Jobpartners launches Innovative Internal Social Networking Solution

Jobpartners today announced the launch of an innovative corporate social networking tool, ActiveNetworker, to promote employee communication and information sharing within companies. Inspired by the increasing popularity of social networks, Jobpartners has developed ActiveNetworker to stimulate company involvement with a changing talent demographic, helping to create a sense of community among employees, and boost employee engagement. The solution will also help organisations identify internal skills and employee aspirations to improve internal mobility and retention of a valued talent source.

Organisations are having to learn how to adapt to new generations of talent for whom social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace are a part of daily life, commented Jobpartners founder, Patrice Barbedette. Much has been said about the negative impact of social networking and how it can affect productivity and even a brand when employees have company information on their personal pages. ActiveNetworker is an example of how social networking can be used in a professional setting to improve a companyís reputation, allow businesses to engage with a new generation of employees and ultimately increase their productivity.

ActiveNetworker enables employees to actively influence how they are recognised within the organisation, by detailing interests, experiences and skills, finding people with common interests and joining forums and groups to engage in diverse business topics with people across the whole company. Employees can take a more active role in the development of their own career and internal opportunities may open which may not have been presented before. This empowers employees with control of their own destiny, which helps to create a stronger sense of company loyalty. ActiveNetworker also provides managers and HR with a greater understanding of their employees, and their talents, skills and aspirations beyond the boundaries of their current job function or title.

Many companies do not have effective strategies for identifying internal talent and end up spending valuable time and money recruiting externally when they could have found the person they needed within the organisation, commented Barbedette. ActiveNetworker enables employees to become much more visible right across the organisation and can help companies uncover potential future leaders and the talent that they need.

ActiveNetworker, a Web 2.0 solution, is delivered as Software-as-a-Service (Saas), and can be easily configured to adhere to company policies with seamless integration with company intranets, the internet, wikis, blogs, news and so on. ActiveNetworker allows employees to acquire and share knowledge, helping them to contribute to the company and increase their overall productivity. New employees benefit and can reduce the time to become fully productive by learning about the organisation and its culture via ActiveNetworker, and connecting with others sharing similar experiences.

Jobpartners developed the new solution while responding to the needs of its customer, SFR, the second largest mobile phone operator in France. SFR is using ActiveNetworker on its new intranet, My SFR, which is comprised of a company blog, a central space for creative discussion and the ability to proactively build profiles through which employees can share information about career progress and goals. This allows employees to create their own professional network and join groups or communities. Furthermore, it provides a forum for HR to get to know employees and their talents and interests, therefore facilitating SFRís ultimate goal of better internal mobility.

ActiveNetworker enriches ActiveSuite, a range of talent management solutions from Jobpartners. The solution can be integrated with the other modules which cover recruitment, internal mobility, performance management, package review, executives and key people management, succession planning and career development.