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The Boss's Next Demand: Make Lots of Friends職場新寵：好人緣員工 Making friends at the office has never been more rewarding. 職場中廣交朋友所帶來的回報從未像現在這樣豐厚過。 Armed with reams of new data, companies including giants Procter & Gamble Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. are seeking out 'influencers, ' or those among their employees who are particularly well-connected and trusted by their peers. 在掌握大量新數據后，包括寶潔(Procter &Gamble Co.)和思科(Cisco Systems Inc.)等巨頭在內的企業開始搜尋“影響力員工”，即員工當中那些人緣特別好、受同事信賴的人。 Once found, the firms are harnessing these workers' clout to come up with new products, get workers on board with big changes like mergers, or spread information throughout the organization. 找出這些人后，企業就會利用他們的影響力來推出新產品、拉動其他員工贊同如合并這樣的大變革，或者是在企業內傳播信息。 Years ago, such employees often went unnoticed, lost in organizational charts. But the rise of social media has highlighted the importance of networks, and companies are determined to capitalize on the power players lurking in their workforces. The influencers reap benefits, too: more money, promotions and opportunities to rub shoulders with top executives. 多年前，此類員工往往不被注意，湮沒在企業的組織結構圖中。然而，社交媒體的興起凸顯了人際網的重要性，企業也因此決心利用起隱藏在員工隊伍中的影響力人物。這些人本身也能從中獲利：加工資、升職以及與高管接觸的機會。 To find these people, some companies conduct surveys, asking questions like, 'Who do you go to when you're having a bad day at work?' or 'Who do you go to when you have a question that seems obvious?' They may also tap into email and calendar data, often stripped of content to preserve privacy, or internal messaging sites. 為了找出這些員工，有些企業還展開了調查，提出諸如“工作中你心情糟糕時會去找誰？”或“你在遇到一個明顯的問題時會去找誰？”之類的問題。企業可能還會利用電子郵件及日歷信息（往往被刪除具體內容以保護隱私）或內部通訊站點。 The result is often mapped out as a spider web of connections. Executives say the influencers are sometimes already in jobs that reflect their skills--such as a project manager who works with several departments--but they say they have also been surprised to discover, for example, an IT worker holding together a tenuous connection between offices on two continents. 調查結果常常會勾畫出一個密如蛛網的人際關系網。企業管理者稱，有些情況下影響力員工已經身處反映了他們能力的職位——比如與多部門進行合作的項目經理，但他們也會驚訝地發現維系著兩大洲辦公室之間微弱關系的是一名IT員工。 Business-software company Salesforce.com Inc. plumbs its Chatter product, a sort of corporate Facebook, to identify its influencers, says Peter Coffee, the company's vice president for strategic research. Using algorithms, the company is continually analyzing the data: how many followers each employee has, how often they post about their work, and whether those posts generate responses. All Chatter accounts--Mr. Coffee says the company's 12, 800 employees are all on the platform--are assigned an influence rank that charts where they fall in comparison with others. 商業軟件公司Salesforce.com負責戰略研究業務的副總裁彼得·科菲(Peter Coffee)稱，該公司嘗試使用其“Chatter”產品——類似企業版Facebook——來甄別有影響力的員工。它借助算法來不斷分析數據，比如每名員工有多少粉絲，他們多久發一次與自己工作有關的帖子，以及那些帖子是否引起了反響。所有Chatter賬戶——科菲稱該公司的12,800名員工全都在該平臺上注冊——都會被劃分影響力等級，即它們與其他賬戶相比所處的排名。 The top 20 'chatterati, ' Salesforce's term for its highest influencers, are invited to attend the company's global senior management meeting, which occurs twice a year and was formerly open only to Salesforce's top 600 leaders. Some managers also take employees' Chatter scores into account when determining promotions and compensation, though the company declined to provide specifics. 排在前20名的“chatterati”——Salesforce對影響力等級最高的那些員工的稱呼——可受邀參加該公司一年兩次的全球高級管理層會議，以往只有居于前600位的管理者才能參加該會議。有些經理在決定升職和薪酬時也會將員工的Chatter評分考慮進去，但該公司拒絕透露細節。 'What this does is say, 'You are more than the node that takes your inbox and turns it into your outbox, '' Mr. Coffee says. 科菲說：“此舉要表明的是，‘‘你不僅僅是充當消息傳遞者的連接點。’” Indeed, many companies say they are identifying a previously invisible layer of talent, key players who may not be posting top results on their own but are boosting performance across the organization. 的確，有許多企業表示它們正在甄選之前并不顯眼的一類人才，那些自身的業績也許并不出色但能促進整個團體業績提高的關鍵人物。 