Internal Networking: SaaS Solutions from a Leadership Perspective

April 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Supporting SaaS internal networking solutions in an organization can forge healthier cultures, encourage collaboration, ease knowledge transfer, increase productivity, and help retain talent while and making employees’ and managers’ jobs easier.

In an earlier blog post, “Internal Networking: It’s Not Just For Kiss-ups Anymore,”(http://upmo.com/blog/?p=268) I discussed how internal networking on an individual level can be a powerful way for a single employee to positively impact their organization by starting to break down the silo mentality.  Well, what about from the leadership perspective?  How can managers and executives encourage internal networking in a way that will benefit culture and profitability?  It seems to me that supporting “Enterprise 2.0” SaaS solutions that encourage internal networking across business units has the power to create positive culture change and raise productivity in an organization in a way that not only benefits employees, but managers as well.  

These types of solutions can be very beneficial for managers, making their jobs easier over time.  Internal networking solutions, on an enterprise scale, can become a transparent, central collaboration point for exchanging ideas, support, innovations, documents and more. This eases knowledge transfer and collaboration, making it easier for employees and managers to do their jobs.  It can also create powerful opportunities for internal career growth, which can greatly reduce attrition, allowing access to proven talent for projects and future hires.  These solutions can also help break down limiting and harmful silo mentalities, thus expanding the resources of managers to include the expertise and knowledge of employees in other departments. As many managers already know, breaking down the silo mentality creates a healthier, more empowering enterprise culture where employees are more willing and able to be self-motivated and self-directed. This enables managers to put their resources elsewhere and accomplish more in their role without being forced into being a dreaded taskmaster.

These types of software solutions still raise fear in some managers or executives who may claim it is pointless to business strategy and is a means of distraction from the tasks at hand.  Some weigh the options and decide that the risks out way the benefits.  I actually think this is quite a false perception. The lack of an internal networking platform can actually hurt your business, especially as important young talent begin to expect it and more and more small to large companies are experiencing the far-reaching benefits.

As many managers and executives would agree, incorporating SaaS networking capabilities can be an important step in moving from ‘siloed’, taskmaster, BAU management practices to more modern, open, compassionate, flexible management practices.  This is better for managers, employees, and companies as a whole.

I see three main ways that internal networking SaaS solutions can be beneficial for breaking down the silo mentality in particular:

Provides common systems and processes: Enterprise SaaS solutions for networking establish common systems and processes to get people on the same page across an entire organization by giving access to information and knowledge across business units.

Enables cross-silo mentoring: Employees can easily find mentors in other business units, functions, and even regions. This creates a more well-rounded workforce by facilitating exposure to concepts outside their expertise.  Over time this will most likely naturally evolve into cross-functional work teams.  

Ensures access to the entire organization: The ability to spontaneously connect with fellow employees or leaders across an entire organization single handedly breaks down silo mentalities.  Many SaaS solutions for internal networking allow for status updates and empower the workforce to connect immediately with anyone in the enterprise.

Here at UpMo, we are committed to building such solutions. Our UpMo Career Mobilizer is the first employee-centric, internal networking, SaaS solution that enables qualitative and quantitative knowledge sharing about internal job and project opportunities across all business units.  A patent-pending recommendation engine is included to match employee career goals, skills and experience with available jobs and projects as they come available.  This increases employee engagement, employee motivation and productivity, and talent retention. Visit us at http://www.upmo.com to learn more.

If you are a manager, we would love to learn of your fears or hopes about the potential for SaaS networking solutions to shift organizational cultures for the better.  Visit our corresponding blog at http://upmo.com/blog/?p=309 and please share successes or pitfalls you’ve experienced with such platforms.

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About UpMo:
Employees Rule. UpMo provides the industry’s first employee-centric enterprise career management solution to emerging and large corporations. By helping people plan, pursue and manage their careers in a way that benefits both them and their companies, UpMo SaaS solutions helps companies embrace employee mobility to dramatically increase productivity, reduce employee churn, and improve employee engagement.