Building on your new knowledge of social collaboration and community management gained from the previous two chapters, we will now aim to learn about various ideas and tools that can be used by community managers to create engagement in their Yammer communities. In the beginning, we will examine the vital difference between community-based and hierarchical ways of working and reveal that the community-based way is the better way to create user engagement.
Today, most organizations spend money to engage with their employees and to get them to produce the desired results for the organization. However, the deployment approach for user engagements has been changing from a hierarchical one to a community-based one where user participation is expected to be high. With the evolution of social technology, the mindset of employees has changed, and they tend to be more responsive when engagement is done in a community style and not in a hierarchical way. Information shared in community-based engagement moves very fast as the employees are connected through a social network, and as a result awareness of the information spreads rather quickly. Hence, user participation is more than in community-based engagement. In hierarchical-based engagement, instructions are received from top to bottom and then the response is produced. Such an approach results in engagement roll-out taking a long time, as user awareness depends upon the superior’s role in the organization.
Engagements in a community are sets of activities with specific business objectives in which users participate to achieve the desired outcome. User participation is either mandatory or voluntary depending upon the nature of the community engagement. A poll on a business topic, organization-wide campaigns, surveys on organizational growth, and organizational branding events are good examples of generating employee engagement on your Yammer Network.
Differences Between Community and Hierarchy Models
In the community model, people are at the center, whereas in the hierarchy model the work is central and people are not important.
In the community model, each employee has the right to voice their opinion during any engagements; however, in the hierarchy model this is not the case.
In the community model, employees work like a network, whereas in the hierarchy model employees depend upon their superiors for their work.
The community model offers recognition of employees for their work. Recognition is meant for superiors in the hierarchy model.
People are productive and connected in the community model (Figure 3-1). People work in silos in the hierarchy model.
Community way of working
Hierarchy Model
Have you ever called your cell phone provider with a question about data rates or a service problem? The customer service representative was perhaps unable to help you. Someone on the other side of the organization might have been able to help you, but that person didn’t have the ability to connect with the customer service representative who was dealing with you, the customer. And what if the customer service representatives were getting a huge number of calls that spoke to a larger trend that the CEO knew a solution for? But how would the CEO ever find out about it? In many respects, companies were designed to resist change and be efficient—not adaptable. This is the heart of the problem.
In this example, if there had been a social network through which employees were allowed to collaborate, connect, and share regarding business-related activities, then the customer service representative would have answered more efficiently.
In our personal lives , because we’re so connected, it’s easy to get information we need to make decisions. At work, we don’t always have access to the right people or information to help us do our jobs, whether we’re the CEO or the agent in customer service. The world has become a network, but companies have remained rigid hierarchies due to poor organization objectives.
Originally, companies were built to perform routine tasks in the most efficient way; they were not built for change. All this change is happening in the world, but companies have not evolved since the industrial revolution, when we designed them to be stable, consistent, and as efficient as possible.
We built companies primarily for people to do routine work that doesn’t require judgment or creativity. A Gartner study, “World of Work Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years starting from 2010,” says that the amount of non-routine work is rising dramatically and continues to rise. A strategic-planning assumption was made that by 2015, 40 percent or more of enterprise work would be “non-routine,” up from 25 percent in 2010. This is because we have started using technology to optimize for the old way of working (see Figure 3-2). Automation technology has helped us automate all the routine work. As work becomes increasingly non-routine, employees need better information to make decisions.
Evolution of technology over the years
Keep Your Network Engaged by Working Like a Network
In this section, we are going see how you can keep your network engaged by using Yammer in a way similar to how you use external social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter); support social business; and explore techniques of user engagement, such as YamJam (brainstorming sessions on Yammer) and YamChat (question-and-answer sessions on Yammer), to build employee engagement, team collaboration, and business agility.
Use Yammer Like We Use External Social Media Platforms
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media applications are used to collaborate, connect, and share in one’s personal life—i.e., the world outside out of one’s organization. Yammer is built to collaborate, connect, and share about business-related activities within one’s organization. Apart from Microsoft’s Yammer, there are other enterprise social networking platforms, such as Salesforce Chatter, Jive, and Tiber.
Today, in fact, external social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are used for employer and employee branding by organizations as a part of their digital transformation strategies. It is quite natural to use such platforms for branding as the world is connected through social media channels with no specific boundaries like the physical boundaries that exist between countries.
Social media users report
This report is available at on the https://mashable.com/2017/08/07/3-billion-global-social-media-users/#YyUbiFrdkaq1 website.
Today, organizations publish their accomplishments on external social media channels. Huge investments are made in branding on these channels so as to portray the organization in an ideal way. Organizational engagement on social media channels has led to social business, where organizations sell their products or services on and users buy from these platforms. Organizations are so serious about external social media accounts that any user complaint or dissatisfaction is quickly addressed. By building a strong brand, an organization is able to hire and retain the best talent. This is known as employer branding.
