Capitalizing on Internal Crowdsourcing Part 2
Business leaders are making a shift in employee communication. While the traditional survey, task force and town hall meetings may still have their place, sophisticated intranet systems are offering a new way for employees to participate in making decisions on issues that affect them. Internal crowdsourcing presents an intriguing new way to efficiently bring together employees from across functions to provide input on how an employer can most effectively boost employee satisfaction levels.
In a previous post we discussed some tips to help start building the foundation for an effective crowdsourcing initiative. Key to getting off to a great start is timing and project selection. Once the project is underway, here are some tips for helping it run smoothly and generate the desired results.
Stay positive. Set a precedent by giving positive feedback to those who are bold enough step forward and get started. Tactfully suppress anyone who feels compelled to publicly criticize a particular idea or the project in general.
Avoid being a hindrance. Other that some general encouragement, avoid expressing specific opinions on a particular idea. Rather, be present and available only to remove any road-blocks and to keep the discussion moving forward.
Promote diversity. Employees without “expertise” in the subject might need some additional positive reinforcement to jump in. If the project lends itself to team formation, encourage employees to partner with others outside their department. Variety and participation is a large part of what separates crowdsourcing from traditional methods of employee engagement so this is a key point.
Plan Recognition. If you haven’t already, now is the time to create a plan to recognize all contributors, but especially those who have contributed the most valuable ideas, as decided either by management, employee ranking or a combination. Participants will probably also have plenty of input into the project itself, so give some thought to how to facilitate a debrief.
Reader Comments
You should read Scott Klososky's book on Social Technology - the entire thing was an exercise in crowdsourcing, and it worked really well.
Posted by Preston on October 23, 2011
Add your Comment
[LOGIN FIRST] if you're already a member.fields are required.