One of aspect which may make them scary about going social within the workspace is jumping onto technology without much deeper understating of its business context. Before we embark upon various ways and means to deploy social technologies, lets touch base as to why social is important in corporate context and how does it help.

1)    There is a good analogy how Web 1.0 evolved into Web 2.0 and why HR in companies need to do the same as they are stuck at this level 1 and finding no means to move ahead. Web 2.0 evolved when it was getting difficult to feed a large consumer base by few feeders from the back end. So eventually the baton was given in the hands of consumers in various ways to participate and contribute hence serving the need of ever growing information hungry consumer base. Also it provided means for people to contribute and share their knowledge hence making the whole process more vibrant, aggressive and self sustainable. Today, HR needs to get into the same process of participatory approach to make employees the drivers of knowledge and information. Let them get together, discuss and contribute to drive the growth. Let HR be a facilitator from now on.

2)    I believe that corporate space is as vulnerable as any family and the common link here is “people” who make it or break it. It is a matter of harnessing people energy, taking care of their interest and addressing their basic needs for one prime goal to keep the family intact, happy & progressive. Human being is a social animal at core and always wants to share, care, discuss & ideate with others. For example how many of us are not excited sharing what we did on vacation with our friends. I am sure part of our post vacation fun will be lost if we do not share what we did. Today we spend almost more than half of our good life span in offices, so we should not be deprived of our basic urge and necessity of being social – and what better when it helps us driving our productivity.

3)    Again go back to web 1.0 where information upload was the responsibility of the service providers and hence problems as we discussed. How about making all employees as knowledge ambassadors, let them contribute to a common pool. Think about how many unproductive hours will be saved which we lose out in finding that one piece of information at first place. By doing this, not only the company has ever growing pool of knowledge but there are people helping you real time like entire team sitting in call centre ready to assist the callers. This makes information exchange spontaneous.

4)    Taking leverage all connected workforce, you can seek their help in quickly filling up a vacant position & establish your brand in the outside world. However there is no doubt that dedicated teams and external agencies are significant, yet the large employee base can be utilized to facilitate this effort further. Social employer branding and social referral are some of the key concepts which boost the effectiveness and productivity of these processes and initiatives.

5)    I bet no one will deny the sense of pride when a group of people claps for you and it multiplies as the group becomes bigger. This is again a basic trait of humans – recognition motivates us! Bigger the recognition, bigger the motivation and confidence. We need to create a culture of recognition in the workspace in such way that it is big and more visible to people. In a socially connected organization, the platform is big enough to instil a big sense of pride when someone is recognized.

There are so many other equally significant advantages of going social within workspace, which I will touch base in my subsequent blog. I hope, the readers will find it interesting and thoughtful.

Be Appreciative!

Leaders who are humble and appreciate others for their efforts inspire followership. They don’t simply demonstrate their accomplishments but their inspirational character. They take pride in what they have done and achieved but they take more pleasure in motivating others to do similar great things. These leaders showcase a very significant trait – ‘how to smartly handle differentiated opinions to avoid conflicts’.

Conflicts at work rise due many complications such as:

• Miscommunication with colleagues
• Lack of honesty
• Heavy work load leading to Stress
• Warring egos
• Lack of role clarity and authority

Hidden conflicts at work often give rise to complex cold feelings which become easily viral. Employees tend to spend tremendous amount of time on gossiping, retaliating, protecting turf, planning defenses and navigating the drama. According to a research study by CPP Inc. publishers Myers – Briggs Assessment and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict mode Instrument, US employees drain $359 billion in paid hours to resolve unnecessary conflicts. Employees have seen that many disagreements at workplace go out of control leading to personal attacks, sickness and absence, bullying and project failure. This is a tremendous blow to employee morale and their productivity begins to go down significantly.

Social appreciation is a nutritious diet for organizations to adopt for a healthy lifestyle. Social Reward and Recognition makes employees become more disciplined towards handling peer pressure & conflicts at workplace.

