Social Workforce Collaboration

Workforce Collaboration and Web 2.0
Improving Productivity by Facilitating Knowledge Transfer

June 2008

Page 2

Executive Summary
The need to respond quickly to market changes and the proliferation of a Research Benchmark
geographically dispersed workforce are driving organizations to prioritize Aberdeen’s Research
workforce collaboration. Workforce collaboration continues to center Benchmarks provide an in-
primarily around project-based work. However, the onset of Web 2.0 depth and comprehensive look
software tools - together with the continuing need to improve workforce into process, procedure,
productivity, and the growing criticality to capture institutional knowledge methodologies, and
before it leaves the organization - is forcing organizations to heighten the technologies with best practice
priority placed on workforce collaboration and broaden its application identification and actionable
across the organization. recommendations

This report, a compilation of surveys and interviews with more than 270
organizations worldwide, serves as a roadmap for organizations that seek to
maximize workforce collaboration and understand how Web 2.0 software
tools can enhance collaboration efforts.
Best-in-Class Performance
Aberdeen used four key performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class
organizations with respect to their workforce collaboration efforts. Best-in- "Workforce collaboration
Class organizations: allows our workforce and
related parties to discuss, share
• Reduced project time-to-completion on average by 34% documentation, tasks and join
• Shortened time-to-resolution on average by 22% forces across locations,
departments, companies and
• Improved new employee time-to-productivity on average by 19% hierarchy."
• Decreased training cost per employee on average by 14% ~ CEO, Small European-based
Software Provider
Competitive Maturity Assessment
Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance
shared several common characteristics:
• 81% obtain support and buy-in from the organization’s senior
leadership when seeking formal collaboration initiatives
• 78% implement training on the use of workforce collaboration
software tools for all applicable workers
• 69% allow workers to submit new content into a shared knowledge
base
Required Actions
In addition to the specific recommendations in Chapter Three of this
report, to achieve Best-in-Class performance, organizations must:
• Focus resources to capture and transfer organizational know-how
• Seek collaboration between IT, HR and line of business managers to
ensure the appropriate technologies can be supported
• Educate key stakeholders on the anticipated value of workforce
collaboration and communicate the value delivered

© 2008 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 723 7890
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

Page 3

Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................... 2
Best-in-Class Performance..................................................................................... 2
Competitive Maturity Assessment....................................................................... 2
Required Actions...................................................................................................... 2
Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class ..................................................... 4
Business Context ..................................................................................................... 4
The Maturity Class Framework............................................................................ 6
The Best-in-Class PACE Model ............................................................................ 6
Best-in-Class Strategies........................................................................................... 7
Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success ..................................11
Competitive Assessment......................................................................................12
Capabilities and Enablers......................................................................................13
Chapter Three: Required Actions .........................................................................18
Laggard Steps to Success......................................................................................18
Industry Average Steps to Success ....................................................................19
Best-in-Class Steps to Success ............................................................................19
Appendix A: Web 2.0 Terminology and Definitions .........................................21
Appendix B: Research Methodology .....................................................................23
Appendix C: Related Aberdeen Research ...........................................................25
Figures
Figure 1: Top Pressures Driving Workforce Collaboration............................... 4
Figure 2: Top Challenges Organizations Seek to Overcome with
Collaboration ................................................................................................................. 5
Figure 3: Top Strategies Pursued by Best-in-Class Organizations..................... 7
Figure 4: Top Internal Organizational Uses of Web 2.0 Tools.......................... 9
Figure 5: Integration of Web 2.0 Software Tools Across the Talent
Management Value Chain............................................................................................ 9
Figure 6: Satisfaction with Collaboration Efforts .................................................15
Figure 7: Best-in-Class Planned Adoption of Workforce Collaboration and
Web 2.0 Software Tools ...........................................................................................16
Figure 8: Top Adoption Hurdles Cited by Best-in-Class...................................17
Tables
Table 1: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status.............................................. 6
Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework ....................................................... 7
Table 3: The Competitive Framework...................................................................12
Table 4: The PACE Framework Key ......................................................................24
Table 5: The Competitive Framework Key ..........................................................24
Table 6: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework
.........................................................................................................................................24


Page 4

Chapter One:
Benchmarking the Best-in-Class
Business Context
Fast Facts
Charles Darwin once said, “In the long history of humankind (and animal
kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively √ 44% of organizations are
have prevailed.” This mantra still applies to organizations in the 21st century. forced pursue workforce
collaboration as a result of
Over the past twelve months, Aberdeen research from several benchmark the geographic dispersion of
studies pertaining to recruiting, onboarding, learning and development, and the workforce
succession planning have showed strong planned growth in the use of
workforce collaboration and social networking tools, ranging from 82% to √ 59% of organizations cite
increasing workforce
213%. This particular benchmark report, which represents a compilation of
productivity as a challenge
online survey and interviews with more than 270 organizations worldwide, which collaboration tools
focuses specifically on the pursuit, application and accomplishments of are aimed to address
workforce collaboration initiatives, including the use of Web 2.0 software
tools in these efforts.

Adaptability and Globalization Top Industry Pressures
Organizations are living entities that are nurtured by the chemistry among "Collaboration is having the
all their employees and the output produced by this chemistry. They feed ability for a global employee
off the human capital which they have worked arduously to recruit, develop, population to work together
and retain. virtually both synchronously
and asynchronously to
Today, these organizations are competing in a global market where agility complete work, design, or
and innovation are critical, and the ability to reach a geographically innovate to meet business
dispersed workforce is increasingly more common and crucial. In fact, these objectives.”
represent the top pressures cited by all organizations to focus resources on ~ General Manager - Training,
workforce collaboration (Figure 1). Large US-based Computer
Hardware Provider
Figure 1: Top Pressures Driving Workforce Collaboration

60%

44% 43%
38%
40%

21%
20%

0%
Increased Need to respond Demand f or Increased
globalization and faster to market innovative competitive
geographic changes products and landscape
spread of the services
enterprise
w orkforce

Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2008


Page 5

Collaboration tools are intended to streamline communication among
stakeholders. The quicker knowledge and intelligence travel within the
enterprise, the more armed will the stakeholders be to respond to changing
competitive and industry landscapes.

