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Sep 03 2011

Employee Engagement, Social Media, Technology

A Mobile Strategy for Employee Engagement

I remember clearly that a couple of years ago, a leading mobile handset manufacturer talked about a term called “micro-boredom”. Micro-boredom happens in very small slices of time in which we do not know how to fill the time. And mobile devices, with their applications, provide the escape route. Clearly, I felt that this is going to be an important trend which will mean that mobile devices with a large apps ecosystem would flourish. That’s what is happening today with iPhone and Android devices. But, importantly, micro-boredom is a trend and people do tend to look at mobile devices as a way to fill in the void. And you can possibly see this trend all around you – think about daily commutes, coffee breaks, waiting for someone – the list is endless. In effect, I think that there are multiple opportunities to have the attention of people.

On the other hand, there is some data (though limited to the USA) from a mobile analytics firm, Flurry, to suggest that mobile app usage is not only increasing over time, but is also actually ahead of the traditional web consumption. This reinforces the strength of the mobile medium.

Combining the two trends above, I feel that the most ubiquitous, available, connected and engaging screen is the screen of a smart-phone. It is always with the individual, it is always on and one can push content on it. While a number of companies are using this screen for engaging their customers, I have not come across companies with a mobile strategy for engaging their employees. The possibilities are endless. It could be an enterprise social networking app to keep up with other colleagues or the latest news about the company or to check out what is the next product being developed by the team on the 18th floor! It could be a video app where people could listen to senior leaders articulating the purpose of the company or the new strategy. It could be an app that provides e-learning. It could be an intelligent recommendation engine app that looks across all your enterprise web activities and recommends books for professional development. Or it could all come together in an integrated app. I could go on, but I am sure that we can conjure up even greater possibilities with this.

I think having a mobile strategy for engaging employees is very important already, though it may not be widely recognized as a need. I think this is a powerful medium to connect and engage with employees. If you have any ideas on how to bring a “mobile employee engagement strategy” to life, do write in!

Tagged Android, Employee Engagement, Enterprise 2.0, Flurry, HR, Human Resources, Ideas, Innovation, iPhone, Management, Mobile Computing, Mobile device, Mobile phone, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Trendspotting, Workplace

Jan 19 2011

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Business, Employee Engagement, Human Resources, Leadership, Management, Technology

Workplace Culture and Philosophy at Netflix

I have read a fair bit about Netflix and its culture and love the approach they take towards their workplace and performance. Below is a set of slides that talk about the culture and workplace philosophy at Netflix. The slides are more conducive for reading rather than presenting. I know that many of you might have already seen this, but I couldn’t stop myself from having it on my blog.

Tagged Business, Culture, Employee Engagement, HR, Human Resources, Ideas, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Motivation, Netflix, Performance Management, Recognition, Talent Management, Workplace

Sep 03 2010

Re-inventing Management at the Management Innovation Exchange

The Management Innovation Exchange or MIX is truly a great place for learning about innovative management practices and ideas for reinventing management. I highly recommend it if you have a passion for re-defining the ‘way things work’. In fact, I too contributed a “hack” to make people managers more accountable for their employees by building attrition costs into the managers’ P&L.

I am putting together a small list of hacks and stories which I found most interesting on the forum:

Julian Birkinshaw of the London Business School writes a thought-provoking piece on “What is Your Management Model?” We have all talked about business models, but not much about the management model. How are we going to make choices about people, effort coordination, objectives etc.? How will we balance a traditional vs. a new-age management practice? Ultimately, what’s more important – the business model or the management model? Must Read.

Jordan Cohen of Pfizer tells a great story about how to make people more efficient by taking out the routine work out of their work. Fascinating example of outsourcing low value-adding tasks.

Matt Sholsberg asks us to reinvent the wheel. And for a reason – the wheel itself is over 5000 years old!

So many organizations are still contemplating about social media. How to adopt? How to ingrain? How to measure success? Srinivas Koushik of Nationwide shares the story of how they built the social web into the very fabric of the organization.

Chris Grams shares his experiences and ideas on how can organizations become “open” and engage their employees. Great ideas if you want to build an organization based on trust, transparency, openness and collaboration.

What are your ideas? Or if you like, “hacks” to re-invent management?

Tagged Business, Change Management, Employee Engagement, Enterprise 2.0, Ideas, Innovation, Leadership, Management, Management Innovation Exchange, Motivation, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Trendspotting, Workplace

Jun 21 2010

Management Hack: Share Costs; Share Responsibility

Gary Hamel and others have come up with this great initiative and set up the Management Innovation Exchange (MIX). It is an open innovation project, aiming to bring about a revolution in management. The project is asking individuals to identify barriers, submit stories and suggest “hacks” or bold ideas for tackling management challenges.

I have proposed a hack – let’s look at sharing the cost of attrition between the HR and the individual manager, in order to build accountability for people management and engagement. Unless, people’s “P&Ls” are not affected directly, no one takes notice! Typically, HR bears the costs of attrition (training, recruitment etc.) from its own budget. But, isn’t the individual manager responsible for it too?

You can click on the screenshots below to directly go to my hack on the MIX website. And, please, if you like it, do rate it. And, in any case, I need your comments and inputs to build up this hack.