The process of going through a merger or acquisition often comes paired with a mix of feelings including uncertainty, fear, and excitement. These feelings are not only reserved for upper management but occur at every level of the organization, especially among employees.

M&As put an enormous strain on staff as the gravity of the impact leaves them with conflicting feelings of enthusiasm and resistance.These challenges provide even more incentive to create a single intranet platform to address many of the issues surrounding M&A, including but not limited to:

• Organizational silos
• The absence of a single company culture
• Lack of a consistent medium across organizations
• An increased/dispersed workforce

With statistics placing M&A success at a rather low percentage (70% to 90% of mergers fail) and retention rates suffering from the changes (the average acquired firm loses 40% of its managers during the first 24 months of the merger), organizations must work even harder to overcome the natural obstacles that come with this massive transformation.

To do this, deploying intranet technology is the best way to meet the needs of merging organizations and its workforce. Here are a few ways an intranet can support you through your M&A.

1. Break down silos

During a merger, the divide between current and new staff is to be expected. It may start out as simple as slight tension between strangers and later develop into entirely siloed teams supported by different internal communications strategies.

It is imperative to promote employee communications, especially during M&A. Deploying an intranet is a great way to strengthen these social ties within your workforce and ensure that a unified message is delivered to all.

A social intranet software successfully removes the conflict-driven “us vs. them mindset” and fosters an atmosphere of collaboration and communication in the workforce.

Your intranet software provides key benefits that support integration and makes the human and cultural aspects of M&A easier including:

• Team Spaces that break down silos and simplify group collaboration by providing team spaces on the intranet for groups with common interests or related hobbies.
• People Directory promotes collaboration by helping employees find each other through a variety of criteria including searching by expertise or department
• Integrations with major instant messaging platforms that help remove the barriers of familiarity and give users the ability to communicate and collaborate in real-time from within the intranet
• Ability to follow and @mention colleagues provides feedback on intranet posts and bring others into the conversation. It’s easy for employees to following the activity of anyone in the organization, not just those in their team.
• Rewards system as a peer-to-peer recognition tool that allows users to award points to a colleague acknowledging great work or just as a more open way of saying thanks.

Customer Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) utilized Interact technology on their intranet after merging Notting Hill Housing (NHH) and Genesis Housing Association earlier this year. Upon joining, employees rarely used the legacy intranet, reinforcing the silo working culture, and information was often duplicated.

Notting Hill Genesis Hive Homepage

In response to these challenges, Notting Hill Genesis implemented Interact technology to create their intranet, Hive. They created used features like their ‘Take the Hive tour’ prepped with ten handy top tips to get staff started on Hive including how to set up their profile, search people directory, follow colleagues and join groups they may be interested in.

Hive successfully improved collaboration among employees by making staff members feel more comfortable introducing themselves to other colleagues, celebrating the diversity of their staff and giving more insight into colleague’s work lives.

With a consistent availability and ease of access from any location or time zone, intranets allow for a deeper engagement and encourage further participation in the life of the company and its employees.

2. Increase brand awareness and prevent culture clash

During a merger or acquisition, there is no doubt that integration is the key to a successful process, but the combination of two separate corporate cultures is not always as seamless as one may expect.

Whether two organizations are joining under one banner or going through an entire redefinition, there is going to be a significant impact on the organization’s brand.

According to a study by Marsh Mercer Kroll, 50% of respondents cited “organizational cultural differences” as the most significant post-deal issue they faced. There are numerous reasons why cultures clash, but the first step is to define the culture.

What is the communication style? What procedural methods are in place? What is the company vision? The organizational goals?

(When two organizations unite, there are going to be inevitable differences or even potential conflicts in culture, vision, and internal brand or communication styles. Defining the new approach and communicating it effectively is vital to get employees on board.)

As with employees, the values of two individual entities are hard to mold together, even if they may be similar. The values of the company are adopted alongside all their benefits and challenges.

It will take time for new employees to adjust to the new culture fully, but utilizing an intranet will make for a much smoother process and spread the re-envisioned company brand to all internally.

The best practice for enforcing the company brand into new and current employees is through the use of blogs, employee stories, C-suite videos, etc. This content shared via the intranet is an easy way to share the history of the combined companies as well as help mold an understanding of how the future of the organization will unfold.

Another tool to make use of is your company intranet homepage. Because of its high visibility, it is the perfect place to highlight the company values and vision to all employees. Monthly CEO blogs, employee recognition posts, currents company gains and news all work in tandem to reinforce the message of any newly merged organization.

3. Give easy access to information

One thing that must be carefully monitored during M&A is the flow of information. With so many changes occurring at once it is only natural that people talk, and without knowing any legitimate information, rumors and speculation tends to run rampant.

For companies in this constant state of flux, providing simple and easy access to any information revolving around these corporate changes should take priority. Full-fledged transparency is the best way to ensure employees feel reassured about the M&A process as well as boost their sense of control and stability.

An intranet is a major asset in centralizing employee communication and delivering relevant information in a highly engaging way. One must begin with the consolidation of pertinent documentation, forms, and processes.

Updating useful information from both organizations into a single primary intranet and using Forms and Workflows to ensure that standard methods are understood and followed will be beneficial for the information migration.

The most important thing to remember is not to attempt a merge of existing intranets and risk employee information being lost on different systems. If you want true success, create an intranet that will grow and evolve alongside the merger.

