Just about any pointy-haired boss, at a loss for something relevant to say,
is well advised to demand an accounting of a project’s return on
investment.
Enterprise social networks, or ESNs, get their share of scrutiny. Bosses
want to know the return. Yet that’s odd, when considered another way.
“When was the last time anybody asked you for the ROI on email?” says
Brenda Rick Smith, community manager for Humana’s thriving enterprise social
network. “Have you ever been asked for the ROI of the telephone system?
Probably not. It’s just assumed that there’s value there. It’s just way we
get business done.”
In a session titled “
What Difference Does It Make? Measure the impact of your enterprise
social network
,” Smith explains how to establish ROI. She does this even though her
team’s goal is to reach a point where the value is so obvious, there’s no
need to ask.
Humana’s enterprise social network is called Buzz,
and it coexists with the organization’s intranet, Hive. What’s the
difference? Intranets are more top-down, as they are curated by an editor
or team. An ESN, by contrast, features open conversation among associates.
ESNs also tend to feature community conversation. The community—the ones
who are chatting online—create and post content. They decide what’s
important and what gets talked about.
Humana’s two systems complement each other. People can comment on Hive
through Buzz. Also, all the content published on Hive is pushed through to
Buzz.
“One of the things that’s impressed me so much about our community is how
much trust it demonstrates,” Smith says. “People aren’t afraid to ask
questions. It’s been an empowering thing, and it’s enabled great things to
happen.”
[RELATED: Create a culture that inspires fearless employee innovation
every day.]
Proving value
When Smith introduced the concept of an ESN in a staff meeting, one leader
stood up and chuckled that somebody would have to act as the bad guy, so he
might as well ask the question.
He wanted to know, “How much is this thing going to cost us, and what’s the
ROI going to be?” Smith recalls.
CEO Bruce Broussard jumped in: “Having all 50,000 people on the same page
and moving in the same direction is incredibly important,” Smith recalls.
To establish value, the first layer of metrics includes what might be
called vanity numbers, Smith says. Total accounts number 45,000, or 89
percent of the workforce. (Employees aren’t required to sign up for Buzz.)
Thirteen percent are engaged on the platform, which means they have posted
within the last 30 days. One trend was particularly encouraging: 80 percent
of discussions are business-related.
Users ask, on average, 390 questions per week, meaning the flow of
information has been streamlined. This also points the way to establishing
value of the ESN.
Smith has started assigning value to each answered question. How? Well, one
of Humana’s call centers has established that it costs $4.50 every time
someone calls to get an answer.
Using that benchmark, she tracks how many questions are asked, how many are
answered, and what the answers are, giving her a dollar figure for the help
that brainstorming employees provide to one another.
Another glimpse of the difference Buzz makes is Humana’s engagement score.
Typically, the company places high, with a 93 percent Kenexa Research
Institute score. Among the 13 percent of Buzz participants who are heavy
users, the score rose to 96 percent.
“They also tend to score higher on their job performance assessment,” Smith
says.
One challenge is how to wade into the ocean of content in Buzz, where there
are 2,000 groups and 8,000 to 10,000 conversations, Smith says. Instead,
Humana sought a credible, third-party ROI calculation model that would help
organize the value return.
A study by Forrester provided the
answer. Humana used these areas to prove value:
-
Productivity
, or anything that helps people from across the enterprise to do things
more efficiently, better or faster.
Before Buzz was established, if you had a question, people could ask only
those around them. Now, employees have a platform where their question is
exposed to 50,000 colleagues.
-
Onboarding
. An ESN gives employees places to ask questions as they arise. During
training they are instructed to hop on Buzz if they have any questions.
The trainers also direct them to groups in order to get started.
Retention rises when associates feel empowered to do the job they’re
hired to do.
-
Processes.
Employees can see across silos and peek into each other’s work. This
opens up discussion away from channels like email, “where ideas go to
die,” Smith says.
“If it goes out to Buzz,” she adds, “there’s a chance the person that can
actually help you affect that change is going to see it.”
-
Innovation.
Hive is a place where staffers can crowdsource ideas.
-
Communication.
The platform enables communicators to amplify their messaging across a
broad audience with a streamlined process. The great news for
communicators is that you can get out the word efficiently on an ESN,
rather than wasting time on press releases and their infinite layers of
nitpicking and approvals.
“Would it break your heart,” Smith wryly asks, “if you never had to write
another grip-and-grin press release with a picture of your leader shaking
somebody’s hand at a plant visit?”