Yammer Helps You Support Social Business
External social media has become a marketplace for selling and buying. Organizations spend a huge amount of money to showcase their products and services in the form of infographics, videos, thought leadership articles, animations, and promotional campaigns. As a result of these engagements, a company generates leads, and later these leads get converted into potential customers. Nobody would have thought 23 years ago that people would buy and sell over the internet, where the buyer and seller have never seen each other face-to-face. In fact, these social business opportunities are supported by Yammer, which allows people to work as a network to respond to customer delivery needs.
Internally, many opportunities exist, but if we are unable to connect the dots these will be lost. Yammer helps you connect your people, and internal opportunities are generated in the social business. Opportunities could be resale within organization, onsite international opportunities and provide global support to clients.
Develop New Ways of Working by Engaging Your Network
Employee engagement
Companies with engaged employees see 18 percent higher productivity and 51 percent lower turnover. (Source: Gallup Consulting, Employee Engagement, What's Your Engagement Ratio?)
Team collaboration
Organizations see a 20 to 25 percent boost in productivity with collaboration driven through social media channels. (Source: McKinsey, The Social Economy)
Business agility
64 percent of successful transformations engage and energize the organization through ongoing communication and involvement. (Source: McKinsey, What Successful Transformations Share)
Yammer—A New Way of Working
Collaborate, connect, and share
Join groups
Follow people
Add /follow #topics
Start and join conversations
Send private messages
Post polls
Give praise
Collaborate using files and notes
Start online conversations with Online Now
Manage notifications
Use network-wide search
Adhere to Yammer Usage Policy
Why Yammer?
Post query and find answers quickly
Share knowledge related to projects and avoid reinventing the wheel
Connect with people who have similar interests and common expertise
Publish news and announcements to inform a wider audience
Collaborate on major organizational discussions and prepare for transformation
Gather views, opinions, and ideas from people across the company
Collaborate between different project teams based out of different locations
Put attention on what’s happening and where
Onboard new hires and quickly get them to a certain level
Find valuable information that will assist you in being productive
Remain connected using Yammer mobile apps
How Do I Leverage Yammer?
Live reporting of events
Host YamJams
Welcome and onboard new joiners
Use Yammer over distribution list
Global technology teams find solutions to incidents or issues
Human resources team reduces new hire ramp-up time
Knowledge managers request content to support RFP/RFI
Challenges and Solutions
During your Yammer engagements, you may face challenges, some of which may be complex. This section will help you to overcome them.
Challenge: Culture
Gap between Gen Y and more experienced employees
Processes are first, followed by people
What is social media?
Reluctant to share business issues on Yammer
Email supporters
Business unit not serious about making their unit social
Overcome
Training and education
Execute campaigns based on people-focus
Publish marketing content and success stories
Challenge: Engagement
Who will participate on Yammer during campaign?
Lack of business initiatives to trigger participation
Resistance to change
Same set of users participating
Campaigns without business objectives
Overcome
Connect with internal communications manager to drive participation
Include Yammer in regional induction program
YamChats (Q&A session on Yammer) with leadership teams
Challenge: People
People too rigid and unresponsive to change
Happy to be lurkers rather than posters
Love traditional methods of working
Not interested in sharing and building connections
Overcome
Online community engagement tactics
Publish YamPolls so lurkers can at least cast vote
Education
Challenge: Content
Content that is not business related
Copyrighted content
Confidential information
Personal content
Overcome
Educate users on handling copyrighted content
Delete copyrighted content
Create specific groups for non-business content
Challenge: Business
Lack of buy-in for social
Lack of focus on employee engagement
Investing in duplicate platforms
Absence of social design
Yammer not aligned with business objectives
More interested into ROI
Overcome
Define objectives, such as to collaborate, connect, and share
Integrate Yammer with group-level applications
Demonstrate value to business through user success stories
Challenge: Leadership
Limited leadership engagement
Lack of adoption and education
Busy schedule and travel limits participation
Overcome
Launch leadership event on Yammer
YamChats—moderated Q & A sessions
Publish guide—how leadership teams can use Yammer in 60 seconds during a week (Note: we learned this in Chapter 2)
Challenge: Technical
Complexities surrounding around Active Directory
Multiple email IDs for each user
Users changing their primary email IDs
Overcome
Set up Office 365 AD-SYNC process to manage leavers
Map users’ primary email ID to their Yammer account
Delete duplicate accounts
Challenge: Process
Information security and IP compliance
Adherence to Yammer Usage Policy
Overcome
Launch and publicize Yammer Usage Policy
Assess Yammer for security compliance
Create Yammer security guidelines
Challenge: Analytics
Limited statistics available from Yammer
No figures available to measure end-to-end implementation
Extra investment required to purchase analytics
Overcome
Rely upon users to demonstrate ROI through their stories
Publish customized analytics on a regular basis
Implement actions based upon customized reports
Challenge: Expectations
High expectations in bottom-to-top Yammer deployment model
Consistent increase in Yammer engagements
Users expecting solution to each problem in short time
Overcome
Build connections with different businesses
Execute campaigns to increase engagements
Increase leader participation through YamChats
Engage with YamJam Sessions
A YamJam is a team-wide or company-wide collaborative real-time brainstorming session focused around a specific topic and held over a specific time frame.
