1. Social media can enhance workplace communication by fostering personal connections, improving collaboration, and facilitating informal employee discussions.
2. It also adds value to employee recognition by making achievements visible and appreciated across the organization, boosting motivation and engagement.
3. It can support faster and more inclusive decision-making, improving productivity and engagement.
4. Instead of banning social media, organizations should incorporate it into their communication strategy and set boundaries to harness its potential for building a positive work culture.
Organizations have been focusing on leveraging social media for business growth and promotion. However, they often overlook the potential of social media for effective communication at the workplace and strengthening employee-to-employee relationships.
Social media can play an important role in bringing the workforce closer together and enhancing collaboration and communication between employees. It can also simplify the process of information sharing besides encouraging enhanced employee engagement.
Organizations’ lack of interest in harnessing social media often stems from their fear of employees’ misuse.
Often, organizations believe that giving employees freedom to use social media at the workplace can reduce their efficiency and productivity.
They believe that employees would spend significant time interacting with their friends and updating their status on social networking sites.
Hence, it would adversely impact their productivity and efficiency.
Many organizations have completely banned access to social media for their employees, which can be counterproductive.
Moreover, most employees access social media through smartphones, so banning such access on the corporate network might not work.
So rather than curbing social media usage, organizations should find ways to use it for effective workplace communication.
Social media platforms can help improve workplace communication and contribute to developing a positive work culture in different ways:
A few of these are discussed in brief as follows:
The various social media platforms provide an informal environment for employees to connect and interact personally.
Hence, it makes it easier for co-workers to connect and work towards building strong bonds.
Employees find it easier to share ideas and opinions with co-workers, with whom they already interact freely on social media.
This, in turn, results in better coordination and collaboration between employees, especially those working in different teams within the organization.
For example, employees in different teams may learn from Facebook that they share similar hobbies or interests.
Using social media to recognize employee efforts and achievements helps in adding value to the entire process.
It also can open up channels of communication between co-workers.
When employees are congratulated by their peers on social media, it enhances their motivation significantly. It also increases their willingness to interact with less familiar co-workers.
This results in breaking barriers between individuals and teams, besides enhancing the overall engagement of the workforce.
For example, when an employee shares a post on LinkedIn about a recognition they received, it often gets many likes and comments from coworkers and even ex-colleagues.
Employees often find it challenging to discuss work-related issues with co-workers or supervisors formally.
Hence, in such cases, social media sites provide a good platform to discuss such issues informally with the concerned people.
The very nature of social networking sites makes it easier for them to have an informal conversation about serious work issues.
A significant chunk of the corporate workforce already does this through WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
Organizations can also consider building internal social networks to enhance corporate communication, saving time and money.
These internal networks can be used for online meetings, discussions, etc.
This can facilitate faster decision-making and also enhance the overall productivity of the workforce.
It can also be an effective forum to increase employee involvement by seeking opinions and feedback.
Most organizations often use WhatsApp and other social media platforms for communication and collaboration.
Social media can be a great source of valuable information for employees to share with their co-workers.
They can connect with experts to get advice and opinions on challenging technical or business problems.
Also, by sharing this information with their teams, they can spread the knowledge further.
This, in turn, can help develop the workforce’s capability and effectiveness.
Employees sharing articles of common interest on LinkedIn or Twitter can help improve the organization’s overall knowledge and capability.
Also, social media can allow employees to relax and refresh their minds without venturing too far from their workstations.
They can enjoy such breaks without disturbing their co-workers or indulging in other useless activities.
Most importantly, any data gathered during such breaks can improve employee communication at the workplace.
This information can be used by employees to share a laugh, improve general knowledge and even to simply entertain one another.
Hence, it can help create an informal work environment and make employees more comfortable spending long hours at work.
Organizations need to set boundaries for social media usage—the Dos and Don’ts—as part of their policy and monitor its usage.
Social media is here to stay and is an essential aspect of almost every employee’s life.
Most organizations have overlooked the potential of social media for effective communication in the workplace.
They should harness social media to enhance the freedom of expression among employees.
This can help them develop a great workplace culture based on mutual trust, understanding, and team spirit.
Rather than completely banning social media usage, organizations should look to make social media integral to their internal communication policy. Such a measure can provide a multitude of benefits for the organization.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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