When you work in HR, you get to meet a lot of people. Some of them want to connect with you on Xing or LinkedIn, and for me, this is totally fine. After all, building relationships is part of HR. Sometimes people ask if you’re on Facebook or Twitter. It’s totally up to you to share this information or not. If your activities on these platforms are mainly private, you might want to choose to keep it this way.
It’s a fine line between being an „accessible person“ and giving away too much personal information. Everyone has their own ideas about this line and where to draw it.
Some people delete contact information of former colleagues after they left their job. Unless you had an unsolvable argument with someone, it’s not a sensible thing to do. However, if someone never replies to your messages, he or she might no longer be interested in the relationship, so you might want to say good-bye. For some people, „out of sight, out of mind“ seems to be the motto. Don’t bear a grudge! It might not be personal after all. And if it is and the other person isn’t interested in solving the issue, then there’s not much you can do. At the beginning of a new calendar year, it can be interesting to see who sends greetings and who replies to the greetings you send. But I prefer being open about the reasons why I contact people. I wouldn’t want to hide the message „let’s see if you’re still wanting to be my contact“ anywhere. If I’m in doubt whether someone’s still up for the relationship, I can ask.
In general, I try to keep in touch with people from previous jobs and companies. Digital tools and platforms seem to make this an easy task, at least they make the world a bit more accessible, but it’s equally important to have a chat on the phone from time to time or to meet for coffee. Before work-related travels, I check my diary for free slots and then contact people who’re located in the area to see if we can both make time for a meeting. Often, this works and it’s great to exchange news or walk down memory lane together.
I’m curious what the new year will bring and whom I might meet.
AHa-Erlebnisse 