If employee engagement is imperative as a business tool today, nothing can beat the social media to achieve the desired results
It doesn’t matter who you are — an entrepreneur, CXO or a fresh recruit in an MNC — you just can’t ignore the omnipresence of social media! Not surprisingly, organisations globally are leveraging the strength of social media to interact and engage with stakeholders, crowd source ideas/ solutions, build brands, campaigns, crisis mitigation et al. Within an organisation, it is also a critical tool for effective employee engagement and communication.
As the modern workplace is turning mobile and diverse, social media is the answer to operational changes, employee relations and in-house campaigns. But first thing first: social media doesn’t survive in a silo. And even if it does, it should not be evaluated in isolation. Its effectiveness within an organisation bears a direct co-relation with fundamentals of the organisational culture and other tools of internal communication like in-house magazines, the intranet, staff meetings, videos, emails, message boards, etc.
With more and more Millennials making their way into the workforce, communications today are about speed, accuracy and seamless exchange of data and ideas. So, in a modern office, it’s about webinars, micro blogging, pictures and videos, applications, instant messaging and more. One of the fundamental hallmarks of these is proactive interaction, which leads to engagement.
In a complex work environment, social media is the platform to correct mistakes, apologise and acknowledge not-so-pleasant feedback among internal stakeholders. This is critical for an organisation to bring down internal glass-barriers and maintain a collaborative culture along the hierarchy. It only helps build confidence in an employee and make him feel connected when he/she receives a social recognition online, made part of a decision making process — something which the pay packet cannot ensure. This results in an upturn in creativity and innovation, and overall improvement in work quality.
Issues of security and compliance in a workplace can no longer restrict an employee from being on the social media. It’s time organisations see its employees in a different light — not as potential time-bombs that could go off without warning, but as engaged, proactive brand ambassadors.
