AngelPoints and Saatchi measure green online

In an article also written this week, and as a follow-up to her post I cited a couple days ago, Deborah Fleischer explored why and how employee engagement and CSR can and should be integrated to benefit an organization’s bottom line.

The theory is if you can get employees engaged and excited about being greener in their personal lives, they will bring this excitement and energy to their jobs as well.

To this end, AngelPoints and Saatchi & Saatchi S have launched a new software tool to help companies increase and subsequently measure sustainability engagement among employees.

The new online Personal Sustainability Project (PSP) tool charts individual and team progress in a number of “green” areas by focusing on (1) creating project goals and commitment; (2) tracking progress and impact; and (3) measuring end results.

Read: Deborah Fleischer on Employee Engagement: AngelPoints and Saatchi S Launch New PSP Tool for TriplePundit (10.27.09)

Thankfully, this article also addresses the important questions you may be asking, such as: Who cares? Why should a company be so concerned about whether its employees are actively engaged in sustainability initiatives?

Employee engagement is a key driver for increasing employee retention, attracting the best and brightest talent, fostering innovation and capturing cost savings from efficiency. However, to capture these benefits, there is growing pressure on companies to get their employees thinking about sustainability and incorporating it into their daily jobs.

This summary makes it sound relatively easy, but employee engagement is actually a very complex, and challenging, issue for internal communicators. In fact, I am currently enrolled in a semester-long course dedicated to the subject of internal engagement (and will be blogging about it quite a bit in the coming days).

But in the meantime, the AngelPoints PSP model (at left) shows that motivated employees can ultimately affect improved business performance and inspire a corporate culture of sustainability. In case you’re not convinced, this general progression is supported by research conducted by consulting powerhouses Watson Wyatt and Towers Perrin (among others).

I’m optimistic that an online PSP tool will encourage employees to connect with one another in support of their company’s CSR strategy. Given the adoption of online communications tools in other areas of organizations, this seems like a natural progression. A bonus? Accountability. Always a good thing.

(Photo Credits: AngelPoints)

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SharePoints of view

Before this week, I didn’t know much—make that anything—about SharePoint. But in the immediate wake of Microsoft’s annual conference, there has been no shortage of news and analysis on the subject.

So I’ve taken this opportunity to educate myself about the software platform and have compiled just a few of the more interesting articles and points of view I found on both the benefits and limitations of SharePoint when it comes to successfully managing internal communications.

A Forrester interview with Steve Ballmer about the SharePoint Business (Matthew Brown for ZDNet, 10.22.09)

CEO of Microsoft shares his point of view on SharePoint’s evolution from a document sharing application to a platform that offers social computing, intranet, search, and content management, among other applications.

Microsoft Putting a Web Sheen on SharePoint (Ann All for ITBusinessEdge, 10.22.09)

Currently, according to a recent study by IDC survey, “just 8 percent of American companies use SharePoint for Web content management, vs. 36 percent that use it for internal portals and 51 percent that use it for collaborative team sites.” The author explores improvements to SharePoint software aimed at increasing its attractiveness for Web site management.

The Future of SharePoint Project Management (Dux Raymond Sy for CMSWire, 10.23.09) 

The author posits that SharePoint enables organizations to combat project management shortcomings, including “inefficient communication among stakeholders, poor information management practices and undefined project collaboration standards that compromises project success.”

Corporate Culture, Not Technology, Drives Online Collaboration (Will Kelly for Web Worker Daily, 10.23.09)

Mr. Kelly hypothesizes that using the latest collaboration technology, including SharePoint, is futile if an organization’s corporate culture is not collaborative at its core. The cultural elements he claims are critical include: “Come-and-go-as-you-please” schedules; no knowledge archipelagos; presence beyond the office (and regular office hours); technically savvy employees; and supportive management.

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