There is a feast of social media in this week's Three To See and posts on Social Capital and the impact of redundancy programmes on organisations.

My first pick this week came from Mashable.  Matt Silverman posted 5 insightful TED Talks on Social Media in which he shares five great presentations:

1. Alexis Ohanian: How To Make a Splash in Social Media
2. Clay Shirky: How Social Media Can Make History
3. Evan Williams: Listening To Twitter Users
4. Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet Enables Intimacy
5. Seth Godin: The Tribes We Lead

My current favourite among these has to be the fifth, featured below.

Josh Letourneau's post to the Fistful of Talent blogging community: The War for Talent is Dying: Re-Thinking Individual Talent from a Network-Aware Perspective provides a clear and simple introduction to "Social Capital" and the potential value to employers.

Letourneau contends that:

"Our old reality focused on the individual.  Our "New Normal" focuses on the 'network', or the collection of individuals, as well as what flows between them.  Where the "War for Talent" is dying, "War for the Network" is emerging."

I was a little concerned when Letourneau introduced Newtons' 2nd Law, "Force equals Mass times Acceleration" (F = MA), as a means of explaining the thesis (Physics has never been one of my strengths) but it proved to be a useful device:

"Let's say Force (F) correlates to the ability to get things done.  Mass (M) correlates to "Human Capital", while Acceleration (A) speaks to "Social Capital", or the ability to quickly mobilize the network.

Let's look at 3 candidates:

• "Candidate A (M = 8, A = 4).  F = MA, or F = 8x4 = 32.
• Candidate B (M = 5, A = 7).  F = MA, or F = 5x7 = 35.
• Candidate C (M = 7, A = 5).  F = MA, or F = 7x5 = 35."

I think its a helpful contribution to the conversation that some in the HCM community, such as Jon Ingham, have been engaged in.

Libby Sartain posted Academic Evidence: Layoffs Are Bad For Business! to the Brand for Talent blog.  In the post Sartain shares recent work by Jeff Pfeffer, a professor of organisational behaviour, whose research indicates that:

1. Layoffs do not reduce costs
2. Layoffs do not raise a company's stock price
3. Layoffs do not increase productivity
4. Layoffs do not increase profits
5. Companies do not permanently get rid of the employees
6. Layoffs do nothing to strengthen the organization

Sartain adds an observation of her own: "Layoffs weaken an organization's employer and consumer brand."  Interesting opinions - I wonder how they compare with the recent experiences of many HR pros?

Tags: Godin, hcm, human capital, internet, layoff, Letourneau, Networking, redundancy, Sartain, social capital, social media, StepStone, TED, web network
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