4. Give employees a voice

Providing your employees with access to current and ongoing information is necessary and effective during any M&A. But what about the thoughts and need of the staff? Communication should never be a one-way street, and during a merger or acquisition, the views of your employees are critical to organizational success.

Rather than solely focusing on corporate communications, why not give employees a chance to share their voices, ask management relevant questions regarding the change, and engage and share with their colleagues.

Social tools via your intranet can open up communication from both the top and bottom as well as support communication across teams and other locations. Developing a group that supports and shares with one another can establish a much-needed sense of community for a newly merged organization and will add value for both employee and management.

There are a lot of ways to smooth out the transition process of your merger/acquisition, and your intranet is one of the most critical tools in achieving success.

A social intranet equipped with the right features, collaborative functionality, and brand messaging will deliver real productivity gains, enforce your corporate culture and fully support a merged company in the midst of this substantial organizational change.

The post Maximize merger/acquisition success with your intranet appeared first on Interact software.

Both types of innovation are important to a healthy organisation and both can be nurtured with the right innovation software, alongside fundamental components like communication and trust. Here are some practical ways you can foster innovation and reap the benefits within your organisation.

1) Open Communication is Vital

Successfully fostering innovation at work requires communication, psychological safety at work, and the free flowing of ideas across your organisation. It’s important that the conversation and brain-storming is seen to travel both up and down the corporate hierarchy.

Providing a central place for communication across your organisation, such as a forum or area on your intranet and encouraging all sections of the business to discuss the problems the organisation faces, will provide a platform for this communication.

Ensuring that positive feedback is given to all those who contribute, regardless of whether the idea is used or not will build trust in the sharing of innovation and effectively motivate and engage employees, making them feel part of the process, allowing them the opportunity to suggest ideas and possible solutions before an important decision is made.

For really creative ideas and problem solving, it is often very beneficial to encourage communication between different departments. Sometimes, seeing a particular problem or opportunity from outside its direct influence can be all it takes to generate a plethora of great ideas. This cross departmental communication will also have the added advantage of fostering trust and reducing the tendency of departments to blame each other for problems. After all, if everyone is working together, its everyone’s problem to solve.

Ragan Award winners ‘Dollar Finance’ did this to incredible effect by using an ‘Ideas Forum’ in their intranet to ask employees whether they should have uniforms, whether they should open on Sundays and many other new ideas employees had. The best of these ideas were discussed at global board meetings, recorded and then shared back on their intranet – the whole process was transparent. This in turn made changes quicker, easier and more universally adopted as everyone understood where they had come from and that the reasons and rational had been discussed by all.

2) Everyday Sharing of Creative Ideas

Having ideas should not be an ‘occasional’ thing.

If you want your employees to be creative, it’s like a muscle they need to stretch and exercise regularly. Having a limited burst of interest in innovation is not going to encourage the process to persist. It must be built into the day-to-day culture of your organisation.

Supervisors should be encouraging those they manage to continually share their ideas with management and each other. There are lots of practical ways you can encourage this, such as suggestion boxes, open door policies, have time at the end of department or team meetings to share ideas, or make it easy for people to add ideas to your idea management software.

You may find it beneficial to use the peer-to-peer Rewards system on your intranet for managers and colleagues to show their appreciation of a particular idea or perhaps the fact that they have contributed at all, thus driving forward people’s interest in expressing their innovations.

3) Creativity can Rarely Be Forced

Making employees turn up to an ‘innovation meeting’ at certain times and present ideas is unlikely to actually result in anything meaningful. The human brain is often less creative under pressure, and trying to insist that people are ‘innovative’ at a time and place that ‘suits’ will replace any desire to innovate with a fear of not performing at the ‘right time’.

You would find it more productive to give employees lots of options to express any ideas they do have and encourage them. Ensuring that the organisation as a whole is informed about what other departments and management do, through blogs or newsletters is an important first step. People are not going to start thinking about a solution to a problem they are unaware exists. It is often easier to innovate around a problem that needs fixing, and once that creative muscle is used, innovation in its purest form is easier to access.

You might also find it effective to reward (with prize money, gifts or chances at advancement) any successful ideas. Make sure that you shout about these successes on your intranet, as this too will encourage further innovation. Having the implementer of the idea blog or create content on the intranet about how they took the innovation and made it work for the organisation, perhaps with a video or pictures showing the effect of the innovation. This follow up of the implementation of ideas gives people the full circle of transparency in the process, fostering trust that their efforts are appreciated.

4) Consider the Quiet Ones

Not everybody will want to stand up in a meeting to tell everyone their idea, for some people the very concept makes them feel ill, but innovation needs to come from everyone to be truly groundbreaking.

So how to include everyone?

If you have several different incentives to draw out creativity and innovation, this is not a difficult problem to solve. Simply provide a submission method that would be acceptable to shy employees, such as an online form that gives them the option to present their idea. These ideas can then be circulated, anonymously or posted on the Intranet where they could be then reviewed by other employees.

5) Keep Employees in the Know

If your employees are disconnected from the organization’s management and direction, they are not going to have a desire to innovate. A general feeling of helplessness and dissatisfaction will prevail.

Addressing this requires ensuring that all employees are kept aware and up-to-date on the firm’s strategies and challenges. Regular updates from management should be the norm, perhaps with blogs, or video interviews posted on the intranet. Your employees should never hear about a major change in direction or problem from the news or the organizations public facing website.