Follow these simple ways to reduce situations leading to arguments at workplace or best encounter them smartly:

1. Be appreciative of others and their efforts. Every individual tries to give his best his way. Appreciate it and don’t pin point their mistakes in front of others.
2. Socially reward good performances but also occasionally recognize and praise efforts that were not successful enough. Purposeful organizations value their people for better or worse.
3. Practise a culture of appreciation: Employees are more knowledgeable about the contributions, behaviours and achievements of their colleagues. So why not give them ample opportunities to reward such contributions and achievements in a social atmosphere?
4. Give genuine feedbacks in a casual environment and not in a board room. Give them ample opportunities to bond, develop trust and builds good rapport while taking feedback.
5. Give them their due credit: When people see that they are being put first they feel happy, enriched, satisfied, and they derive meaning from their work. Make people feel that they are important and what they do is something bigger than them.
6. Healthy acknowledgements become part of an office culture as all conversations are kept transparent and clean. Go ahead! Thank your colleagues more frequently, that too in front of others.
7. It’s safe to fail: It’s ok to fail once in a while. Let them take up tough challenges, think out of the box and figure out ways to overcome it. Reward employees who take risks and recognize people who overcome challenges.

1. Inability to create great impression at work: Many respondents feel that people prefer to stick around people who have a great impression at workplace, either cause of heir looks or intellect levels.

2. Inability to handle complex situations at workplace: It turns out that many employees fear the very thought of getting involved in trivial issues to get it resolved as such events turn into aggressive arguments that later turn into ego wars.

3. Inability to accept negative feedback for performance: Many supervisors are very blunt when it comes to giving performance feedback. The same is the case with their employees.

4. Witnessing competition in your team: Employee feel that they work very hard and should be given their due credit for it. A credit which is completely theirs and not to share.

5. Risk of creating a negative impression at work: Many people at work do not want to innovate their way of work style as they consider it a big risk that might create a negative impression among their peer group that might raise several objections.

6. Afraid to fail: Employees feel that if their experimented ways to achieve their targets fail, they might endure severe consequences and not be appreciated for their efforts. They get worried about how their decision will affect the feelings of other people

So, how do you plan to cope up with these anxieties?

1. Sincerely START APPRECIATING your peers for their every little contribution or any helpful behavior.

2. Recognize your colleagues, even your boss for that matter, for his so called smart actions and clever opinions at work. He would CONFIDE in you more in future conversations.

3. A culture of Social Appreciation creates lots of FRIENDS at work. Coffee becomes a good excuse though as competitive feelings go for a toss!

4. With lots of friends at work, employees are NEVER AFRAID of creating a negative impression at work.

5. And when it comes to delivering your best, you are never afraid to experiment with your efforts because you are not afraid to FAIL.

GenY is a cluster of ambition driven young enthusiasts. So what are some of their motivating forces for an ideal workplace in 2012? A compassionate supervisor? Sound company politics? Social media access or personal brand value? Read more and find out.

1. Great corporate culture driven by career growth opportunities, clarity on job profile, equitable pay package, proximity to work, empathetic supervisor etc are some of the top rated necessitates that motivates GenY to stick around longer.

2. Working for a top brand is now perceived as a dynamic that drives one’s social status and personal brand identity. The millenials want to work for socially aware companies that allow them to make a difference and value their ideas.

3. Creating a personal difference at work is what drives GenY strongly today. And pursuits like perfecting their entrepreneurial skills and breaking away from traditional stereotypical jobs allows them to do just that.

4. Individual achievement is what the millennials today pay more heed to owing to their current gadget freek lifestyle. They believe more in self-growth as opposed to propagating teamwork and achieving organizational goals. Although they like working with friends, they still prefer and crave for individual reward and recognition.

5. Social media access during the work day and permission to respond to emails via smart phones over the weekend is very necessary to retain the interest of youngsters today.

6. Today’s youngsters desire to work from their preferred location without restrictions on the number of hours swipped.

7. GenY is in constant look out for work cultures that propagate virtual work flexibilities with equitable pay.

8. GenY leans towards a creative business approach. They tend to challenge straitjacketed norms of thinking. They want to understand the past success stories but simultaneously apply their own fundamentals to meet the current demands.

