The Social C-Suite

Dan Pontefract - 3/13/13

If the C-suite increases its social media use internally and externally, it could be used as a tool to impact organizational competence.

To be engaged means employees feel like a part of the organization. They will want to go the extra mile, are willing to stay and will recommend their place of employment and its products and services to others.

Among the 47,361 employees surveyed in 120 countries, Gallup, a research-based performance-management consulting company, estimates the percentage of employees who are engaged at 11 percent. In Canada employee engagement creeps up to 20 percent, and in the United States it’s slightly better at 28 percent. BlessingWhite, a Gallup competitor, reports 33 percent of North Americans and 30 percent of European employees are engaged in their work.

The state of employee engagement is a troubling organizational predicament, and many leaders wonder whether internal social media and social learning could help to drive it: Should the C-suite become more involved? How does its use by the C-suite affect adoption of social learning in the organization? Is it the chief learning officer’s responsibility?

In a 2012 study conducted and sponsored by Domo and CEO.com, researchers found 70 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs had no social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or Google Plus. Some 26 percent of them had a LinkedIn profile, whereas only 4 percent were on Twitter.

Consulting firm BRANDfog conducted a 2012 survey and discovered when members of the C-suite began engaging in external social media such as Twitter and Facebook, some 82 percent of consumers would be more trusting of a company.

IBM conducted research with more than 1,700 CEOs across 64 countries in its 2012 Global CEO Study and found 75 percent of CEOs listed collaboration as the No. 1 attribute they seek in their employee base.

To borrow from Winston Churchill, it seems organizations are nearing the “end of the beginning” of social in the enterprise, both internally and externally. It’s happening slowly, but there isn’t widespread use by the C-suite. The C-suite should adapt its leadership style to incorporate social as a way to both give knowledge to the organization and to endorse collaborative-based practices that enrich employee competence.