The cool new route to mobilise employees

My Union is the name of a new application launched on Facebook by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the UK. Launched in an effort to network activists and promote campaigns on the social networking Web site, My Union enables members to place their union badge on their Facebook profile. The application holds badges for the 59 unions that are affiliated to the TUC.

According to reports in a business daily, campus recruits of a technology company vented their anger at the uncertainty about their joining dates on various social networking sites. Through postings on one of the Web sites, the recruits even announced plans to organise a peaceful protest in front of the company’s campus. The social networking site served as an easy platform to mobilise in an unimaginably ‘cool’ manner.

The social networking phenomenon

Social networking Web sites centre around building virtual communities that consist of acquaintances and people who share common interests and activities, both informal and professional. The ease of access and the immense power that it offers has made this medium a new-found source of power for employees. While these Web sites are normally used by organisations and employers to communicate, educate, debate and discuss a range of issues, their use by employees as a platform to mobilise others is what needs particular attention.

For over a decade, those who scoffed at the possibility of unions and collective action among knowledge workers maintained that these educated workers looked down upon unions and attached a stigma to things like gate meetings, dharnas and protests. What is now becoming evident to me is that should there be a need, employees rely on social networking Web sites to mobilise others and their opinions and even their commitments and actions; albeit on a virtual plane and through a medium that is ‘cool’ and appeals to today’s Gen Y without the stigma attached to the erstwhile images of collective action.

I took the help of my team to survey some of the more popular sites and this is what I discovered:

Faceboo k: Employee communities on Facebook are mainly from the US or the UK. Company specific communities exist mainly in the retail and IT sectors, while industry specific communities exist in the aviation and auto sectors.

While General Motors employees discuss lay-offs and the impact of foreign imports on the American auto industry, young Microsoft-employee forums feature topics on getting people acquainted with their workplaces and city, finding apartments for rent and so on.

Unions 2.0 is one of the interesting groups on Facebook. The group is described as the ‘global community of trade unionists, employees’ representatives, workers and activists’. Apparently, the objective of this group is to use new technologies to increase unions’ power and membership worldwide and increase workers’ participation in labour union initiatives.

Workexp.com: The workexp.com user base is Indian and the posts are almost entirely related to Indian IT or ITeS companies. Workexp.com seems to be used by employees primarily to vent their frustrations and hit out at their companies, colleagues and bosses. As posts on the site are mainly anonymous, users are not hesitant to name the companies they are disgruntled with and do not even restrain from naming individuals. Topics discussed include illegal termination, dissatisfaction with policies, harassment and so on.

LinkedIn: This site seems to attract more professionals and engages them in a lot of constructive discussions such as ‘how will you respond personally to this new environment of job losses’, ‘what is the best way to handle sexual harassment in the workplace’, ‘what is the impact of the current economic downturn on employee morale’ and so on.

Orkut: The Orkut community seems to attract students, the vast majority of whom are on the verge of their first job and seem concerned about understanding the marketplace and potential employers. The topics discussed here have a lot to do with companies and their policies with respect to new employees, industry analysis, and have a lot of first-time employees seeking advice.

What do we do about this?

A number of researchers who are examining the future of trade unions believe that young employees might move away from the traditional trade unions but might choose to belong to one or more ‘interest groups’. In his presentation on the subject at a recent NHRD conference, L. Prabhakar, Corporate HR Manager, ITC Ltd, defined an ‘interest group’ as: “A continuous or temporal association of employees operating in collaboration with others for the purpose of protecting their long-term professional, legal and societal interests and rights.”

In my opinion, social networking is a tool that goes a long way in nurturing interest groups that can have a global reach. Employers who believed that employees will not be able to mobilise and rally support given geographical distances, time differences, the lack of time and, most importantly, the stigma attached, may want to think again. Social networking sites have taken away every one of these limitations and have placed enormous power in the hands of employees — a power that cannot be gagged or curtailed. Organisations will do well to first recognise the power of this new tool. They will also do well to view it positively. Most importantly, they must make serious efforts to actively participate in it.

Since social networking Web sites give employees the opportunity to share and shape opinions and ideas, employers should also be present in these spaces and welcome these ideas and views. They should use these spaces to engage the entire professional community in a healthy dialogue and debate on all key issues and concerns in an unemotional and dispassionate manner. Companies should also use these forums to educate, inform and, importantly, listen.

By being there and participating in these forums in meaningful ways, we may be able to finally re-establish the long lost connect with the 21st century employee community; and we will be doing it in a way that they will welcome and find very cool!

Ganesh Chella