Companies with more engaged workers also register a median of 10% higher customer ratings, 22% more profits, a 21% increase in productivity and 41% fewer defects (i.e. more quality) when compared to bottom-quartile units. These results can be found in Gallup’s 2013 State of the Global Workplace study.

In short the more people know, the more then feel involved and valued and the more you can invite them to offer their input. This passionate input can then potentially generate more innovation. Being able to participate and contribute to the organisation’s management will also allow them to see others innovate around them, giving those who are unsure a path they can follow. Having Ideas Forums and encouraging management to blog about the challenges they face opens up a platform for the free exchange of ideas and brainstorming on an organisational level.

It is quite conceivable that feeling engaged, involved and passionate about their work will have a powerful effect on motivation, as people are more likely to see a project or process through to completion if they were involved and given the chance to offer their input at the beginning, because now they feel invested.

6) The Importance of Innovation

For many, this push towards innovation will be a culture change, possibly a big cultural change that may make some uncomfortable.

Before the initiatives are introduced make sure everyone is aware that this is a positive step and that you want to hear everyone’s ideas. Explain why you are introducing this innovation into your organization, what you hope to achieve with it and what benefits you envision to the profitability and competitiveness of the organization.

Allow people to adapt at their own pace, but encourage any evidence of innovation whilst guiding employees towards the level of innovation you want.

For example, food manufacturer, ‘Genius Gluten Free’ handle their entire product innovation lifecycle via forums and electronic forms on their intranet. This allows the process of idea to creation through to being in stores to be reduced to less than six months encompassing ingredient sourcing, commercial viability, health and safety and costing.

Incredibly they built this process and rolled out their intranet within four weeks of purchasing the software, ensuring their had the platform in place for involving everyone in the evolution of their products.

The post 6 ways to foster innovation in your business appeared first on Interact software.

I think it’s best in this situation to start with a clear and relevant example of what it’s not. In the last few weeks, transportation tech giant Uber has become embroiled in a sensational tale of appalling workplace culture that kicked off when an ex-employee wrote a blog post about her experiences there.

It’s not dissimilar to the story that broke a little over a year ago about Amazon. Both tell stories of backstabbing, misbehaviour, and little to no recourse for poorly treated employees. The main difference is that while Uber’s CEO promised immediate action, Amazon’s chose to excoriate the New York Times for listening to his “biased” former employees.

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No matter how much you spend on professional branding services, nothing you do will affect public perception like the message delivered by your employees – both current and former.

As we argue in our previous blog, employer branding – that is, the strategy and actions an organization takes to influence internal and external perceptions – is very different from an employer brand. That is shaped and driven by employees and other stakeholders: they are your most powerful advocates, or your most damaging critics.

Uber and Amazon were both dealt major blows, and aside from shrinking their customer base, these news stories likely harmed their employer brand and subsequent ability to acquire and retain top talent in the industry.

When we talk about employee advocacy, we’re talking about the opposite of stories like these. Employee advocacy is amplifying the most positive aspects of your brand by getting people within your company to shout about their experiences. For organizations looking to better retain employees, this can be a huge boon.

So, how can you build social employee advocacy in your organization?

1. Build internal communities

Before you can develop an employee advocacy program or encourage staff to endorse your organization externally, you need to establish a positive culture and engagement with your organization internally. If your employees feel part of a community and have positive experiences of work, they’re more likely to advocate your business to others.

One of the ways to support this is through nurturing internal communities, which will help employees connect with one another and support a strong internal culture. While it’s ideal to let communities develop all on their own, there are tools you can use to start them from the top-down as well.

Your company intranet is an ideal place for employees to connect on matters both work related and otherwise, and it often blurs the line between the two. Communities on your intranet may spring up organically among members of the same department or professional interest at first, but they have the potential to transform into semi-professional groups that make employees excited enough to bring that experience outside the office, creating that employee advocacy you’re looking for.

(Types of communities and the tools they need to thrive: taken from our on-demand webinar, ‘Intranets: Are they still relevant?’)

We published an article a little while back sharing tips garnered from psychology for building successful online communities. Among the most salient ideas were to start small and grow steadily, as well as choosing a relevant topic around which people would rally. Start with your intranet forums, soliciting discussion and answers from people on your topic of choice. Move from there into curating other types of content to share through team pages or blog posts, and eventually organize events to help build everyone’s excitement.

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2. Empower employees

Workplace conflict, change and challenges are a reality of any organization. If Amazon’s example can teach us anything, it’s the potential cost of failing to prepare for and respond appropriately to employee disgruntlement – and the damage that can have on an employer brand.

One of the key steps to developing social employee advocates, therefore, is to empower them with the opportunity and means to give feedback.

This is an instance where social technology can play a vital role. Using a company intranet, HR staff can not only host guidelines for anonymously reporting issues or helpful hints for conflict resolution, but facilitate top-down communication and proactively seek employee feedback.

Communicating openly and transparently about change using two-way collaboration tools gives employees visibility of what is happening, helping to secure employee trust and build confidence in the organization. Using social features such as commenting, liking or forums that empower employees with a voice, you can ensure your staff feel their opinions are listened to and heard. This prevents ill-feeling or unhappiness from festering or becoming something that breeds contempt, preventing PR nightmares such as the Amazon fiasco.

