. Bosses
quickly e-mail their teams for updates on
project changes and reports and statistics
used to analyze their span of control’s suc-
cess, progress, or failure. Although e-mail can
be effective, it is also bulky and long-winded.
It consumes our work time, with the average
e-mail user receiving 147 e-mails each day
and spending an estimated two-and-a-half
hours sorting, organizing, and rereading. On
average, only 12 of the 147 e-mails require
additional work, information, or follow-up,
making the case for e-mail as an inefficient
management and messaging tool.10
E-mail is not designed for quick messag-
ing, but internal messaging platforms are.
Internal microblogging platforms are similar
to Twitter (an external messaging tool), which
limits users to just 140 characters per mes-
sage. Messages are sent in real time to a
group or individual, offering up a quick
response, direction, or guidance and taking
the bulk out of e-mail. Unlike external
microblogging sites such as Twitter, internal
messaging tools keep the message internal,
secure, and private. One such tool is Yammer.
Yammer, similar to text messaging but using
your PC, allows for documents to be shared
and stored. Different teams or groups are
Although e-mail can be effective, it is also bulky
and long-winded. It consumes our work time,
with the average e-mail user receiving 147
e-mails each day and spending an estimated
two-and-a-half hours sorting, organizing, and
rereading.
ert21359.qxd 6/26/12 5:37 PM Page 3

designated with team members receiving
updates via e-mail or even text message.
Companies are using Yammer and other
Yammer-like services for team collaboration,
learning, sharing, and crowdsourcing
answers, ideas, and information.
Sometimes an instant messaging service
is not robust enough to share, communicate,
and learn in the workplace. Internal social-
networking platforms allow for increased
information sharing and data storage as well
as connecting with coworkers, colleagues,
and peers. One Fortune 500 company
designed its own internal social network
using $40,000 and free software, taking a
grassroots approach to growing the company
culture and community. Using a data-storage
platform, Microsoft SharePoint, this company
started small, creating an internal social com-
munity focused on nonwork interests. After
building the platform infrastructure using a
volunteer team of employees, the company
beta-tested the community for 90 days using
a small test group as a starting point. With no
corporate social-networking policy to pull
from, the company used this opportunity as
a starting point to create one. The first varia-
tion of the network focused on user-created
interest groups, with the most popular group
being one about pets. Employees posted pho-
tos, updated activity calendars, and wrote
blogs posting them within the internal social
platform. Employee feedback from the beta
testing was extremely positive, as employees
developed deeper relationships with their fel-
low employees, increasing their satisfaction
with the company culture and work environ-
ments. Beta-project leaders reported no inci-
dents of employee misuse, and even at present
employees self-police their network use.
The success resulting from the beta test
led to the quiet launch of the internal social
4
network for the entire organization in 2009.
Since its launch, the company has added pro-
file options that allow employees to create
professional work profiles and connect better
with one another. Recruiters internally have
also found use for the profile pages—as a
sourcing reference to help fill company posi-
tions, taking advantage of their large and
active employee base. Other features added
recently include workgroups that allow team
members who are often working virtually to
post questions, collaborate, and share infor-
mation. Workgroups are maintained and con-
trolled by the individual manager. Although
templates and best practices were designed
for workgroups, managers and their teams
can make changes to their internal groups and
pages based on their own interests and needs.
Other companies are considering internal
social networks for increased collaboration
as well as knowledge transfer, given the
increased number of experienced workers
who are looking toward retirement. Like the
company described earlier, companies are
also looking at ways to improve communica-
tion with their managers and employees, as
teleworking, virtual offices, and work-from-
home programs are on the rise.
Mobile messaging using text messages is an
effective model to reach the millennial profes-
sional and job-seeker community. In aggre-
gate, they prefer text messages to e-mail mes-
saging and voice communication. A quick,
160-character text message from an employee
who is calling in sick or inquiring about a job
opening or from a job seeker who wants to
receive job announcements from a preferred
company is a powerful and real-time engage-
ment and information-sharing tool.
