Leveraging your Internal connections

Recent studies have led many companies to seek out their well-connected employees.  These employees are the ones who seem to know and talk to everyone in the office. That person you go to when you’re having a tough day at work, or have questions.  Research has shown that these employees hold a significant amount of influence on employee buy in and morale in the work place.  Firms are using these “influencers” to lead teams in product development, get employees' buy in on new initiatives, and to spread news throughout the organization. During the search for these employees, many employees that often go unnoticed by management are being identified as influencers in the firm. Recently, many respectable corporate giants have not only gone to great lengths to identify these influencers, but also are beginning to recognize them. Recognition ranges from promotions to invitations to exclusive executive management meetings in their prospective companies.

How do firms identify these influencers? They conduct surveys asking employees to identify who their go to person is at work. Some may dig deeper and analyze employees' email, calendar recipients, and social media connections.  One may be asking, what are the traits companies are looking for when determining who their influencers are. According to the Wall Street Journal, these employees are outgoing, empathetic, approachable, positive and energizing.  Influencers have been identified as potentially a firm’s most valuable internal assets.  By making relationships between people in a company visible, you can capitalize on the strengths, close gaps in collaborations and most importantly strengthen employee morale. This kind of information can prove crucial to a firm’s efficiency and a great tool when wanting to initiate real change in a company.

Paladin Advice:

Paladin sees many of our employees who fit the role of “influencers”.  We have observed that these employees gain the highest satisfaction marks from our clients and they have the most career growth and longest employment tenure.  We encourage all of our employees to develop the traits of an influencer…be outgoing, empathetic, approachable, positive, and energizing.