What is the untapped potential of social media? A recent study performed by McKinsey Global Institute entitled “The Social Economy: Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies,” maintains that by using social technology, companies can boost productivity by as much as 25%. While a growing number of organizations use collaboration software, only a small handful utilize it to maximum effectiveness.
According to McKinsey, companies continue to use social tools to reach customers in new and innovative ways, but much more value lies in internal applications of private social media. Internal social media helps companies’ address the consumer and develop market insights that might otherwise be impossible to attain, but the primary value of internal social media lies in enhancing communications, sharing gained knowledge, and collaboration within your enterprise.
The study identified four core areas in which collaboration software could most effectively increase productivity:
- Reading and answering e-mail. Approximately 28%, or about 11.2 hours, of the average interaction worker’s workweek is spent reading and answering e-mails. The study indicates that because of private social media’s ability to make searchable content out of all posted messages, the amount of time spent with e-mail can be reduced by as much as 35%, or about 4 hours.
- Searching and gathering information. 19%, about 7.6 hours, of the average interaction worker’s work hours are spent searching for internal information only certain employees possess. Again, because of enterprise social media’s ability to store all messages as searchable content, this figure can be reduced by nearly 35% to about 4.9 hours per week, which amounts to a savings of 2.7 hours per week per interaction worker.
- Communicating and collaborating internally. Using phones, e-mail, and in-person interaction to communicate consumes about 5.6 hours of the average interaction worker’s workweek. Because you can directly message anyone in the organization without cluttering up an e-mail inbox with a collaboration tool, your organization can realize up to a 35% time savings, or about 2.0 hours per interaction worker.
- Role-specific tasks. Tasks specific to a particular job consume the most amount of time for any role, averaging out to about 15.6 hours per week. Internal social media increases the productivity of these tasks by about 15%, or approximately 2.3 hours per week. One way they enhance job-specific productivity lies in their ability to centralize all job functions at one hub, so your employees begin using all other applications there.
These are the primary ways in which you can unlock value with your collaboration software at just about any workplace. If you add up all the hours that potentially can be saved, the total is about 11 hours, or slightly more than 25% of the 40-hour workweek. What could your organization accomplish with that additional level of efficiency?
Before you start increasing productivity, you have to get your employees to begin actively using your social network. Learn tips for enhancing employee usage in 5 Tips for Improving Employee Engagement.