9. The millennials today prefer a work environment that lets them do things their way. Moreover this generation is tech savvy and leverages the same to bring about innovative approaches in the business.

Even the most supportive workplaces provide daily challenges. No matter what atmosphere your organization provides to inspire employees, you can, within the perimeters of your areas of responsibility, and even beyond encourage your employees by creating a work environment that fosters and calls forth employees to love their work.

Simply embrace these codes of conduct as your daily chore at work:

1. Give them the needed attention: Your employees will perform better only when their efforts seek your attention. This silent motivator boosts their performance 10 times.

2. Communicate openly, honestly and frequently: Hold town hall meetings frequently, try to attend department meetings regularly. Communicate often by wandering around work areas, demonstrating interest in their work and socially appreciating their skills and efforts.

3. Encourage your employees to talk, share ideas, and discuss their concerns and anxieties. Even though you might not be able to resolve them, simply listening to their apprehensions psychologically provides great relief.

4. Make them feel important: Let your employees feel part of the in-crowd at work who knows what is happening; who have sufficient necessary information to take their own decisions about their work.

5. Limit the seniority barrier: Communicate each day with every employee who reports to you. Even a pleasant “good morning” or a motivating ‘pat on the back’ enables them to trust and engage with you.

6. Prepare them and be prepared: Encourage employees to come prepared for weekly meetings with questions, requests for support, troubleshooting ideas for their work, and information that will keep you from being blindsided or dissatisfied by a failure to produce on schedule or as committed.

7. Celebrate with them: Express enough care and happiness to your employees even on their life’s personal experiences and celebrating moments such as marriage, anniversaries, new babies, vacation trips, family health and personal interests.

As we had big pockets to blow and an excitement of recognition, made a plan of shopping and leaving aside the hassles of going out in summers, facing scary jams and struggle of finding a parking slot (as we found certain places where we could redeem those passes at a stale website of Sodexo, which seemed to have not been updated for long as the contact numbers of merchants were not reachable). For us, shopping spree many a times has proven Murphy’s Law – When you plan to buy something specific, you don’t get it otherwise you keep seeing things similar when you do not intend or short of pocket. This happened couple of times until we decided to let this whole coupon thing rest for sometime somewhere in the drawer of our bed room chest.

Later for some time, my wife had quickies about coupons that we have not bought anything yet and while she cursed Sodexo and her company at few instances during our discussions, I started questioning the viability of gifting coupons as an option to reward someone. There is definitely a possibility of saving some pennies in govt. tax but is it the only thing that employee will be happy about.
The recent news that many retailers including big and small ones have stopped taking these coupons and gift passes pushed the final nail in the coffin. Though I got to know about it from twitter but I got more conscious to write when my wife called me to tell about it. As she was sad…….. I was more convinced that this Coupon and Gift Pass business is farce as it does not bring smile to anyone – company has to pay in advance to these coupon companies, companies get into trouble of distribution and tracking of them, merchants are not happy as their margins are squeezed and Coupon companies are not paying them their dues in time and the worst hit is an employee who apparently was the sole benefiter of the whole transaction. What if the recognition becomes instantaneous and the redemption of reward is also made quick and easy for the end user with freedom of choice (www.triggero.com). Lets try to see the whole chain of events and evaluate if the company achieved ROI on this reward. I would say NO because the whole intent of making recipient happy got lost in the business workflows.

People love to share their personal and professional experiences, learnings and contributions at work. Believe us! This very nature is their one true motivation and it’s high time it got its due recognition. TriggerO is celebrating this spirit of appreciation at workplace by Celebrating 2012 Employee Engagement Year.

We would be rolling out some amazing contests and exciting activities to make this year special for you at work.What more! We would be indulging you in exciting tips and interesting tricks to drive your employee engagement efforts in 2012.

For starters, here’s a kick start for your New Year.

