It’s hard to argue against the assimilation of social network (SN) activity into the lives of people living and working in developed business environments; it has nearly become routine. We IM, Facebook, Twitter, Link (in), video chat, and so on every day as a digital enhancement to human interaction and communication. By now, most of us have heard all about the dangers of having a too-honest Facebook page during a job search (recruiters are apt to make character inferences). And there can be little doubt that businesses see lots of potential in leveraging SN outlets for sales and marketing purposes.
My colleagues have recently highlighted other SN angles in their blogs: Lauren Dupont on capturing consumer insights via SN channels, and Jamie Strnisha on the trust and productivity concerns companies have over allowing external SN connections for their employees. Jamie’s blog calls to mind the countless stories of companies that ban Tweeting and visiting SN sites while on the job and suggests that firms should undertake measurement processes to determine whether such restrictions should be implemented.
In play, now, is the question of whether to encourage SN use for work relationships internally while restricting external connections for fear of detriment to productivity. Jamie suggested restrictions may be countercultural within a company and can negatively impact morale in some cases, or even encourage people to spend time finding ways to bypass the restrictions, which would, ironically, lower productivity. I’d like to take this line of thinking a bit further into HR and talent management implications.
First, savvy companies already leverage some aspects of SN and web 2.0 applications in their workforce management practices. Blogs by employees and visible leaders are used to enhance the employer brand to external candidates, and recruiting processes now heavily leverage all legal SN outlets available to source talent. Training and onboarding provides flexible distance learning, with administrative aspects and even content delivered via instant message or flash demos. Internal knowledge networks allow employees to share best practices and leverage discussion boards for idea sharing and to foster innovation. Everyday communication occurs as frequently via instant message as in phone calls, meetings and cube visits.
With all of this activity comes the ability to measure, to Jamie’s point. Usage patterns and communication flows are a great starting point for measuring employee efficiency in leveraging SN tools, and can point toward assessing effectiveness. These can also uncover productivity drains and abusers, to be sure, but the flip side of the coin is promising. Increasing employees’ connectivity can positively impact their relationships, ability to source key information, and ability to foster collaboration that drives improved processes and great ideas.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s neo-classic, The Tipping Point, the author argued that people can excel as three types of network nodes: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. One key point was that all three play key roles in dynamic change on a grand scale, and the way I see it, organizations need to think in a similar way about its people and how they are organized to drive business evolution and success. In essence, each organization has a current optimal state of connectedness, both internally and externally, reflected in its workforce construct. It also has a future optimal state, which should factor into the “needed skills” forecast piece of the workforce planning process.
By measuring SN activity and analyzing it for effectiveness, a firm can identify its key Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen, and other valued networker roles, assess their alignment, and model them for optimization. It can also create a dimension of employee data – another skill, perhaps – that should be leveraged in assessing the current workforce and planning the future workforce. I firmly believe this fundamental technological evolution in our lives needs to be leveraged for better awareness, and built into analysis, planning, and process decisions about the structure and mode in which people work.
Tags: Social media, social networking