A  Social  Media  Approach  to  Employee  Engagement  Research    

Michael  Silverman    

“The  Corporate  Black  Hole”  

Too  many  numbers  

Ignores  the  Wisdom  of  Crowds  

Social  Media  is  a  Powerful  Feedback  Mechanism  

The  problem  is:  LISTS  of  comments  

Pronoun

2 1

Adjective Negation Conjunction

Verb

“I love the service, but the products are not great.”

Noun Object

The  Joy  of  Text  

•  VisualisaHon  of  people’s  opinions  based  on  similarity  of  aJtudes  •  Uses  data  visualisaHon  as  a  user  interface  

Data  Visualisa=on  as  a  User  Interface  

Par=cipants  rate  5  statements  that  determine  their  posi=on  in  the  space  

Par=cipants  Respond  to  a  Discussion  Ques=on  

Par=cipants  are  projected  onto  a  2D  space  (people  with  similar  opinions  are  closer  to  each  other)  so  they  can  see  where  they  stand  

Par=cipants  click  on  other  par=cipants’  sugges=ons  to  rate  them  in  terms  of  relevance  and  insighKulness  –  the  more  a  sugges=on  is  rated  as  insighKul  &  relevant,  the  bigger  it  is  

Top  3  Comments  

Abandon  the  crazily  complex  and  absolutely  intransparent  home-­‐pay  rule.    -­‐  It  may  look  transparent  on  paper,  but  essenHally  the  black-­‐box  of  hypotheHcal  home  tax,  Cola  calculaHon  and  'spendable'  amount  is  unacceptable  and  irreconcilable  with  reality.  No  one  

understands  their  payslip  and  no  one  can  actually  explain  it!!!    -­‐  HypotheHcal  tax  is  parHcularly  contenHous  as  you  have  to  wait  for  years  to  get  a  reconciliaHon  and  in  the  meanwhile  the  hypotheHcal  tax  rate  may  move  any  direcHon.  There  is  no  planning  certainty.  No  

country  would  dare  to  move  their  income  tax  as  much  as  Unilever  dares  to  vary  their  hypotheHcal  tax  rate.  On  top  the  hypotheHcal  rate  is  not  even  adapted  aUer  the  first  reconciliaHon!  -­‐  It  treats  people  with  different  backgrounds  differently  while  what  maXers  for  many  is  NOT  their  home-­‐country.  ParHcularly  global  professionals  are  not  self-­‐referencing  themselves  to  home  but  to  where  they  could  work  

and  want  to  work.  (Score    =  87,  based  on  39  raHngs)  

1)  More  transparency...  for  example,  expats  that  have  the  same  WL  and  same  family  size  get  different  housing  budgets,  and  this  someHmes  seems  unfair.    2)  COLA  calculaHons  are  just  wrong...  it  assumes  an  'average'  basket  of  goods  in  my  country  of  origin,  but  in  my  home  country,  that  average  basket  does  not  reflect  my  own  reality.  Also,  this  calculaHon  is  too  low.  Currently,  my  full  Cola  goes  into  paying  for  the  addiHonal  cost  of  gas  bill,  the  water  bill,  

and  cable.  None  is  leU  over  for  the  other  costs  that  can  be  considerably  more  expensive  than  at  home.      3)  The  policy  favors  economically  people  moving  from  high  cost  of  living  localiHes  to  the  third  world,  and  penalizes  those  moving  from  third  world  country  to  developed  places.      4)  The  health  insurance  should  cover  100%  dental  and  vision    5)  The  policy  does  not  address  

pension  dispariHes  if  the  asignee  has  liXle  possibility  of  returning  to  home  country.  (Score    =  84,  based  on  53  raHngs)  

 

The  biggest  change  is  not  to  look  at  the  color  of  the  skin  and  the  passport  a  

person  holds  to  determine  the  pay  and  the  package  a  person  would  get.    The  current  policy  says  that  a  person  from  a  third  world  country  deserves  only  a  third  world  lifestyle,  and  a  third  world  level  of  

savings,  wherever  he  goes...while  somebody  from  a  first  world  country  

deserves  a  first  world  lifestyle  even  if  he  is  assigned  in  a  third  world  country.    This  is  the  height  of  insHtuHonalized  racism,  

in  a  company  who  prides  itself  of  promoHng  diversity.        The  next  one  is  to  

improve  the  quality  of  the  service  providers-­‐-­‐from  being  stoic,  cold  

messengers  and  policy  implementors,  to  sincere  assistance  providers.  (Score  =  81,  

based  on  11  raHngs)  

3420

1917

1313

10101010

988

6666

555

44

3222

11

PayFlexibility

Other8(Unclassified)Housing

COLASimplify/Clarity

SupportFamily

Education8Tax

TransparencySpouse/Partner

Foreign8ExchangeChildren

ProcessesMedical

TransportService

Overall8ExperienceBonus

Work8LevelCareer

Home8LeavePensionAdviceLegacy

Contact8PointsVisas

%  of  Total  SuggesHons  -­‐0.6   59   71  -­‐1.5   60   67  -­‐0.1   63   50  -­‐0.5   64   69  -­‐0.7   57   74  -­‐1.2   57   65  -­‐0.6   63   66  -­‐0.7   61   70  -­‐0.7   64   65  -­‐0.6   58   74  -­‐0.6   57   66  -­‐0.3   60   72  -­‐0.8   58   68  -­‐0.3   59   69  -­‐0.7   65   68  -­‐0.4   58   67  -­‐0.8   63   67  -­‐1.0   57   68  -­‐0.4   56   65  -­‐0.4   56   67  -­‐0.6   54   75  0.0   56   76  -­‐0.2   69   64  -­‐0.1   66   72  -­‐0.3   62   67  0.1   55   57  -­‐0.6   43   71  -­‐0.4   77   68  

SenHment    Advocacy    RaHng  

People  who  make  suggesHons  about  COLA  are  preXy  negaHve  in  their  comments,  they  are  more  likely  to  have  low  advocacy  of  the  IA  experience  and  their  suggesHons  

are  rated  highly  by  others.  

How  can  Unilever  Improve  its  IA  Policies?  

The  Social  Media  Garden  

50%$

55%$

60%$

65%$

70%$

40%$ 45%$ 50%$ 55%$ 60%$ 65%$ 70%$

Personal$Involvement$with$Social$Media$$

Overall$Ra

=ng$

Business$$Case$

Change$

Trust$

Leadership$

Knowledge$&$Understanding$

Communica=on$

Culture$

Control$

Strategy$

Fear$

Security$

Employee$Abuse$Employee$Engagement$

Business$Benefits$

Genera=on$Gap$

Environment$

Resources$

Main  barriers  to  implemen=ng  social  media  

Thank  You…