Current State of Social Engagement Inside The Large Enterprise | Engagement @ Scale Report

Engagement(@(Scale(in(the(Large(Enterprise!

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Current'State'of'Social'Engagement'inside'the'Large'Enterprise'August'2012'!!!!!!

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2012!Engagement!@!Scale!Survey!Report!

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About'the'Social'Business'Council' Established in 2009, the Social Business Council (SBC) is a member-driven peer forum of business professionals from large organizations that are engaged in an enterprise-wide social business initiative. Members share best practices, advice, encouragement and experiential insights regarding every aspect of social business transformation. The SBC includes industry representation from a variety of G2000 sectors including:

• Accounting, Professional Services • Aerospace & Defense • Automotive • Biotechnology • Consumer Products Goods • Chemicals • Education • Electronics • Energy • Engineering and Construction • Entertainment • Financial Services • Food & Beverage • Health Care • Information Technology • Insurance • Manufacturing • Media/Publishing • Oil & Gas • Pharmaceuticals • Professional Services • Retail • Science • Semiconductor Design and Production • Telecommunications • Travel

The SBC specializes in shared experiences of the largest enterprises in the world. It is the largest peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing community for active Social Business practitioners.


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Introduction' Large enterprises began looking seriously at internal social collaboration platforms approximately three years ago, in 2009. Among the early adopters, considerable effort and expense has been invested in realizing the benefits that large-scale social collaboration can deliver to a global workforce. Chief among those benefits is a desire to wire together and expose the institutional know-how of its extensive employee base. The challenge with introducing social collaboration software is not limited to the new technology itself, but rather with introducing new modes of behavior for corporate employees. Early adopters repeatedly emphasize how the cultural aspects of the social collaboration journey are far more rigorous and demand serious attention. The companies that participated in our survey are very large (billion-dollar) enterprises, most with a global presence on several continents. This survey asks the question, “How far along are the leading early adopters?” More importantly, how do the largest enterprises in the world compare their progress against their peers?

Methodology' We ran a simple 10–question survey against our membership. We received 70 responses, but eliminated all firms whose worldwide revenues were under one billion USD in 2011 revenues. We also eliminated survey responses that were incomplete. The resultant data set constituted 56 responses. The survey ran from July 9 until August 14, 2012.

Size'of'Company'by'Employee'Count'and'Revenue' The smallest company in our survey had 4,000 employees. The largest had 1.8M. The scatter chart below demonstrates the majority of responses for company size fell roughly below $100B and less than 500K employees. The smallest company had $2B in 2011 revenues; the largest, $375B.


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Countries'Represented' The survey respondents contributed primarily from the US and Europe.

Survey'Questions' We asked the following ten questions:


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Responses!

Workforce'Penetration' We wanted to know if the social engagement initiative was targeted at the entire workforce.

Access'to'the'Platform' We then wanted to know what percentage of the workforce has a login today to the social platform among those whom the platform is designed to serve.


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The largest modal frequency was the 100% mention, but it’s important to note that less than 25% of the workforce was also mentioned frequently. It’s also worth noting that simply having a login does not signify active engagement. Several enterprise social platforms support LDAP integration with the company directory, so all employees by default have a profile page and account automatically. We then wanted to know if the percentage of the workforce that has access was less than 100%, we wanted to know why. The following are some of the responses we received that were typical of most participants:

• Only knowledge-workers have access. Plant, factory floor workers and contractors do not have access.

• Certain jobs do not use PCs, have email addresses or network profiles. • Certain countries have restrictions. • Company is in the pilot phase with a test group. Just embarking on social journey. • The platform is opt-in and requires initial training and/or education on why to use it.

Ownership' We wanted to know who “owns” social within the enterprise. We asked respondents to list multiple departments if ownership was distributed among several areas.

It’s not surprising that the majority of members indicated IT is either leading or is actively involved in the social collaboration strategy of the company. Yet, that nearly 40% of members indicated corporate communications is actively involved or owns the platform is viewed positively. Social platforms are becoming the de facto channel for mass information distribution and sharing among the enterprises that are progressing fastest with full-scale adoption.


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Popular'Social'Components' Our members were interested to know in rank order of importance, which elements of the social collaboration platform was most widely in use.

Engagement'Snapshot'!Member’s assessment of true engagement was the most eye-opening survey response we received:


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More than half, 57%, of the survey respondents pegged a mere 10-20% of their eligible workforce as active. There were no members who indicated 100% of their eligible employees were active on the platform. Many industry pundits and insiders frequently state how early we are in the market, but this new data suggests some very good news, as well as some bad news. The good news is this market has a long way to go before it moves from innovator and early adopter status to early majority. Understand that members of the Social Business Council are among the earliest early adopters. When we discuss how long it will take to reach full deployment, estimates range from five to ten years. This fact was recently reinforced by a recently released report by the McKinsey Global Institute,1!!

