Effective and efficient internal communication is one of the biggest issues in most of the organizations, be it a mid size or a large one.
With the recent adoption of social collaboration platforms in various companies, it appears that this problem has be taken care of. But, ask employees of these ‘collaborative companies’, and you will realize the problem has more layers to it than it appears. The true collaboration across teams/geographies on various business/functional/technical problems remains a distant reality.
I have seen many social collaborative platforms but they are quite complex, not intuitive enough for a new user and try to do a lot of things by trying to be an all encompassing platform. Though employees collaborate through Wikis/forums/communities etc. but most of the times, they tend to become isolated islands with a few active collaborators.
Let me suggest a solution, a way to design the architecture of social platform to promote collaboration in the company and how it is a better solution:
- The company should have a platform where ALL the employee can just login and post request for ANY type of help, he may require in completing his project. The request can range from asking for suitable references, suitable contacts in the company, help with excel or a technical query etc. It should be open to all the employees across the geographies/business units/functional units etc. to discover the true potential of social collaboration.
- The platform should be intuitive, with minimal clutter and simple enough to be used for even a layman.
- Every request should have relevant tags associated with it, for example, excel, need reference, oil and gas industry etc. Tags are much more flexible and scalable solution than pre-defined categories.
- There should be a link to the master database of all tags which is dynamic in nature to include all relevant tags as they get generated and club the similar ones (can be done by the system administrator)
- The posts should have a expiry date attached. If the person is able to get the required solution then he should paste the solution (if possible) or person’s name who helped him. This can help this platform to become a great repository and a part of the overall knowledge management system in the future. Users can just refer to tags to look for solutions/people before posting fresh queries. The result will be greater efficiency and productivity.
- This platform can help foster a belongingness between the employees and a greater job satisfaction. For the company, it can be a platform for new ideas and innovation as employees from cross functional and cross geographies interact to help each other with their knowledge, expertise and best practices.
- A key point here is, I believe, is to make it a bit of an informal platform. Keep it away from the employee appraisals and evaluation. The aim is to foster the spirit of natural collaboration, helping fellow colleagues and deriving satisfaction out of it. The incentive should be the ‘Thank You’ notes from the employees who post the problem.