Increasing Productivity and Capturing Organizational
Knowledge
Every day, organizational leadership has to answer the question, “How can
we get the most out of what we have?” Workforce productivity has always
been a driving force behind investments in physical capital and technology –
including workforce collaboration tools. However, an underlying challenge
that is growing in importance, has implications across the entire talent
management value chain, and has soared to the top of priorities for both
human resources and line of business managers is "knowledge capture and
transfer" (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Top Challenges Organizations Seek to Overcome with
Collaboration
59%
60% 56%

40% 32% 30%

20%

0%
Workforce Transfer Capture know ledge Employee
productivity know ledge of existing w orkers engagement
betw een and
among w orkers


Workforce Collaboration Defined
To understand more completely the way people define "workforce
collaboration", Aberdeen analyzed 250 written descriptions provided by
those who took the online survey. Among all descriptions collected, a few
clear consistencies emerged and provided the basis for the following
definition: Workforce Collaboration is connecting employees and sharing
knowledge to achieve identified goals. Connecting employees includes
identifying people who are working towards a common end result and
networking them with each other. Sharing knowledge includes capturing
content and experiential data and distributing it when and where it is
relevant.


Page 6

The Maturity Class Framework
Aberdeen used four key performance criteria to distinguish the Best-in-
Class from Industry Average and Laggard organizations with respect to their
differing degrees of success implementing workforce collaboration
programs. These criteria focused on employee productivity and efficiency as
well as strategic development through various phases of the employment
lifecycle from onboarding new hires to developing them professionally while
minimizing training costs:
1. Project plan time-to-completion
"Workforce collaboration is
2. Time-to-resolution (e.g. help desk support calls, HR inquiries) the interaction of all necessary
3. Employee time-to-productivity individuals to achieve a business
objective.”
4. Cost of training per employee
~ Director, Large US-based IT
Services Company
Table 1: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status
Definition of
Mean Class Performance
Maturity Class
Best-in-Class: Reduced project time-to-completion on average by 34%
Top 20% of Shortened time-to-resolution on average by 22%
aggregate Improved new employee time-to-productivity on
performance average by 19%
scorers Reduced training cost per employee on average by 14%
Industry Reduced project time-to-completion on average by 1%
Average: Shortened time-to-resolution on average by 5%
Middle 50% of
aggregate Improved new employee time-to-productivity on
scorers Reduced training cost per employee on average by 3%

Laggard: Increased project time-to-completion on average by 2%
Bottom 30% of Extended time-to-resolution on average by 5%
aggregate Worsened new employee time-to-productivity on
scorers Increased training cost per employee on average by 2%

The Best-in-Class PACE Model
In order to address the competitive pressures and internal organizational
challenges driving workforce collaboration, Best-in-Class organizations
adopt a mix of strategies, capabilities, and technologies. Combined, these
enable their employees to network with colleagues as well as access content
provided by others to ensure knowledge is captured and shared internally in
a fashion that not only produces myriad operational efficiencies, but also
reduces training expenses and the costs of adding and managing content.


Page 7

Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework

Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers
Need to Capture internal Support and buy-in from organization's Calendar sharing
respond faster knowledge, senior leadership File-sharing
to market expertise, Availability of software tools that allow for Web-conferencing
changes experience and workforce collaboration is communicated Task management tools
Increased make it available to to all workers
others within the Web portal creation
globalization Training on the use of workforce
organization software
and geographic collaboration software tools is available to
spread of the Reduce time it takes Instant messaging (IM)
all applicable workers
enterprise for workers to find Wikis
Workers are able to submit new content
workforce relevant information into a shared knowledge base Software that enables
Enable workers to surveying / polling of the
Multiple units within the business have
communicate and/or workforce
ability to edit, modify and share content
collaborate via throughout the organization Blogs
preferred modes Threaded discussion
Workers can share and edit each other's
documents/ spreadsheets in real-time boards
IT is involved in decision making to ensure
knowledge of what the enterprise can
support

Best-in-Class Strategies
The top strategies pursued by Best-in-Class organizations to address these
macro pressures and internal organizational challenges focus on capturing
and transferring internal know-how, making relevant knowledge and
information available to the entire organization, and distributing it efficiently
(Figure 3).

Figure 3: Top Strategies Pursued by Best-in-Class Organizations
60% 52%
50% 45%
42%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Capture internal Reduce time it takes Enable workers to
knowledge, expertise, for workers to find communicate and/or
experience and make it relevant information collaborate via preferred
available to others modes
within the organization


