Internal corporate portal or company social network?
In the era of social networks (VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, etc.) and instant messengers (ICQ, Skype, etc.), most domestic companies prohibit their employees from using them during working hours, because they consider this an inexpedient waste of the resource and no explanations of employees like I can solve the issue promptly and efficiently in PM ”is not considered a weighty argument capable of convincing the manager of the opposite.
Some top managers are more flexible and willing to make concessions to their wards, albeit not fully, but ready. For example, in a company where more than 200 employees work, access to social networks is open only to certain departments (usually associated with a PR company — the marketing department, the press service, the staff of designers and programmers, etc.); in another company, employee access to social networks is closed from 10:00 am and until 5:00 pm, the management policy is tough here: “You can solve all personal questions either before 10:00 am or after 5:00 pm! The rest of the time, use e-mail and mobile phone! ". While in the third company, management and employees unanimously say that they do not think the workflow without the use and “help” of social networks.
In addition to these three groups, there is a fourth one that has managed to combine the pros and cons of social media and establish an effective process for the work of all the employees in their organization. These include companies that have their own corporate portal.
As can be seen from the results of our mini-study, the opinions of the managers were divided: the first took a tough stance - “no social networks, this evil prevents my employees from working effectively, they are wasting time”; the latter are firmly convinced that without the use of social networks their work is impossible and would be less effective; well, a third took a middle position and periodically pamper their specialists with open access to the world social web; and finally, the fourth managed to find the optimal way out of the current “social” situation by introducing a corporate portal.
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So let's look at the last position in more detail. What is a corporate portal? How does it replace the social network? Why do I need to implement the social network function in the corporate portal?
In simple terms, a corporate portal is an internal website of a company with a large number of various services. The main objective of any corporate portal is to provide access to information relating to the production processes of the enterprise or related. Depending on the scope of the company and implementation tasks, it helps to perform various functions:
- providing reference information about employees, the structure of the company and its divisions, the location of the departments (especially important for enterprises with a large staff of specialists);
- integration with highly specialized information systems and services, such as: GIS, PDM or EDMS, CAD, financial and accounting systems and planning, project management systems, file sharing, etc.
But back to the function of the social network in the portal.
1. Most corporate portals allow employees to have their profile in it. Of course, it differs from the social network profile in its classical sense (like on VKontakte and Facebook), but functionally provides the same features and even more:
• Having a profile in the corporate portal, employees can post their photos, and their colleagues comment, share opinions and “like”. This compensates for the lack of communication that they previously searched online, and also helps to strengthen the corporate spirit.
• For ease of use, you can create an employee search function and its coordinates in the office by full name (as practice shows, this option occupies a solid place in the top three finalists). It is especially popular with newbies of the company who still do not know anyone / anything.
• In the profile, you can place information of a professional nature: position, competence, office number and how to go, as well as personal: hobbies, interests, hobbies. The first will reduce the chain of approvals of documents and minimize time costs, and the second - to build friendly, team communication between employees.
2. By analogy with the notification function in social networks, by registering on the portal, an employee will receive timely information on corporate changes and innovations (charters / regulations / regulations / orders), promotions, new and dismissed employees, action plans, notifications about the birthday of colleagues etc. With regard to documents, you can enter the download function with further logging of who / when / from where it downloaded. Thus, the need for explanations “I have got a letter in spam”, “lost in electronic wires”, “I haven't got it”, “I don't know”, etc. will disappear.
3. On the corporate portal, as well as in social networks, it is possible to subscribe to the necessary services: a library, work plans of employees of your department, a vacation schedule, receipt of internal documentation - orders, instructions, regulations, regulations, etc. The main difference is that in social networks users, as a rule, subscribe to groups based on their interests; and on the corporate portal, first of all, starting from his official duties and competencies.
4. Just as in the social network, you can have several chats at the same time, and the effect is obvious: on the corporate portal, an employee can only communicate with colleagues and no one from outside, so the manager can be calm that his specialists are involved in the workflow , not “chatting with friends on abstract topics”.
In addition to the chat in the corporate portal, you can organize an additional “shared”, if, for example, the company does not yet have its own messengers (MS Link, ICQ, etc.). Experts recommend creating such a tool for corporate communication, in which there was the possibility of creating conferences and video. This will enable employees not to resort to the help of third-party services (Skype, QIP, etc.), ensure the involvement of competent specialists in the workflow, and allow them to make the best decision in a short period of time, reducing the approval process.
The above characteristics are not all indicators of the effective use of the social network function in the corporate portal. For each company, they will be purely individual, since they depend on the needs of the organization, its type of activity, number of employees, etc.
As Steve Jobs once said: “If your company is not online, then it does not exist!” The same can be said about social media now! They conquered millions of users who do not leave the computer for days. This is their virtual world, and they live for them! Surely everyone reading this article heard: “Take a photo of me: it's time to change the avatar” or “Hurray, I collected 50 likes!” Etc. And most often to the question “Why are you sitting on VKontakte?”, You can hear the answer: “This is convenient! All my friends are there! You can quickly keep abreast of all events, as well as learn something new, for example, about tomorrow's festival of short films, and follow the link to get all the information about this event, view the list of participants, and also give an answer! ”
The key words are “convenient, operative, communicative (albeit illusory)”. So make the life of your employees "comfortable, efficient and sociable." Give them what social networks give them. Just direct this process to the working track and see how their KPIs take off.
