What is the value of social capital within your team?

There is an old cliche when it comes to being hired: “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Today, this is what we call social capital – defined by The Social Capital Project as the “resources embedded in relationships and social networks”. In other words, social capital is the value held within our social and professional networks.

Social capital is often something that gets overlooked in the workplace, simply because it is not something that is easy to measure. However, the social capital held within your team is definitely something to be explored, and to be considered through the recruitment process. Quantifying something emotional (such as relationships) in relation to business is a complex task, which is why we are choosing to shed some light on the ways that you can identify and leverage social capital within your team.

Identifying social capital within your team

There are a three different types of social capital to consider: informal, generalised and institutional. The Australian Institute of Family Studies indicates that:

• Informal social capitalrelates to relationships with several different groups including: family and kin; friends; neighbours; and colleagues or work contacts
• Generalisedsocial capital relates to the sense of trust and reciprocity that exists between people within a local area, and among people in general
• Institutionalsocial capital includes both the relationships people have with various institutions as well as the extent to which people personally know people within a range of institutional settings.

Understandably, it can be quite challenging to reveal these connections. As detailed in this article, conducting a survey with the following prompts may be helpful to begin identifying social capital in your current team, or in future employees:

1. How likely are you to call in a favour from your professional network to help the company?
2. Do you have a mentor outside the company that you trust enough to call and ask for perspective on a project?
3. Are there any customers or prospective customers with whom you’ve built a significant amount of reciprocity?

What does having social capital mean for my business?

So, what actual value does the social capital within your team present? It can show up in areas such as:

Problem solving – team members may be able to call upon the experience of their personal and professional relationships to solve a problem that you are struggling to overcome. A trusted outsider perspective is invaluable to business growth.

Marketing – there may be opportunities to collaborate with trusted people and organisations within your team’s social or professional network, presenting channels for expansion. On a more basic scale, employees may have access to significant social capital in the form of prospective customers.

Recruitment – instead of hiring a recruiter to fill a position, your employees may have connections to valuable candidates who can step into the role. These candidates come with trusted recommendations, and due to their existing social capital within your organisation (ie. the person who suggested them for the role) they will likely have more desire to impress.

All teams can be composed of incredibly skilled and talented individuals, but it is collaboration and social capital that has the potential to catapult a good team into greatness. By leveraging the social capital available within your team, you can create a well built network full of valuable, trusted resources.