As mentioned previously, mobile is an
effective way to engage workers regardless of
their location. Government agencies are using
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Summer 2012
5
mobile apps that allow employees access to
their employee directories from their per-
sonal devices. These government agencies see
BYOD (bring your own device) programs as
an effective organizational cost-cutting mea-
sure. In 2010, The Federal Telework Bill was
passed, allowing for these federal government
agencies to take advantage of telework and
BYOD programs.11
Instead of paying for
employees to have a second smartphone,
companies offer employees a monthly stipend
and incentive to use their own devices. These
agencies put security settings and encryption
programs in place to ensure that company
data is protected. Nearly a year since the pro-
gram’s inception, 89 percent of federal
employees surveyed say that using mobile
devices and participating in telework pro-
grams make them more productive at work.
EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT METHODS
When it comes to companies selecting exter-
nal engagement methods and technology to
reach employees, consumers, and candidates,
the world is their oyster. There are millions
of platforms, methods, and means to engage
audiences, but the key to finding the most
effective means is to understand and evaluate
the intended target market.
For the purposes of this section of the arti-
cle, we use social networking to mean a tool to
recruit, retain, and develop relationships with
past and present employees as well as future
candidates. Companies are considering their
employment social-media channels as a com-
plement to their external-facing marketing
efforts, or employment branding. It is a new
phenomenon that companies are evaluating
and planning to use social media and other
external channels to build relationships with
job seekers who are often consumers as well.
Consumers love to engage brands online.
Whether it is through Facebook by “liking” a
company brand page or messaging the com-
pany via Twitter, the online relationship
elicits a personal response. Development of
company brands and relationships with cus-
tomers and job seekers is a foundational
piece of “business anthropology.” Potential
employees can engage the brand in a safe
environment, learning about the organization
prior to completing the online application.
Job seekers have the opportunity using com-
pany and culture information to self-select
positions prior to the hiring process, which
increases the percentage of qualified candi-
dates lowers new-hire turnover.
For example, a Fortune 500 company that
is involved in the telecom industry has a
brand that is strong, recognized, and
respected. This company uses social media as
an engagement platform, pushing out job
openings from various targeted Twitter feed
accounts using specific hashtags by city like
#atl, by job like #ruby, and other common
tags like #jobs. (On Twitter, hashtags are
extremely important and serve as a crowd-
sourcing Twitter library and cataloging sys-
tem.12) This company takes the opportunity
to use social media not only as a form of
online job posting and web-traffic driver to
the company’s careers page, but also as a
means of engaging job seekers and the
employee community using traditional social
networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and
There are millions of platforms, methods, and
means to engage audiences, but the key to find-
ing the most effective means is to understand
and evaluate the intended target market.
ert21359.qxd 6/26/12 5:37 PM Page 5

LinkedIn to answer questions, check the sta-
tus of job seekers’ applications, and respond
to other requests. The company also uses
nontraditional social-networking platforms
such as chat rooms, forums, and communities
like GlassDoor.com to build relationships
with job seekers as they visit the site to get
the inside scoop on a company’s culture and
interview and selection process directly from
the job seekers themselves.
Blogging is also an effective tool to help
potential job seekers learn about your com-
pany’s culture. This is important, as popular
tech companies like Apple, Google, and Face-
book average thousands of job-seeker applica-
tions a day. A blog can help job seekers opt out
of the application process by understanding
how their own personal style and personality
might integrate with your company’s
established cultural norms, values, and work
environment.
With regard to the recruiting and hiring
process, all roads lead to the company
careers page, and because a growing percent-
age of Internet users and applicants are using
mobile and smartphone devices as their pri-
mary Internet surfing tool, it makes sense
that companies would need to integrate
mobile into their job-application process. Jibe,
an HR technology start-up, recently launched
the first mobile applicant-tracking system
(ATS) and career page, which allows job seek-
ers to apply fully using their mobile devices.
These job seekers can integrate their
LinkedIn profile information directly into
6
their applications, upload cover letters or
résumés if they are stored in the cloud using
storage tools like DropBox; DropBox will
even e-mail the résumés and add them
directly to job seekers’ applications.