Ultimately, we can’t get it right all the time. However, we can safeguard against the worst by affording our employees the respect they deserve – and when individuals feel they are heard, they are more likely to advocate for the business going forward.

3. Amplify the voices of internal advocates

Branding campaigns start from the inside out. That’s because creating social employee advocates can be a snowball effect. Once you start getting people excited about your company, the feeling spreads among the rest of the workers (not to mention the public) until you have everyone shouting about how great you are.

The first step to amplifying internal voices is to determine who is ready and enthusiastic about being an advocate. Next, you’ll want to give these folks the power to broadcast their voices around the organization.

Again, a shared collaboration platform can prove a powerful tool in this instance. Maybe ask permission to take some of your advocate blogs and send them around to start discussions among their peers. Actively seek contributions from enthusiastic employees for internal communications and use an internal reward or recognition program to show appreciation for those who put their voices and ideas forward.

If you can promote this centrally, the rest of the company gain visibility of how those individuals are recognized: serving as an incentive for others to follow that example.

4. Turn internal advocates into external brand ambassadors

You’ve created the foundation for a positive culture and cultivated internal communities. You’ve given employees a voice. You’ve ensured positive feedback is amplified internally. Following these steps, you should be in a good position with a group of happy and secure employees who will gladly talk about their company. In other words, you’ve got employee advocates!

The internal portion of your journey isn’t over, but next it’s time for some serious work in promoting your employees’ voices outside of the company.

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Social media is widely recognized as one of the most powerful and wide-reaching platform for promoting employer branding. Although many executives shy away at the perceived risk of what employees may say and share on social media, the truth is, employees are going to talk about your company regardless. The important thing is to recognize and manage this as best as possible.

Ensure you have a clear policy on social media best policy, outlining what is and isn’t acceptable for your employees to share online. Run external branding campaigns to support your efforts, explaining what it is you’re looking to achieve and providing employees with the necessary materials or posts to share on their own channels – for example, highlighting on your intranet when you’ve tweeted something you’d like employees to promote, or running a structured campaign to source reviews on your company Glassdoor profile.

Twitter has already seen some great examples of companies who have championed social employee advocacy as a branding tool. In our blog on employer branding, we show Adobe’s use of the #AdobeLife hashtag which the company uses as part of a wider recruitment initiative to show life ‘behind the scenes’ of the organization. More broadly, _the #workfamily hashtag is used widely my employees advocating for their organizations on social media.

Whether you create your own hashtag or simply highlight the ones you’d like your employees to use, these small yet simple tactics can dramatically increase visibility of what your employees are sharing – supporting your employer brand.

5. Tell the story and celebrate success

The danger of running any employer brand initiative is that it can quickly lose momentum – particularly when employees don’t understand the purpose of what you’re trying to achieve, or what’s in it for them.

Ensure continued buy-in by talking about the results of social employee advocacy and how that has shaped the direction of your business. For example, if an individual employee has championed your business and helped secure a new client or a referred a new employee who has gone on to join your business, shout about it. Use leadership blogs, forums, your internal communication channels. Recognize the efforts of the individual and use it as an example for the rest of your business.

If you have a structured ‘refer a friend’ program or similar, even better. While we may hope that loyalty and pride in an organization will be enough to trigger employee advocacy, it’s undeniable that an incentive helps.

Social advocacy: a powerful differentiator

Research shows the most credible form of advertising comes straight from the people we know and trust: 83% of respondents across 60 countries agreed that they trust the recommendations of friends and family, according to the Nielson Global Trust in Advertising Report. Not far behind were consumer opinions posted online, at 66%.

Employees present an invaluable opportunity to promote their organization in a way that will be well-received by prospective customers and employees alike. According to research compiled by social software providers Hootsuite, just some of the benefits include:

• Employees can increase the social reach of a top brand by 4000%
• 57% of socially engaged organizations are likely to increase sales leads
• 58% of socially engaged organizations are more likely to attract top talent

Fundamentally, everyone wants to work for a company that they know has a positive culture, where they’ll be treated fairly and listened to should any conflict ever arise. People are skeptical of advertisements because they’ve been inundated with them all their lives. They won’t believe an ad without a review to back it up.

Your employees are the ultimate reviewers for your company. They have no reason to be untruthful, and others therefore have every reason to believe them. If you create good employee advocates, who enthusiastically talk up their experiences at your organization, you’re sure to improve both recruitment and retention, alongside many of your other strategic business objectives.

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The post Social Employee Advocacy: 5 steps to get your employees promoting your brand appeared first on Interact software.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: but if you’re seeing productivity slump, sickness on the rise, or mentally checked out staff already looking to the holidays, it’s time to inject some festive feeling into your Christmas communication.

The holiday season is all around; it’s a time for celebration, reflection, for looking ahead to the promise of a new year.

It can also be one of the trickiest times of the year for employee engagement, with distractions and conflicting priorities stealing our staff focus. For internal communicators, however, it’s a unique opportunity to leverage the festive spirit and put a creative spin on our internal messaging.

Keep motivation up, engage your staff, and ward off the threat of ‘new year, new me’ staff turnover with these fun and imaginative Christmas communication campaigns that are guaranteed to resonate with your employees.

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#1. 12 months of ‘us’

Do away with the corporate newsletter and put a different spin on your end of year summary. Celebrating company success is a crucial comms must-have at the end of the year; it gives everyone a chance to reflect on what’s been achieved, and the contribution they’ve made to reach those goals.

