3 new tricks to try in 2018 TRB-147 Jan. Tribe Topics | Page 2

Let employees create intranet content:
OFF THE
LEASH
There are several ways to approach this,
from the small step of allowing employee
comments to the larger leap of inviting
or assigning employees to write and post
articles or blogs. If you’re interested in breaking
down functional silos, or sharing the expertise
of employees across business units, having
employees write about their own work is one of
the best possible ways to achieve that. It’s an
effective means of providing local news across
a global organization as well. You’ll have fresher,
more relevant content that’s also more authentic.
If your leadership team is concerned that
employees will post negative comments or air
grievances, you might remind them that if those
opinions are out there, they’re already being
discussed around the coffee machine and over
the lunch table. By opening the discussion to an
online forum, the company has an opportunity
to respond by addressing the issue or telling
another side of the story.
the employees they’re recognizing. Ask home-
based associates to post selfies taken in their
home offices, so other colleagues have a mental
picture of where they are. Or start an intranet
page where employees from far and wide can
post photos of their group charity run or their
volunteer activities or anything else they do as a
team.
Give employees a social app:
If you have a large retail population
or other groups without assigned
corporate email addresses, an app
allows you to provide an intranet-type
channel for any employee willing to download
it — and it works outside the firewall. This can
be a great venue for employee blogs, posting
employee spotlights, or Q&A with management.
Or, if you’re concerned about leaking company
secrets, you might try just an employee
recognition app that allows people to give shout
outs to their peers or managers to recognize
someone on their team.
Include your invisible employees:
Our approach to internal communications has always been to apply the same taste levels
and standards of quality as we would to any external brand. We believe the internal brand
deserves professionally produced materials that rival what employees see outside of work —
on television and in magazines and newspapers.
Keeping the internal communications on a short leash is how we make sure we’re delivering
the level of quality that the brand and its employees deserve. By controlling the writing and
design, hiring professional photographers and video teams, and applying high production
levels across the board, we’re able to build strong employer brands.
But if we want internal communications to mirror what employees are seeing outside of
work, we have to recognize that what they’re watching and reading has expanded to include
user-generated content. They still watch movies with incredible visual effects and flip
through magazines with expensive photography, but they’re also watching YouTube videos
and clicking through Instagram and Facebook.
This t rend toward user-generated content begs the question: Should we be letting
employees generate some of the content in our internal communications? If we’re serious
about engaging employees in an ongoing conversation, then we need to let them do some
of the talking. The new year is a great time to introduce a bold new move, so here are three
suggestions to consider:
Unless you work in an organization
where every employee sits in the same
headquarters building, you probably
have some employee audiences who feel left
out of your communications stream. That might
be the people in the manufacturing facility or
warehouse, or the ones manning the phones in
the call center. It could be the sales guys who
are always on the road, or the home-based
associates who never come into the office.
Make 2018 the year you find ways to bring them
visibility through their own user-generated
content. Smartphone cameras are getting
better and better, so you might solicit on-the-
job photos from these out-of-sight out-of-mind
communities. Start an employee recognition
program that includes photos of managers and
Interested in giving your employees room to run?
Tribe can help.
If we’re serious about engaging
employees in an ongoing
conversation, then we need to let
them do some of the talking.