Blog 11: Monitoring the Pulse of the Organization - Relationship Building with Employees

Li and Bernoff highlight that for an organization, connecting to its employees is just as important as connecting to its customers. For top management, it is crucial to have an ear to the ground and get feedback on what works and what doesn’t for employees. One way to achieve this is through a company’s internal intranet site. This can be a one-stop shop avenue where employees retrieve corporate information, share their ideas and bookmarked articles, and blog. Avenue A/Razorfish’s Clark Kokich feels that such online and social media applications are “the virtual equivalent to management by walking around” (Li and Bernoff, 2008, p. 222).

For an organization, social media applications and collaboration tools like wikis are a promising avenue to cultivate two-way symmetrical relationships with employees. However, it is not easy getting employees to buy into the social media concept. Some employees, particularly mature workers may be apprehensive of new and social media technologies.

My career in Singapore has proven first hand that open and effective communication is the bedrock for establishing trust with employees and encouraging them to embrace new technologies. Despite staff-management dialogue sessions, social media remained a vague concept to the predominantly mature workforce, resulting in a largely apathetic attitude. Recognizing the key to transforming conventional mindsets lay in effectively communicating a nebulous concept, I undertook some research in social media to prepare myself for all kinds of questions. Our team sought to foster a culture of creativity and innovative thinking and established an effective channel of communication and trust, engendering employees to embrace the social media initiative and easing them into the transition process.

What are your thoughts about encouraging reluctant employees to embrace social technologies in the workplace? What is the best way to achieve this?