Bill Dalbec is senior vice president of APCO Insight^®, the opinion research group at APCO Worldwide.

In our third annual Employee Engagement study, which APCO Worldwide conducts with our friends at Gagen MacDonald, we chose to focus on the influence of social media on employee engagement in the workplace. Maril MacDonald recently wrote about the importance of executive leadership in internal communications broadly and internal social media (ISM) specifically. But what exactly is internal social media, and how do we know what employees really want?

In our recent survey of 1,000 employees at companies with at least 500 employees, 51 percent of respondents say their company is using internal social media tools to communicate with them. The primary tool employed is an intranet (71 percent of employees say their company has one); but about half have blogs, two-fifths use wikis and one-third deploy Facebook-like sites. Clearly, social media tools are making their way into the internal communications environment.

Drawing on industry best practices, we developed a list of attributes of ISM. Using factor analysis, our ISM Model isolated 21 discrete attributes that characterize the best programs, which in turn combine to form the three major factors that employees look for when deciding whether their company has effective social media internally. Our study found that Quality of Content is the most important aspect of ISM (42 percent importance to the model), followed closely by Engagement & Dialogue (37 percent); Optimization trails in importance (21 percent).

This model can be used by enterprises to assess the needs and design of their own ISM strategies and tools. Enterprises that apply this framework as a diagnostic tool are better able to guide how they design the overall ISM system as well as how they get buy-in from employees, which facilitates usage and engagement.

Done well, ISM has the potential to ease collaboration, make employees feel closer to their employers, aid in employee recruitment and retention, and engage employees who can become brand ambassadors.

How well is your own internal social media strategy aligned with employee expectations? If you’re not currently employing ISM, we encourage you to stick your toe in the water and see what happens – you might be pleasantly surprised!

This post originally appeared in the Diplomatic Courier.

Anyone involved in global business knows that the world is changing at lightning speed. Companies have to be smart, nimble, and increasingly knowledgeable about the policies and politics of their markets. They need advisors who can understand their business, provide a political context to their needs, opportunities and actions, and execute a successful strategy.

As consultants to these companies, we need to have the right resources to provide services in a new economy, and those resources need to be organized in ways that combine first-rate analysis with the ability to act with agility and deliver quality interactions at all levels. While some organizations continue to rely on think tanks to follow trends and shore up their knowledge of a given region of the world, many other companies are seeking support that goes beyond analysis. They are looking for actionable counsel that leverages regional knowledge by fostering relationships, identifying alternative markets for growth, and generally helping the company outline a course of action that accounts for the various stakeholders with whom they work. So while think tanks will always have their role, it is the convergence of the best analysis with the ability to execute in a nimble fashion that has become an important tool in a 21st century corporate arsenal.

Read the full article here.

It’s (nearly) over, I think. Romney’s pulling into a double-digit lead in Florida. Newt is quietly imploding, which many have long anticipated.

The media turned its fire on Newt, with help from establishment conservatives and Newt’s former colleagues, most of whom have been affronted, insulted or somehow done wrong by Newt, who forgets the one rule of Washington that never changes: “What goes ‘round comes ‘round.” (The only congressman of his era that I’ve seen endorse him is ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham, who is serving eight years in prison after pleading guilty to bribery).

At the end of the day, though, Newt has made Romney a better candidate. A few debates ago I told a friend, “Romney just can’t attack Newt. He doesn’t have it in him to pull it off effectively.” But then in the very next debate Mitt found his game (thanks apparently to a new debate coach) and had Newt on his heels to the point that Newt couldn’t come up with comebacks until after the debate was over.

So, in the continuing roller-coaster nature of this contest, it appears, again, that Romney is establishing control. Just how many lives can Newt have?

We’ll see. But I guarantee you one thing: when this is over, when Romney is the nominee, Newt will take credit for making him battle-ready for Obama.

He has to make himself the center of attention somehow.

