This month, internal communicators addressed the question: What impact do enterprise social networks (ESNs) have on a business?

Katharina Auer, Head of employee & executive communications, Zurich Insurance Group ESNs reflect the way people communicate and collaborate outside work – so we should have the same tools and ability to collaborate, work and communicate across organizations. These tools foster dialogue, innovation and they allow people to select the content they want – giving people a choice. And let’s remember that we never controlled the message in the first place. If your messages, news and communication activities are audience focused, people will look at them. Ultimately this should help to improve efficiency, effectiveness, engagement and productivity.

Kevin McDougall, senior internal digital channel manager, Transport for London ESNs enable business to react to their customers’ (both internal and external) changing needs quickly and with more authority than ever before.

Tony Stewart, international internal community manager, NBC Universal Enterprise social networks are a real sandbox for the modern internal communicator, and it’s fascinating how these tools can enable many new ways to engage and communicate within a business...To tap into the passion we have inside the company, we also wanted to ensure our colleagues had the opportunity to participate in the [Christmas 2013] campaign too. However, trying to replicate the social nature of the campaign while sharing video content internally with colleagues can be pretty tricky using traditional email and intranet tools.

Jenni Wheller, head of internal communication, SSP UK Creating a community online and having a social intranet serve different purposes and also foster different cultures. From experience, I like to use channels that add value to the business and the audience. I have created social intranets and I have implemented enterprise social networks and for me, they need to meet the purpose and work together.

Sheila Parry, managing director, theblueballroom The business case for ESNs is undoubtedly the reduction of wastage, duplication, lost data in full inboxes, the potential to break down silo-thinking and unlock easier communications flows, more collaboration, sharing of employees’ thoughts and opinion and, at best, encouraging innovation by getting ideas into the open...The real impact of introducing social networks to the workplace has been to give them the means to communicate with each other in a way that suits them, that is quick, efficient, immediate, accessible and inclusive.

Malcolm Padley, communications director, Rentokil plc Rentokil Initial is now one of the largest users of G+ and hangouts – which we use as our internal social network. It has terrific value in the company as it enhances customer service, productivity, sales performance, engagement and of course is brilliant for communication. We spend more time with customers and less time in meetings. Personally, I love the way it brings our global business together. Images loaded such as the work we’re doing on a ship in Singapore harbour, charity work in South Africa or ‘Pestaurant’ coverage from the US – instant and impactful. Use of mobile video is particularly effective and it’s all aligned to our Gmail. It’s changing our company. 

Heather Gallegos, senior manager, employee communications and digital strategy, Cisco For example at Cisco, their ESN has had measureable impact in multiple areas of the business. In regards to the business of internal communications, ESNs are critical to a strategic communications plan for two reasons. Primarily, an ESN is the sole channel to engage with global employees in a digital two-way conversation. Secondly, ESNs significantly improve a communicator’s productivity. It is a beautiful thing when one sees the busywork of revision comparison simply disappear because edits are made real-time on a single online document. Global enterprises without ESNs will struggle to compete with peers with ESNs who are faster to market and have a more productive and collaborative global workforce.