Have you ever been in a company that just did not work? Employers did not communicate what they needed to their employees. Employees worked on group projects independently of each other. Often they would overlap and do the same work twice.
When the lines of communication breakdown, it is time for a change. That is why many enterprises like Verizon, eBay, DHL, and other companies turn to a company like Yammer.
Yammer turns a company into a social network. Just like Facebook and LinkedIn where you can connect with your friends and associates on the site, you can connect with your colleagues on Yammer, join department groups, and create internal messages through Yammers secure social network.
Private Social Networks
Yammer is one company that quickly comes to mind for those who are looking for a solution for their communication needs within their organisation. A truly integrated platform, Yammer provides far more than just a place to share messages. It serves to bring together all members of an organisation in real time regardless of location or where they rank in the company.
Additionally, Yammer integrates with Office 365, so colleagues can have access to the entire office suite on the social network. This makes it more interactive to work on Word, Excel, and PowerPoints together.
Management Process
Every business has strategic objectives in mind that they strive for each and every day. Larger organisations with many departments find their management processes are far more streamlined and effective when using Yammer. Yammer brings everyone together on an even playing field by allowing each team member the opportunity to access all of the information that they need while making interdepartmental communications a breeze.
Because you include Word documents, your communication becomes better with the increased documentation of all the messages.
Productivity
Less down time spent searching for answers or seeking out the right person to answer a question correlates directly to a huge increase in productivity. Yammer’s functionality allows companies to set up all of the information needed for a project in one space that all of the collaborators can easily access.
Easy access coupled with state of the art communication capabilities means that even when a question or concern is raised, employees get everything that they need right from their desktop seamlessly.
““Leveraging an enterprise social network helps us grow our business by enabling our staff—who are innately good—to perform even better.””
Feedback Channels
Employees are the most valuable asset that any organisation has. Business leaders in particular know that this is not some overused cliché said only to motivate a company’s staff. It is a fact that without a workforce a company simply cannot operate.
Yammer takes employee value and input very seriously. Proof of that is clearly seen in the well-defined feedback channels that they deliver with their enterprise network solution. Traditional barriers that once existed in so many companies are broken down by this innovative collaboration system.
Can’t make a company meeting? Yammer solves that problem by allowing everyone within an organisation to contribute their thoughts and comments to the discussion at hand via their platform.
Stay connected with your entire organisation through the Yammer company directory and inbox.
Workflow
The ability to manage the workflow on a complex project is vital. Knowing exactly what has been completed, who is working on what, and what still needs to be done is extremely important information that managers need to be able to access at all times. Having it all organised in one spot where everyone can see it any time that they want means that meeting deadlines and staying on track has gotten a whole lot easier. With this in mind, Yammer’s platform delivers all of this functionality.
Yammer has numerous add-ons for you to integrate the platform with other components online. One of them is Working On. This software tracks the progress of a project through multiple people, so you can determine the bottlenecks and responsibility for each assignment.
New Hires
Yammer understands the time and expense that companies invest in hiring the right new people to join their organisation. These are the same individuals that will help to build the company of tomorrow and beyond. For that reason it is vital that they receive the proper training and support within the organisation. It is not enough to just hand them a company handbook and show them to their new desk.
New hires need to be thoroughly vetted on not only company policies and procedures, but in fact a whole spectrum of information as it pertains to their new positions. Without it they will not be able to perform at the top of their game.
Yammer’s system makes this process much easier and far more streamlined right within their platform. The new hire on-boarding process has been taken from a complicated system that oftentimes included far too many team members to one that is centralised and streamlined.
The new person joining your company is given access to all of the tools, resources and information that they need in one central location, making it easier for them to become the productive members you want them to be in a far shorter period of time.
Ease of communication with fellow employees also means that they can develop their skills by learning from their team mates.
Employee Retention
The Yammer system addresses a concern that many organisations have – employee retention. We no longer live in an age when a company can expect a new hire to be with them for life. At the same time, organisations want to make sure they are doing all that they can to hold on to the quality talent they already have in their pool of employees.
