Mark White at Better Business Blogging has a fairly dispassionate presentation of the discussion among HR departments on the use of blogs. Blogs and HR: which HR manager is right? It's likely still a discussion in many companies. The 2 sides are, as usual, good and evil. Mark frames it like this:
EVIL. ....blogs and social network sites are nothing more than gimmicks and toys used by the younger generation and for time wasting by chatting with friends.
GOOD....they are tools which have real potential to help HR managers in their work by improving internal communications and employee engagement, as well as changing how recruitment is carried out.
And Mark patiently walks through the positions with each side with links to supporting examples and case studies to arrive at being in favor of:
...embracing these communication media will reap rich rewards for companies though I’m also all in favour of ensuring the confidentiality of company information. Harness the energy, passion and ideas rather than try to suppress them and you’ll be onto a real winner!
That last sentence is the whole point, the gist, the raison d 'etre, the joie di vivre...Harness the energy, passion and ideas rather than try to suppress them and you’ll be onto a real winner!
Smart companies, winning companies, realize the informal, non-corporate, real conversation within their company and with their customers is their chief source of communicating their brand, realizing innovations, inspiring both employees and customers, creating a passionate brand of highest loyalty among all, generating inspiring amounts of word-of-mouth and referrals which only serve to drive sales while lowering advertising costs...
Companies who strive to stifle or control this discussion are misguided in their efforts. They should first address why so many of their employees have so many bad things to say. The issue isn't how employees share their stories, it's what the stories are, and why they share those stories.
Granted, that approach, the one that tries in vain to muzzle their employees is technically the correct approach. In a sadly, self-fulfilling way, companies who've actively and consistently alienated first their employees and then their customers are right to be concerned about what's said in their name, with their name, about their name. I guess you could give them kudos for creating a situation of their own making and then finding a solution that only serves to perpetuate that problem while allowing them to congratulate themselves on their solution and its justification. It's the loop that just keeps on....going.
Why are they worried about what their employees say? Could it be that they know they've alienated any and all who walk through their corporate front door? In lieu of a solution to create an engaged and passionate employee and company, they choose instead to control them? Maybe they should look at their turnover among employees.
Do they really think a corporate policy will censor their employees from saying it at lunch, at home, to their friends, neighbors, customers even? Maybe if they gave them something good to say....then they would want the employees to blog about it.
Harness the energy, passion and ideas rather than try to suppress them and you’ll be onto a real winner! Those companies who achieve this create their own loop that keeps on giving and going, and going and giving. More passion and energy created that inspires more ideas and more conversation and more solutions. Greater cohesion is seen. Customers are more inspired and loyal. They tell more people about your stuff. That means more sales, more ideas, more revenues. And more employees inspired by this engaged place where they can fulfill their dreams...And the darn thing just keeps on going. The everready bunny's got nothing on this energy source.
Blogs are just conversation. No more, no less. From conversation comes ideas and solutions and rants and peeves. Some people are scared of the latter never being able to inspire the former.
Great post, Mark. Thanks.