Employers urged not to ‘kill the conversation’ on social media

Supportive community can boost internal networks, PM webinar told

Organisations should embrace social media technologies and stop “killing the conversation” through restrictive workplace policies, experts told a People Management webinar today.

Social media is a powerful opportunity that some organisations are not recognising, said Gareth Jones of Brubaker HR, adding that it can promote authenticity, innovation and feedback within the workforce.

Jones explained that some companies created a support community for their customers to build collaboration, trust and brand advocacy, then conversely shut down similar conversations internally. But “smart organisations join the two,” he said.

He also warned organisations against creating hard-line social media policies, saying that many negative perceptions about reduced staff productivity were unfounded.

“Social media exposes cracks in your engagement levels, it doesn’t cause them,” Jones said, adding: “You no longer control access to technology or the content of conversation, so stop trying to.”

The webinar audience also heard how GlaxoSmithKline had developed its internal social media channels, which included micro-blogging site Yammer, profile builder People Connect, R&D community Mingle, and blogspot facility My Site.

Al Shah, social media demand manager at the pharmaceutical giant, explained that the networks allowed staff within the group’s 70 plus companies to work across boundaries and find the relevant subject matter experts for advice. The resulting conversations often saved the business development time and money, he said.

Shah also told participants that despite initial nervousness, the channels were self-moderated to encourage participation. Getting senior leaders to respond to, rather than just post, controversial discussions was also an effective way of “developing trust between employees and managers”, he added.

“Our approach to social media internally is that this is a concept, not a set of tools – it’s a way of working,” concluded Shah.

The final webinar speaker was Lucy Turner, a freelance HR consultant, who has worked with organisations both receptive to social media and those with a “zero tolerance” policy for its use during working hours.

She pointed out that social media had become a standard method of communication among Generation Y, and warned that “a zero tolerance approach could potentially alienate a whole generation of the workforce”.

But from a policy perspective, she also advised HR practitioners to be conscious of virtual bullying and disparaging comments posted online that could require the same disciplinary measures as actions that occurred within the physical workplace. She added that material publicly available on social media networks could be used as evidence in formal misconduct cases.

Meanwhile, a poll run during the webinar asked the audience which aspects of social media they had devoted most of their work time to in the past year.

Four in ten (41 per cent) of the 940 session participants said that they had spent the majority of their time encouraging the use of social media to improve communication and creativity within their organisation, while 24 per cent had been concentrating on boosting the quality of candidates in their talent pipeline.

The remaining 35 per cent of listeners indicated that “managing the dangers” of social media had been the most time-consuming aspect for them.

This lunchtime’s webinar – Social media @ work: opportunity or danger? – was chaired by People Management’s editor Rob MacLachlan and sponsored by Oracle. The full recording of the session will be available on the People Management website.