Toward a More Connected CompanyConnecting Employees to Information and Each Other
to Increase Productivity and Build Engagement
Ethan YarbroughPresident & Co-Founder
@ethany
blog.allyis.com
What We’ll Cover
Our relationships with technology at home and at work: What are the differences Why the differences exist Impact of the differences on employee
experience Creating technology environments that meet
employee expectations Common workplace technology pains and
problems At a high level: How to apply technology to
address these problems Impacts on productivity and morale
The Truth Behind It All
“The only differentiator that matters is customer experience.” – Sean O’Driscoll, Ants Eye View
“Employee experience becomes customer experience” – Me
(and, as it turns out, Sir Richard Branson http://www.theleadershiphub.com/blogs/one-thing-i-learnt-last-week-richard-branson)
“Teens send an average of 6 texts per hour they’re awake.” - http://www.saltywaffle.com/did-twitter-kill-the-phone-call/
• "By (2011) Apple’s revenues from the iPhone and the iPad will more than double its revenues from the entire Macintosh product line.” – Newsweek, June 2010
• Twitter and Facebook are training us in “emergent awareness”
Our Changing Relationship With Technology
• Can your employees know whatever they need to know whenever they need to know it?
• What if your competitors’ employees can?
• 71% say it’s easier to find information on the open internet than on the companies’ own knowledge management systems(1)
• 25% of employee time spent searching for people or information(2)
• 10% of salaries are spent on searches for information that is never found(3)
“Our Intranet is the first place I look for information and the last place I find it.”
Our Changing Relationship With Technology
At Home: Not Knowing the Answer = Obsolete
At Work:Not Knowing the Answer = Epidemic
What is your communication environment like?
Attention is a scarce resource / Increasing burden on employees to know what information they are looking for and how to find it / New technology helps content find people
What is your communication environment like?
Attention is a scarce resource / Increasing burden on employees to know what information they are looking for and how to find it / New technology helps content find people
ProfileType
1
Go
ProfileType
2
Go
ProfileType
3
Go
Example: • Social Content Discovery• Corporate Newsletter Site
Profile Type 3• Users with same profile type downloaded this content
• Users with the same profile added this content
• Newest updates
• Most commented on
Connect With Profile 3 Users
• Name• Recent updates
• Name• Recent updates
• Name• Recent updates
It’s the Amazon.com approach to business content delivery
Value grows as people carry out individual actions
Users just do what they would normally do, the system monitors and gets progressively more useful
Reduces time to content discovery The system learns the user
Example: • Bootstrapping a Social Network• HP Watercooler
• Inferred key words• Cross referenced against employee directory• Suggests connections based on content similarity• Unconscious development of relevant network• Exposed key words list enables at-a-glance analysis of company trends, activity and focus
Approach to Information Discovery: BROWSE
• Line of Business solutions • Ad hoc development
• Disconnected, invisible to each other • High redundancy rate
• Serve immediate needs, cause long-term problems
This is limiting. And limiting is disempowering.
Typical Business Information Environment
Approach to Information Discovery: SEARCH, ALERT, RSS and EMERGENCE
Anytime Access = Empowerment
Enterprise Software Platform
Mobile and Remote
Team Sites Layer
Integrated Business Information Environment
Social Is a Dirty Word?
Don’t interpret “Social” as Facebook, and Twitter and YouTube or frivolous pursuits.
“Social” just means using a state of connectedness to derive co-created value and that has direct application to your work environment.
60% Percent of the workday
the average information worker spends
being social in pursuit of goals
– Dion Hinchcliffe, Dachis Group
Enterprise Software Platforms
• SharePoint• Jive• IBM Lotus Notes• Infosys• Cisco• SAP• SocialText• Leverage Software• ThoughtFarmer• Drupal
Fully integrated, single install, multiple configuration
Socially Enabled is Now the Norm
A nervous system for your company
Impacts on Productivity and Morale
4850 Emails generated during 3 month project
Reduced to 250 using a wiki
50% Percentage of all projects within budget
Increased to 70% using a wiki
7.5 Average number of days for new team members to be productive
Reduced to 1.5 days using a wiki and information management platform
7% Percent more productiveEmployees with extensive digital networks are than their Less-connected colleagues
Sources: Doculabs, MIT
Impacts on Productivity and Morale
Enhanced team-work Improved knowledge sharing Reduced time and effort to find information Better version control
Better decision-making environment
High correlation between decision effectiveness and engagement (Bain & Co.)
Reduced costs of operation Talent retention
Your Technology Strategy Starts With People
Who is your audience? What is their relationship with technology? How do they consume information?
Can you create communication environments that incorporate their established habits?
Design as though anyone who knows anything is leaving tomorrow.
Thank You!