Page 8

Fast Facts
While no significant differentiators exist in terms of strategic actions
pursued among the Best-in-Class, Industry Average and Laggard Top 10 elements organizations
organizations, the ways via which Best-in-Class organizations support these associate with Web 2.0:
strategies differ significantly. These variances, in relation to the business √ Blogs - 82%
process competencies required to execute these strategies and the key
technology enablers required to support the organization’s business √ Social networking - 77%
practices, will be explored in detail in Chapter Two of this report. √ Wikis - 74%
However, an element that requires specific reference and that is changing
the way organizations view workforce collaboration is something coined √ Communities - 72%
"Web 2.0." √ Podcasts - 62%
Web 2.0 and Workforce Collaboration √ Mash-ups - 59%
Web 2.0 is term that many associate with workforce collaboration today,
√ Forums - 59%
and Web 2.0-related software tools appear a likely solution to the
aforementioned industry pressures and organizational challenges. √ Social bookmarking - 59%
Participants in this particular research study were asked what tools they
√ RSS Feeds - 59%
associate with the term Web 2.0. The top five responses clearly showed
that end-users associate Web 2.0 with collaboration and open knowledge √ Social tagging - 58%
sharing. The software tools that are mostly associated with the term Web
2.0 are blogs, social networking tools, communities and wikis. The top 10
elements that are associated with the term "Web 2.0" are listed in the
sidebar on this page and are defined in Appendix A of this report.
Best-in-Class Use of Web 2.0 in Workforce Collaboration
In carrying out the aforementioned strategies, we asked organizations to Tactical vs. Strategic
state how Web 2.0 tools are used within their organizations. It became
clear that Best-in-Class organizations apply these tools both tactically and √ Tactical refers to short-term
strategically. objectives (i.e. increasing
productivity, decreasing
Tactically: Web 2.0 software tools are used by Best-in-Class organizations costs, etc…)
to facilitate project-based team work. They are used to manage team
calendars, project documents and milestones. In fact, 64% of Best-in-Class √ Strategic refers to long-term
organizations cited “collaborating on project-based work” as the number objectives (i.e. employee
development, engagement,
one method for which collaboration tools are used.
etc…)
Strategically: Four in ten Best-in-Class organizations currently utilize Web
2.0 software tools to connect workers with subject matter experts. This
demonstrates that in addition to using these tools primarily for improving
current output (such as that from project-based work), they are increasingly
used to develop employees professionally by connecting them with subject
matter experts. These experts will not only answer questions or address
issues that employees face on a daily basis, but will also act as mentors or
coaches who become involved in those employees’ learning and skill-
acquisition process – even if informally – making them a more valuable
assets to the organization in the long-run. This step will also prove
invaluable during the onboarding process, where new employees are seeking
socialization into the cultural fabric of their new employer. Indeed, the data
shows (Figure 4) that Best-in-Class organizations are 69% more likely than
all other organizations to use Web 2.0 tools to ensure workers are
connected to subject matter experts.


Page 9

Figure 4: Top Internal Organizational Uses of Web 2.0 Tools
100%
Best-in-Class Others
80%
64%
60% 50%
39%
40%
23%
20%

0%
Collaborating on project based w ork Connecting w orkers w ith subject
matter experts
Web 2.0 and Talent Management
Another strategic differentiator between Best-in-Class and all other
organizations surveyed is the extent to which Web 2.0 software tools are
utilized to enhance various elements of talent management. Figure 5
illustrates how Best-in-Class organizations are two and one-half to four and
one-half times as likely as other organizations to use Web 2.0 software
"Providing a vehicle for
tools to augment and improve workforce recruitment, development and
collaboration, as a means of
retention efforts. supporting the estimated 80%
of informal learning, is a natural
Figure 5: Integration of Web 2.0 Software Tools Across the Talent
in view of our social human
Management Value Chain nature. It should be a requisite
60% step of any high performance
53% learning organization to
50%
50% support collaboration. We have
48%
40% 45% assigned a single dedicated
30% coordinator of communities of
21% 27% practice (COP) for a
20%
worldwide corporation of
10% 18% 17% 4000. The popularity of COPs
11% 7%
0% skyrocketed with the
Recruiting Onboarding Employee Learning and Succession unforeseen result that just one
performance development planning person is insufficient to meet
management the demand."
~ Gil Peters Learning
Best-in-Class All Others
Technology Manager, Hitachi
Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2008 Data Systems Academy

Uses of Web 2.0 software tools in talent management are numerous. A few
examples include:
• Recruiting. Web 2.0 software tools can help internal recruiters to
connect with and stay connected to active and passive job
prospects. For example, a blog can be utilized to post external
messages from current employees in order to lend a voice to the
market on what it's like to work at the company. Also, the use of

Page 10

Web 2.0 tools in the pre-hire can enhance the organization's
perceived employment brand among younger job candidates who
grew up using this type of technology to communicate and socialize,
and thus seek the same from their employers.
• Onboarding. Web 2.0 software tools can be used to connect new
employees with those who can be critical to their success, including
mentors and coaches. Social networks can facilitate the
"socialization" of new employees into the organization's culture and
help new employees to build and maintain networks and
relationships with others throughout the organization. Additionally,
Web 2.0 tools can be used as a means to extract "hidden" expertise
by providing an arena for a new employee to provide commentary
on a topic that is expert to him/her.
• Learning and development. Informal learning plays a critical role
in an employee's professional development. Wikis, for example, can
be used to stimulate peer-to-peer learning and ideation, as well as
facilitate communities of practice in which organizations can
leverage the collective knowledge of their employees.
Aberdeen Insight — Strategy

While most organizations are utilizing collaboration tools to impact
short-term metrics such as productivity and efficiency, Best-in-Class
organizations are more likely to focus on capturing institutional
knowledge, expertise and experiences, codifying it, and making it
available throughout the organization for myriad purposes. This is
supported by the capabilities they have instituted that focus on
generating and capturing content from their workforce and allowing
others to access it and add to it.
As the world becomes flatter and the demographics of the workforce
continue to change, collaboration and knowledge sharing will continue
to grow in importance and adoption. Consequently, we will see
collaboration tools and Web 2.0 technology gain traction across talent
management applications in areas like recruiting, onboarding, and
employee development.

