Could your employees benefit from an internal community?
Telltale signs that your company would benefit from an internal employee community
Community is sometimes a bit of a buzzword … So how do you know if it is the right move for you, your team and your company? Let’s look at a few telltale signs that an internal employee community is just what you need.
#1: You have a global & remote-working team
Although the internet and all the tools that come with it make collaboration with colleagues across the world easier than ever, it requires conscious effort and energy that not everyone has time for. With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, and the rise in remote work it entailed, this collaboration challenge was exacerbated and spread to even more teams.
A community will help address the isolation that both a global setup and remote working can create, by fostering an atmosphere conducive to bonding, where all team members can get to know each other professionally, as well as on a human level. Those bonds will help them feel more integrated, supported, which in turn will improve team spirit and reduce employee churn.
#2: Inconsistency is a common challenge
Implementing processes effectively is a challenge in and of itself. This can be due to insufficient communication and documentation, poor follow-up, or incomplete understanding of the processes themselves. Those struggles lead to low adoption of processes, resulting in a lack of alignment in ways of working, incohesive work delivered, and unnecessarily duplicated tasks.
In an open and honest environment such as a community, you can have a two-way conversation around processes. This helps identify, as a team, where the gaps are, build awareness and understanding of business needs driving processes, and create accountability between team members. An internal community can nurture true collaboration and turn a team made up of a loose group of people into a powerful unit.
#3: Your team struggles to innovate
Innovation is the spice of life (at work). Can your team not see beyond the current state of things? Is there no thirst for continuous improvement? If your team is in a rut, they might need more inspiration.
There is no better way to ignite ideas than by leveraging peer-led inspiration. Uniting team members in a community, all bringing their unique experience, knowledge, and professional journey to the table, can not only supercharge creativity and boost imagination, but also expand one another’s perspectives.
If you find that one of the above resonates with you and you’d like to explore the idea of an internal employee community further, our team would love to help!
Want to see some of the amazing results an internal employee community can bring? Take a look at how Heineken implemented a community for their Data & Analytics talent across the world.
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