Social Networking - Corporate Opportunity Or Threat?

By John Brownhill, Commercial Director, Symatrix.

Many organisations are concerned about the role and impact of social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in the commercial workplace. With such sites being a core part of daily life for the internet generation, does allowing employees access to such sites during working hours provide any benefits to the employer, or are they merely a distraction to the employee and detrimental to productivity? How much of an organisations intellectual property or sensitive material is being shared outside of the corporate firewall?

The answer to this question is determined by what employees are using these sites for. If it is arranging a social gathering for the upcoming weekend or exchanging photos from last weekend’s party, then there is little or no benefit. However, if the exchange is being used to expand professional networks, share and exchange knowledge and broaden the individual’s perspective, then surely we should be encouraging this activity.

Although most social networks focus on non-work related purposes, commercial usage is growing fast, particularly in collaborative communities of interest and niche networking applications. For example, software engineers rely on bulletin boards, blogs and wikis for reference material, exchanging ideas, experiences and knowledge with others. In a similar manner, many business professionals utilise LinkedIn to expand their contacts and network, whilst R&D rely on academic networking sites and HR professionals leverage a vast array of material shared in special interest groups.

The Power of Social Networking
What makes social networks powerful is their ability to provide nearly instantaneous connections to people that one knows only casually. Andrew McAfee of the Harvard Business School refers to this as the value of “allowing knowledge workers to maintain and exploit weak ties.”

Take a site such as LinkedIn with its recommendation system for identifying people with similar work experience; it is possible for someone to very quickly build a professional network of hundreds of people without leaving their desk or attending a single conference. And with this network comes access to a wealth of knowledge and experience that has to be beneficial to the organisation.

Should We Not Be Embracing Social Networking?
Perhaps the focus of HR should not be on whether they should be blocking access to social networks, but more on how we can leverage such technology and content to increase employee engagement and collaboration.

When we look at Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs and information portals, should we not be looking at how we can deploy such technology in the workplace? Web 2.0 offers a new and exciting way to turn the broadcast of information into a self-propagating exchange of information.

Could a corporate Wiki developed and built by employees help new employees find their way around the organisation and quickly acquire corporate knowledge? Your own internal LinkedIn capability could enable people across different departments, offices and even countries to connect with each other, share ideas and compare experiences.

Taking your employee manuals and placing these online in an employee portal that also delivered learning and development, and facilitated feedback would enable HR to improve its engagement and connection with employees.

The Art of The Possible – HR 2.0
The above are not futuristic dreams but all things that Web 2.0 makes possible, with some organisations already exploring and implementing this approach. Software applications and technology exists to enable organisations to quickly develop internal HR portals for their employees. These can be easily integrated to HR self-service making core information accessible to the managers and employees and enabling them to maintain their personal data, request holidays and review their benefits online.

By leveraging the capabilities of these web-based applications, organisations can extend their HR Portal to be the heart of employee engagement, facilitating collaboration, encouraging employee participation, developing information networks and fostering virtual teams.

As more of our workforce is being made up of the Generation Y, we need to be able to engage with them using the tools and capabilities that are at the centre of their lives, which is what research shows that they expect from an employer. The pace of which LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Bebo have taken hold, is proof of how these employees want to communicate and engage.

Social networking, HR 2.0 and employee engagement are all core topics of an upcoming Symatrix event ‘Creating The Next Generation Workplace for the Generation Y Workforce’ on Thursday March 25th, so save the date and look out for your invite.

If you would like to discuss how to leverage Web 2.0 technology in your organisation, please contact John Brownhill on +44 (0)1372 860 740 or email him at john.brownhill@symatrix.com