Performance prowess is merely an indicator of doing the right things.
Productivity, efficiency and successful employee development are not solely
the result of technology investments but are a result of sound strategies,
processes and policies that encourage employees to be more collaborative
and more engaged.
While technology plays a critical role in creating a flatter organization where
employees are connected to the right resources – both people and content
– Best-in-Class organizations are instituting internal capabilities that
maximize the return on investing in this technology.
In the next chapter, we will reveal these organizational capabilities that
distinguish Best-in-Class organizations from their peers in addition to the
tools that they use to achieve performance gains.


Page 11

Chapter Two:
Benchmarking Requirements for Success
The ability to share files and documents real-time is critical to ensure the Fast Facts
success of a project. Collaboration tools enable a geographically dispersed
team that works on multiple projects simultaneously to achieve real √ 88% of Best-in-Class
business gains. This includes cutting costs, improving productivity, enhancing organizations indicate that
"workforce collaboration" is
user experience, and increasing stakeholder satisfaction.
a "top" or "high" priority -
Case in Point — Comcast Spotlight versus 52% of all other
organizations
The Seattle & Spokane offices of Comcast Spotlight are the local
advertising sales division of Comcast Cable in the area. Comcast √ In comparison to 34% of all
Spotlight employs 3,500 people nationwide. The Seattle and Spokane other organizations, 83% of
Best-in-Class place "top"
branch has a video production team of 12 with collaboration occurring
or "high" priority on the use
between it and 10 other teams totaling 105 video production of Web 2.0 software tools as
employees. These teams produce television advertisements for a means to enhance
businesses to be broadcasted locally. In order to produce these workforce collaboration
videos, these teams work with freelancers and clients. Therefore, each
project requires collaboration among three primary stakeholders: the
Comcast Spotlight teams, vendors (freelance camera crews and
graphic artists), and the business clients.
The main objectives behind adopting a file-sharing solution were
improving project-based teamwork, fostering stakeholder participation
and facilitating sharing documents among the project team. The
challenge was enhancing communication with vendors/freelancers and
clients, especially when sharing large files. The previous system - FTP -
was difficult to use, sometimes inaccessible, and provided an inferior
user interface.
The one hurdle was getting acceptance from the IT department. As
the solution is software as a service and purchased on a per user basis,
the management of the video production team didn’t require buy-in or
approval from other divisions.
The only requirement from IT was to implement the secure version of
HTTP (HTTPS). However, after adopting the solutions, IT came on-
board when they saw the decrease in complaints, and the cost benefits
achieved. Marketing is currently experimenting with a project team
page of their own. The video production team ensured access for
their team, the vendors and the clients to the training video provided
by the solution provider.
Adopting the collaboration solution had both real cost savings and
intangible gains. In terms of cost saved, the production team was able
to save 50% of the cost charged by the FTP provider. In addition, they
incurred no premiums on moving files and documents on the FTP
server or on uploading large files. Essentially, they received 23 times
the storage for half the price.
continued


Page 12

Case in Point — Comcast Spotlight
"Our challenge was facilitating
Furthermore, the system increased participation rate and user communication with our
satisfaction, which led to productivity gains. The quantity of complaints vendors and clients with large
with the old system dropped drastically. Another benefit is that the files. FTP was hard to use,
solution allowed branding. Comcast Spotlight had the ability to put problematic and clunky. Our
their logo and messaging on the external facing page. Lastly, viewing own hurdles are merely getting
acceptance for it with the IT
files (documents and videos) has become seamless to the client as they
department.”
can click a link and see their produced advertisements without having
to navigate through the directory trees of the FTP site. ~ Darren LaMarr, West
Division Production Lead,
In short, adopting a collaboration solution not only provided real cost Creative Services Manager,
savings for Comcast Spotlight – Seattle & Spokane branch, but Comcast Spotlight in Seattle &
increased overall satisfaction of all stakeholders, increase participation Spokane
and productivity – all while reducing system complaints.

Competitive Assessment
Aberdeen Group analyzed the aggregated metrics of surveyed organizations
to determine whether their performance ranked as Best-in-Class, Industry
Average, or Laggard. In addition to having common performance levels, each
class also shared characteristics in five key categories: (1) process (the
approaches they take to execute their daily operations); (2) organization
(corporate focus and collaboration among stakeholders); (3) knowledge
management (contextualizing data and exposing it to key stakeholders);
(4) technology (the selection of appropriate tools and effective
deployment of those tools); and (5) performance management (the
ability of the organization to measure their results to improve their
business). These characteristics (identified in Table 3) serve as a guideline
for best practices, and correlate directly with Best-in-Class performance
across the key metrics.
Table 3: The Competitive Framework
Best-in-Class Average Laggards
Multiple units within the business have ability to edit, modify
Process and share content throughout the organization
69% 36% 25%
Availability of software tools that allow for workforce
collaboration is communicated to all workers
81% 41% 28%
Support and buy-in from organization’s senior leadership
Organization
84% 51% 32%
Training on the use of workforce collaboration software
tools is available to all applicable workers
78% 32% 20%


Page 13

Best-in-Class Average Laggards
Workers are able to submit new content into a shared
knowledge base
69% 41% 31%
Workers can share and edit each other's documents/
Knowledge spreadsheets in real-time
66% 38% 30%
Workers can search and connect with workers across the
organization irrespective of business unit or geography
69% 44% 36%
The following collaboration and Web 2.0 tools are used:
94% Calendar 70% Calendar 59% Calendar
sharing sharing sharing
81% File-sharing 63% File-sharing 45% File-sharing
tools tools tools
78% Web- 61% Web- 40% Web-
conferencing conferencing conferencing
software software software
78% Task 46% Task 30% Task
management management management
Technology tools (for tools (for tools (for
project-based project-based project-based
teamwork) teamwork) teamwork)
75% Web portal 59% Web portal 42% Web portal
creation software creation software creation software
72% Wikis 24% Wikis 26% Wikis
72% Software 45% Software 19% Software
that enables that enables that enables
surveying / polling surveying / polling surveying / polling
of the workforce of the workforce of the workforce
66% Blogs 30% Blogs 30% Blogs
Additional metrics currently used or planned to track the
performance of collaboration investments include:
77% employee 60% employee 46% employee
Performance engagement engagement engagement
72% cost to 65% cost to 39% cost to
develop and develop and develop and
deliver training deliver training deliver training
content content content

