Social media is everywhere. It is a part of our personal lives but it can play a very beneficial role in our working lives as well. Social media is a great way to market your company to external people, but have you ever thought about continuing to “sell” your company to your employees?
“Organizations are under even more pressure to keep staff engaged.” (Chesworth, 2013) It has been reported that employees are under more pressure at work and feel insecure which can lead to higher rates of turnover within a company. Only six in ten employees feel their organization cares about their opinion and respects their views. (Chesworth, 2013)
What can a company do about that? Focus on marketing to your employees.
Social networks, such as SharePoint, can provide employers and employees an outlet to communicate to one another in a less time consuming manner. SharePoint is a great way for companies to create an internal social networking website and not only can they use it to talk to one another, they can also utilize features that will allow them to store, organize, share and access information from any device with a simple log in. (What is SharePoint?, 2013)
By having an internal social network employers can do something as simple as posting an annual employee survey or even offer an outlet that is available to employees at any time that allows them to place confidential (if they choose) complaints or ideas. By having this outlet for employees you are letting them know that you care about what they have to say and they feel better by being able to express their opinions or share their ideas whenever they want in a comfortable fashion and then have there be direct response back to them to confirm that they were heard and their suggestion or complaint will be dealt with or reviewed.
To very large companies having this outlet may seem like an overwhelming project to manage, and yes, if you have thousands of employees it may be someone’s full time job to go through the incoming complaints and suggestions. But, in my opinion, if you can pay one person to filter through these to make thousands of employees happy, the cost would be a benefit in itself. Organizations can also continue to market to their employees by the means of social media by getting involved with current trends. More and more people are carrying around smart phones and tablets that allow them to communicate in many different fashions. Allow people to work from home, do face to face meetings via Facetime or Skype, and/or give them access to check their emails on their personal devices. By allowing employees some freedom and ability to use personal devices that they have glued to their hands anyway, you may notice people choosing to go the extra mile and notice their work productivity increasing. I have the ability to get my emails on my phone and when I am bored I have no problem checking my messages and responding to some on my own personal time just because I feel like it. I enjoy having the freedom to use these devices at work and show my appreciation by staying connected.
Social networking is part of most people’s daily lives. Some companies use to block these websites but I think the benefits of allowing people to go onto them outweighs any cons. Have you ever noticed when someone does a post or status update that it often will automatically post the location in which the person was at when they posted? What a great way for companies to advertise! Just by me doing a personal post I now have a location stamp that displays my location or I can even tag my place of work in my status, and now all of my friends or followers have read the company name and have that name in mind.
Social media is more than just Myspace pages these days, or a time waster. Your employees are your marketers, they help spread the word about your company on a daily basis and what a great way to ‘repay’ them by allowing them to use social media. As the baby boomers start to reach the age of retirement it is now time to bring in Generation Y employees. These are the employees of the future and they are ready to be hard workers and to work quickly and with passion. Companies that want to continue to be successful need to engage these employees and understand that these workers communicate in a different way and they need to leverage that. (Chesworth, 2013)
Bibliography
What is SharePoint? (2013). Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-foundation-help/what-is-sharepoint-HA010378184.aspx
Chesworth, N. (2013, May 28). Going online to keep work in line. Evening Standard. Retrieved October 28, 2013, from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1355737105?accountid=41205
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