With so much additional information provided to management through the Yammer system, it is now much easier to recognise those individuals who are excelling in their jobs. Yammer provides the ability to publicly recognise these employees. This in turn helps high performing employees feel far more engaged and satisfied, which gives them a renewed sense of loyalty to the company
Having A Voice
Getting employees to share their thoughts and ideas is not always an easy task. At the same time, your employees are your front line with access to your client base. Their input and ideas are critical to the success of the business. For this very reason Yammer is designed to drive the right kind of employee engagement.
In a recent poll that was conducted, 41% of employees reported that they felt far more comfortable sharing their feedback within the organisation via Yammer.
Groups
Organisations will enjoy the group choices afforded to them via Yammer. Whether it be just a few people working on a project or an entire department, the option to create a private group for only select individuals is available.
Departments or groups that serve a more specialised function will appreciate being able to keep out the noise while having an open dialogue on the most critical issues that pertain to the tasks and projects at hand.
Those who wish to create a larger, more inclusive group have the option of making it public so that anyone throughout the company can participate. This feature is extremely useful for groups that may wish to be formed on broader topics such as employee benefits that effect everyone on staff.
Culture Via Analytics
With so many possibilities it really comes as no surprise that Yammer has made it possible for a business to measure the morale and culture of its workforce. Through the use of its’ in depth analytics functions, real time reports can be run that define important information such as which groups are driving the most engagement, who the top contributors and influencers are, and identify issues that could be of concern before the affect the company as a whole.
Ongoing Learning & Training
In a world that is known for bringing consistent change at record rates, it is crucial to an organisation that its workforce is kept up to speed and is receiving the ongoing training that they need to perform their jobs optimally.
Yammer’s platform has made it a whole lot easier to provide the necessary training across the board to an organisation’s entire workforce. Geographical and schedule barriers no longer prevent any individual on staff from receiving the knowledge and training that is critical to job performance. Everything from files to video presentations can now be easily accessed and shared – keeping everyone up to date at all times.
Business Apps
Different business apps used by different employees are brought together on the Yammer platform. Using the Open Graph function, people, conversations and data are integrated into one centralised location. This allows people to work together regardless of what environment they are in.
Yammer’s embeddable plugins allow employees of an organisation to use a single profile across the board that provides them access to the same tools and conversations across different apps.
Global Connections
The value that Yammer brings to the table in terms of true global connectivity cannot be overstated. Who doesn’t want their staff across the globe to be able to connect? That question is a no brainer and Yammer delivers connection capabilities at a whole new level.
Being connected in the office is something businesses have become accustomed to. Yammer takes it one step further in allowing true open communication. Whether on a tablet, desktop computer or a smartphone, individuals and teams can connect and collaborate no matter if they are in the office, traveling or on their way home. The old adage of not being able to reach someone is no longer part of the equation.
Security & Privacy
Not all conversations are meant for everyone. This is especially true when it comes to the handling of sensitive and confidential information. Although Yammer is designed for true open communication for all team members, the need for privacy has also been taken into consideration. The ability to conduct a private dialogue only between certain individuals is just another option that makes Yammer the powerful platform that it is.
The protection of your network’s private data is certainly a top concern. It seems that on any given day there is another story shared by the news media of a company who has had its confidential data accessed by hackers who have managed to breach the walls of security that they thought they had in place.
Yammer has taken proactive approach and only employs the best, most advanced technology to ensure that all of your confidential is safe and protected from hackers at all times.
They even allow public and private groups within a company, so if you have sensitive information that needs to be compartmentalised it can be effectively while still going though Yammer’s secure communication platform.
Going Forward
Yammer is a platform that could be described as a work in progress. The system will never be entirely complete as it is improved on a continual basis.
Going forward, team members within an organisation will be able to add customers, vendors and partners to any conversation as they deem it necessary. This type of capability will be a true game changer as it will open up possibilities that were once only hoped for. Things such as strategic planning, providing real time answers and more will be a breeze with this type of increased functionality.
Final Thoughts
Businesses that wish to enjoy continued dynamic growth will find that systems that allow them ease of use in team collaboration as well as open communication at all levels in their organisation are a necessity that they cannot afford to do without. Competitors will be embracing just this type of advanced technology and so it is not a matter of “if they should use it” but instead more of “when will they start using it.”
Yammer provides a platform that is easy to use while allowing teams and individuals the ability to work together faster and more closely. Best thing about it? You get it with your Office 365 subscription. How are you using it?