Capabilities and Enablers
Implementing a successful program that fosters workforce collaboration
requires the proper mix of process, organizational knowledge, technology,
and performance management.
Process
Best-in-Class organizations are 92% more likely than the Industry Average
and almost three times as likely as Laggard organizations to have a process

Page 14

that enables multiple units within the business to edit, modify and share
content throughout the organization.
Best-in-Class organizations realize that collaboration and knowledge sharing Fast Facts
must not be reserved to one department or business unit. Many
√ 66% of Best-in-Class
organizations are matrix-structured where project teams consist of organizations involve IT in
resources that span multiple business units. In these types of organizations, the workforce collaboration
it is essential to have a process that allows workers access to relevant technology decision making
documents and calendars. It is equally essential to ensure that workers have to ensure knowledge of what
the appropriate permissions as well. Certain team members may have the the enterprise can support
ability to review and edit content, while others require permission to only
√ 63% of Best-in-Class
read it. In another instance, if a company has multiple sales units - such as
organizations align IT with
internal sales, field sales, or major accounts) - then allowing the different line of business managers to
units the ability to share experiences and knowledge will prove critical in determine what can
enhancing the overall performance of the group. An approach that worked technology can work best to
for the field sales team may very well be applicable to the internal sales address business needs
team.
Organization
More than eight of ten Best-in-Class organizations have gained senior-level
support and buy-in pertaining to workforce collaboration initiatives - as
compared to only 44% of all other organizations. The importance of this
support is reinforced by the fact that, at 45% of Best-in-Class organizations,
the person championing the utilization of Web 2.0 software tools is the
organization's CEO.
Additionally, Best-in-Class organizations are more than twice as likely as all
other organizations to communicate to the workforce the availability of
collaboration software tools. Just making these tools available is not
sufficient. It is equally important to communicate to the workforce what the
tools are, how they can be used strategically in their professional
development or tactically to address immediate needs, as well as how
they've been utilized to address specific business problems and produce
desired results. In addition to communicating the availability and impact of
workforce collaboration tools, Best-in-Class organizations are nearly three
times as likely as all other organizations to provide training on their use.
These capabilities enable Best-in-Class organizations to maximize the
benefits realized from collaboration technologies and increase user
satisfaction. Not surprisingly, Best-in-Class organizations are 79% more
likely than Industry Average and almost three times as likely as Laggard
organizations to be satisfied with their workforce collaboration efforts.


Page 15

Figure 6: Satisfaction with Collaboration Efforts
100% Best-in-Class Average Laggard
84%
80%

60% 49%
47%

40% 31%
29%

20%
6%

0%
Satisfied Dissatisfied
Knowledge Management
Collaboration works best if all the parties are able to connect and share
knowledge irrespective of geography. From a "knowledge" perspective,
content must be managed in a way that makes it accessible and keeps it
organized. For two thirds of Best-in-Class, a key factor is the employees'
ability to submit new content into a shared knowledge repository. Best-in-
Class organizations are 86% more likely than all others to provide this "The biggest hurdle was driving
capability. Moreover, storing company generated content and user a new thought process while
generated content in the same repository allows employees to add material embarking on a project or
to or comment on training videos, presentations and other exercises, which determining which data to
will enable the company to continuously improve its practices making it a capture and how to organize
more adaptable learning organization. it.”
~ Cory Kruse, VP of Talent
From a "people" perspective, Best-in-Class organizations begin by ensuring
that employees are able to find and access each other - and are 68% more Acquisition, Novotus
likely than all other organizations to have such a capability. This reaffirms
their use of collaboration strategically to connect workers to mentors and
subject matter experts. This capability, in addition to a shared content
repository, is vital to facilitate project-based teamwork.
Technology
As outlined in Table 3, the application and use of software tools among
Best-in-Class organizations to facilitate and enhance workforce
collaboration is much broader and deeper than it is at all other
organizations:
• 75% or more of Best-in-Class organizations currently use software that
centers around file sharing, document sharing, and application sharing.
These solutions enable more effective and efficient collaborative
projects and training. While these technologies also represent those
most utilized by Industry Average and Laggard organizations, they are
in use at only 40% to 66% of these combined groups.
• Another subset of software tools utilized by the majority of Best-in-
Class organizations includes those most commonly associated with
the term "Web 2.0". Web 2.0 applications in workforce

Page 16

collaboration have been gaining traction in both awareness and
adoption, however, are currently utilized by only 25% to 35% of
Industry Average and Laggard organizations.
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Best-in-Class organizations are budgeted to
invest in collaboration tools over the next 12 months - whether to develop
in-house or to acquire from external providers. Another 18% have gained
executive buy-in but are still waiting on budgetary approval. Figure 5
illustrates the workforce collaboration and Web 2.0 software tools that will
experience the greatest adoption over the next 12 month.
Figure 7: Best-in-Class Planned Adoption of Workforce
Collaboration and Web 2.0 Software Tools

"Search" technology that allows workers to find
53% 44%
relevant content quickly and easily

Software that enables capture of organizational
47% 47%
knowledge into discoverable knowledge bases

Tools for faster onboarding of new employees 44% 50%

Software that enables “mash-ups” (merging
25% 59%
content from different sources)

