How to Increase Collaboration in a Workplace with a Mobile, Social Intranet?

Social Network and Mobile phones have become a way of life. This is how we communicate and manage our tasks everyday. So, having same options for how we work makes more sense.

The Vice President of IT for St. Joseph Health, David Baker, recognized this and set out to build a social and mobile solution at the Health care organization. David's main goal is to increase collaboration and improve productivity for employees at 14 facilities across three states.

The ways to Boost Workplace Collaboration:

1. Find out that employees need more: David describes St. Joseph’s previous legacy intra-net tool as a 'glorified repository'. If the company has 25-thousand employees, only 1 thousand were considered users, and among them only 100 were active and just four were categorized as “power users.” Also, there was a general frustration among employees about not being able to get access to the information they were looking for. So, it is better to develop a completely new intra-net solution.

2. Build it a Place where People Wants to go: The tag line of St. Joseph Health for the staff hub project is “Email is where information goes to hide.” Mobile and social intra-net has liberated data and info for employees, and encouraged interaction and collaboration across the business.

“Folks from Northern California, Southern California, and Texas, that may have not had a voice or understood there are other people out there working on similar stuff, can connect. It's helping us to become a true enterprise company,” says David Baker.

3. Encourage Leadership Support: David made a request to St. Joseph’s top management that they try to log into Staff hub everyday to read a few posts. He provide them the tool available on their mobile device for this. He asked them to post one time a week as employees are always interested in what their leadership has to say. The result was CEOs and VPs become regular contributors from the beginning, encouraging adoption company wide.

Follow these three ways to increase collaboration in a workplace with mobile and social intra-net. Do you have any other idea in your mind? Share with us in the comment section, Click here to visit our website right now.

Are you Using the Right Communication for your Business?

Technology has largely influenced business around the world. This you can see through emerging modes of alternative communication. But from so many available communication solutions, how do we choose exactly what mode of communication to use with our co-workers, customers and acquisitions from all over the world?

 

Use of technology communication systems such as phones and video conferencing, made many companies moving towards long-distance collaboration. But, video conferencing can be a great benefit to businesses as it cuts down on the costly loss of time and money caused by excessive air travel.

But, it is important to recognize that technology should not replace travel and face-to-face communication altogether. Some business practices needs to be done personally. So how do you know when to do which?

Here are some different modes of communication and see when one proves to be most effective: 

1. Email: Emails can be most effective solution for simple question and answer solutions, calendar reminders and one-on-one communication. On the other hand, during group collaboration and brainstorming, sending out multiple emails with new updates is not entirely effective.

2. Video Conferencing: It is a great way to communicate with a small group of people. This method can be used to generate new ideas, check progress of projects, solve small issues and saves tons of time and frustration. With video conferencing, you can work together quickly to come up with solutions that work for everyone in a real-time environment. 

3. When to Move out of Workplace: When you have to deal with a large group of people, train personnel, or have to land new clients, then it is better to have face to face interaction. Face to face contact is key to establishing healthy business relationships. When the deal has been signed and you have worked through the major decisions and content, then video conferencing can become a great asset to your business endeavors.

Which mode of communication you prefer? Does your business use one more than any other Communication Solutions? Share with us in the comments below.