7 ways to have a great start at work in 2012

When December gets into full swing, it gets harder and harder to turn over the switch from holiday festivities to emails and spreadsheets. Here’s a kick start for your New Year at work:

1. Dress up your new look and style at work: This new year gift yourself a personality makeover that you always wanted. Bid adieu to your old self and welcome the New you- smart, bold and confident.

2. Revamp your workspace: Clear off your table, get rid of the junk in your drawer, organize your files and equip yourself with the tools necessary to get your job done.

3. Prepare yourself for combat: Make sure you are ready with the leadership tools needed to win the battle this year. Clear your priority list, understand what is expected from you and take accountability for your work.

4. Strive to become an asset for your organization: Don’t mess it up like last year. Empower yourself by setting small goals with measurable results that drive your goals forward. Make sure your boss in the loop always.

5. Micro-manage relationships this season: Be a sport! Give your teammates their due credit for a job well done. Appreciate them in front of your seniors. It leaves a big impact in their mind.
6. Appreciate it, if you like it: This new year make sure you recognize your peers for doing great work or exhibiting good behavior as often as you can and encourage your team to recognize each other.
7. Visualize your career growth this year: Take a look back at 2011 and stock your accomplishments before you crack open the champagne, it may help you to think about your goals for the coming year.

1) Think innovation and nothing else as this is the only things required by people out there
2) Champion the art of people engagement
3) Co-create with our clients as we have been doing for long as this is the only way to know what they want
4) Do not slip off an edge as we plan to roll out incremental innovations as new features
5) Lets compliment not compete as we are ready to shake hands for complimenting value for our client

A recent article by Economic Times has revealed that in a conscious effort to retain and motivate top performers, Korean consumer electronics goods company LG has decided to give 240-250% of basic monthly pay as festive bonus this year whereas Samsung may pay more than 200%.

Monetary incentives alone never motivate or build engagement in an organization. Many organizations make this blunder of spending stupendous amounts on rewarding employee efforts and behaviors with materialistic incentives.

If your employees are not engaged with your brand, it makes no difference to them if you gift them an ipad or a Rolex, they will still shift if they find a more rewarding opportunity in the market. In a recent article covered by Forbes, 74% of top performers would consider leaving if offered a better job environment.

Retaining top performers is a crucial challenge. Today the employees, who are more or less self made entrepreneurs, demand respect, growth opportunities, independent and fast work culture and most of all ‘recognition’ for job well done. They need a socially rewarding environment to survive, thrive and grow at a pace faster than their counterparts.

Organizations need to do some serious rework on their ‘Strategic Recognition’ programs and focus on employee engagement. According to a recent survey by Towers Watson, by increasing 15% on employee engagement strategies, your operation margin increases by 2%. It’s high time the big giants spent their billions on something more socially rewarding and productive for their employees and self.

We have released a new version which empowers users to share recognition received at workplace on outside social networks. Installed in shared workspaces, it makes sure the recognition crucial to helping employees stay motivated and teams stay on track and perform better, reaches beyond the intra network.

TriggerO’s Social Feeds displays successes, accomplishments and updates in real-time on social profile walls, instantly transforming a plain simple recognition at work into a valuable engagement tool. It requires no installation and managers can get started immediately. Social Feeds automatically reflects every reward notification on TriggerO wall, making it very flexible to share with hundreds of people outside your professional network. The new feature is available for free to customers of TriggerO’s Enterprise and Advantage Plans.

When employees perform at work, they are keen to share their achievements, recognition and appreciation with their friends and family too. We built TriggerO to help companies create a social yet collaborative workplace that thrived on a culture of appreciation. TriggerO Social Feeds breaks down the barriers, and creates an open, transparent workplace. It lets you share your credibility with increased visibility, celebrate success publicly, perform fast, get instant feedback and comments for your feed.

With TriggerO social feeds, companies can do their branding to attract talent from outside by showcasing their work culture, policies, employee benefits and so many other aspects related to company’s vision and goals. Now they do not have to be worried about one external agency doing their branding as all the employees become company’s brand ambassadors through TriggerO.

I will touch base this powerful tool in its various powerful avatars in my next write-up, till then please keep providing your valuable feedbacks to us.