Software that proactively brings relevant content
35% 48%
to the attention of each worker

Tools that automatically generate and manage a
28% 38%
clear picture of a person's expertise

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Best-in-Class (current) Best-in-Class (planned)
As the adoption trends above illustrate, there is an a clear shift by all
organizations to begin looking at workforce collaboration and Web 2.0
tools to connect people, generate content, capture knowledge and make it
easily accessible. This will enable them to go beyond productivity, efficiency,
and cost-savings. They will become more adept at recruiting talent,
onboarding new workers, self-educating the workforce (peer-to-peer
learning), identifying hidden talent, and assigning appropriate development
paths or succession plans. Therefore, not only these tools will address
business problems, but they will help ensure business continuity.
Performance Management
Best-in-Class organizations are more than one and one-half times more
likely than all other organizations to have clearly defined the correlation
between the use of workforce collaboration tools and specific organizational
objectives. This, in turn, provides the basis for the metrics that Best-in-Class
assign to the value of workforce collaboration initiatives. In addition to the
four metrics used to develop the maturity class framework in Table 1,

Page 17

Aberdeen's research revealed two additional metrics most commonly
measured (or planned to be measured) by Best-in-Class organizations:
• Employee Engagement – 77%
• Cost to develop and deliver training content – 72%
The Best-in-Class metrics show that Best-in-Class organizations have a
tactical focus (cost orientation) and a strategic focus (development
orientation) when it comes to workforce collaboration applications.

Aberdeen Insights — Technology

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Best-in-Class organizations attribute
their ability to improve performance in the metrics used for this
benchmark study directly to their use of workforce collaboration and
Web 2.0 software tools. However, success didn't happen overnight.
Among Best-in-Class organizations, the predominant organizational
hurdle that needed to be overcome to gain greater acceptance for the
use of Web 2.0 software tools for workforce collaboration was the
perception that Web 2.0 software would distract workers from their
jobs and lower their productivity (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Top Adoption Hurdles Cited by Best-in-Class

Perception that use of Web 2.0 softw are
distracts w orkers from their jobs and 42%
low ers productivity

Cultural resistance (“w hy change w hat
29%
isn’t broke?”)

Cost of Web 2.0 softw are solutions is
29%
prohibitive

Inability to assign real business value to
26%
the use of Web 2.0 softw are

Lack of internal expertise or personnel
resources to manage and support 26%
w orkforce collaboration tool

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%


The organizational hurdles highlighted above provide evidence of the
need for organizations to test Web 2.0 tools, especially in smaller
workforce populations in order to prove appropriate business usage of
these tools and confirm real business value as a result of their use. Once
business value can be assigned and is promoted to key organizational
stakeholders, misperceptions can be minimized and organizational
support can be established.


Page 18

Chapter Three:
Required Actions
Whether a company is trying to move its performance from Laggard to
Industry Average, or Industry Average to Best-in-Class, the following
actions will help spur the necessary performance improvements:

Laggard Steps to Success
"I think that workforce
• Seek support and buy-in from senior leadership. Currently, collaboration has two faces.
slightly less than one third of Laggard organizations (32%) have The first is real-time sharing of
gained this critical buy-in - as compared to 51% of Industry Average work products in a way that
and 84% of Best-in-Class organizations. Whether on the allows team members to
departmental level or corporate level, organizations must ensure interact in order to accomplish
that senior leadership has subscribed to the business case. This, in a task. Related is the second
turn, forces two key elements: 1) To gain this buy-in, a solid face, where the work is done
business case must be presented - this discipline will provide the asynchronously. Both require
basis for future success; 2) When managers and executives embrace systems that allow for sharing,
storage, retrieval, tracking, and
collaboration initiatives, the rate of adoption among employees in
annotation.”
lower levels will increase.
• Involve line of business managers and IT. Less than one-third ~ Director, Bluenog Corp.
of Laggard organizations involve these critical stakeholders in the
process to determine which collaboration / Web 2.0 technologies
will best address the business' specific needs and whether the
enterprise can support the technology. Collaboration with line of
business managers and IT will also aid in defining the key
performance indicators that will be utilized to gauge the success of
the particular project or application.
• Automate - start small, then expand. Begin by addressing an
isolated business or project pain point. Software tools that allow for
sharing of calendars, documents and applications have been adopted
by at least 61% of Industry Average organizations and by at least
78% of Best-in-Class and may be able to address an immediate
tactical need at your organization and, in many cases, can be
accessed in a hosted of software-as-a-service model - which may
please IT and allow for more immediate use.
• Communicate the availability of collaboration tools and
train on their use. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Laggards
currently communicate the availability of workforce collaboration
tools to all their workers, and only a fifth of them train their
employees on using these tools. Unless employees are aware of
collaboration tools and are adequately trained on using them,
utilization of these software tools will be drastically low. Lack of
adoption and utilization may cause organizations to lose confidence
in their technology investments as they won’t be able to determine
its ROI.


