Tribe Topics April 2017 TRB-147 Apr. Topics_v2 | Page 3

EMPLOYEES AS CHANNELS
At Tribe, we’ve built these sorts of human channels for several different clients for a
range of functions. Here are five things you can do with a team of employee connectors.
tw o - w a y c ommun i c a tio ns
Employees want to know they have a voice, and that company management hears what they’re
saying. A team of employee connectors can become an authentic and organic means of sharing
messages moving in both directions. (Although to make that happen, you need to do a good job
making your connectors visible so that their peers recognize them as a communication channel.)
eve nt m a n a gers
We first used employee event managers for a global event taking place on the same day in 27
offices worldwide. We needed employees on the ground in each office to prep and implement
the event. Across two months of weekly conference calls, we led the team through a long series of
milestones. We shipped out event signage, activities, giveaways and other materials, scaled to the
size of each office and number of employees. And our ambassadors successfully pulled off events
around the world that would have otherwise occurred only in the corporate headquarters location.
cont en t m a n a gers
We’ve also used employee teams as content managers for channels ranging from intranets to
digital signage. For the launch of a global intranet for the parent company of numerous brands,
we held online training (including some 3 a.m. sessions to accommodate employees in Asia) for
content managers to generate a regular stream of news items from their regions and brands. For
another client, we trained content managers from each department in the corporate headquarters
building to create monthly digital signage – using simple templated designs we developed for
slides with vertical photos, horizontal photos and all type. We also provide specialized templates
for content like new hires, service anniversaries, new babies and employee pets.
e dito ri al b o a r ds
Magazines can be a great way to provide windows into the work being done in other functional
silos. And employee editorial boards are an excellent way to find the people doing that interesting
work from silo to silo. Our process is to hold a conference call with the employee editorial board
as the first planning meeting of each issue. The theme of the issue might be anything from
collaboration to data analytics. Whatever it is, the editorial board can be helpful at proposing story
ideas and potential interviewees for those topics.
cul tur e a mb a ss a dor s
Sometimes we’ve used management-level employees for this function, especially if the goal
is to introduce a new employee brand or leadership vision. Other times we’ve cultivated
more junior people as ambassadors for culture, particularly when their function is primarily to
facilitate employee recognition. For a values-based recognition program, for instance, the culture
ambassadors can watch for employees using the values in their day-to-day work. The impact of
this program goes further than individual recognition, giving visibility to what the recipients did to
deserve the award helps model concrete examples of desired behaviors.
Interested in any of the above? Tribe can help