Page 91 - Harvard Business Review (November-December, 2017)

FEATURE WHAT MANAGERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL TOOLS

based on a solid business case, which leaders normally company put it. This view of Millennials outside the
require when considering other technologies, such as workplace is certainly backed by good evidence—
CRM software or computer-simulation tools. they’re avid consumers of Facebook, Twitter,
To more systematically identify the performance Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, and countless dating
value that social tools can bring to companies, we split sites. So managers often look to them to set an ex-
employees at a large financial services firm into two ample in the organization, expecting that they will
groups and observed them for six months. The first be pioneering users of social tools at work. But that’s
group used an internal social platform called Jive-n, a mistake. In our extensive interviews and com-
while the other group did not. pany surveys, we’ve found the opposite to be true.
The results were remarkable. The employees who Millennials actually have a difficult time with the
had used the tool became 31% more likely to find co- notion that “social” tools can be used for “work”
workers with expertise relevant to meeting job goals. purposes, the way they might use a spreadsheet or a
Those employees also became 88% more likely to accu- PowerPoint deck. They see social media as a space for
rately identify who could put them in contact with the self-expression and communication with friends and
right experts. They made these gains by observing what family. It’s integral to their personal lives but—aside
their coworkers talked about on Jive-n and with whom. from LinkedIn and other career-building sites—it has
The group that had no access to the tool showed no little or nothing to do with their professional lives.
IN BRIEF improvement on either measure over the same period. This may be in part because few Millennials encoun-
Since then we have studied internal social tools in ter workplace technologies before college or their first
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY various work settings, including banking, insurance, serious jobs—at which point they have been active on
Internal social tools can
improve collaboration, telecommunications, e-commerce, atmospheric sci- social media for several years. They’re wary of con-
innovation, decision ence, and computing. The mounting evidence is clear: flating those two worlds; they want to be viewed and
making, and employee These tools can promote employee collaboration and treated as grown-ups now. “Friending” the boss is rem-
engagement. But four knowledge sharing across silos. They can help em- iniscent of “friending” a parent back in high school—it’s
common traps get in the ployees make faster decisions, develop more innova- unsettling. And the word “social” signals “informal”
way: Organizations make
flawed assumptions about tive ideas for products and services, and become more and “personal.” As a 23-year-old marketing analyst at a
Millennials, struggle with engaged in their work and their companies. large telecommunications company told us, “You’re on
personal and professional Over the past two decades organizations have there to connect with your friends. It’s weird to think
boundaries, overlook the sought some of these benefits through knowledge that your manager would want you to connect with
learning that takes place, management databases, but with limited success. coworkers or that they’d want to connect with you on
and derive faulty insights by
focusing on the wrong data. That’s because determining who has expertise and social media [at work]. I don’t like that.”
understanding the context in which it was created are Most managers we have worked with want em-
A BETTER WAY important parts of knowledge sharing. Databases do ployees to use internal social tools to communicate
To realize the potential of not provide that type of information and connection. informally about work—but not to discuss personal
social tools, organizations Social tools do. matters. Millennials aren’t interested in crossing that
should clearly define But we have found that companies that try to “go line either, but they have trouble imagining how they
why they’re adopting
them, encourage informal social,” as many of them call it, often fall into four traps. could use social tools without getting personal.
communication and even Here we’ll look at those traps and share recommenda- Another problem is the way organizational leaders
“lurking” to promote tions for capitalizing on the promise of social tools. talk about the social tools they’re implementing. In
knowledge sharing and nearly every rollout we’ve seen, senior executives—
learning, and articulate trying to provide a cognitive link to a familiar technol-
the rules of conduct. And TRAP 1 FLAWED ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MILLENNIALS
leaders should exhibit the ogy—have referred to them as “Facebook for the com-
behaviors they’d like to see Leaders assume that young people “breathe” social pany” or “Twitter for the company.” But after hearing
from employees. media, as one senior executive at a large insurance that from a manager, a 22-year-old data analyst at the

120 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2017