The Orange Chair Online

Internal Communications - McDonalds Launches Employee Blog

I read with interest on Brandweek.com that McDonalds has recently launched Station M - a blog for intended to stimulate interaction between McDonald employees in the 15000+ outlets across Canada and the US and between employees and HO. 

"Station M allows employees to post content and begin online discussions on a variety of topics, including new McDonald's products, promotions and operations, as well as general, non-business related issues. Each post contains a 'comments' section where users can insert their reaction to, or questions about, a given topic. Content is provided in English, Spanish and French to facilitate the greatest level of participation across the U.S and Canadian markets."

With a major corp like McD's on board (finally!) it will be interesting to see how long the rest of the fast food industry (and other businesses for that matter) takes to move into the current world.

Employers to Use Wiki's, Blogs and Social Networking to Engage Staff

As I said at a recent leadership forum  I spoke at a couple of weeks back, the world of work is clearly changing ....and finally technology finds its way into mainstream thinking as part of employee engagement. 

According to the latest Press Release from Watson Wyatt Worldwide, companies will focus on upgrading and integrating their human resources technology in 2008 in an effort to improve administration and better engage employees.  The Press Release outlines some of the more likely trends to be the increased adoption of advanced Web solutions, such as wikis, blogs and social networking, and a focus on making HR technology easier for employees to use.

"Managing a workforce is increasingly complex, and employers are searching for the right solutions to help them address this challenge," said Richard Hubbard, director of Watson Wyatt's North American technology and administration solutions practice. "Technology will continue to help companies manage the most intricate HR tasks, including some, such as talent management, that were once done more by intuition than by data analysis. Employers' biggest challenge is staying on top of the trends and investing in areas where they will get the most for their money."   

Among the top trends Watson Wyatt has identified for 2008 is the adoption of Advanced, Web 2.0 Technology.  With the rapid growth of consumer-oriented Web 2.0 applications, organizations are considering increasingly interactive strategies and technologies.  While many corporations are using Web 2.0 elements such as blogs and wikis, organizations are just beginning to implement other elements of social networking.  All of these systems could reduce the focus on traditional e-mail and make work communication a more dynamic experience for employees.

Are you ready?  Or better yet, have you moved out ahead of the pack?  I would be interested in knowing where your company is with all of these tools....drop me a line or leave a comment

Tags: web2.0, engagement, employee communication, social media, blogs, communication strategy