Taking a spin on the ’12 days of Christmas’, pick out the top highlight from each month of 2019 to celebrate your organizations’ journey over the year.

Breaking your successes down into 12 bite-sized pieces not only makes for a more consumable format; it’s particularly effective at forcing us to really reflect back. It’s surprising how short-term our memories become at the close of the year.

#2. Company Christmas trivia

Everyone loves a good pop quiz, so why not look back on the year with a fun twist?

Going company-wide for titbits from each different office, department, or role will get everyone’s buy-in to participate. Get staff to join teams and make an event out of it; or, if you have a dispersed workforce, why not go for an inclusive approach with an online version?

Questions can be on absolutely anything: significant events, customer wins, funny moments, the name of the finance director’s new baby born in August. It will instill a collective sense of belonging and engagement – and may create a bit of friendly competition too!

#3. Tell a customer story

The UK retailer John Lewis absolutely nails it with their Christmas adverts, gathering over 6 million shares of their campaigns since 2011. Why? Because each advert tells a story that resonates with the audience.

As communicators, we know the power of storytelling. At a time when attention is hard to capture (and hold), it’s a winning approach to build engagement with employees.

A customer story is particularly powerful because it sheds light on the end result: showing each employee what their work contributes to, and the impact that has. For those who are non-customer facing or working behind the scenes, this is hugely important. It also answers that all-important question: why am I doing this? What’s my purpose?

If you can get the customer to tell the story of how your organization has impacted them in their own words, or capture it on video to share internally, even better.

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#4. A season of goodwill

It’s a time for giving and charitable goodwill. Why not make the most of that mindset with a commitment and campaign around a festive cause?

There are several different options out there, from food bank donations to ‘buy an extra gift’ drives to ensure every child has something to open come Christmas morning.

Or if staff donations aren’t the way you want to go, why not give the gift of time? Refuge and homeless shelters, soup kitchens, community projects, and more are all in need of extra hands this time of year. Offering staff a free day or even a couple of hours to give to a good cause as part of your CSR strategy is an invaluable way to give back.

Capturing and communicating the experience internally is a feel-good way to share the holiday vibe.

#5. Unsung heroes of the year

It’s a perfect time to shout about those who make your organization the success it is: so, shed light on the unsung heroes who may otherwise fall under the radar.

Appeal to your line managers to nominate those staff members who go the extra mile, live your company values, do the behind-the-scenes work no-one normally hears about.

Share their stories on your intranet or internal comms channels; get leadership or even your employees to vote for their top heroes. It gives those individuals valuable recognition and their peers an opportunity to say ‘thank you.’

#6. Give your staff a festive #hashtag (& incentive!)

Employees will often be undertaking their own festivities in the workplace – whether that’s by decorating their desks, taking part in the team Secret Santa, or going along to the department Christmas drinks. Why not ride on the comms they’re already putting out on social media by getting them to add a dedicated festive hashtag?

Adding an incentive – such as the best #tagged holiday photo posted gets a bottle of something – will drive engagement and adoption up.

Follow their efforts and retweet, repost, or share on your company social channels, or pop the best up on your intranet to share company-wide. It’s a quick and easy win to use ready-made content, engage your employees, and unite your organization.

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#7. Christmas jumper selfies

Everyone loves a good cheesy Christmas sweater. They’re a fashion faux-pas completely unacceptable any other time of the year, but somehow the festive knit is a hit throughout December.

If your organization can commit to a dedicated Christmas Jumper day, why not tie it in with an important message? It could be to raise funds for your chosen charity or perhaps raise awareness about a cause your organization cares about.

A selfie wall – whether physical or virtual! – to showcase the weird and wonderful winners of the day is a great way to get everyone involved, while also ensuring your message is seen and heard.

#8. Make some resolutions – together

Who doesn’t love making (and inevitably breaking) a few New Year’s Resolutions?

The end of the year is always a time for looking forward, planning, setting new goals or objectives, lining up budgets for the year ahead. The danger is, staff may be doing the same: and as the spike in turnover in January shows us, those goals don’t always include your organization.

Help deter the ‘new year, new me’ mass exodus by giving everyone something to look forward to and work towards in the new year. For an inclusive and fun spin, have senior leaders communicate – ideally face-to-face by town hall, video, or in a meeting setting – the organizational ‘resolutions’ or goals for the year ahead. Then, ask your staff to chip in with one resolution apiece that can contribute to achieving those big goals.

It can be as small and simple as, “My resolution is to up my average support tickets resolved by 1 extra a day, which will contribute to the company goal of reaching 98% customer satisfaction rate.” If you publish the organizational goals to your intranet and just ask everyone to comment, it makes for a low pressure yet inclusive approach – while also focusing staff on the coming year.

#9. Give the gift of gratitude

For many organizations, the end of the year signifies bonus time: the big payout as part of structured incentive programs or packages. However, it may be unnecessarily costing you – and actually, given it becomes an expectation rather than a goal, counterintuitive.

82% of employees think it’s better to give someone praise than a gift. Take this opportunity to give your staff the gift of gratitude with personal tokens of thanks and recognition. Ask line managers to write a single sentence about each team member on a Christmas card; or, if you have the resource, consider an interactive version with a clickable present in an email.

If you do physical gifts for staff as standard, couple them with a personal note – it will prove far more effective at boosting morale and engagement.

