Every organization is scrambling to figure out what the new ‘normal’ looks like and in different phases of building a hybrid workplace. Will everyone be remote most of the time? Will employees be required to return to offices? Something in-between? If so, what does THAT look like?
It’s not an easy thing to navigate, especially with Gallup data showing that 48% of America’s working population is actively seeking jobs – and the motivation is not primarily about salary, but about how they feel about their workplace. A lot of the tools that HR currently has at its disposal, however, don’t fundamentally address this. Giving employees a sense of belonging and meaning is a management and culture issue. While policies influence culture, these issues are not ones that extra financial incentives, benefits, and comfortable office space will address. It is an ambiguous issue and one many HR teams cannot fully address.
Adding to the issue is an implicit responsibility for employees to solve their own communications challenges. However, because of the network effects of communications channels, it is impossible for an individual to solve a networked problem. Yet, organizations have largely abdicated responsibility for systematically addressing employee communications and work behaviors, assuming individuals or managers can figure it out.
The value generated by enterprise communities seems to be too good to be true. If I had not been producing the State of Community Management since 2009, I would also be suspicious. For most of that time, the enterprise community space has hobbled along. There have been some inspiring exceptions, led by insightful leaders at companies like EY, Bosch, BASF, International Committee of the Red Cross, Steelcase, Siemans, Microsoft, Pearson, Thorton Tomasetti, World Bank Group – but they are the exception. For organizations like these, 69% of community programs can connect their impact directly to culture change. 53% can connect their impact to increasing the speed of innovation. The success in addressing these strategic objectives suggests that community programs are one of the most effective means to address them.
These successful community networks also produce meaningful value for employees. 72% of enterprise communities increased the size of employee networks – a critical mechanism to facilitate alignment, professional development, and innovation. That alone is valuable, but they also foster higher engagement with executives, increased comfort with transparency, and they encourage asynchronous and agile work habits. By normalizing new behaviors, community programs change the way organizations work, improving value for the organization while improving the employee experience.
