Engaging a dispersed workforce with different personas is challenging – a flexible approach is fundamental. Hannah talks through implementing a multi-channel digital platform to engage and empower.
Business Model Canvas (BMC)- A new venture concept
Give the people what they want — Hannah Moss — Willmott Dixon
1. Give the people what they want!
Engaging a dispersed workforce with different personas is
challenging – a flexible approach is fundamental.
Hannah Moss – group communications manager
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
2. Willmott Dixon is a privately-owned construction and
interior fit-out group. Founded in 1852, we are family run
and dedicated to leaving a positive legacy in our
communities and environment.
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
3. • Dispersed teams
• Agile working
• Different preferences
and personas
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
4. Business aim: to attract and retain the best people to our
business.
Internal communications aim: to engage, inspire and
excite our people so they have a sense of pride and
purpose in working for us.
Give our people the tools to work and communicate in a
flexible and agile way.
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
5. Feedback on our comms approach
• ‘Too many emails’
• ‘Too many different messages’
• ‘Need to communicate
• on the go’
• ‘Don’t have the time’
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
6. Workshop approach
• Representatives from across the business
• Many different opinions!
• Consensus - give the people what they want! (Just
measure it)
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
7. The tools to do the job
• Multi-channel platform
• Mobile-first
• Measurable and integrated
• Gives people a flexible way to access information and
content
#IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
8. #IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
Our communication platform
Driving engagement Our content and stories
Intranet (the hub)
• Company news
• Company pages
• Regional 'newsletter'
pages
• Policies
• Guidance
Systems accessed
via the hub
• Holiday
• Expenses
• Mileage
Push notifcations
Alerts to mobiles to drive
people back to the hub.
Agile communications
Yammer
• Social chat groups
• Share updates to your networks
• Disposable conversations
• Live streaming
Skype
• Instant messenger
• Video conferencing
• Conference calling
Apps
• Mobile access to all content
• Access information on the go
• Receive alerts
Newsletters
Mailchimp (or other email
platform) promotes content,
driving people back to our
stories on our intranet, the
hub.
"Promoting our messages
and stories"
"A central and consistent place for
all our key messages, policies and
stories to live"
"Continuing the conversation"
10. #IntranetNow @WD_HannahMoss
70% 32%170+
groups have been set upof our people have joined
the platform of our people access via
mobile device
Yammer
groups have been set up
Intranet
5%
of our people access via
mobile (4% increase)
20%
click through rate from
Yammer to intranet
40%
on views on our
news stories
An increase of over
Notes de l'éditeur
I’m Hannah Moss, group communications manager at Willmott Dixon
How we have implemented a multi-channel communications system to:
1. help us reach our dispersed team with our key messages and
2. help our people to work and communicate in a more flexible and agile way
As a construction business we have a very dispersed and remote workforce:
7 regional offices across the UK
75 projects at any one time
not based at a desk
Agile working – skills gap, attract more women
Different personas and preferences – older and younger people in business
Wider business launching Office 365 and comms decided to review our systems - on premise intranet, emails and newsletters
Went out to the business for feedback on current system
Feedback overview
Resulted in - Comms team set up a workshop group made up of comms, IT and representatives from the business to review our current intranet system based on the feedback from our people
Our communications platform
At the heart is the newly upgraded cloud-based intranet – Oak, we call it The Hub
‘A central and consistent place for all our key messages, policies and stories.’
All systems can be accessed from here
From here we introduced other channels to drive traffic back to the system and allow people to engage with and share stories
Importantly no duplication of content
Driving engagement – retained newsletters for those that like the more tradition news round-up but importantly all stories link back to the intranet so can track engagement and still retain the central place for our stories to live
Push notifications allow us to reach specific groups with targeted messages
Introduced more agile comms channels like Yammer (part of O356) places for people to continue the conversation and be empowered to be the storytellers themselves
Skype– more operational and direct communications – intend to introduce Teams next year as well
Importantly all integrated and measurable
Realised it was really important to help guide and educate our people on the different tools so as not to overwhelm them
Posters, workshops, webinars – on-going
We only launched 6 months ago but initial results very encouraging:
on a journey but really positive so far
Seen a big increase in engagement with our key stories and messages and people are embracing the new tools to help them work in a more flexible way – yammer groups, Skype
A real extra positive we have seen is that our people are becoming empowered to be the story tellers themselves
Definitely a lightening talk but if anyone has any questions or comments please find me later today.