Tim Roemer

Davos is famous for creativity, “new thinking” and proposing out-of-the-box paradigms. I was highly optimistic that a private lunch session organized by www.indialogues.in, (titled “Design and Innovation: Enablers of India’s Urban Future”) would throw off sparks of fire to motivate and seed progress for improved city life. After all, India is faced with tens of millions of people every year moving from villages to urban environments and now has significant housing, infrastructure, and planning challenges. The question is one of architects, designers, and planners (civil society) helping engender opportunity, mobility, and dignity for the emerging middle class of a nation. Key areas of interest include:

• What type of “leadership” is required at the national, state, and local levels to assure that “city design” receives the appropriate resources and attention?
• What will the role be for the business community, and how will university architects contribute?
• Where are the “social entrepreneurs” for improving city life, and how do they become active?
• Where are the best practices and models for transformation?

One model mentioned by a panel member was “Asha Jadeja” along the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad. Those familiar with the project believed it might serve as model to measure successes and failures, assess where it might be replicated, and study the results in a careful and prudent manner (I have not visited this project, nor do I endorse it at this time).

As one of the largest and most significant migrations in history takes place this century with an emerging Indian middle class possibly as high as 500 million citizens, the stakes for civil society and social justice are staggering!

Tim Roemer

The problems, difficulties, and woes of Europe continued to dominate discussions and presentations in Davos. British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to the gathering and noted Europe’s drag on the world economy as China grows at 8 percent, India at more than 7 percent and Africa at general rate of about 5 1/2 percent. He cautioned the audience that “fear of failure should not hold us back–we require boldness, not caution.”

He urged other European nations to tackle difficult issues like Britain has embraced, such as acting aggressively to reform public-sector pensions. He said only by taking on the tough budget issues can Europe gain vital economic credibility and get ahead of the market. He claimed that too many EU countries are less competitive today than they were one year ago, and they have imposed far too many “burdens on business” and relied heavily on financial transaction taxes.

Cameron argued for a pro-business agenda to be adopted across Europe and therefore reduce regulations, move trade agreements, and even aggressively advocate for direct bilateral agreements with other countries. He underscored the importance of concentrating on both fiscal deficits and trade deficits. He said we must “get a grip on debt” and construct sufficient firewalls to prevent further bleeding. The short-term fix is getting Greece right, having the right banking policy, and insuring a strong firewall. Longer term, he said, the EU must develop a pro-business agenda, address the budget issues, and reduce trade deficits. The problems “we face are man-made, and with true political will and boldness, we can fix them,” he said.

German Chancellor Merkel tried to address this same issue while opening the conference session, and now PM Cameron puts forward another clarion call with some specific answers. As Europe is such a crucial trading partner and critical to global stability for the United States, China, and India, the attendees here are hoping that this year’s theme of “transformational new models” might begin with answers for the EU.

Tim Roemer

I started off the morning at a breakfast forum titled “Are You Ready for Asia,” and the discussion was promising and highly optimistic about global business opportunities in the region. India is still growing at a 7.50-percent rate (with some individual states at 10 percent) and China is cooling off at 8 percent. One panelist pledged that India will spend $1 trillion on infrastructure in the next 6-8 years.

When the issue of the mulitbrand retail rollout and abrupt pull-back was raised to a prominent Indian business leader, he confidently predicted that this proposal (allowing retail companies like WalMart to enter into the market) would be re-visited and subsequently passed in six months. While this would be great news, it underscores the lessons of practicing patience, doing your political due diligence, and realizing the volatility in the environment for these major transactions.

Several key issues for the Indian economy included the vital need for increased access to education and skill building, positive collaboration to help Asia on scarce resources, and new efforts to expand energy technologies. One panelist strongly advised businesses to help a “daring India” by displaying a “caring agenda,” therefore developing effective corporate social responsibility models. It is certainly clear that the U.S. foreign policy focus on Asia with the new Trans-Pacific Partnership and overall geopolitical security emphasis is timely, smart, and lucrative for helping American economic security.