Page 19

Industry Average Steps to Success
• Use collaboration strategically and communicate all
successes. While 53% of Industry Average organizations are
applying collaboration tools to enhance project teamwork, only 22%
are using to connect employees to subject matter experts.
Comparatively, 40% of Best-in-Class organizations are doing so.
Industry Average organizations must begin to look towards
collaboration and Web 2.0 tools more strategically within talent
management and then apply them to programs such as onboarding,
employee development, and succession planning. This will enable
them to track their top performers, use as them coaches, and keep
them in their leadership pipeline.
• Enable workers to search and connect with colleagues
across business units and geographies. Only 44% of Industry
Average organizations have this capability in place. Collaboration
works best if employees are able to identify employees who share
common personal and professional interests. This allows them to
easily identify subject matter experts and to complete their tasks
more efficiently making them more productive.
• Allow multiple units within the organization the ability to
edit, modify, and share content. Whereas 69% of Best-in-Class
organizations provide this visibility and capability, only 36% of
Industry Average organizations support this. This is especially
effective in matrix organizations where a project team consists of
several groups. For instance, a project might have sponsorship (i.e.
funding) from three business lines in addition to a technology team
that is creating the application. All four groups must be able to
collaborate throughout the project lifecycle from creating a business
case to writing and carrying out testing use cases. This will decrease
the project's time-to-completion and will provide better visibility
from a project management standpoint. Different permission levels
can be set to control this aspect.
• Implement a shared knowledge repository. Forty-one percent
(41%) of Aberdeen's Industry Average are currently storing content
in a shared knowledge repository - as compared to 69% of Best-in-
Class. Whether content is company generated or user generated, it
is critical to ensure that it is easy to find, edit and modify. This helps
organizations to better manage, track, and update it. Most
importantly, it enables an organization to build on existing content
via continuous improvement based on internal best practices.

Best-in-Class Steps to Success
• Establish guidelines and communicate to all workers.
Currently, only four in ten Best-in-Class organizations have
established "Proper Use" guidelines on the use of collaboration and
Web 2.0 tools (i.e. content posting) and have communicated these


Page 20

guidelines to their workforces. However, it's critical to highlight that
all organizations that have these guidelines in place have achieved
Aberdeen's Best-in-Class status. Clearly, this plays a role in attaining
performance gains in productivity, project timelines, and efficiency.
• Track and report on the frequency of use. Approximately
one-third of Best-in-Class organizations have a process in place to
track and report on employee use of collaboration software tools.
Organizations must be able to determine the frequency and
application of the use of workforce collaboration and Web 2.0
software tools. This helps them identify who their top contributors
are and enables them to deduce employee engagement based on
how often workers are posting, editing, reading and commenting on
content. It also allows them to curb improper use of these tools and
ascertain they are being utilized as intended.
• Allow employees to rate content and the content
source(s). Currently, only 34% of Best-in-Class allow this
functionality. Allowing peers to rate each other and each other's
content enables the organization to identify subject matter experts.
Moreover, rating content such as work experiences and approaches
provides the ability to uncover best practices for a department or a
business unit. This enables companies to improve learning processes
and training content.
Aberdeen Insights — Summary

Workforce collaboration is not a new concept. However, innovation has
led to an evolution of tools that are allowing workers to improve
productivity, facilitate project-based teamwork, and network with
colleagues. File-sharing, application sharing, and calendar-sharing tools are
currently most widely used. Nonetheless, "Web 2.0" technologies like
social networks, wikis, blogs, web feeds, internal communities and
discussion threads are gaining visible traction in awareness, acceptance
and adoption. The pursuit of workforce collaboration will continue to
gain momentum in terms of its application across the enterprise as well
as its overall strategic importance to the organization.


Page 21

Appendix A:
Web 2.0 Terminology and Definitions
Blogs. Abridgement of Web Log. Allows an individual to write about a
topic and allow others to view and comment online. Organizations use
blogs to enable employees to share their experiences and highlight success
stories. It allows colleagues to view the content and share their thoughts on
the topic in the form of comments.
Communities. Also known as online communities are groups of people -
in this case employees - who interact primarily via virtual means. This can be
a team of people working on the same project, or a sales team working
together on one deal. They can subscribe to the same content and opt to
receive alerts when members of their community post new content or edit
existing content.
Forums. Web applications for hosting discussions and user generated
content. Members - in this case employees - can visit a particular forum to
check for new content or participate in new discussion topics. Forums are
usually moderated by an administrator to edit, delete, or modify threads on
the forum.
Mash-ups. Web applications that combine content from different sources
to produce an integrated tool. For instance, a group of employees can have
a page that combines the project plan and news feeds on the client and the
industry they compete in. For this example, content (project timeline and
news) is usually updated by web feeds.
Podcasts. Digital media files that are distributed via the internet for
playback on computers and mobile devices. The term comes from
combining "broadcast" and "iPod" - Apple's portable media player. For
instance, a company can utilize Podcasts to share success stories or
distribute learning content.
RSS feeds. Family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated
content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized
format.
Social bookmarking. A method for internet users to store, organize,
search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the internet with the help
of metadata (data describing other data). Many social bookmarking services
provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by
tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they
are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.
Social networking. This technology enables people to find how they are
connected to be people who are not necessarily within their direct
network. For example, a person from the outside sales team is working on a
deal with company X. He/she is trying to find a point of contact at that
company, but doesn't know where to start. Social networking tools might
help him/her find out that another colleague in sales has a contact in


Page 22

marketing who used to work with another person who now is an employee
of company X. This helps employees design a communication path to
establish contact.
Social tagging. Also known as folksonomy, collaborative tagging, social
classification, or social indexing. It is the method of collaboratively creating
and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. In contrast to
traditional subject indexing, metadata is generated not only by experts but
also by creators and consumers of the content. Usually, freely chosen
keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary.
Wikis. Web pages that allow communities of people to access, govern and
contribute to topics of interest. Simple wikis allow title searches and more
advanced wikis allow full text searches. In case of enterprise collaboration,
wikis can be used by subject matter experts to collaborate on content
enabling organizations to capture best practices that would be applied to
improve output and productivity of others.


