Corporates take a leap in branding, recruitment with the help of social networking sites

One might think that Twitter, Facebook or Orkut are for fun. But, these ‘fun’ sites have become important tools for many companies in extending their brand and generating clients.

A study shows, allowing workers to use social media, won’t result in them talking you down. In fact, workers who are allowed to use these sites in their offices usually have a positive mind — simply because of the freedom you have bestowed on them.

“This is simple psychoanalysis. Once you trust your employees and give them the freedom, they automatically feel a sense of responsibility towards the organisation. Firms should stop treating their employees as kids when it comes to social media access. When you treat them like adults they more often than not respond in positive,” said Aditya Rath, technology consulting, PwC.

While companies like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have been flexible and open about these sites, their Indian counterparts such as Wipro and Infosys still conform to the traditional path, at least in their office premise. However, the smaller or mid-sized IT companies in India are no clones of them. They are being smart in their approach and giving their employees the freedom to access such sites.

Niranjan Nelamangalam, vice-president, people department, ADITI Technologies, a solutions and product R&D partner for software businesses and financial services enterprises, feels these social media provide multiple arenas of attracting prospective employees and employee connect.

“Initially, at ADITI, we used social networking sites to share information about the company, activities and the propagation of the fact that we are a great place to work. This helped propagate the environment at ADITI, the emphasis on learning and growth and last but not the least - have fun doing these,” he said.

The ability to attract passive candidates, generating referrals of prospective employees are some of the other advantages they get from utilising these networks, that too at a very low implementation and maintenance costs.

The latest findings of Ma Foi Randstad reveal that 82% of Indian employees are confident using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to enable them to find a new job in quicker and more efficient way. Around 78% of social media users in India use the platform only to present themselves professionally.

Arunav Sinha, head-corporate communications, Yahoo India R&D, advocates open employee access to social media. “We sincerely believe that if people have to waste their time, they will. They don’t need social networks as an excuse. I feel companies just do not want to put pressure on their bandwidth and to counter this they come up with this ‘waste-of-time’ excuse,” he said.

Anshuman Ray, director-HR, Synopsys, feels the same. He believes that offering such freedom does not really dilute the work culture. He pointed out, in Synopsys, employees who have been hired through referrals using social networks have had a higher business impact (in a positive sense) and stayed in the company for a longer time than those who were hired externally.

ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy firm, often updates about the company’s culture and events on Twitter. However, they have cautioned their workers against mentioning their client names or projects on these sites.

So, are the big IT firms in India losing out on such huge opportunity?

“Definitely, they are losing out big time on branding. They may have their own reasons, but the fact remains that these companies do not have proper social media guidelines in place. For most companies, social media discussion is not a part of induction,” said Rath.

Rajan Kohli, chief marketing officer, Wipro responds: “We do not allow use of Facebook, Twitter, Orkut inside our office campus. This decision is mainly driven by customer needs and their security policy.” But, the company understands the importance and power of social media tools. It has been using blogs and wiki’s to collaborate and come up with solutions across various business/technical issues.

However, Rath does not buy the argument. “People today have access to internet from their phones. So, if the information has to go out it will. This is an archaic way of thinking.” He feels, in today’s world, a social intranet is not sufficient to tap the vast knowledge pool. “Social intranet allows interaction between employees of the organisation. You do not get to share the same with the outside world. I feel it is time companies change this policy if they have to keep their competitive edge,” he said.