Purpose of YamJam
YamJam’s purpose is to build momentum and generate new ideas around the topic at hand. The bigger the audience, the more likely it is that debate will occur. It is good to have leaders as part of any YamJam.
YamJam Guidelines
YamJam starts on a scheduled day with the introduction of guests/members and topic.
After introduction, the moderator will post YamJam guidelines. Participants are requested to “Like” this post to show courteousness.
After YamJam guidelines are posted, YamJam begins with a message from moderator to start.
Following message to start, any participant can start the YamJam. Post questions, problems, experience, and insights, and anything else related to the topic.
Participants can reply to each other’s posts during a YamJam. Participants may use @mention to reply to a specific participant’s post.
During the entire YamJam, use the same conversation started by the moderator for posting messages. Avoid starting new conversations.
During the YamJam, the moderator may send private messages to participants who get off topic. Participants may send private messages to each other.
You must follow the Yammer Usage Policy during YamJams.
YamJam is declared over with a message from the moderator.
An Example YamJam
You can start a YamJam with a topic—let’s say, “What are stress-relieving tips for IT professionals?”
Jot down the causes of stress; write three stresses.
Make sure you relax every day for 30 min. (by listening to music, dancing, or taking a nap).
Call your close friend and chat for 15 min. a day.
Keep a positive attitude: “You can do it.”
Give yourself time to organize an event or project; prioritize your work.
Exercise—it improves your health and quickens your brain!
While you sit at your desk, stretch your leg and tuck-in your belly and breathe in, breathe out! Do this every hour.
Massage therapy: relax the muscles and improve blood circulation; Epsom salt–soaked bath
Herbal tea to reduce anxiety
Sleep: improve memory and reduce anxiety and irritability
Diet: whole grains and protein can improve your mood. Junk food can cause depression and attention deficit.
Engage with YamChat Sessions
A YamChat is a Q&A session with an executive. Questions are gathered prior to the event, and the discussion is more structured. During the scheduled time for YamChats, executives will answer the questions collected on Yammer.
Purpose of YamChat
The purpose is to lessen the gap between employees and leadership teams and to increase leadership engagement on Yammer.
YamChat Guidelines
A YamChat starts on a scheduled day with the introduction of guests.
A week before, the YamChat session will be announced in order to collect questions.
Executives will answer the questions during the scheduled YamChat.
Users can reply and create a YamJam around each answer.
Participants can reply to each other’s posts during a YamChat. Participants may use @mention.
You must follow the Yammer Usage Policy during YamChats.
The YamChat ends with a message from the moderator.
YamChat Examples
How to be compliant with intellectual property
Questions around achievements and ambitions in community management
Information security challenges in cloud, social, and mobile technologies
Key technologies that organizations should focus on
Differences Between YamJams & YamChats
During a YamJam, the traffic of the unstructured posts gets created, whereas during YamChats posts structurally get created.
A single conversation covers an entire YamJam. For each Q&A on a YamChat, a different conversation gets created
YamJams are aimed to get a group of people engaged, whereas YamChats are aimed to lessen the people–leadership gap through executive engagement.
Benefits of YamJams & YamChats
Teams engage through YamJams. Executives engage through YamChats.
Brainstorm to find answers to your problems during a YamJam. Get straight answers for your queries from executives during a YamChat.
All employees can get engaged in YamJams and YamChats.
Discover opportunities to collaborate with colleagues in different geographies. Get one-to-one connection with executives through YamChats.
Crowdsource new ideas during a YamJam. Get guidance from executives during YamChats.
Prerequisites for YamJams & YamChats
Join specific group created to host YamJams and YamChats.
Nominate topics for YamJams. Recommend executives for YamChats.
Moderator block participants’ calendars during YamJam & YamChats.
Follow Yammer Usage Policy and YamJam and YamChat guidelines.
For each YamJam & YamChat make announcements
Time duration 60 minutes
Time to host 12:00 PM CET (It is said, all employees globally are available at this time)
Have FUN!
Summary
In this chapter, we got the opportunity to learn how the community-based way of working is a better approach for building employee engagement, and we discovered how techniques such as YamJams and YamChats can create engagement. Further, we have learned that we can use Yammer for internal branding, employee retention, and creating internal opportunities. In the next chapters, we will use the ideas learned in this chapter to run campaigns on Yammer.