Social Media at Work - Using MS Communicator for Collaboration and Training

For some organizations, the implementation of social media has already had a major impact on how HR Services are delivered while for others; the use of social media tools is just beginning.  The book discusses opportunities as well as challenges that organizations face when implementing the use of social media tools.

Social media tools include Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking sites, Discussion Forums, Microblogging, Podcasts, and Web Conferencing.  The benefits of using social media tools include collaboration, efficiency, and cost effectiveness especially for global organizations or those organizations that have a scattered workforce. 

I work for a global clinical research organization. During the economic downturn, training was one area where we needed to cut costs primarily with the elimination of travel.  The end result was a reduction or elimination of traditional classroom training and, more importantly, the element of human interaction. We were forced to find other methods for effective delivery of training. 

The organization already had innovative tools for reaching a global audience including shadowing technology that allowed students to attend training in global classrooms and gave instructors the ability to view/share their desktops.  But for employees in offices without training rooms and for home based users, we needed another option. 

Web conferencing is the social media tool implemented in my organization as an alternate method for reaching our global audience both for collaboration between teams and for training purposes.  On page 56 in the book, the authors discuss the benefits of using web conferencing including polling capabilities, shared control and chat capabilities, and whiteboard functionality that allows break out groups and simulates in-classroom breakout groups.

While Live Meeting web conferencing can be used effectively under certain circumstances, we found that the lack of hands on experience as well as the continued lack of human interaction between employees required us to find an even more effective tool. 

In late 2010, Microsoft Communicator was deployed and provided instant messaging (IM), multi-party audio, video and desktop sharing.  Employees can connect from any location with Internet connectivity using a Virtual Private Networks (VPN) or through web based remote desktop applications.  Just yesterday, the phones lines were down in our San Antonio office.  I was able to call the employee using the MS Communicator audio capabilities and complete the course.  This tool has helped us bring the human element back into meetings and/or training.

MS Communicator allows us to meet and/or deliver training to any global employee whether in a traditional office, their home office or in a hotel room.   It has streamlined the connectivity process and changed the way that we can effectively deliver training.

Link to more information on MS Communicator capabilities:  http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000003561