It is hard for companies to be good at social media if they don't have a healthy work culture and happy employees.
Social brands require healthy working cultures. If a company has a healthy work culture, there's a good chance they are under-utilizing employee contributions on social networks. If it doesn't have a good working culture, they already have problems on social networks - whether they know it or not.
Josh Bernoff, Senior Vice President of Idea Development at Forrester Research and co-author of Groundswell contends that organizational dynamics are one of the largest contributors to success in the worlds of social media and business alike. In his most recent book, Empowered, Bernoff identifies two questions that every company should be asking employees to determine whether they're well-poised - or have a poisoned well - when it comes to their working culture: Do you feel empowered? and Do you act resourceful?
Based on the answer to these questions, Bernoff identifies four types of employees that companies need to plan for and manage:
- Disenfranchised employees (neither empowered or resourceful) who view their jobs as a source of paychecks, and little more. This group accounts for 34 percent of information-based employees, according to Bernoff;
- Rogue employees (resourceful, but not empowered) who deploy their creativity and time on unsanctioned projects to achieve results. According to Bernoff, this group accounts for 14 percent of information-based employees;
- Lockdown employees (empowered, but unresourceful) who solve problems by working through existing, inefficient processes and cultural norms at work. This group accounts for 34 percent of information-based employees, according to Bernoff; and
- HERO employees (empowered and resourceful) who are driven to succeed at work and shift pre-existing, unhealthy paradigms as needed to ensure success. HEROs is an acronym for 'Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives.' Bernoff said the group accounts for 21 percent of information-based employees.
Companies need to have different methods for managing, using, and compensating each group. Empowered and resourceful employees are the best social resources a company can have. Employees that aren't... aren't.
Forrester surveys show that HEROs are most common among marketing and non-retail sales staff and least common - surprisingly enough - in customer service areas. That's right: people with direct access to customers are least likely to be empowered and resourceful!
"Marketers often have great ideas on ways to reach out in social channels. Customer service people are among the least likely, which is a shame, since they're the ones on the front lines interacting with customers every day," Bernoff told Social Meteor. "But we see HEROes in every department. In one case, a 21-year veteran underwriter at a multinational insurance company figured out a great way to better serve the company's life-sciences customers."
"The question is, when people come up with these ideas, is your company able to support them?"
Employees who aren't empowered and supported - particularly those in the 'Rogue' category - are increasingly comfortable talking about their bad experiences with your company on social networks. This point is easily proven by searching for phrases like 'my job sucks' on Twitter, YouTube and other social networks.
Large companies spend thousands (sometimes 'tens of thousands') of cumulative hours implementing a broken compensation model that delivers 'incremental increases for most employees.' Such models favor disenfranchised and lockdown employees. They discourage rogues and HEROs. These models pit resourceful employees AGAINST the company by requiring them to justify or battle over small percentages - knowing full well that they can achieve better recognition and compensation with another company. They foster a free-agent "what's-in-it-for-me" mindset among a company's top contributors.
HEROs need to be found and nurtured in the workplace. And, they need to be leveraged on social networks. Without them on your side, your company's effectiveness, and sentiment on social networks are at risk.
Credits: Cartoon is courtesy of Geek and Poke.
Clues on Culture
Here's a winning Super Bowl (XLIII) commercial from CareerBuilder that does a good job of helping you identify if the culture of your company needs some work. CareerBuilder also has a virtually unknown YouTube video (not shown here) describing why it is a great company to work for. Enjoy the contrast!