Workplaces have adopted internal social tools—think stand-alone technologies such as Slack, Yammer, and Chatter, or embedded applications such as Microsoft Teams and JIRA—at a staggering rate. In an ambitious study of 4,200 companies, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, 72% reported using them to facilitate employee communication. That figure grabbed our attention, so we asked leaders of both large and small organizations for more insight into why they were turning to social tools and platforms. They said things like “Other companies are, so we should too” and “That’s what you have to do if you want to attract young talent.” Although the bandwagon effect was not a surprise, this was: Few of the rationales were based on a solid business case, which leaders normally require when considering other technologies, such as CRM software or computer-simulation tools.
What Managers Need to Know About Social Tools
To identify the value that social tools can bring to companies, the authors split employees at a large financial services firm into two groups, only one of which used an internal social platform, and observed them for six months. Those who had used the tool became 31% more likely to find coworkers with relevant expertise and 88% more likely to discover who had useful connections.
Internal social tools can help employees make faster decisions, develop more innovative ideas for products and services, and become more engaged in their work and their companies. But companies that try to “go social” often fall into four traps: They (1) assume that Millennials will embrace social tools at work; (2) struggle to foster personal interaction that builds trust and promotes knowledge sharing; (3) fail to recognize how learning occurs on social tools; and (4) focus on the wrong data. The authors offer advice on how to avoid these traps.
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