resolving an attrition crisis with enteprise social network analysis - a case study
DESCRIPTION
Post acquisition, the IT SME was looking to grow but was hit by recessionary forces. Employee motivation levels were low and attrition had reached crisis proportions. An analysis of internal enterprise social networks provided interesting insights to solve this very complex problem.TRANSCRIPT
Enterprise Social Network Analysis – A Case Study
Karthikeyan IyerFounder Director, Co-Crafter,
Crafitti Consulting
We live in a world of networksHigh School relationships
Web Pages
Dolphin relationships
Milgram’s Experiment – Six Degrees of Freedom
Around the world in 6 hops!
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We are all connected . . .
But some people have more power and influence than others . . .
Social Network Analysis – Studying people and
relationships between them
DegreeRange
Closeness
Betweenness
Centrality
Prestige
Size
InclusivenessComponent
Connectivity
Connectedness
Density
Symmetry
CentralizationTransitivity
Star
Liaison
BridgeGatekeeper
Isolate
How to identify, who is more important in the network?
Granovetter – Strength of Weak Ties• Despite being clustered in our own links, we connect with other such clusters
through random, long-range, infrequent, and weak ties. The sociologist Mark Granovetter in his now classic paper of 1973 titled Strength of Weak Ties showed that effective social coordination happens through the presence of occasional weak ties between individuals and not through densely interlocking strong ties.
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A Structural Hole
In social networks, a small number of people can create a non-linear shift in behavior
Connectors are those with wide social circles. Mavens are knowledgeable people. Salesmen are charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They exert "soft" influence rather than forceful power.
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Malcolm Gladwell – Tipping Points
Net Promoter Score
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Promoter 9-10Passively Satisfied
7-8
Detractor 0-6
How Likely is it that you would recommend [brand
or company X] to a friend or colleague?
Not at all likely Extremely LikelyNeutral
0 105
Competent Jerks and Lovable Fools
Competent Jerks Lovable Star
Incompetent Jerk Lovable Fool
Increasing competence
Increasing LikabilitySource: Casciaro & Lobo, HBR
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A Case Study
The context in which the Enterprise Social Network Survey was conducted
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Recession
Acquisition Management FluxAttrition Crisis
Employees resigning in bunchesImpact on project deliveryImpact on project pipeline
Regular HR approaches to mitigate attrition were ineffective
Network Effects in an Enterprise Social Network context
• Finding key opinion leaders who might be (knowingly or unknowingly) driving non-linear attrition behaviour in the enterprise
• Finding key opinion leaders who can beneficially influence the problem at hand
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Key Opinion Leaders
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Most approached
Connected to many others in the network (or to well connected others)
Influencers, negotiators
A Simple Survey
Who in your work network do you interact with most often?
Collaboration on regular work activities
Mentorship/ advice
Brainstorming/ Developing an idea
Solving a work problem
Resolving a crisis
To connect you to the right people to get something done
To champion a cause or sell something to customers, top management or to other peer groups
How likely is it that you would recommend your company to a friend or colleague?
Choose a number on the scale 0 – 10, where 0 means “not at all likely”, 5 means “neutral” and 10 means “extremely likely”.
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The Enterprise Social Network
The survey was answered by close to 80% of the total employee strength. Based on the inputs, the following employee social network emerged
Analyzing with Degree Centrality
High attrition
Low attrition
Betweenness Centrality brings out the connectors
Some surprises from the analysis of the Enterprise Social Network
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Many of the key opinion leaders were net detractors, leading to accelerated decline in the team morale
Some of the youngest employees were net promoters but were invisible to the leadership
Many of the perceived key opinion leaders (role based) were actually not key opinion leaders (as per the network)!
To generate a tipping point for positive employee morale, net detractors had to be first converted to net promoters.
Barring one of the functional teams, none of the other teams had a senior expert or leader who could exert a calming influence in pressure situations.
Emergent Action
Converting Passively satisfied key opinion leaders to promoters
Counseling Net detractors – letting go of some
More cross-functional responsibility to young promoters
Reworking hierarchical role definitions
Increasing interactions with branch office teams
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Results• Prior to this intervention, the company was receiving 10
resignation letters on an average every week! For an organization with just 120 employees this was disastrous, putting immense pressure on recruitment cycles, project delivery and most importantly team morale.– Post intervention based on employee social network analysis, the
attrition was immediately stemmed.
• Earlier, the company was letting go of employees who had a positive impact in the social network, thereby unwittingly accelerating the process of iteration– Post intervention, key opinion leaders and net promoters were
retained with a direct impact on overall employee morale
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Enterprise Social Networks
• How your networks are structured will determine how your enterprise responds to external stimuli
• Are you trying to fight non-linearity with linear structures?
• Is your enterprise finding it difficult to innovate despite the best intentions? Form will define behavior . . .
Innovative organizations will design their structures to maximize benefits from network
effects.
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ESNA can be a powerful tool for operational innovation
•are never linear (even though we report mean attrition rates) – they ebb and flow, much like population densities of animals in a natural reserve.
Attrition patterns
•in reality, never actually follows linear patterns – some teams at some particular times seem to be more “lucky”
Sales
•happen in clusters, without any obvious reason and completely unconnected with the flows of R&D investment
New breakthro
ughs in R&D
How your networks are structured will determine how your enterprise responds to
external stimuli
Are you trying to fight non-linearity with linear structures?
Is your enterprise finding it difficult to innovate despite the best intentions? Form
will define behavior . . .
Innovative organizations will design their structures to maximize
benefits from network effects.
Thank You!Looking forward to craft
innovation together!
Karthikeyan IyerFounder Director, Co-crafter
Crafitti Consulting Private [email protected]