Enterprise social network – unleashing value creation and productivity

NEW YORK - Feb. 25, 2015 - PRLog -- In the last decade millions of people have made social technologies as part of their lives. Social technologies pervades through constraints of time, distance, national boundaries, and culture. Facebook alone claims more than 1 Billion people on its networks. Millions of enterprises use social technologies to engage with their employees, communities, consumers and for philanthropic reasons. Traditionally companies have resorted to sharing pictures, articles or updates in 140 characters. This article explores the possibilities of enterprise social networks in unleashing value creation and productivity, among employees across functions in every industry.

Did You Know?

28 hours, time each week, spent by knowledge workers writing e-mails, searching for information, and attending meetings
2X potential value from better enterprise communication and collaboration, compared with standard forms of communication such as email and chat

The impact is rise in productivity of knowledge workers by 20-25%

Value creation and productivity – The social way?

Enterprise social networks have immense potential to create value and productivity by improving communication and collaboration within and across enterprises impacting people, planet and profits. This value creation and improvement in productivity can have a transformative impact; potential to raise the productivity of knowledge workers, who are critical to performance and growth in this social age, by 20 to 25 percent. Verbose emails, phone calls and chatting are replaced by social conversations in organisations. Social conversations help lower barriers among corporate functions and encourage employees to work more in the open, to bring in additional knowledge and expertise from cross functional teams.

Are emails, phone calls and chat on the way out? They will exist but in a more subdued form. Emails and phone calls will be used only for important communication with customers and partners. Employee interactions will completely be at a social level using social tools.

The below image provides a snapshot of the impact of social technologies on various organisation functions such as HR, Finance, Sales and Marketing etc

Today companies are using social technology to crowd-source product ideas, co-create new features, volunteer networks, crowd fund for causes they support, educate the public, manage disasters, engage supporters, shared economy, administration and brand management.

It is important to note “Employees don't get paid for the hour. They get paid for the value they bring to the hour.” Enterprise social network ensures that this is true.

Only 13% of the employees globally are engaged at work. Really?

Some of the early adopters of enterprise social networks have gained on value creation and improvement in productivity, but have tasted little success in employee engagement. They have not been really able to engage their employees effectively and some have failed miserably. This is evident from a recent report from Gallup “only 13% of the employees globally are engaged at work”. While companies have been busy engaging people outside their organisation, they have failed to look within. Many businesses are still trying to create value from their investment in social tools and most importantly improve their employee engagement which is abysmally low.

The primary reasons why enterprises have failed in their endeavour to engage with their employees, is because they failed to implement social technologies for the entire organisation and failed to embrace an open work culture. Also social tools are constantly evolving and enterprises had adopted a wait and watch approach for a clear winner. In the last decade we have seen hordes of social tools emerging as the next big thing and then fading into oblivion in no time. Some of the prominent examples are Friendster followed by My Space, then a period of domination by Facebook and now Ello (touted to be the FB killer). Even Yammer from Microsoft seems to have made little impact.

A cohesive plan and an integrated approach towards value creation and productivity at work, employee engagement, and corporate social responsibility is the need of the hour.

Important Takeaways

Social technologies unleash creative forces among users and enable new relationship and group dynamics
Firms with the maximum number of knowledge workers are likely to reap rich rewards using social technologies.
The greatest beneficiaries of social technologies will be organisations that adopt open, non bureaucratic, knowledge sharing cultures.

Call for action

CXOs worldwide must raise the bar on employee engagement. Increasing workplace engagement is vital to achieving sustainable growth for companies, communities, and countries --- and for putting the global economy back on track to a more prosperous and peaceful future. Social technologies have revolutionised nations. The stage is set for social technologies to revolutionise companies by 2020.

Productivity and employee engagement should not be seen as separate sets but part of the overall corporate strategy to succeed. Value creation and productivity with the right employee engagement strategy, will determine how an organisation will move forward in this age of social revolution. Remember, it is the set of sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

Bottom line

People spend a substantial part of their lives working. As a result, the quality of their workplace experience is inevitably reflected in the quality of their lives. Thanks to enterprise social networks, employee engagement has slightly improved from 11% to 13% and continues to hover in that region; a major breakout can be expected very soon to the range of 40%-60%. On the contrary if this breakout does not happen, and overall negative experience at work continues, economic growth will remain sluggish and may lead to social unrest in many countries.

Johnson Ancil is an entrepreneur, social worker and writer. He works with leaders in the commercial, public and social sectors to make a meaningful impact on People, Planet and Profits using social technologies. You can reach him at johnson.ancil@buddyinterest.com.

Do you use social technologies at work? Has it made a 'meaningful' impact at work, society and environment? Email us your opinion, to the above email address and we will include your inputs in our upcoming articles.

Source: McKinsey Global Institute and Gallup