The main thing to remember is that the corporate portal is not entertainment, but, first of all, your work tool for obtaining the necessary information.
Some top managers are more flexible and willing to make concessions to their wards, albeit not fully, but ready. For example, in a company where more than 200 employees work, access to social networks is open only to certain departments (usually associated with a PR company — the marketing department, the press service, the staff of designers and programmers, etc.); in another company, employee access to social networks is closed from 10:00 am and until 5:00 pm, the management policy is tough here: “You can solve all personal questions either before 10:00 am or after 5:00 pm! The rest of the time, use e-mail and mobile phone! ". While in the third company, management and employees unanimously say that they do not think the workflow without the use and “help” of social networks.
In addition to these three groups, there is a fourth one that has managed to combine the pros and cons of social media and establish an effective process for the work of all the employees in their organization. These include companies that have their own corporate portal.
As can be seen from the results of our mini-study, the opinions of the managers were divided: the first took a tough stance - “no social networks, this evil prevents my employees from working effectively, they are wasting time”; the latter are firmly convinced that without the use of social networks their work is impossible and would be less effective; well, a third took a middle position and periodically pamper their specialists with open access to the world social web; and finally, the fourth managed to find the optimal way out of the current “social” situation by introducing a corporate portal.
')
So let's look at the last position in more detail. What is a corporate portal? How does it replace the social network? Why do I need to implement the social network function in the corporate portal?
In simple terms, a corporate portal is an internal website of a company with a large number of various services. The main objective of any corporate portal is to provide access to information relating to the production processes of the enterprise or related. Depending on the scope of the company and implementation tasks, it helps to perform various functions:
- providing reference information about employees, the structure of the company and its divisions, the location of the departments (especially important for enterprises with a large staff of specialists);
- integration with highly specialized information systems and services, such as: GIS, PDM or EDMS, CAD, financial and accounting systems and planning, project management systems, file sharing, etc.
But back to the function of the social network in the portal.
1. Most corporate portals allow employees to have their profile in it. Of course, it differs from the social network profile in its classical sense (like on VKontakte and Facebook), but functionally provides the same features and even more:
• Having a profile in the corporate portal, employees can post their photos, and their colleagues comment, share opinions and “like”. This compensates for the lack of communication that they previously searched online, and also helps to strengthen the corporate spirit.
• For ease of use, you can create an employee search function and its coordinates in the office by full name (as practice shows, this option occupies a solid place in the top three finalists). It is especially popular with newbies of the company who still do not know anyone / anything.
• In the profile, you can place information of a professional nature: position, competence, office number and how to go, as well as personal: hobbies, interests, hobbies. The first will reduce the chain of approvals of documents and minimize time costs, and the second - to build friendly, team communication between employees.
2. By analogy with the notification function in social networks, by registering on the portal, an employee will receive timely information on corporate changes and innovations (charters / regulations / regulations / orders), promotions, new and dismissed employees, action plans, notifications about the birthday of colleagues etc. With regard to documents, you can enter the download function with further logging of who / when / from where it downloaded. Thus, the need for explanations “I have got a letter in spam”, “lost in electronic wires”, “I haven't got it”, “I don't know”, etc. will disappear.
3. On the corporate portal, as well as in social networks, it is possible to subscribe to the necessary services: a library, work plans of employees of your department, a vacation schedule, receipt of internal documentation - orders, instructions, regulations, regulations, etc. The main difference is that in social networks users, as a rule, subscribe to groups based on their interests; and on the corporate portal, first of all, starting from his official duties and competencies.
4. Just as in the social network, you can have several chats at the same time, and the effect is obvious: on the corporate portal, an employee can only communicate with colleagues and no one from outside, so the manager can be calm that his specialists are involved in the workflow , not “chatting with friends on abstract topics”.
In addition to the chat in the corporate portal, you can organize an additional “shared”, if, for example, the company does not yet have its own messengers (MS Link, ICQ, etc.). Experts recommend creating such a tool for corporate communication, in which there was the possibility of creating conferences and video. This will enable employees not to resort to the help of third-party services (Skype, QIP, etc.), ensure the involvement of competent specialists in the workflow, and allow them to make the best decision in a short period of time, reducing the approval process.
The above characteristics are not all indicators of the effective use of the social network function in the corporate portal. For each company, they will be purely individual, since they depend on the needs of the organization, its type of activity, number of employees, etc.
As Steve Jobs once said: “If your company is not online, then it does not exist!” The same can be said about social media now! They conquered millions of users who do not leave the computer for days. This is their virtual world, and they live for them! Surely everyone reading this article heard: “Take a photo of me: it's time to change the avatar” or “Hurray, I collected 50 likes!” Etc. And most often to the question “Why are you sitting on VKontakte?”, You can hear the answer: “This is convenient! All my friends are there! You can quickly keep abreast of all events, as well as learn something new, for example, about tomorrow's festival of short films, and follow the link to get all the information about this event, view the list of participants, and also give an answer! ”
The key words are “convenient, operative, communicative (albeit illusory)”. So make the life of your employees "comfortable, efficient and sociable." Give them what social networks give them. Just direct this process to the working track and see how their KPIs take off.
The main thing to remember is that the corporate portal is not entertainment, but, first of all, your work tool for obtaining the necessary information.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/150314/
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