At the time the role of managers is changing

The case was loud. End of may, a trial against Alten computer services company to two former employees, dismissed for "incitement to rebellion" and "denigration of the company". Their fault: having exchanged on Facebook of derogatory comments reported to their hierarchy by a "friend". The phenomenon, which is the name of "doocing", is not new: in 2002, an employee of start-up, Heather Armstrong, guilty of taking on her blog Dooce little mild remarks, was dismissal. But, at the time when, according to the Nielsen firm, Internet users around the world spend 22 of their time travelling across social networks, change gear. And plunge many employers in the perplexity: "managers are concerned." "They take little awareness that these collaborative tools bouleverseront all facets of the business," said Dominique Turcq, President of the Institute for research and training in the collaborative management, Boostzone.

The case of Alten could not be decided by the Council of the labor of Boulogne-Billancourt: a new hearing should take place, the Councillors being shared. However, "widely relayed case is a severe blow to the image of employer to Alten" analysis Jacques Froissant, of Altaïde Agency. The challenge is to size for Alten, which, as system integrators, sweet young talent is. Thus, should sanction the actions of its teams when they go wrong on these social networks Or is it better to ignore When an employee of Lafarge complained of his manager on the own materials group Facebook page, the leadership has remained silent. "Very soon, the reactions of the employee's colleagues brought the incident to his fair - very minor - proportions", remembers Kerstin Ribes-Lambertus, responsible of the e-communications from the group activities. A "swarm" of collaborators gave the individual on the right track.

Like IBM, SAP, or LinkedIn, employers begin to develop, to the attention of their staff, codes of conduct on social networks. Because the reputation of the firm is indeed these tools. But their influence does not stop there. "Internal communication is not less difficult, says Dominique Turcq.". It becomes difficult, today, to inform its employees by writing a newspaper where the Executive tells what they have already learned from outside.

In fact, the border between the company and the outside world crumbles, pushing the acquis. The HRD are on the front line. "Recruiting is increasing only by advertisement or resume but also via social networks, explains Dominique Turcq." Similarly, the HRD can no longer manage internal mobility as in the past, because employees learn and communicate before ruling on a position. Idem, staff evaluation must take into account the work in their community of experts. Not to mention that information long concealed as the wages become transparentes

Among the affected functions, the task of the business has changed. In the United States, the SalesForce software Editor launched a few days ago, a social network called "Chatter" ("chat"), to its employees and to its client 77.000. There are what makes the success of Facebook: each employee can create its own profile, update status, participate in groups, to subscribe to news wires, share content, launch of components The idea As the problem of a customer made his way in the business, a growing number of employees concerned is grafted on the system, such as bees creating a "swarm", until the solution and the satisfied customer. Many exchanges that take place independently of the hierarchical chain. At the time, the role of managers is changing. "The management of the future will build on the organization by projects, bringing together teams time to a task specific," says Ellen Pack, Vice President of Elance.

Left to question the concept of employee. In MySQL, creator of Firefox and Mozilla, "go to work" is, for years, to connect to the instant messaging for the company. And virtual exchanges between volunteer developers and collaborators are continuing. Already, call centres grow logic more far, adopting telework at home or "homeshoring". Thus, Eodom, for example, has about 200 officers in France, autoentrepreneurs or independent, working from home, at their own pace, while software automatically assigned calls based on their socio-cultural similarity with the appellants.