“The%speed%and%scale%of%adoption%of%social%technologies%by%consumers%has%exceeded%that%

of%previous%technologies.%Yet,%consumers%and%companies%are%far%from%capturing%the%full%

potential%impact%of%these%technologies…Today,%only%5%percent%of%all%communications%and%

content%use%in%the%United%States%takes%place%on%social%networks.”%

!Of course, our data collection represents social collaboration primarily intra-enterprise vs. external or extended enterprise. With the expansion of social collaboration beyond and through the firewall, the macro market opportunity becomes recognizably expansive.

The bad news is our members express frustration regarding the slow pace of adoption and engagement. Most point to the need for more investment in the soft side of the business, namely education, awareness campaigns, and traditional change management. There is also an expressed interest in use-case-based legacy platform integration.

This sentiment is also reinforced in the recent McKinsey report:

“Capturing%the%full%potential%value%from%the%use%of%social%technologies%will%require%

transformational%changes%in%organizational%structures,%processes,%and%practices,%as%well%

as%a%culture%compatible%with%sharing%and%openness.%As%with%earlier%waves%of%IT%

innovation,%it%could%take%years%for%the%benefits%to%be%fully%realized,%because%these%

management%innovations%must%accompany%technological%innovations.%The%greatest%

benefits%will%be%realized%by%organizations%that%have%or%can%develop%open,%nonHhierarchical,%

knowledgeHsharing%cultures.”%

Bottom line: Although full-scale adoption and engagement is reported as slow in the large enterprise, there is ample opportunity for growth and innovation to accelerate the pace of adoption. Creative new technology and organizational design approaches are positioned well to meet this need.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!The!social!economy:!Unlocking!value!and!productivity!through!social!technologies,!McKinsey!&!Company,!July!2012.!


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Integration'of'Social'Disciplines'

We were interested to learn whether social practices inside and outside of the enterprise were being meaningfully integrated in any way. Similar to our findings regarding the engagement status, the majority of members indicated there was no meaningful integration to date among the survey participants.

In aggregate, essentially 96% of the respondents indicated there was no meaningful integration between what the company was doing externally (e.g., social media outreach, customer and supplier communities) and internally with their social collaboration platforms. That said, 45% indicated there was intent to explore this at a future date.2

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!2!Respondents!answered,!“Not!yet,!Not!at!this!time,!On!the!roadmap,!Not!for!the!time!being,!etc.)!


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Additional'Insights' We asked if there were any additional comments members could add regarding their current state of engagement. The comments below are representative of the variety of responses we received.

• It’s been more difficult to engage employees than previously assessed! • Change management is hard; keep fighting! :) • Work in progress. IT doesn't understand the true 'social' collaboration. • Lots and lots of lurkers, but small percentage of people brave enough to participate. Middle

management is the biggest barrier and the least willing to adopt it or see value in it. • It is growing, but extremely difficult to grow beyond 50%. Change management and

investment of resources to handhold the remaining audience for adoption is not available. I think we are at least 3 years away from complete adoption after being in production for 3 years.

• As one of the advocates for the installation of the platform, it is frustrating how it is not being promoted internally. Its akin to having a telephone system installed where only 10% of employees get a phone or are even told about the existence of phones!

• It is changing the way we work and truly flattening the organization. Trust and transparency are key to the success of this effort.

• Leadership is lacking involvement. The culture here has fear of retribution. You do not have permission NOT to know. Employees rarely discuss issues or ask for help openly. Silos are prominent. We are focused on changing those behaviors and mindsets but need the support from the leadership team in order to move the needle.

• Huge potential - conservative adoption - top management reluctance to "release" another new initiative. Traditional challenges in a somewhat conservative industry and company

• Adoption is very slow. Users are having a hard time understanding the value of the initiative for their daily work.

• Adoption has been influenced at different times by regulatory control, confidentiality concerns and internal transformation pressures.

Summary' As expected, change moves slowly through the billion-dollar, multinational enterprise. Yet the realization that such a large percentage of our survey participants still have yet to interest 80-90% of their targeted user base in working socially and collaboratively on social collaboration platforms is illuminating. From our vantage point, this report accurately reflects the state of current engagement among the largest enterprises in the world. It’s important to note, however, that our members collectively view their initiatives as successful. None have indicated abandoning the trajectory toward full deployment or scaling back their initiatives. This report brings to light their concerns, yet does not diminish their optimism toward ultimately transforming their organizations to become truly, end-to-end social businesses.3

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3!See!Social!Maturity!at!Scale:!From!Evangelism!to!Engagement,!Dachis!Group,!June!14,!2012,!http://bit.ly/PNUkpt!

Current State of Social Engagement Inside The Large Enterprise | Engagement @ Scale Report

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