Evolve investigated how organizations in the Netherlands use internal social media to connect employees. The aim of this biennial survey is to provide a broad, comparative picture of the current state of affairs. The study was conducted among 76 organizations based on a maturity model developed by Evolve.
What is striking in the first place is that for such a relatively young field as internal social media, surprisingly many organizations have already started actively working with it. Whereas a few years ago it was mainly the domain of organizations with a strong technological character, the use of internal social media is almost becoming commonplace in 2014. Internal communities are built with great enthusiasm and creativity in small and large organizations, within government and business. with in some cases visible results and beautiful cases.
Almost inherent in the youthful character is the large space that remains to take internal social media a step further. Ironically, letting go of the word ‘media’ in internal social media is what is needed to take internal communities to the next level. For now, internal social media is really a matter for the communication department. This is evident from the mostly organizational embedding in the Communication Department, the strong integration into the internal communication mix and the way in which goals, KPIs and targets are attached to visits, views, posts and interactions.
From a communication perspective, it is therefore good, but the question is whether interaction and discussion only offer sufficient added value for the employees to remain active and for boards and senior management to continue to invest. In this regard, it would be advisable not to take discussion and interaction as a starting point for internal social media, but to see which organizational processes benefit from the help of internal communities.
By attaching concrete goals, targets and KPIs to the contribution to daily work, it is clear to everyone within the organization what the contribution and return on investment of an internal community is. ‘Nice to have’ wordt ‘need to have’, waardoor adoptie en impact sterk zullen toenemen.
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With this research, we hope to help everyone who works with internal social media on a daily basis, or who wants to start with it, one step further. We are curious about the reactions and would like to enter into a conversation to further professionalize this still young field of work. Questions, suggestions or join us next year? Please contact Peter Haan, on 06 139 814 27 or peter@evolve.eu.
