This case illustrates the use of online discussion forums to enhance stakeholder engagement across the organisation.
Westminster City Council is a unitary authority providing local government services to 232,000 people and 47,000 businesses in London. Rated 'excellent — four stars' by the Audit Commission, Westminster is a pioneer in the provision of leading-edge solutions for local government. The council's 60 elected members serve a community that is highly diverse with complex needs, and which generates 2% of the United Kingdom's gross domestic product. The HR function, led by Graham White, has invested in the use of an online discussion forum, as part of a multifaceted stakeholder engagement programme.
The Value of Staff Engagement
'To sustain our status as a four star local authority, it is vital that we nurture and develop an engaged workforce', said Graham White. 'One of the ways we are doing this is to allow our employees more opportunities to voice their opinions online, to help them better engage with key organisational issues. This fits in with other aspects of our strategy, such as staff development, talent spotting and building real values'.
The Enterprise 2.0 Solution
Many local authorities operate staff portals, where information is deposited on numerous subjects for staff to view. In these instances, where staff require further information, follow-up usually consists of reference to online support material, which is often set-piece, 'viewable only' information; alternatively, email or telephone assistance may be available, or staff may be referred to their respective line manager. All of these channels are regulated and do not foster spontaneous, conversational discussion that can be seen by the rest of the organisation.
At Westminster City Council, the decision was taken to adopt an approach which would allow employees at all levels to engage in online discussion on a variety of topics, some of them determined 'top-down' by key officers of the organisation, and others created 'bottom-up' by the employees. The pre-allocated subjects arise from a variety of inputs: council objectives, senior management meetings; subjects raised by individuals through a 'sounding board' email channel; engagement groups, open-house sessions or simply by one individual feeling strongly about a particular element of how the council is doing its business. An example of a pre-allocated discussion topic concerns Reward Strategy. In this case, the Council is implementing a new remuneration scheme for all staff that will introduce exciting, broader salary bands to ensure all staff in Westminster have the potential to earn top quartile salaries in the greater London area. The opening position statement, posted by a senior finance officer, draws attention to a central feature of the new proposals, which is the intention to ensure that no members of staff will receive less through the new scheme than they do at present.
The ensuing discussion thread unfolds as employees post their attributed comments, in full view of the rest of organisation. Graham White explained:
Our new Reward Strategy is an important component of the organisation's forward-looking approach to attract and retain the most talented people, but our explicit commitment to employee engagement, evidenced by the discussion forum, is also an important part of the overall mix of measures designed to enhance the Council's reputation.
More broadly, the system easily allows HR to track the level of interest in the different topics, by evaluating the number of 'viewing hits' a particular topic receives and also the number of responses. Graham White continued:
The authority employs over 5,000 staff and we are extremely pleased with the level of enthusiasm and engagement demonstrated by the online discussion forum. The comments posted by our staff not only help to refine the thinking of our senior management team on a particular topic but open up new avenues for discussion. Also, as we seek to downsize the number of employees physically located in our buildings and encourage more flexible working methods, the online discussion forum is a way of creating social interaction.
The online forum also allows topics to be generated spontaneously by the employees. Examples include subjects as varied as childcare vouchers, windows vista and the quality of the shower room. In one example, an employee raised the issue of making cycling to work easier for all staff. Over 280 staff reviewed the site and a number of them made further comments. This lively debate has now been picked up by the organisation, which is looking into the provision of better services for staff who cycle into work.
Policing the Enterprise 2.0 Applications
The policing of the new Enterprise 2.0 applications has been carefully considered by Westminster, in recognition that it does have the potential to create reputational damage if it becomes a source of malicious or abusive intent. As Graham White explained:
We are conscious of the potential threat but this did not distract us from seeking to achieve the potential benefits. One of our rules is that all comments posted must be attributable. We also carefully monitor our discussion forum for any signs of misuse and employees know that such action will not be tolerated. I'm pleased to say that the forum is used in a responsible way. The key to achieving and sustaining this is in part attributable to maintaining good standards in the way the site is managed but equally importantly the employees need to see evidence that their comments count. In other words, the discussion forums do place an extra responsibility on the organisation to show it is prepared to act on good suggestions, where practicable.
Future Developments
Looking to the future, the positive outcomes and experiences emerging from the use of the discussion forums has now stimulated internal debate regarding potential new developments in the suite of Enterprise 2.0 applications used at Westminster City Council. Graham concluded:
We are constantly looking at potential new ways of using these new technologies to enhance the level of engagement of our staff with the organisation. Our belief is that there is considerable scope for further enhancements, to give our people a greater sense of voice in shaping the Council's activities. We shall also look carefully at how lessons learned internally might be applicable to our customers, strengthening and extending the organisation's value proposition to new audiences.
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