Tags: CRM, crowd-sourcing, employee engagement, employee networking, Enterprise 2.0, Social CEO, Social media

Whether it’s taking a sneaky peak at Facebook during work or looking at Twitter for ‘work purposes’, the lines are blurring between business and pleasure. But business has much to learn from the trends we see starting in social media, as employee expectations are changing in line with those of consumers. The increased interaction between individuals, groups and organisations can help businesses manage the ‘customer’ experience, even when that customer is an employee.
Social media and web 2.0 tactics are making their way into business with the implementation of social CEO functionality within the business. All businesses worry about losing their best employees, and as such they should be viewed as customers whose loyalty must be won. The formation of communities that has become so popular on social networking sites can be echoed and utilised within a business for this purpose. Internal networks of employees who have common interests or want to share information and expertise can be formed, leading to more productive teams that are able to share content and success stories, and who can collaborate on documents – all regardless of time zones or geography.
It is well known that an engaged employee is a productive employee, and using social CEO tools to support business processes that, for example, sales teams perform on a daily basis can help to meet this goal. Tools that encourage interaction allow for employees to work according to their needs, experiences and mindset, leading not only to better engagement levels, but also to more success. Businesses can use tools to integrate predictive analytics, company standards, best practices, and even encourage learning from colleagues through crowd-sourcing, all in order to increase productivity and standards. By using the tools to access information that would previously been lost inside siloed systems or geographically separated offices, employees can better meet the needs not only of their customers and employers, but can also improve their own conversion rates for sales.
However, businesses should be cautious in adoption of such tools, treating social CEO applications as an extra communication channel rather than the only way to interact with employees. Nothing will ever beat face-to-face contact, and unlike with consumers, this is always possible with employees.
Businesses can’t go into using these interactive tools with their eyes half closed – they must go in fully committed to supporting the processes for their employees, and keep it up. Using the right social media tools to build, manage and optimise employee relationships is vital, and business must be prepared to learn from the bottom up – crowd-sourcing from employees – if they are to benefit from increased productivity and reduced employee churn.