The Role of Employee Voice and Influence in Creating Supportive and Productive Work Environments

In light of new work models and ongoing disruptions, prioritizing employee engagement and feedback is crucial for companies. Organizations must embrace communication channels that empower employees to voice their thoughts and concerns to accomplish this effectively, rather than relying on sender-driven approaches. By actively listening and responding to employee needs, companies can create a more supportive and productive work environment.

Identifying the most connected employees within a company is a critical component of this structure. These employees, whom we call influencers at OrgMapper, are essential in driving change. However, our projects and research have revealed a significant disconnect between whom managers and HR professionals perceive as influential and whom employees genuinely seek advice, feedback, and inspiration.

I believe identifying genuine peer credibility among employees requires a deeper examination.

This is where Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) comes in. I think that authentic influence lies in being well-connected to other high influencers. To identify influencers, we must quantify each employee's connectivity.

Here are some steps to follow when you try your own ventures:

1. Map the network: Use ONA techniques to map the social network within the organization. This may involve collecting data on communication patterns, work collaborations, or other relevant factors.
2. Identify key players: Analyze the network to identify individuals with a high degree of centrality, which means they have many connections or are positioned at critical points in the network.
3. Determine influence: Use additional metrics to determine which key players are the most influential. For example, you might consider the extent to which others adopt an individual's ideas or decisions or the degree to which they are seen as a trusted source of information.
4. Consider the context: It's important to consider the broader organizational context when assessing influence. An individual who is highly influential in one area of the organization may not have the same level of impact in other areas.
5. Validate findings: Once you've identified potential influencers, it's important to validate your findings through additional research or by seeking feedback from others within the organization.

By following these steps, you can use ONA to identify individuals who are likely to significantly impact organizational outcomes and help inform your strategies for building and leveraging relationships within the organization.

Insights into your influencers can help harness the true power of social influence in the workplace. Identifying influencers is critical because they are the go-to sources for advice, feedback, and inspiration. Leveraging their impact can lead to increased trust, alignment, engagement, and support from the entire workforce.

But how should you go about leveraging your influencers?

• Enable employee influencers: Once identified, organizations should enable employee influencers by equipping them with the necessary tools and resources to communicate their experiences and insights with their network. This may involve providing access to exclusive content, training sessions, and a clear understanding of the organization's objectives and values.
• ?Promote feedback: Employee influencers can be a valuable source of feedback as they have a good sense of what's happening in the organization. Encourage them to provide feedback and take their input seriously.
• Cultivate a listening culture: Employee influencers can help foster a culture of listening by amplifying the voices of employees and ensuring that their concerns are addressed by management. Encourage them to share their experiences and insights and make sure that their feedback is acted upon.
• Harness their networks: Employee influencers have expansive networks, which organizations can leverage to enhance internal communication. Encourage employee influencers to share updates and news about the organization with their informal connections to communicate with employees effectively.

Despite adopting an ambassadorial approach to driving messages and initiatives, organizations rarely understand organizational networks and influencers' power. Simply designating employees as ambassadors or champions without considering their actual organizational weight is insufficient.

I believe it's crucial to conduct ONA research to identify genuine influencers whom companies can engage with and involve in change management communication processes. A thorough analysis can ensure that information, projects or even behaviors are disseminated through "the rumor mill" or "the grapevine" and can also integrate the ambassadorial role with an explicit appreciation of the role of informal influence in driving the success of initiatives and behavioral change.

It's important to recognize that ambassadors should not replace influencers but instead work as a complementary force. Organizations should facilitate appropriate interaction between ambassadors and influencers based on influencer attitudes towards an initiative or their willingness to be publicly exposed.

A focus on ambassadorship often implies a focus on control. An individual executing a formal organizational role must adhere to official channels, messages, and interpretations while promoting the agenda. However, organizations can create successful communication channels that yield better results by leveraging the true power of social influence through ONA and identifying genuine influencers.

To explore the nuanced distinctions between the four dimensions of internal influence, please refer to our collaboration with Mike Klein.?

#influeners #ona #organizationaldevelopment #organizationalculture