Employee Recognition Program: Digital Technology Communication Report

This report delves into the significance of effective communication within a company, particularly in the context of a countrywide employee recognition program. It emphasizes the role of digital technology in modern business communication, highlighting the evolution from traditional methods to contemporary tools. The report focuses on the application of social media platforms like Yammer, LinkedIn, and Slack as primary means to disseminate information regarding the employee recognition program. It evaluates the advantages of each platform, such as real-time updates, enhanced employee engagement, and improved internal communication, while also acknowledging potential limitations like data security concerns. The report concludes that social media tools are effective in promoting internal communication and improving company performance.

Running Head: DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION 1
Communicating a companywide employee recognition program using digital technology
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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION 2
Communicating a companywide employee recognition program using digital technology
Communication is a critical element in every company. The dissemination of
information from the sender to the receiver determines the performance of the institution. The
means of communication employed determines the speed through which the information is
disseminated. A countrywide company needs to have an effective communication system.
The contemporary world has seen the emergence of competitive companies. Thus, there is
increased competition among companies to attract and retain the right employees.
Companies, therefore, need to develop an employee recognition program to match the
prevailing competition effectively. Companies develop and implement an employee
recognition program to retain top talents in the company and also attract new talents into the
company. The programs aim at motivating the employees through appreciation for their
contribution to the company. For a company with branches countrywide, an effective means
of communication has to be used to inform the employees and the subordinate management
about the employee recognition program. The evolution of technology has led to the
improvement in the means of communication. This report evaluates and examines the
communication of an employee recognition program using digital technology.
Digital technology refers to the practical application of knowledge by relying on the
use of microprocessors. Therefore, the use of computers and applications which are
dependent on computers like the internet and other devices like mobile phones, personal
digital assistants (PDAs) and video cameras comprise digital technology. In this report, the
use of social media as a form of digital technology to communicate an employee recognition
program will be evaluated and examined. Social media can be described as an online
platform developed from the functionality of web 2.0 (Treem and Leonards, 2017). Social
media is known for its facilitation in collaboration, interactions and content-sharing by
persons within a similar setup. The examples of social media communication tools include

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION 3
Pinterest, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Reddit, Google+, Twitter and Facebook. As a result of
globalization, social media has turned out to be an integral part of business communications.
Companies are using social media to market their products, brand promotion, connect with
customers, foster new business and most importantly connect with employees. To balance
both the professional and social life promoted by increased flexibility, social media has
emerged as an effective tool for the same. This is influenced by the quality time spent by
employees on social media through working, sharing and interacting (Sharma and Bhatnagar,
2016).
According to Sharma and Bhatnagar (2016), one of the widely used social media tools
in an organization’s workplace is called Yammer. It is a chat service enhancing internal
communication where business leaders and task force post-work-related content on the page.
Yammer can be integrated into a mobile phone platform. In the prevailing society, almost
every person owns a mobile phone. These include company employees. Employees are,
therefore, able to receives updates easily without requiring the functionality of a desktop. The
management can utilize the effective nature of Yammer to communicate about the employee
recognition program to all the company employees as they will receive the information via
their mobile devices. Management is encouraged to use Yammer as a communication tool
because it disseminates information in Realtime and it saves the company from daily email
workload. However, if the tool is abused and misused, it encourages the spread of unrequired
information and compromising the data of the firm together with the company strategies.
Yiang, Luo and Kulemeka (2017) recognizes LinkedIn as another social media tool
that enhances interactions between the employees and the company management and owners.
LinkedIn as a platform allows the management to create an organization intranet site which
enhances the communication among the employees and between the management and the
employees. In the intranet site, the management can build the employees pride and ownership

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION 4
of the organization and also be in a position to manage them. It qualifies as an effective tool
for sharing internal information and also creating organizational announcements. This makes
it's suitable to be used as a tool to communicate about an employee recognition program
being developed and implemented by the company.
Stewart Butterfield is popularly known as the inventor, developer and initiator of a
social media tool called Slack. Slack uses the functionality of the cloud to collaborate with
tools and services (Landers & Goldberg, 2014). The features of slacks are efficient to allow
private and direct messaging. It also allows the creation of chat rooms which encourages the
continuity of messaging. A distinguishing and pre-dominant feature embodied in Slack and
which contributes to its accuracy improvement in internal communication is Searchable. The
employees can search for files, conversations and even people. The functionality of slack is
transferable to third parties and also supportive for community-based integrations. The
primary integration services inhabited by slack include Google Drive, Trello, Dropbox, IBM
Bluemix, Crashlytics, Heroku, Box, GitHub, Runscope and Zendesk (Landers & Goldberg,
2014). To encourage the expression of emotions, through its messaging features, Slack allows
employees to enjoy interactions. Therefore, employees can communicate through emails or
texting. According to Durkin, McGowan & McKeown (2013), through the use of Slack, the
human resource manager can create a page and invite the employees. Its functionality
enables private messaging within a small group. The advantage of slack is that it's compatible
with Los mobile platform, android, and windows phone. Additionally, it has a unique feature
which facilitates its compatibility with an Apple watch and therefore improving its
functionality. The limitation of Slack is that its proprietary nature with applications may
allow third parties to access the organizational data illegally. The effective nature and
functionality aspect of Slack qualifies it as a digital tool that can be used by company
management to communicate about employee recognition program.

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In conclusion, social media tools remain to be effective digital technology
mechanisms that encourage the internal communication in the workplace. Carrol &
Ramachandran (2014) notes that the companies that make good use of social media
functionality have better performance as opposed to the organizations that remain inclined in
traditional communication tools. On a similar note, Rossi (2016) asserts that the company
human resources and business managers remain in a position to update their files as required
since the social media tools promote easier accessibility of data. The management
conveniently monitors and coordinate the employee recognition program while sharing its
information via social media tools.

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References
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