The mobile trend will only continue as
companies are scrambling to consider the
candidate experience at every turn of the hir-
ing and application process. As employees
build networks and relationships online, just
as consumers do, they are using these out-
ward-facing platforms to share their candi-
date experiences, influencing other job-seeker
and applicant decisions. Companies need to
consider these opportunities to engage job
seekers, regardless of whether they become
employees, and focus on making all candidates’
experiences pleasant and full of feedback,
taking into account candidates’ technology
preferences.
IDENTIFYING RISK FACTORS
Any new technology tool creates some risk
for companies, managers, and employees, but
the risks can be minimized. For example,
under the CAN-Spam Act (mentioned earlier
in this article), e-mail as well as mobile text
messages must have “express prior authoriza-
tion” from the message recipient either
by electronic authorization such as a text
message or click confirmation or written
acceptance. Recipients who have previously
authorized companies and entities to send
messages may opt out and remove them-
selves from distribution at any time.13
In a workplace and HR context, this
means that companies sending current and
former employees e-mailed newsletters, job
announcements, or even employee notices to
personal employee e-mail accounts must have
express prior authorization. The same holds
The mobile trend will only continue as compa-
nies are scrambling to consider the candidate
experience at every turn of the hiring and appli-
cation process.
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Summer 2012
true for text messaging. Reputable text-
message providers should offer at minimum an
opt-in option when individuals text a message
to a five-digit short-code number. Subscribers
typically can remove themselves from receiv-
ing messages at any time by commonly texting
“STOP” to the five-digit short-code number.
Companies are liable for the providers if they
do not adhere to the standards set by the Fed-
eral Trade Commission, which is why many
companies who use text messaging use a dou-
ble opt-in to ensure that they are in compliance
and avoid fines and penalties, which can be up
to $11,000 per occurrence.14
Other risks involve failure to comply with
recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
rules regarding “protected concerted activity”
by employees on social media. A case involv-
ing an employee’s firing in 2009 allegedly
because of posts made about her supervisor on
Facebook threw the whole issue of using social
media in the workplace into the spotlight.15
According to the NLRB’s guidance, companies
should not terminate or take adverse action
against employees who are discussing pro-
tected topics such as workplace safety and
compensation, among others, whether it is
happening onsite, offsite, or online.16
Another risk is the potential for discrimi-
nation in using social media for employment
processes. HR managers who use information
obtained via protected social-media profiles
to make a hiring, promotion, or other
employment decisions must ensure that the
information obtained about job candidates or
employees is used in compliance with the
antidiscrimination provisions of a wide range
of laws, including the Americans with Dis-
abilities Act, the Genetic Information Nondis-
crimination Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, and the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act.17
7
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Because communication technologies are
changing and evolving at such a rapid pace,
corporate executives, employment law attor-
neys, and HR professionals will question the
security as well as risk of adopting programs
and technologies like those described above
for internal and external organization com-
munications. It is true that the legal waters
are murky regarding privacy, security, and
discrimination issues connected with the use
of social media and other technologies as part
of our organization’s recruiting efforts. How-
ever, these technologies are not going away,
and legal precedents will likely take 10–15
years before all the workplace and privacy
intricacies come to light. In the interim, if
organizations ignore the newest technological
tools, they will lose out on a major competi-
tive advantage.
Technologies and platforms are being built
and designed to make all corporate functions
more efficient and easier to handle. The key
when evaluating the emerging technologies,
social media, and mobile tools to engage your
employees and job seekers is to select the
tools and technologies that will provide the
greatest value to the largest cross-section of
your target population or candidate base. It is
important to understand that employers are
now entering the “millennial age”; members
of this newest generation of job seekers and
employees constitute the largest segment in
the workforce. It is more important than ever
for employers to research, plan, and engage
If organizations ignore the newest technological
tools, they will lose out on a major competitive
advantage.
ert21359.qxd 6/26/12 5:37 PM Page 7

in new ways that reach the most skilled
members of this generation because they will
be the ones who steer the future of the most
competitive organizations we know today.
