Enterprise Social Networks: Why You Need Governance

Rolling out an internal social network cannot be done without putting governance in place. Essential for setting the framework, it clarifies from the outset where the enterprise social network sits within your ecosystem of tools, and supports the uses expected of it.

       

Establishing Good Governance to Set the Framework

Very often, companies that choose to bring in an enterprise social network already have a whole array of tools at their disposal. In this rich, fast-moving environment, every new tool can call into question the legitimacy of the previous ones, because it is in the nature of technology to keep challenging existing habits. So what place will the enterprise social network occupy among all these tools? In this context, clarifying how it works and setting a framework through good governance is essential.

Read also: Leading by Example

When rolling out an internal social network, good governance matters all the more because the tool arrives in a setting where the existing tools may already have features that support collaborative practices. Those features can end up overlapping with the enterprise social network. The aim, then, is to avoid any collision or duplication, which would be counterproductive in an approach that seeks, on the contrary, to encourage participation and foster new collaborative practices and attitudes. In that sense, governance is what makes it possible to think through how the enterprise social network will be used.

Good Governance to Remove Friction and Drive Employee Adoption

The enterprise social network holds a unique place within the organisation. It is neither a business tool in the way the intranet was, dedicated to internal communication, nor a personal tool in the way email is. Designed to connect everyone in an organisation, it is generally deployed across the board, even if it is introduced gradually. It also deeply changes working habits, bringing in new collaborative practices based on exchange and on transparent information.

Read also: Build Buy-in Among Your Employees

It is therefore essential that the organisation communicates its vision for the tool, both to legitimise the choice and, above all, to get ahead of potential obstacles. Consider email: the habit is so ingrained that nobody questions whether they are allowed to use their inbox. That is not necessarily the case with an enterprise social network. If the organisation fails to communicate clearly about how the platform should be used, it opens the door to uncertainty.

Good Governance to Develop Usage

The task governance has to take on, then, is to communicate clearly about how the internal social network should be used. That can take the form of a document such as a charter or a set of overall recommendations, setting out the expected practices along with the limits to respect.

• In some organisations, for instance, regulatory constraints prohibit the sharing of certain documents. It is therefore important to specify what type of content can or cannot be shared.
• In other companies, documents may be hosted on a third-party platform. The question that then arises is whether documents will be hosted on the platform, or simply attached through calls to other solutions.
• Sometimes it may also be necessary to stop using certain tools. Using email in parallel and systematically for the same purpose as an internal social network, for example, is clearly counterproductive, since everyone stays in their own habits.

It is clear here that the question of usage is central, the enterprise social network being a tool that centralises all the others, sometimes replacing some of them and sometimes simply complementing them. Because what is really at stake is the way information is shared. The enterprise social network gives content significant visibility in an organisation where everyone is a publisher. That is entirely different from an intranet, for instance, which is a service that reviews content before publishing information. The document thus drawn up sets out the rules, so as to make known the company’s intention to move from one way of producing information to another.

What is the goal of governance? To leave no room for doubt, otherwise people end up censoring themselves. You cannot encourage participation in an environment that is not clear. You cannot ask people to share information if the expected practices are not clearly stated by the leadership. Governance, insofar as it represents the authority behind decision making, defines what the tool is for and sets up processes that free people to take the initiative, within a precise framework, both individually and collectively.

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This note is part of a series devoted to best practices for launching and rolling out a collaborative platform or enterprise social network.