REDMOND, Wash. — May 27, 2013 — It’s time to expand the definition of ‘knowledge worker.’
Everyone in an organization—from the CEO’s office to the mail room—has
valuable information, says Adam Pisoni, Microsoft’s general manager of
Yammer. The challenge companies face is how to tap that knowledge across
geographies, departments and pay grades. While the nature of work
evolves and becomes increasingly global, daily interactions typically
involve the same faces, and information remains locked in different
corners of an organization.
According to a new survey released today, employees of all levels think they’ve found the key: social technology.
“Social is moving from a nice-to-have tool to a necessity in the
workplace,” Pisoni says. "As all companies are faced with the increasing
pace of change, they need to leverage the power and knowledge of
employees more than their current technologies allow. Just as email
accelerated business in the 90s, social tools are driving a faster flow
of knowledge and information within and across organizations.”
Enterprise social tools apply social media principles to the
workplace, making it easier for people to share files and information
with co-workers and to collaborate as teams across departments and
locations. Unlike consumer services such as Facebook, enterprise social
provides private, shared workspaces for employees to share inside and
outside the walls of their company.
Employees are hungry to apply the same forms of social communications
at the office that they find effective in their personal lives. More
than 40 percent of surveyed workers feel there isn’t enough
collaboration in their workplaces, and that social tools can foster
better teamwork. A third say they are even willing to spend their own
money to buy them.
Why? The nature of how we work is changing, Pisoni says. Work is
increasingly done by virtual teams, and by workers using mobile devices.
Also, the amount of non-routine work is increasing, meaning we are
spending more of our time on things that fall outside of normal
processes. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2015, 40 percent or more of
an organization’s work will be “non-routine,” up from 25 percent in
2010.
This changing nature of work requires new types of tools that make it
easier to connect, share and organize across locations, teams and
devices. As work becomes less routine, employees need easier access to
the right knowledge, information and insight from all corners of the
organization to make fast, informed decisions.
“Employees are trying to be effective in a world where the rules and
software they were given are increasingly inadequate for the challenges
they face on a day-to-day basis,” he says. “They recognize in order to
be successful in a rapidly changing world, they need to adopt new ways
of working that are more collaborative and social. Unlocking the
knowledge and information within organizations by making it more open
will help our employees be more empowered and effective.”
Not coincidentally, social media itself is what’s driving many of
these new challenges that enterprise social helps solve, he adds.
Services like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp connect customers with each
other, leading to rapidly evolving expectations as customers learn from
each other.
It’s not surprising, then, that social in the enterprise can help
companies re-wire how they share, learn and organize internally, so they
can be more responsive to rapidly changing customer expectations.
Tension in the workplace
Yet there’s a disconnect in the office. While employees are gung-ho
and see social as a productivity tool, some IT departments and leaders
remain wary, Pisoni says. Ironically, businesses worry that social tools
will drain productivity, yet, it is exactly these types of tools which
employees are clamoring for in order to make themselves more productive.
As a result, more than a third of surveyed workers think their company
underestimates the benefits of social technology. Nearly half say their
organization frowns on social tools in general.
The challenge of bringing in social tools is more than a technical
challenge, Pisoni says; a cultural change is also needed to be
successful. That’s because social isn’t just another technology but
something that enables new ways of working.
Some companies have struggled with enterprise social, Pisoni admits.
“You can’t just turn it on and expect a cultural transformation. It’s a
journey of reinvention that requires a strategy and executive commitment
and support.”
To be effective you need the right tool, but also a strategy specific
to your organization’s business objectives, challenges and culture.
Pisoni believes that for enterprise social tools to be effective, they
can’t just be a destination; social has to be woven into the apps
employees use every day in order to unite people, information and
application data in a way that drives greater effectiveness, performance
and agility.
Pisoni also offered a few keys to an effective social strategy. First,
companies need to assess their current business priorities, challenges
and culture and align their vision for enterprise social. Executive
support of social tools is important, but experience shows it’s
ineffective to merely mandate use. Successful enterprise social
initiatives require bottom-up employee adoption, along with top-down
executive support to validate the tool and commitment to learn and adapt
along the way.
Successful initiatives typically start with small teams tackling
specific, measurable problems (think increase revenue, decrease costs).
Once those test cases prove the value of social tools, it’s easier to
expand adoption.
He also reiterated that social is a journey for everyone — Microsoft
included. Over time, Microsoft wants to provide connected experiences
across all of the applications in your company, he says. After all, most
of the collaboration taking place today happens in tools such as
Office, Lync, Exchange and Dynamics CRM.
“More than any other company, we’ll be able to reach the broadest
possible audience of workers because they’re already using Microsoft
applications. As we bring social to those tools, we’ll be bringing this
new way to work to those employees.”
The promise of social (Or, how to build a better burger)
Done right, enterprise social can drive significant business value by
improving how employees connect, share information and work across teams
and geographies, and beyond the firewall to customers, vendors and
other key relationships.
Consider Red Robin. Last year the restaurant chain rolled out Yammer
to 2,500 managers and staff in its corporate office. When the company
introduced a new burger to its menu, managers used the enterprise social
network to deliver customer feedback straight from its restaurants.
That helped them refine the recipe in a month — a fraction of the time
it would have taken in the past, says CIO Chris Laping.
Recently, Red Robin wanted to find a way to engage its large hourly workforce, 87 percent of whom are Millennials.
“Learning in analog is not the way they learn, and it’s not the way
they stay engaged,” Laping says. “We need to reach them where they’re
at, and that means mobile and social.”
So the company introduced what it calls “Yummerversity” to complement a
new interactive training program. New hires can take to Yammer to ask
questions and give feedback. Once they start work, they can upload
videos of new practices. This allows the corporate office to incorporate
the practices into future training.
Laping says social networking offers a huge value for a company like
Red Robin, with employees spread across the country. It helps him and
other executives engage with people in the field and learn from them on a
daily basis.
In addition to his CIO duties, Laping is also tasked with leading
business transformation at Red Robin. When his role expanded a few years
ago, he knew he had to engage all team members across the organization
to succeed.
“How do you get a fast path to engagement? The old model of putting
out a memo, explaining your thinking, and trusting your employees to
follow doesn’t work. Now, you need so much more interactivity, which is
why I initially felt so strongly about Yammer. Ultimately, I realized I
needed it more than anyone because I was tasked with driving change.”
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