Please read our previous post in this series to get a background to the following:
Tapping into your employees' social networks online, is an excellent way to bring knowledge from these networks, into you organization.
Your employees' willingness to share this information internally, however, will depend on how broadly they view their own personal and professional development and your organization, in relation to both.
If your employees understand that their professional development is not limited to what they learn within the walls of your organization, but among their various interactions within professional organizations outside your organization...
...and you make the process of sharing easy, then you can gain a wealth of knowledge from these employees.
Interactions at professional organizations need not be limited to physical meetings, but can include virtual meetings, as many of these organizations have a group/forum page online, where members can discuss issues affecting their industry.
Additionally, there are professional discussion groups, online, such as those on Google Groups or Yahoo Groups or professional social networks on LinkedIn and Facebook that employees can belong to.
(Social networks are Internet-based networks, where people with similar interests gather and are able to interact and share information, expertise and knowledge).
Employees bringing back and applying knowledge gleaned, doesn't mean spying, it's a way of improving their performance on the job...as they'll feel more confident with their abilities and expertise, when these are challenged online, by peers whom they respect.
However, this knowledge need not be unidirectional - from their social network to you.
Your employees would have gained expertise, within your organization, that they can share, within certain bounds, of course...
However company secrets (including formulae) and ways/methods of doing things (intellectual property) should not be willingly shared, online.
This should be made clear to employees, so that they can feel free in sharing without legal penalties.
This knowledge-sharing and networking should be especially-encouraged in knowledge-based industries...which were traditionally professional services e.g. consulting and in manufacturing...
But which now include all industries, if you look at knowledge, broadly.
Sharing knowledge builds awareness and recognition of your company brand, as knowledgeable employees, make your organization look good, online.
Especially when they can boast of benefits your customers derive from your product-service solutions.
Sure, there are scouts on these networks who'll seek to hire your employees...but guess what? there's nothing stopping your scouts from hiring knowledgeable experts on these networks, as well.
Observing these experts' interactions online, gives you the chance to see:
1) Whether or not they are truly knowledgeable, in areas that can benefit your organization
2) How they are viewed by their peers
3) Whether or not they'd quickly assimilate into your work environment...based on their online personas and personalities.
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You should, however, as part of your training program, train your employees re how to effectively use these networks and make it a point of having social network meetings wherein which employees can officially share, knowledge gleaned from same.
Since these networks are conduits for sharing expertise...where theories can be questioned, tested and resolved, they substantially increase the awareness, intelligence and confidence of your employees.
Thus cutting down your own organization's time to market new products and circumventing trial and error steps that may have already been discounted online.
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Well, this is it for now.
Please stay tuned for our last post in the series, " Helping Your Employees to Self-Learn", where I'll show you how your employees' ability to innovate, can leap-frog your organization, far ahead of its competitors.
(I would like to thank NAYEEM for the use of his Flickr inset photo, above).
Gillian
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