Social media helping shape workforce management

8 July 2013

MYOB, the first NZ business to deploy online performance management tool, Salesforce Work.com, sees surge in employee engagement

While social media has often been considered a distraction in the office, the same principles are now used in a successful productivity tool that combines social sharing with performance management.

MYOB is the first New Zealand company to take up Work.com, an online performance management tool designed specifically for the workplace by salesforce.com. The enterprise-wide system allows employees to share and align goals, celebrate individual and team successes, track performance on goals, and provide regular feedback and evaluations.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed says Work.com has been welcomed with great enthusiasm within the local team and has so far been very successful.

“The MYOB team has been extremely positive about the tool. It has made it easier to achieve goals, both on a personal and team level, as performance can be tracked almost simultaneously,” he says.

“We wanted to make our goal setting and performance management process more dynamic, enjoyable and easier. Work.com allows for that through an easy to navigate and comprehensive online platform.”

The site provides a social forum where employees can interact, provide feedback on others, share milestones and collaborate on goals and ideas. This in turn helps workers build better relationships and makes the office more productive.

“Team members are already providing and receiving a lot more real-time feedback than they were before we had Work.com. They also have a better understanding of how their individual and team goals are linked to the broader company goals,” says Mr Reed.

“Work.com has been highly effective in building team morale and efficiency. We’ve noticed teams are more satisfied with the way they work together as the platform encourages healthier collaboration.”

MYOB’s product development team echo these sentiments. Product development manager, Trevor Leybourne, says Work.com has increased team communication and productivity.

“What’s really great about Work.com is that all the team initiatives and objectives are transparent — it has that visibility aspect that is great for managers,” he says.

“It also enables all team members to provide comments and feedback. I can comment or write notes and communicate with people who aren’t in the office. I can access Work.com and collaborate with my team from wherever I am too.”

Craig McGuff, product development team member, says there are several reasons why he believes Work.com has improved the workplace.

“Transparency is the most significant factor for me. It has made working with a number of people across several projects much easier. Work.com has also assisted the transition of conversations into goals,” he says.

“It has enabled ideas and discussions to become actions, and we can tag as well as date them. Everything being dated and publicly visible has empowered people to be more accountable for their tasks and projects, in turn making people more productive.”

Apart from allowing for a more transparent work environment, Work.com has also cut down the paper process that would usually come with performance reviews.

Mr Reed says, “Previously, it took many hours and a lot of paper to produce an insightful, high quality review for one individual. However through moving over to Work.com our organisational development team estimates that we’ll save approximately 20,000 pieces of paper per year.”

MYOB works on a three-tier goal process around the premise of SMART — specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and timely. The three levels are work, learning and career.

“Work goals are linked to your manager’s work goal and can be seen by everyone you are connected to. This ensures everyone is heading in the same direction. Others can commit to your goal, whether by following it or taking part in achieving it. And all of these goals feed into one or more of our four company goals,” says Mr Reed.

“As a technology leader, we’re committed to using the best available tools to streamline work — making it easier for our team to focus on supporting our New Zealand SME customers. With Work.com, we believe we have been able to harness the best aspects of social sharing in a way that makes our team more efficient, more effective and more motivated.”

About MYOB
Established in 1991, MYOB is one of New Zealand’s largest business management software providers. Its 50+ products and services have been employed by more than one million businesses in New Zealand and Australia. MYOB serves businesses of all ages, types and sizes, delivering solutions that simplify accounting, payroll, client management, websites and much more. With a network of more than 20,000 accountants and other professional partners, it provides the support and tools that help make business life easier. Today, MYOB is extending its solutions online and delivering innovation through cloud computing, enabling clients to make smarter connections with their business partners and customers. For further information visit: myob.co.nz/smarterconnections.

ENDS

© Scoop Media