Without a doubt, the adoption of using social technologies inside the organization is rampant. So many companies are hearing the loud beat of the “employee engagement” drum, but the task of effectively assessing your needs, implementing technologies correctly, and measuring for success and sustainability is a daunting project. So, it’s okay to slow down, take a deep breath and work from a well-crafted roadmap. Few things make employees more cynical than a social media platform that no one uses. And if your company quickly deployed a ["insert social tool here"] only to find that it fell flat because no one saw the value in using it then you know
exactly what I’m talking about.
Therefore, it’s refreshing to see firms such as Gagen MacDonald and APCO Worldwide working together to help shape internal social media programs. Recently, they analyzed research among U.S. adults working for companies with more than 500 employees that revealed 21 discrete attributes which in turn combine to form three major factors (see image below) that employees look for when deciding whether their company has effective social media internally.
Tagged as:
#socialHR,
apco worldwide,
Employee Engagement,
gagen macdonald,
internal social media
A long time ago, a former boss gave me some sound advice:
Seek first to understand, Then to be understood.
Do you recognize it? I call it the Talking Stick rule, but some of you might recognize it as Habit 5 of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“.
I love the whole purpose of this phrase. To understand and to be understood. And what better mission for any internal communicator? It’s easy to go “through the motions” of listening, selectively hearing only “certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc.” (Stephen R Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People).
Tagged as:
employee communications,
internal communications,
talking stick
Hello, Boris, you AND me, Pitstop – it’s just some of the names from various corporate intranets.
Some companies give their internal portals just a name. Other companies choose to give their internal portals a complete identity. There are some companies who go the simple route and just call it what it is: Intranet. If you are a company who still operates on multiple portals such as the corporate intranet, the HR portal, and the collaboration portal.. the name becomes that much more important in helping your employees distinguish one portal from another. Coming from a corporate background where all the companies I’ve worked for have had a “branded” intranet, it still surprises me to hear many companies out there don’t. Personally, I like a branded intranet. It’s an easy way to strengthen corporate culture, support brand identity and make your intranet a “destination” not just a “site.”
Tagged as:
corporate intranet names,
intranet portals,
intranets,
list of intranets
In our “Social Knows” series, we sniff out and compile statistics and research regarding workplace / workforce management, human resources and employee engagement. The goal is to provide you with the background knowledge necessary to support your own recommendations, findings and strategies. Submissions always welcomed.
UPDATE: There is a new Employee Engagement Statistics post which includes mobile workforce stats (~Elizabeth, 11/20/2011)
Human Capital and Corporate Culture
- The lost productivity of actively disengaged employees costs the US economy $370 BILLION annually. (Gallup)
- In February, June, and October of 2010, the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number fired or discharged. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
- 70% of engaged employees indicate they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs; only 17% of non-engaged employees say the same. (Wright Management)
- 78% would recommend their company’s products of services, against 13% of the disengaged. (Gallup)
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
research,
social knows,
statistics
As we have adopted social media into our organizations, we’ve seen many instances where it has become necessary to discipline employees because of their behavior on social networking sites due to the negative light that behavior has shed on a company. It goes without saying that because of these behaviors, companies have scrambled to draft social media policies to minimize these occurrences and to manage employee performance overall. In many circumstances, actions and policies are put into place to protect the employee as much as the company.
But aside from social behavior, social feedback is another component of social media that is becoming a growing trend in its impact on performance management – using the comments and / or criticisms a company receives on social networking sites to manage performance.
Tagged as:
compliance,
hr,
performance management,
performance review,
policies,
social feedback,
social media policies
Without a doubt, the adoption of using social technologies inside the organization is rampant. So many companies are hearing the loud beat of the “employee engagement” drum, but the task of effectively assessing your needs, implementing technologies correctly, and measuring for success and sustainability is a daunting project. So, it’s okay to slow down, take a deep breath and work from a well-crafted roadmap. Few things make employees more cynical than a social media platform that no one uses. And if your company quickly deployed a ["insert social tool here"] only to find that it fell flat because no one saw the value in using it then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
