Brands, Customers and Employees Connect by Redesigning Consumption

A Gallup client recently transitioned their onboarding process from exclusively in-person to entirely remote. Despite the virtual format, the company focused their process on building relationships through a number of personalized virtual experiences. For example, the organization facilitated daily social interactions between new hires and their colleagues and mentors.

The overall employee experience allowed new people to develop key relationships and closely connect with the organization’s purpose. It all proves that the consumption of an organization’s content may change; however, the company’s core values should be maintained.

Companies are discovering that physical spaces like the breakroom, water cooler and copy machine represented an important way for employees to socialize and connect. To adapt, organizations are transforming some of the lighter, more human elements of their workplace into new, consumable content.

Nautilus Insurance Group developed fun, snackable content to keep employees connected, feel inspired and stay productive. To tackle their re-imagined employee experience, Nautilus redesigned their intranet to provide more interaction as a platform that featured fun photos, PG-rated jokes, employee milestones and more. Their redefined intranet ultimately allowed employees to consume content that offered entertainment, connection and a sense of community.

It’s essential for organizations to design employee experiences around the realities of working from home. And creating content that’s quick and easy to consume is key. Internal communications and content in the form of bulky mailings or large file sizes can present heavy burdens on employees’ busy schedules, leaving employees distracted and less productive.

Navy Federal Credit Union has applied this insight to its own employee experience. Its celebrated leadership training program has served as a coaching forum where leaders across the company could get one-on-one mentoring and have access to 360-degree reviews. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the program was transitioned into snackable 10 – 30-minute modules to accommodate tight schedules while working remotely. Employees are free to access the courses whenever they choose.

With most new hires starting their new jobs at home, creating an employee experience that fluidly and thoroughly onboards employees is critical. That’s why onboarding elements like personalized communications and introductions to leadership and company objectives should be made as consumable as possible for new employees.

Much like for customer experiences, creating content for the onboarding process needs to be designed around a virtual, work-from-home lifestyle. More specifically, organizations should make content that’s both bite-sized and accessible from mobile devices—as people know and expect.

Considering the fractured nature of working remotely, how can companies effect positive change? Surprisingly, the answer may be found in influencers. By identifying, engaging and activating with an outsized influence on other employees, leaders can create internal “force multipliers” for positive messaging. Employee influencers can help with a myriad of employee experiences, like rolling out a new workflow platform, overhauling a work-from-home policy or adding team engagement tools. And much like the consumer world, employee influencers’ authenticity can help drive your brand from within.

Explore Liquid’s October edition of Dispatch X. It’s your quick-hitting source for brand experience, employee experience and customer experience insights. Our latest post features curated and linked articles covering the redesigning of consumption. Read more about “Who Are Your Organization’s Influencers, and How Do You Identify and Activate Them?” and dive deeper into “The Hidden Role Internal Communications Plays in Employee Experience.”