Next-generation communities—Part 1 Designing flexible communities that fulfill business needs

A word of caution: Don’t be too lax in community structures and requirements

More flexible community programs can help an organization promote different forms of collaboration, experiment with new platforms and meet employees’ evolving needs. However, organizations that relax their community structures and requirements too much can dilute the value of their community programs. The history of the community program at engineering services firm WSP Global offers a cautionary tale about loosening the requirements for communities and failing to distinguish between business-oriented and informal communities.

When engineering and design firm Parsons Brinckerhoff (now part of WSP Global) launched its community program in the 1990s, it created a set number of communities that were aligned with business units and strategically important topics, such as civil engineering and traffic monitoring. However, Balfour Beatty acquired Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2009, and the new leadership changed the direction of the longstanding program. The new policy allowed any group of employees who wanted to congregate or collaborate to create a new community. The result was that the number of communities rose dramatically, including personal-interest communities where employees shared information about topics such as Texas barbeque and running. The organization did not establish a clear distinction between business-relevant communities and informal communities, which created confusion and made it more difficult for employees to engage in strategic collaboration.

WSP Global righted the ship when it acquired Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2014. Leaders instituted structural changes to the community program to regain its business orientation. Now, all communities at WSP Global must be solutions-focused and business-aligned. Employees who want to start a new community must specify the focus, business benefit and number of employees that will likely participate as core members. To be chartered, a community must cover a significant region or area of the business, and it must have a clearly stated business purpose and a leadership structure to support that purpose.

Key takeaways

More elastic community structures allow organizations to meet short-term needs and facilitate a broader spectrum of collaboration. Casual and social communities help with network-building and provide an entry point for employees to experiment with communities in a friendly and fun setting. However, as WSP Global’s example demonstrates, being too lax in community requirements can create digital clutter and diminish the value of the overall program. The best strategy is often to implement a tiered system so that your community program can accommodate varying needs without losing its business focus.