#10. Collect and share the highlights

Ensure staff leave for the holidays with a positive mindset. Given that we trust the word of our peers more than that of the organization, tapping into your employees for positive feedback is a sure win for this one.

Ask your staff to share their favorite moment or highlight of the year. Keep it light-hearted and fun, encouraging staff to share the funny and informal alongside the business-related bits.

Depending on your channels and resource, you could start this as a thread on your enterprise social network or intranet software with a leading title such as, “My favorite highlight from 2019 is….”. Or, you could even get staff contributing in the form of video snippets, just a few seconds long, to edit together against some festive tunes. Then share, share, share. Your employees will leave with a reminder of what makes your organization a great place to work.  

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#11. Create Christmas Competitions

If attention and productivity are waning, why not inject some fun (and a welcome distraction) into the office with a festive competition?

There are a wealth of weird and wonderful options – an office decorating competition, pin the red nose on Rudolph, guess the missing word from the Christmas lyrics – but if you have some necessary evils to communicate over the festive period (who to contact for IT support when the entire support desk is on leave, for instance) this may be a way to get the message out with a more light-hearted approach.  

Consider a virtual treasure hunt, ‘hiding’ the answers within your intranet for staff to find with the help of some crafty questions. Or perhaps an advent calendar of clues (or answers) to incentivize everyone to seek out the information in return for a prize.

#12. If all else fails… bring in the festive treats

If competitions aren’t really in line with your culture or your staff shy away from the idea of a festive knit, you can’t go wrong with holiday food and drink.  

Get attendance up for the end of year town hall wrap-up or encourage employees to attend the (otherwise dry) departmental debrief by introducing some festive goodies. If there are important messages to get out or you simply want to ensure everyone hears from the boss before heading off on their holidays, it’s a small – but effective – motivator to get them along.

Don’t forget your remote workers or frontline staff, though. If you’re scheduling a message, organize some treats to arrive or coincide with the live stream. A sweet, festive treat is surprisingly good at reminding staff to log on, and tune in.

Happy holidays make for a solid start

When the year draws to a close, it’s often the small things that make a big difference.

Internal comms may not be top of your priority list as things begin to wind down, but tapping into the festive vibe of the season with some Christmas communication and a few simple comms tricks can make a huge difference to staff morale. From holiday greetings to celebrating team achievements, spreading a little seasonal cheer goes a long way.

Mix up your mediums, messaging, and mood to ensure you’re covering all bases and catering to different staff demographics. Celebrate successes – both big and small – as you reflect back. Get staff buy-in to your goals by not only making them aware of where your organization is headed but involving them in their creation. Most of all, have a little fun. It’s a chance to embed your culture and drive engagement across your whole business.   

With these creative mini-campaigns, you can be sure you’re leaving a positive last impression before your staff clock off and check out: and, hopefully, get them back through the doors come January ready and raring to go.

Happy holidays!

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The post Driving (your internal communication) home for Christmas appeared first on Interact software.

Beginning his role as a Marketing Administrator, Cedric initially had limited hands-on experience using his English: but rapidly matured his fluency and integrated into the business. Now a Director of Digital Marketing and Campaign in the Marketing team, Cedric offers his experiences as a multilingual employee for other organizations looking to bring non-native speakers onboard. He recently spoke at a Google conference about the future of marketing and trends, mentioning that the future is multinational.

Impact on your organization

Today we have a more significant migration and movement of the population, and a lot of governmental programs have been created to support this. For example, the installation of Erasmus (European student program exchange) and Schengen (EU agreement which allows people and goods to pass freely across the borders of each country without a passport or other controls), which allow any European to live wherever they want with no political restriction.

Since the introduction of Erasmus, the programme has been used by more than 4 million students across all of Europe. This shows the willingness of citizens to travel and learn a new culture.

Because of this, it’s more than likely you will have a non-native speaker in your organization. These individuals could be a real advantage for your organization, as they could help you expand into the international market. However, this can come with challenges.

In small and medium organizations, the consequences of having a non-native speaker tend to have a more significant impact. For those organizations, it’s essential to have a strategic communication plan specific for multilinguistic employees. This plan could take different approaches for recruitment and after onboarding. 

Every organization needs to build an international environment, from the small coffee shop in the corner, which needs to have the menu in a different language, to the bigger office which needs to trade internationally and communicate with potential customers. Depending on the origin of the country, between 4% (Ireland) to 84% (Lithuania) of the organizations interviewed needed to use a translator or interpreter for their business.

For those small or medium organizations using an external translator, there could be a massive impact on finances.

However, the impact could also be detrimental if they are not investing in translation: 11% of organizations that don’t have translation services have lost at least one sales opportunity because of the language barrier. The loss could be a result of not having a product or service available in a different language (for example, a menu in the restaurant not available in French) or a lack of the communications to promote this service (for example, the website is not available in Spanish, but the service is available in this language).

Some organizations have created a strategic plan for international communication by implementing a strategy for recruitment to look for multilingual staff, using a translator more frequently, and having their service available in a multitude of languages. This could have a positive impact by increasing sales by 44%. All of these actions are a result of investment to improve your visibility internationally.

Integrating non-native speakers in your organization

We are recruiting non-native speakers more often, and this could have a positive impact on your organization.