Page 23

Appendix B:
Research Methodology
Between May and June 2008, Aberdeen examined the use, the experiences, Study Focus
and the intentions of more than 270 organizations with respect to their
internal workforce collaboration efforts. Responding executives
completed an online survey
Aberdeen supplemented this online survey effort with telephone interviews that included questions
with select survey respondents, gathering additional information on these designed to determine the
programs, strategies, experiences, and results. following:

Responding enterprises included the following: √ The impact of workforce
collaboration technology, if
• Job title / function: The research sample included respondents with any, on project-based
the following job titles: senior management (CEO, COO, CFO, teamwork and knowledge
CIO, CTO, president) (16%); vice president (VP, SVP, EVP, Partner) sharing - especially in
(6%); director / general manager (21%); manager (22%); others geographically dispersed
teams
(35%). In terms of functions in their respective organization, the
third of respondents were in human resources, talent management, √ The processes and internal
learning and development; followed by sales and marketing (24%). IT capabilities that enable Best-
(20%). Other functional areas represented include IT (20%), in-Class companies achieve
operations and business process improvement (9%). performance gains

• Industry: The research sample included respondents from a variety √ Current and planned
of industries. Telecom and IT (including software, hardware and collaboration and Web 2.0
services) represented a third of the sample. Finance/banking and real technology adoption
estate/legal services represented 12% of the sample, followed by √ The benefits if any, that have
education (6%) and government (4%). been derived from internal
workforce collaboration
• Geography: The majority of respondents (70%) were from North
initiatives
America. Remaining respondents were from Europe (20%), Asia-
Pacific (7%), Middle East / Africa (2%), and South / Central America The study aimed to identify
(1%). emerging best practices for
fostering internal collaboration
• Company size: Thirty-four percent (34%) of respondents were from and knowledge sharing and to
large enterprises (annual revenues above US$1 billion); 24% were provide a framework by which
from mid-sized enterprises (annual revenues between $50 million readers could assess their own
and $1 billion); 42% were from small businesses (annual revenues capabilities.
less than $50 million.
• Headcount: Thirty-nine percent (39%) of respondents had over 2500
employees; 6% had between 1000 and 2500 employees; 13% had
between 250 and 1000 employees; 42% of respondents came from
companies with less than 250 employees.
Solution providers recognized as sponsors were solicited after the fact and
had no substantive influence on the direction of this report. Their
sponsorship has made it possible for Aberdeen Group to make these
findings available to readers at no charge.


Page 24

Table 4: The PACE Framework Key
Overview
Aberdeen applies a methodology to benchmark research that evaluates the business pressures, actions, capabilities,
and enablers (PACE) that indicate corporate behavior in specific business processes. These terms are defined as
follows:
Pressures — external forces that impact an organization’s market position, competitiveness, or business
operations (e.g., economic, political and regulatory, technology, changing customer preferences, competitive)
Actions — the strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures (e.g., align the
corporate business model to leverage industry opportunities, such as product / service strategy, target markets,
financial strategy, go-to-market, and sales strategy)
Capabilities — the business process competencies required to execute corporate strategy (e.g., skilled people,
brand, market positioning, viable products / services, ecosystem partners, financing)
Enablers — the key functionality of technology solutions required to support the organization’s enabling business
practices (e.g., development platform, applications, network connectivity, user interface, training and support,
partner interfaces, data cleansing, and management)

Table 5: The Competitive Framework Key
Overview

The Aberdeen Competitive Framework defines enterprises In the following categories:
as falling into one of the following three levels of practices Process — What is the scope of process
and performance: standardization? What is the efficiency and
Best-in-Class (20%) — Practices that are the best effectiveness of this process?
currently being employed and are significantly superior to Organization — How is your company currently
the Industry Average, and result in the top industry organized to manage and optimize this particular
performance. process?
Industry Average (50%) — Practices that represent the Knowledge — What visibility do you have into key
average or norm, and result in average industry data and intelligence required to manage this process?
performance. Technology — What level of automation have you
Laggards (30%) — Practices that are significantly behind used to support this process? How is this automation
the average of the industry, and result in below average integrated and aligned?
performance. Performance — What do you measure? How
frequently? What’s your actual performance?


Table 6: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework
PACE and the Competitive Framework – How They Interact
Aberdeen research indicates that companies that identify the most influential pressures and take the most
transformational and effective actions are most likely to achieve superior performance. The level of competitive
performance that a company achieves is strongly determined by the PACE choices that they make and how well they
execute those decisions.


Page 25

Appendix C:
Related Aberdeen Research
Related Aberdeen research that forms a companion or reference to this
report includes:
• Managing Employee Performance March 2008
• Human Capital Management Defined March 2008
• Best-in-Class Use of Metrics in Talent Management March 2008
• All Aboard:: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies January
2008
• Learning and Development: Aligning Workforce with Business Objectives
September 2007
• Integrated Human Capital Management: Over-hyped or Over-due?
December 2007
• The Looming Leadership Void: Identifying, Developing, and Retaining Your
Top Talent November 2007
Information on these and any other Aberdeen publications can be found at
www.aberdeen.com

Authors: Kevin Martin, Research Director, Human Capital Management
kevin.martin@aberdeen.com
Jayson Saba, Research Associate, Human Capital Management
jayson.saba@aberdeen.com
Since 1988, Aberdeen's research has been helping corporations worldwide become Best-in-Class. Having
benchmarked the performance of more than 644,000 companies, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to provide
organizations with the facts that matter — the facts that enable companies to get ahead and drive results. That's why
our research is relied on by more than 2.2 million readers in over 40 countries, 90% of the Fortune 1,000, and 93% of
the Technology 500.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted
marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-
Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the
strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com
or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com

This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies
provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless
otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be
reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by
Aberdeen Group, Inc.


Social Workforce Collaboration

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

En vedette

En vedette (6)

Similaire à Social Workforce Collaboration

Similaire à Social Workforce Collaboration (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Social Workforce Collaboration