Technology as an employee relationship management tool

Employees and employers are experiencing relationship with each other every day. This makes employee relationship management very important. A good relationship management can enhance communication and interaction between employee and employer, between co-workers themselves as well as to bring more business opportunities. One way to achieve this is through multiple social network platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. If you go to LinkedIn, you will see their goal is to improve and facilitates business relationships of professionals as they can exchange ideas and opportunities through the connection with people and the professional identity developed online.

Facebook is the dominated social network now though some employers prefer to use blogging as a communication platform with their workers. Facebook is more like a life portal because things inside is more personal and playful instead of only business. It helps employers to look underneath the surface (productivity) of employees to develop, accelerate and deepen a relationship with them as large part of a relationship is based on hidden element. Some companies catch twittering or going on Facebook at work. However, this may even lower employee’s productivity and loyalty. There is a study by the University of Melbourne shows that those who use internet during work hours are more productive than those who don’t. ( You can look at the result here http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/04/study-surfing-the-internet-at-work-boosts-productivity.ars ) I think this is because people always need some personal time to refresh and rest their mind so to get back their concentration. 

As facebook is a more personal social network platform, many people will clean their wall or open an new account in order to build a better image at work. But I don't think open a new account is a good way as the world is small and there are so many weak ties in our social network. Eventually your colleagues or employers will find out your original account and by that time they might think you are not honest. Plus, when you go on facebook at work probably you want to relax a little bit. It is pointless to only log on the account that deliberately created for work. Also, for me, I don't suggest to share very personal conversation , crazy party photos or very private photos in internet because there is no real privacy in such open online world. It is also related to how we protect our and others’ faces. In real world, like when you go drinking or dinner, it is important not to embarrass ourselves and lose our family, friends and partners’s face no matter what. How we look and present ourselves also affect how people around us think of our charisma. Similarly facebook is a public and open online community, where photos and words we post and tag reflect our respect to ourselves and others. If we always have the right attitude in doing things and know how to make use of the private settings, we need not worry about facebook being used as a relationship management or spying tool at workplace.

 

Some people claim that they lost their job because of facebook, I don’t doubt facebook can be one way for employer to do personal evaluation but how influential facebook is at workplace also depends on the style of company. My best friend told me that her team leader added all her teammates on facebook and the teammates (especially girls) gossip each other’s photos and relationship status very often. However, I have an Aussie friend in Hong Kong working as a manager told me that no one in his company cares about others facebook. He ‘friend’ with workmates on facebook only if they ask for, therefore he only got 2 workmates in his friend list so far. Our personality, intelligence, productivity and interpersonal skill can be revealed by time. This is also why some companies prefer to organize activities like annual dinner, picnic and after work fun like go for happy hour beer and karaoke to observe and understand more about their employees in person, rather than to bother with their facebook. Therefore, wall cleaning and opening a new account are not necessary.