Since the onset of Covid-19 and the rise of remote working, companies have been faced with the challenge of maintaining employee well-being. To do this, many of them have opted for internal collaboration tools such as digital work platforms. Employees feel more connected to their organization, despite the distance by emphasizing employee happiness and engagement. Digital Employee advocacy platforms fulfill this ambition and increase a sense of purpose among staff, thus motivating them to be ambassadors for their organization.
Highlighting the concept of digital employee advocacy
Anuragini Shirish, Professor of Information Systems Management at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, and her Ph.D. student Anaya Kumar, who is also co-supervised by Imed Boughzala, Professor of Information Systems Management at the same school, conducted a study on the use of digital employee advocacy platforms. Their project, entitled “What triggers digital employee advocacy behavior?” has been nominated as the best paper for the specific track during the 44th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in December 2023 in India.
“Digital Employee advocacy is essentially discretionary behavior, which means it’s not mandatory and allows employees to communicate and promote their organization on social media,” says Anuragini Shirish. “It’s done without a company telling them to do it. It is, therefore, not a duty. Rather, it is behavior outside the tasks assigned to the job.” Employees, when they feel very connected to the organization, then engage in this kind of positive promotion. The researcher points out that “digital employee advocacy takes place on both personal and professional social networks. However, it still reflects your own identity. This is not an institutional web page, but rather a personal advocacy. And this advocacy can be done with or without digital technology.”
An advantage of digital employee advocacy platforms is that they increase the credibility of companies because the information comes directly from employees. Thus, the high-level of distrust by the outside world that companies face is negated through the trust placed in employees. From all this comes a sense of community that strengthens the emotional bond with companies. The essential factor in digital employee advocacy is employee engagement. “Sometimes these are very large organizations,” she adds. “With tools like these, it’s possible to discover and collaborate with colleagues who belong to the company, but work in other locations.”
Digital employee advocacy platforms promoting advocacy and well-being
Anuragini Shirish and Anaya Kumar conducted a study based on user reviews of 18 digital employee advocacy platforms to understand their practice and benefits. 86% of the reviews collected have a positive tone and reflect a positive user experience of these platforms. The majority of reviews focus on the primary role of digital employee advocacy platforms, which is to easily publish company content on employees’ personal social networks.
Two general themes summarize the purpose of the digital employee advocacy platform according to the study: digital employee advocacy and their well-being. Digital employee advocacy represents the sub-themes of content sharing and self-presentation. When employees identify with their organization, they are motivated to present themselves positively as its ambassadors. As for the second general theme of employee well-being, it can be psychological or social. All of this encompasses a sense of self-worth, sense of purpose, positive emotions, and control over one’s work.
Digital Employee advocacy platforms provide employees with relevant content to share, which promotes a positive experience, one of the factors of which is ease of use. This experience is supported by gamification mechanisms that allow you to make rankings, but also to offer rewards and badges. Users have also noted the time savings provided by these platforms.
Building a digital employee advocacy model
Anuragini Shirish and Anaya Kumar’s research project is the first of its kind that conceptualizes the concept of digital employee advocacy to include content sharing and self-advocacy. The results of the study led researchers from Institut Mines-Télécom Business School to develop an empirically testable digital model of employee advocacy based on social and emotional well-being. “First of all, we conceptualize digital employee advocacy. Next, we establish a link between psychological and social well-being and digital employee advocacy behavior. As a result, we are able to link digital identity to what triggers employee engagement behavior,” Shirish reveals.
This study contributes to theory and practice. At the theoretical level, it is a contribution to the general literature on the digital workplace. It is also a contribution to the need to examine the importance of happiness and well-being through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The study also contributes to researching on Information Systems (IS) that focus on positive emotions and promote user engagement and acceptance.
The practical dimension of the study helps increase the implementation of the digital workplace, especially in the era where hybrid remote work is on the rise. The use of platforms that can help employees create social and emotional attachment is, therefore, recommended by the researchers. The humanistic and instrumental results of this research are valid. Companies can therefore use digital employee advocacy platforms not only as a marketing tool, but also as a holistic tool. It’s to overcome potential challenges related to the shift in the world of work from face-to-face to remote work.
To read on I’MTech: Covid-19: the invisibility cloak of teleworking pushed to the extreme
However, a limitation of the study lies in the consideration of contextual data that were not accessible. This will make it possible to contrast the results to better verify the robustness of the model developed in this research project. “We want to do research within an organization to ask employees what they perceive when they use a specific tool to see what features of the tool are important. Sometimes, certain features can increase employee representation. Others may reduce it, while some characteristics may have a negative impact. We don’t know. So, at this time, we haven’t been able to see any negative impact of the tool. Nevertheless, it’s possible that it exists somewhere and we need to investigate it,” Shirish said.
It’s important to invest in more responsible technologies and tools. As Anuragini Shirish reminds us, “The digital employee advocacy platform is one of these digitally responsible tools and we are able to show that it can enable perceptions of well-being, both social and psychological. It is, therefore, linked to the digital employee advocacy behavior, which becomes a behavior of citizenship within the organization.” Remote work environments and digital development mean putting people at the heart of discussions. Employee advocacy empowers employees and improves their well-being. The main digital employee advocacy behavior’s triggers are the social and psychological well-being of employees activated by the platform. As digital employee advocacy allows employees to feel better by playing the role of ambassadors of their company, this concept remains essential. It concerns the development of a productive, but above all fulfilling, work environment.