But because this new starter will not necessarily be fully multilingual, it’s essential to take some action to facilitate her/his integration. Here, we have some tips based on what we do at Interact to help you to integrate your multilingual staff:

#1. Interview: we have realized a phone interview is not always the best practice as a non-native speaker could have difficulty understanding and following a professional conversation. If all exchange we have with a potential candidate is confirmed by email, it’s possible for them to use a translator to make sure all information has been clearly understood. 

#2. Job agreement: at Interact we have our job agreements available in different languages, as it’s essential for a new speaker to clearly understood what the legislation is in our country. This may be different from their own. If we don’t have a translation in their language, we also take time to make sure the entire contract has been understood.

#3. First week lunch: In the first week of employment, we organize a lunch for the new employee with their line manager. This helps to catch any difficulty or apprehension the new starter could have. This lunch will be outside the office in a neutral environment and creates a trusting relationship, showing the door is always open and it’s possible to speak without any worries to their manager.

#4. Connect to the right person: we also notify the new starter who the best person is to speak to regarding any issue they could have; for example, who is the best person to contact in case of tax issues or HR processes.

#5. Challenge: we challenge our new starters to improve their reading or speaking. Depending on the expectation and department, we set some work goals with the objective to improve those skills. Those goals will be related to work. This could be, for example, write a report each week.

#6. English lessons: depending on the level of the new starter, we may organize some English lessons. These English lessons can be during lunchtime or during work time depending on expectation and may be external to the organization or internal if the resource is available.

#7. Grammarly: it’s important to help your non-native speakers on a day-to-day basis and because it’s not always possible to have someone to correct and verify each piece of writing, Grammarly can help non-native speakers to improve their writing skills and correct any mistakes they could make.

#8. Not have staff who speak the same language working together: we make sure people with the same native language are not working together, as this will be not the best practice to improve language skills.  But we make sure it’s easy for the new starter to know who can help in any language. On work profiles on the intranet, staff can add any language they speak. 

#9. Group speaking: we organize a group speaking session for foreign people. Wherever staff come from, this will help them to talk about their concerns openly. When they arrive in a new country or organization, it is always helpful to talk about differences and difficulties they could have. It’s also helpful to have some conversation across a multitude of departments and meet people who have experienced the same situation.

 #10. Language integration: we use a multitude of different software programs every day but most of them will already offer the native language without needing to change settings. For example, your Google account recognizes your native language and automatically redirects you to your native language. We also set our internal communication software to the language our employee wants or needs.

#11. Keep track: every couple of months, follow up with your non-native speakers to check if everything is going ok.

#12. Translation: we have translation functionality integrated into our internal communication software, which could be used on a daily basis for any HR documents, company updates, or blogs, and available in all the languages needed.

Integrating a non-native speaker is about more than just language

A multitude of actions could be taken to help onboard a non-native speaker, and these actions will depend on your organization and your needs. The more time you spend creating and improving your non-native integration plan, the more likely your new starters will have a friendly experience and will be beneficial for your organization.

Having a multitude of different speakers will help for example in retail, if you need to speak with an international customer, or in an office to translate an inquiry. For me personally, I’ve needed to quickly translate an email from some of our Canadian customers, saving time for our company.

You will realize you have more than just an employee who can speak another language and help your organization with translation. You will gain a culture.

Here at Interact, we have celebrated the French National day, and it was an enrichment to all our employees to learn more about a different culture and custom. Some other colleagues have made Greek cake during our charity day or blogged about religious festivals from their culture.

It also improves internal communication, as it will encourage employees to talk to each other who usually don’t because they are in different departments. Having a multitude of different cultures or views can bring another way to look at your business, bring you some new ideas and another way to think.

The post 12 top tips for integrating a non-native speaker into your organization appeared first on Interact software.

Too often, organizations aren’t as vigilant when it comes to their internal brand and voice.

But that’s a problem.

Brand voice goes way beyond the external. True brand identity starts from the inside and is crucial to strengthening the overall brand of your organization.

Your staff takes center stage when it comes to communicating your brand so, to ensure overwhelming success, your company must create a brand voice that speaks to and for every one of your employees.

Brand voice should be birthed from a series of internal strategies that embody your organization’s mission. This voice should influence all levels of communication, from internal manuals and value statements all the way to external material.

The goal is to provide employees with the tools they need to embody your brand, and defining your brand voice is the best approach.

Why you need a brand voice

Every business needs a strong brand voice from inception. A concrete brand voice is the engine that keeps your organization’s mission moving forward. It helps ensure positive customer experiences, encourages employees to adopt company values and creates brand ambassadors who not only know company culture but breathe it. Voice should be present in all areas of the company including blogs, company memos, and even business cards.

When internal branding is overlooked, the company as a whole is compromised. If you aren’t cautious, you may end up with content full of inconsistent voices, tones, and language and lose any prospect of delivering an accurate representation of your brand.

How can you expect your employees to know who you are if you do not? The process of defining brand identity and voice is a journey that will ultimately cement the positioning of your organization and create valuable brand ambassadors out your employees.

Your brand voice must:

• Be 100% clear: Know who you are. Know who your target audience is. How do you want them to see you? Your brand voice should be unique and specific to your goals and values.
• Embody the company values: Finding the right voice for your brand goes beyond what just sounds good. Like the human voice, brand voice carries within it a variety of emotions that fluctuate depending on the context or scenario. Your voice should fit every situation and, no matter the circumstances, it should always embody your brand values.
• Be consistent: If one isn’t careful, there can be a divide between messaging and tone. Perfect the way your brand voice is expressed across different components or your desired brand voice will be lost.
• Leave the right impression: Your organization must know how they want their brand voice to affect their audience and in turn must adapt that voice accordingly to demonstrate the true message behind your brand.