NOTES
1. Camp, C. (2012). The BYOD security challenge: How
scary is the iPhone, tablet, smartphone surge? Retrieved
from http://blog.eset.com/2012/02/28/sizing-up-the-byod-
security-challenge.
2. Twitter. (2012). Twitter turns six. Retrieved from
http://blog.twitter.com/2012/03/twitter-turns-six.html.
3. Social Bakers. (2012). Facebook’s milestone: 901 million
users. Retrieved from http://www.socialbakers.com/
blog/521-facebook-s-milestone-901-million-users/.
4. Howe, N., & Nadler, R. (2010). Millennials in the work-
place: Human resource strategies for a new generation.
Great Falls, VA: Lifecourse Associates; pp. 30–31.
5. Millennial Branding. (2012). Millennial Branding Gen Y
Facebook study. Retrieved from http://millennialbrand-
ing.com/2012/01/millennial-branding-gen-y-facebook-study/
#more-854.
6. Heather Armstrong created a website known as dooce.com
in 2001. Armstrong’s blog rose to fame after she was fired
from her employer in 2002 because of her artistic written
interpretation of her experiences while at her employer.
Dooce quickly became part of the cultural lexicon for
being fired from a job because of an Internet posting.
7. Many millennials may experienced In fact, many colleges
and universities no longer issue e-mail addresses with the
.edu extension; instead, they favor other communication
vehicles that offer quick and real-time bursts of communi-
cation with their student population.
8. Smith, A. (2012). Nearly half of Americans are SmartPhone
owners. Pew Research. Retrieved from http://pewinternet
8
.org/,/media/Files/Reports/2012/Smartphone%20ownership
%202012.pdf.
9. Hispanic PR Blog. (2012). Hispanics will spend $17.6B on
mobile devices in 2012. Retrieved from http://www
.hispanic prblog.com/hispanic-market-white-papers-
research/ hispanics-mobile-spending.html.
10. Kessler, S. (2012). Want people to return your emails?
Avoid these. Mashable 2012. Retrieved from http://
mashable.com/2012/02/09/boomerang-email-infographic/.
11. Miller-Merrell, J. (2012). Achieving work life balance with
mobile technology. Retrieved from http://www.blogging4
jobs.com/hr/mobile-technology-work-life-balance/.
12. Twitter users add hashtags to messages, increasing their
likelihood to be found using a Twitter search. Like Google,
Twitter serves as a real-time search engine of messages
posted on the microblogging platform Twitter.com. With
more than 340 million tweets posted per day, search is an
important part of Twitter. Twitter users and those without
accounts can search the Twitter stream by keyword and
hashtag.
13. Federal Communications Commission. (2005). Spam—
Unwanted text messages and email. Retrieved from
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/spam-unwanted-text-messages-
and-email/.
14. Federal Trade Commission. (2009). CAN-Spam Act: A
compliance guide for business. Retrieved from http://
business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-
guide-business.
15. Solomon, L. (2012). NLRB v. American Medical Response
of Connecticut, Inc., No. 34-CA-12576.
16. http://www.nlrb.gov/news/acting-general-counsel-issues-
second-seocial-media-report/.
17. Miller-Merrell, J. (2011). Corporate risk social media
risk and law concerns when hiring. Retrieved from
http://www.blogging4jobs.com/social-media/corporate-
social-media-risk/.
AQ1
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Summer 2012
9
Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR, is a workplace technology strategist. Her company, Xcep-
tional HR (www.xceptionalhr.com), offers technology, mobile, and social-media consulting
for HR, recruiting, and senior-leadership teams. She is the author of Tweet This! Twitter for
Business (The P3 Press, 2010), a how-to business guide for Twitter. She is listed as the
second most influential recruiter online and as the eleventh most powerful woman on
Twitter, and writes for a number of leading publications, including Fortune, HR Maga-
zine, SmartBrief, and AOLCareers. She may be contacted at Jessica@xceptionalhr.com.
See also www.blogging4jobs.com.
ert21359.qxd 6/26/12 5:37 PM Page 9

Author Query
AQ1: It looks like something’s missing here. Please revise.
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The Workplace Engagement Economy Where HR, Social, Mobile, and Tech Collide

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