'There's this whole underground world, ' says Kristin Kassis, a managing partner at WorkWise LLC, a consulting firm that has helped Fortune 500 firms identify influencers and often focuses on how to retain them. 咨詢公司WorkWise LLC的管理合伙人克里斯廷·卡西斯(Kristin Kassis)稱：“這完全是個秘密世界。”該公司曾幫助財富500強企業識別影響力員工，通常它關注的是如何留住這些人。 But some academics caution that a data-driven emphasis on what has traditionally been a subjective trait could ultimately lead executives astray. 然而，有些學界人士提醒，這種由數據主導、對歷來評判標準都很主觀的這一特質的重視可能最終會將管理者引入歧途。 Jerry Davis, a management professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says companies could be 'rewarding the wrong thing' if they put too much stock in the hubs in their social networks. 密歇根大學羅斯商學院(University of Michigan's Ross School of Business)的管理學教授杰里·戴維斯(Jerry Davis)指出，如果企業過于看重社交網絡領域，它們可能會“獎勵錯了對象”。 'When it comes to promotions or layoffs, that's when it starts to get hairy, ' he adds. 'Wait a minute, I thought I was doing my work really well, and because I didn't spend my time networking, I'm going to be fired?' he imagines an employee saying. 戴維斯稱：“事關升職或裁員時，事情就會開始變得問題重重。”他說，想象一下員工會說“什么？我覺得我工作確實做得不錯，就因為我沒把時間花在交際上，我就要被炒了嗎？” HealthFitness Corp., a Minneapolis company that provides corporate health services, called on Syndio Social, a Chicago firm that helps companies map their networks, to identify staff members who could help ease the shift to a major new technology platform last year. 去年，明尼阿波利斯企業醫療服務公司HealthFitness Corp.要轉移到一個大型新技術平臺，于是它請來Syndio Social公司找出能有助于緩和這一過渡的員工。Syndio Social是芝加哥一家幫助企業制訂員工人際網的企業。 HealthFitness had a lot on the line, including $30 million and high client expectations. The company flew 30 influencers to its Lake Forest, Ill., offices and gave them communication training and extra insight into the project so they could field co-workers' questions and build positive buzz. HealthFitness承擔著許多風險，其中包括3,000萬美元資金和客戶的高期望。該公司派了30名影響力員工飛往其伊利諾伊州萊克福里斯特(Lake Forest)的辦公室，對他們進行了溝通技巧培訓并給他們提供了更多關于該項目的信息，以便他們能及時解答同事的問題和促成積極反響。 The influencers helped bring their colleagues on board, Chief Executive Paul Lotharius recalls. But he had to remind himself that clout was only one way to assess employees so other qualities, such as technical expertise and leadership skills, wouldn't get lost in the process. HealthFitness首席執行長保羅·洛塔留斯(Paul Lotharius)回憶稱，那些影響力員工爭取到了他們同事的支持。不過，他還是必須提醒自己衡量影響力只是評估員工的方式之一，這樣一來其他品質——如專業技能和領導才能——才不會在這一過程中被埋沒。 'We almost fell into a trap of getting overexcited with Syndio, ' he says. 'You just start thinking, 'Wow, I can use this for everything.' 他說：“我們幾乎陷入了對Syndio過于興奮的陷阱。你會開始想，‘哇，我可以用它來做所有事情。’” Less cautious is Sonny Garg, an executive at energy firm Exelon Corp. When the Chicago-based firm merged with Constellation Energy in 2012, managers and employees in information technology selected a group of well-connected workers to act as liaisons between anxious staffers and leadership during the 'upheaval, ' Mr. Garg says. 芝加哥能源企業Exelon Corp.的高管桑尼·加格(Sonny Garg)對此則沒那么謹慎。他說，2012年在該公司與Constellation Energy合并時，信息技術部門的經理和員工挑選了一群交際廣泛的員工，讓他們在這場“巨變”中充當焦慮不安的員工及領導層之間的聯絡人。 He adds that the initiative didn't cost any money and may have kept employees from leaving after the merger. Influencer Kathy Bresnahan, an IT analyst with the company, says it helped ease angst in the departments. 他還說，該舉措未花分文，或許還避免了員工在公司合并后離職。該公司一名影響力員工、IT分析師凱茜·布雷斯納漢(Kathy Bresnahan)稱，該舉措幫助緩解了各部門中的不安情緒。 The company is now starting to use survey data to help pinpoint its top influencers and is launching a program that would give them leadership training. Influencers, Mr. Garg says, 'can either help you or really hurt you.' 該公司現在又開始利用調查數據來選定最具影響力的一群員工，并啟動了一個項目以對這些人進行領導力培訓。加格稱，有影響力的員工“要么能幫你，要么能傷你很深”。 For their part, influencers are thrilled to be rewarded for their networking skills. Andrea Bredow, a manager in HealthFitness's marketing department, describes herself as an 'extrovert through and through' who likes to stop by co-workers' desks and plan group outings. 對于那些影響力員工，他們對自己的交際能力受到獎勵頗為激動。安德烈婭·布雷多(Andrea Bredow)是HealthFitness營銷部的一名經理，她稱自己是一個“徹頭徹尾的外向之人”，喜歡去找同事計劃集體出游。她在去年被選定為影響力員工。
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