Brand voices will vary according to many factors, including tone, personality, company mission, and target audience. Finding the perfect voice to represent your brand requires some effort, but here are a few tips to keep in mind when taking the plunge:

Define your brand values

If your goal is to create a brand identity that speaks to your audience, then the first step is to determine exactly what is you stand for and what values you want to share. When brainstorming, it is helpful to think of your brand as an individual with a particular thought process & diction and their own set of values, attitudes, and behaviors.

The most successful organizations have a firm idea of who they are; they know precisely who they are targeting with their communications and also how they want their brand to be perceived by these individuals.

Taking the time to think about and write down exactly how and what you want to communicate as a business and brand will be largely beneficial to the process and will provide a tremendous amount of clarity in choosing the right kind of brand voice.

Do not forget, simply saying what you do won’t be enough for your brand, especially in this highly competitive business world.

Whether you see yourself as an organization that wants to push the boundaries of productivity, one that focuses on employees and strives for their professional development, or both, defining these values will help determine exactly what kind of voice will best convey your message.

If you get stuck, ask yourself: what makes your company unique? What’s the story behind your growth? What is your organization passionate about? These questions should provide a foundation for you to build and later expand upon.

Start with your audience

Now that you know who you are, it’s time to find out who your audience is. Your brand voice exists in both your external and internal culture, and as such, much leave a positive impression on anyone who experiences it.

The ultimate goal behind your brand’s voice should be not only providing a genuine expression of your company’s mission and values but also giving readers to tools and inspiration to embody and share your ideals.

The best way to go about defining your audience is to create personas. While personas may be a semi-fictional representation of the people you are attempting to communicate with, drafting up an outline of your targets will basically serve as a much-needed instruction manual to understanding your audience.

These personas are a visualization based on the likes, dislikes, desires and motivations of your real-life workforce and consider their roles, challenges and preferences. With this, you can understand the needs and behaviors of your audience and create a sound strategy for sharing your message.

Our blog, “Who are you targeting? The role of personas in internal communications” gives you a more in-depth look into the process of introducing personas in your IC plan.

Ultimately, no matter who your audience is, you should always ensure that you’re clearly communicating who your brand is in every message that you deliver.

Create a style guide

This is where your design capabilities come into play. Much like the legendary Frankenstein, you are putting together different element, creating the perfect mashup up of tone, language, fonts and more to emerge with the perfect brand voice for your company needs. Hopefully, if all goes well, you’re left with a masterpiece and not a monster at the end.

When creating your brand style, you want it to convey the voice your brand will be speaking in. This means the tone, language used, and chosen font should all be a visual manifestation of your brand’s voice and personality.

Do not neglect the visual design in this process; it is essential, especially when you connect the words said with things like the font. Every little detail is part of a bigger piece.

For example, When selecting a font for your internal brand, you must make sure it is in sync with your defined values and personality and take into consideration the vibe it gives off to the audience. Do you want a serious tone, like the one from times new roman or, would you rather something lighter, like comic sans?

It all needs to fit together perfectly. Consider your tone. How would you describe it? Passionate? Quirky? Educational? Knowing the answer to this question will eventually determine to the type of language your brand voice should use. They should all be connected.

Words are the grit of any content, but if the delivery doesn’t match the message, your brand voice loses its authenticity and credibility.

A clear and concise style guide will allow content creators to engage across all channels in a way that positively represents your brand. This gains importance as you ultimately expand your team and have others communicating on behalf of you and your organization.

Brief your content creators

Creating consistent content continues to be a difficult task with 50 percent of B2B and 44 percent of B2C content marketers saying they struggle. Because of this difficulty, turning to your staff to recruit contributors, content makers, and internal influencers is often used as a viable and valuable strategy.

But with the reputation of your company’s brand and message at stake, it is imperative that these content creators learn, understand, and match your brand voice.

This can be determined in during the hiring process or later on as they learn more about the company. For either situation, providing them with your style guide and a breakdown of your brand values will act as an appropriate starter kit for creating the right content.

Because the communications these individuals create will be attributed to your brand, a high level of collaboration and caution is required.

Different voices can create a divide in messaging and tone if all the different points of brand interaction are not cohesive. To prevent this, assign someone to be reasonable for ensuring consistency in the brand voice.

Get everyone on board with your guide and give them some examples of what your brand’s voice should look like. This doesn’t just go for memos and corporate copy. Everything they write reflects on your brand so be sure to have things like social shares and comments follow the guidelines as well.

Brand voice long-term

Your brand voice has the potential to be your most valuable asset, but only if developed properly. You may feel like the job is done once your brand voice is established, but are just beginning.

The tips above explain how to create your brand voice but what about sustaining it?

This is not meant to be a set-it-and-forget-it tool for your organization. When it comes to your brand voice, maintenance is vital. Preserving and advancing your brand voice comes from a combination of monitoring engagement, collecting data and revisiting your company message to address any issues or changes.

The effort you put into this process will be worth it; a strong internal brand is the foundation for building productive employees, inspiring successful external efforts, and bringing your company brand values to life.

The post Does your company have a voice? 4 easy tips for defining your internal brand voice appeared first on Interact software.