Their case study is based on Best Buy and the "Blue Shirt Nation" community. Started in 2006, the online community has quickly become a popular place for Best Buy employees. By 2007 BSN had 14,000 employees logging in each month. 85% of them were sales associates in stores. The reason behind BSN was to create a place to listen to what employees were saying and for employees to communicate with each other. This creates a huge sense of support and community for these employees. There's no denying that it would create a sense of pride to be a part of it.
Best Buy has become a model for large companies. As this article mentions, BSN started with hopes it would generate marketing ideas by connecting with store employees. Instead, they got high participation in Best Buy's 401k plan, lower employee turnover and photos of staffers' pets (who doesn't love that?!). And they have seen positive growth in the company due to this community. As Li and Bernoff discuss, employees are able to give their thoughts on new plans Best Buy has and the head honchos actually listen and take their advice.
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| This chart (provided by B2C) shows the great value of employee communities. This is a low-cost way to solve some company questions and issues and to ENGAGE the employee. |
It makes me wonder... what other companies are benefitting by creating an online employee community? I've been trying to search for another business who takes advantage of the low-cost, moral-boosting idea and I have to say.. I had a little trouble!
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| The vicious circle of unengaged employees (also from B2C). |
"The number one way that you can engage your employees - and by that I mean make them more informed, and productive, and involved in the business- is by opening up the channels of communication. No longer do we live in a world where you just communicate at your employees, you communicate with them."
It makes you wonder... with the great success of the Blue Shirt Nation (and others), why aren't even more major companies taking advantage of this great opportunity? What are your thoughts? Have you ever been a member of an employee-based community? How was your experience?
Great post! I agree- employee communities can be as important and influential as customer communities. When employees feel connected to each other and the brand, they become both an advocate and customer base for the company. I mentioned this in class last week, but I work at Starbucks, and their partner community has a strong presence online. Though there is no single website like the Blue Shirt Network, Starbucks Partners have a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram (and I'm sure I'm leaving out a few others as well!). These accounts are great opportunities for partners to connect over our struggles and successes in our job. From my experience with these platforms, I am now a strong advocate for employee communities.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, online social collaboration in a professional context has the power to create a dynamic and more productive work environment, especially in large organizations and among remote workers. I've never been a member of an employee-based community, but I would love to!
ReplyDeleteProbably employee-to-employee communities will be considered as an essential part of every business in the near future. I haven’t worked in large companies, but during my pre-graduation training in the regional Russian bank, I’ve noticed that from time to time bank employees needed this very unifying force. If they create an e2e community, who knows maybe the current employee turnover will be fixed and people will feel themselves more protected and welcomed.
ReplyDeleteThank you for you post!