10 technology


Social media – impacting work


E-recruitment: mobile-friendly presence is key


Employees tend to look for a new job on Tuesdays between 9 and 10 am – online, while at work.


That was just one of the intriguing facts revealed at a breakfast seminar in Reading hosted by recruitment specialists Hays Legal and solicitors Field Seymour Parkes.


Hays Digital Solutions business director James Corcoran presented survey details from the Office for National Statistics that showed almost a third of Internet users now search and apply for jobs online. The top sources for quality recruitment were now Internet ‘job-boards’ (42%, up 15% since 2011) and social professional networks (38%, up 73%), according to LinkedIn.


Millions of candidate CVs have now been uploaded online – in some sectors, recruitment is 100% online – but there was still a large untapped talent pool of passive yet potential candidates.


Although 75% of professionals are open to switching jobs, only 61% of companies are actively recruiting passive candidates, according to LinkedIn research highlighted by Corcoran.


Mobile Internet access doubled to 58% between 2010 and 2014, say the ONS, mirrored by today’s increasing use of smartphones for jobsearching and applications.


Accordingly, Gartner research found global e-marketing was now four times the ad-spend of print, and 1.5 times TV advertising, and it was becoming essential for companies to provide attractively designed mobile- enabled job websites. And, to advertise appropriately at the right time – hence the survey data about when and where employees tend to search or apply for jobs.


Managing risks, protecting business data


Field Seymour Parkes associate Louise Smyth highlighted the changes that the use of social media is making to today’s workplace, and “the tight-rope that employers have to walk.”


She mentioned three key areas of growing concern:


• use of social media to vet candidates and employees


• reputational damage resulting from employee’s online activities


• loss of confidential information or key business contacts.


While social media sites could provide interesting information on potential and existing employees, using such sites for employment purposes could present unwanted HR and legal problems, she stressed.


Inappropriate use of social media by employees within the workplace was also difficult to monitor and


www.businessmag.co.uk


control. Employees should be able to have some social media privacy, yet a tweet or video-posting could cause rapid and extensive reputational damage to a company via the Internet.


Smyth advised companies to be transparent in their employment expectations and ensure that an agreed policy was communicated and understood by all employees.


Such policies and procedures needed to be detailed yet clear – bearing in mind the potential of an employment tribunal. She also advised proportional response and the avoidance of knee-jerk reactions.


Protecting company data and business contact lists was also a thorny problem with the advent of Internet-linked professional social networks, and the lack of Case Law on such matters to guide decision- making.


How quickly can you retrieve your data?


That is the next big question. It is now accepted by the vast majority of businesses that regular and reliable systems and processes need to be in place to ensure that data backups take place. Great, says Russell Cook (pictured), managing director of SIRE Technology, but what about when you need to access that backed-up data?


Data backups are too often done with little or no thought about recovery. They are starting to become just another exercise carried out by the IT department, with little or no thought being given to their real purpose. What are the implications of not being able to access the necessary backed-up data in a timely manner when the need arises? How does this impact the business?


More emphasis needs to be placed on the restore procedure. What is the process and how long will it take? This will depend on a variety of factors including where the copy of the data is, eg local disk, USB or tape. If the copy is on a removable device such as a USB portable disk or tape this will need locating, which could include its physical retrieval from the company that is storing it safely. These processes all take time and need to be tested and recorded. Who has authorisation to request the return of the device and how do you guarantee you get the media with the right data on it?


The alternative, which is having data copies online and not on portable devices, means that the necessary backup information will be readily available, though this could be expensive unless the right type of storage media is used.


Backups that migrate through a tiered storage process mean that the backup can land on fast disk and then migrate down to slower cheaper storage. This allows for good throughput when backing up and maximises £/gigabytes for long-term storage.


The key to both the backup process and the subsequent but equally critical restore process is that businesses need to understand their data. Once they fully comprehend the nature and value of the different data sets that they use on a regular basis, they can then ensure both processes are delivering what is required. Take a moment to think about your own organisation – you would need to contact customers and suppliers, probably within hours of any interruption to ’normal business’, but the photos from last year’s Christmas party – not quite so valuable.


Understanding the restore process allows for the development of and improvements in the backup processes. The IT department is often left to do what it perceives as the best backup strategy for the business. It should be a business decision to instruct the IT department how quickly a system needs to be restored and then IT can build the backup solution to fit.


Details: Russell Cook 01344-758700 rcook@sire.co.uk www.sire.co.uk


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2015


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60