Improve your profit margins - how enterprise social media tools can engage employees

As well as direct benefits of improving communication and collaboration use of enterprise social media tools can increase levels of employee engagement. It's generally accepted amongst HR professionals and business leaders that employee engagement can dramatically influence the bottom line.

Watson Wyatt’s (now Towers Watson) 2008/2009 WorkUSA report found that when employees are highly engaged, their companies enjoy 26 percent higher employee productivity, have lower turnover risk and are more likely to attract top talent. These companies have also earned 13 percent greater total returns to shareholders over the last five years. In a global survey in 2007 by Melcrum, 71% of internal communicators selected employee engagement as a perceived benefit of enterprise social media. The right contacts are everything when it comes to b2b lead generation. Get in touch with the decision makers in your industry by getting the right people on your marketing list.

Cutting edge intranets are now incorporating social features. In today's announcement of the 2010 Ten Best Intranets from Nielsen Norman Group, the winning intranets provided the opportunity for employees to get to know one another as individuals and offered workgroup support that encourages work-related connections. Users on winning sites could create profiles, share content and share bookmarks to their favorite sites.

Specifically then, how do enterprise social media tools engage employees?

Open not closed - communications on a social network are open giving employees and managers more opportunity to interact with one another and to discuss the company's aims and objectives. The open nature of communication creates not only greater awareness of a company's goals but also ambient awareness - an understanding of what is going on in the company even if it is not directly relevant. This leads to feeling part of whole team.

Connections - Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, webinars, instant messaging. There are now lots of ways of making new connections and getting to know people within an organisation. A connected company working together as a team is an engaged one.

Teamwork/collaboration - communicating on a project or within a team using a tool like Yammer is more engaging than email as the working style is more collaborative and communications are more open. There are many tools that can be used to make project work more engaging including Twitter.

Level playing field - social media tools place everyone within an organisation on an equal footing. They create a 'side by side' as opposed to a 'top down' communication environment. A CEO of an 8000 person multi-national I worked summed it up with following quote about Yammer. "I like Yammer as it allows me to discuss topics with you guys like an equal not the boss." Status barriers are broken down and employees become more engaged with management and the company. Employees are more likely to communicate with a board member using a tool like Yammer than send them an email.

Trust - whether being able to communicate through an internal social network, their own blog, a wiki, Twitter or Facebook, employees will feel trusted that their employer has empowered them with a voice. Trust creates an improved employee/employer relationship and helps foster engagement.

Tone - Whilst there is a place for corporate announcements from the Employee Communications team it can be refreshing to read citizen journalism with a more personal tone from employees. For example, blogging about a conference they have attended or a new product they are developing.

Video - As stated in my Ten Enterprise Social Media Predictions for 2010 video will play a bigger role in the enterprise this year. Video is an appealing channel that can help leaders communicate more effectively and help employees become engaged with oompany goals and activities. Collaborative video where employees work together to film and edit a production is highly engaging. (please get in touch for more info on collaborative video)

Fun - last but not least employees are engaged with a company if they are happy. Frustration with poor IT and technology leads to disengagement. Properly implemented social media tools are enjoyable and fun to use.

In summary, engagement between employees and the company is prevented for two main reasons; barriers and passivity. Barriers prevent the company working as a unified engaged team. Whether they are barriers due to status, communication, generation gaps, organisational structure or geography, enterprise social media tools can help break them down. In working practices and internal communications employees can now be active rather than passive. They have the tools to seek out expertise and share knowledge and platforms to create content and communicate openly with colleagues and management.


The outcome is engaged employees combining and connecting for a competitive advantage and improved bottom line.