One of the hot topics in the last year has been employee engagement, but the concept, benefits and how to actually achieve it are a bit hard to visualise.
How are you currently involving internal staff you have a new product and getting their feedback? Maybe you:
- Aren’t? – Listen up!
- Are? – Read on anyhow as this might help with that!
Do you think employees would like to be a part of your company’s product development, feel involved, valued and at the end of the day, more engaged and driven? The answer is yes, and that is employee engagement.
Last time, we addressed Teams deployments with a quick how-to. This month, let’s look at some ways to use Yammer
1. Product or Service Announcements / Feedback / Questions
Imagine Joe McBlog’s, a happy go lucky sales assistant in your business who probably gets constant feedback for a product he’s trying to help sell on the phone, by email, or even just from other staff members. Joe might have an idea about how to improve the product or service. How does he give the feedback:
- Telling a single colleague his idea or constructive feedback
- Give feedback to the product team via Yammer
Hint: it’s an even number!
So the example – simply:
- Create a Public group (anyone can join) in Yammer called Product X Product Group or Service X Feedback
- Post an all-company announcement that the group has been formed and that the company is inviting feedback for this
- Allow users to join of their own free will, this scenario doesn’t lend itself to forcing people
- Get the product or service team to moderate and create content on the Group, answer questions and take feedback
And you’re done!
2. Associated Company Communications
So let’s face it, Teams is awesome but there is one thing I still don’t like it for and that’s External collaboration. Microsoft themselves still use Yammer groups for their partner network. The ability for an organisation to set up a network or group for collaboration with a partner, parent or child or other associated company provides a great way for employees of the different companies to engage on ideas, files and shared projects. Also – people often forget you can create an entire network rather than just a group, where invited personnel can create groups too.
So, how does an organisation collaborate with a partner or associated company and increase collaboration?
- They federate free-busy and Skype for Business between the two domains so people can see when others are online
- They create a Yammer network where people can freely collaborate on projects, ideas, and build relationships
The answer, actually, should be both!
The example – A Yammer Network for two sister companies. This example works as the two companies are closely related but are in different Office 365 tenants.
- Create a new Yammer Network – “Insentra / Contoso” that is a closed network
- Set up a few admins and moderators
- Invite your partner companies’ staff or leave it open to join
- Create public and private groups that allow awesome cross-collaboration between your two companies such as Sales, Events or a combined product group.
Collaborate and enjoy!
3. Connecting with Experts
Microsoft does this using internal product-specific groups manned by experts of the product where employees in Sales, Marketing, IT and any other division can ask questions about the product or service. If I have a question on Yammer, there is a Yammer group for that with an expert answering questions. Its an excellent way of driving cross-collaboration between departments. So how do you connect with Experts in your org?
- Have a DL with the product group?
- Create a Yammer group where product group experts are accountable, collaborative and previous questions are visible?
Answer – probably both again!
Example – Yammer Experts
- Create a public group Yammer Experts in your main network or a network with a partner in it as well
- Announce the Group in all company
- Let people join and ask questions on how to use Yammer
- Post some tips and tricks
Some other great ideas include student announcements, celebrating wins, polling staff, company outings or events, and of course we should have a Yammer group dedicated to cat pics or company mascots.
For more ideas or to see the entire Microsoft guide to adopting Yammer for your organisation, see here
To learn how we can help you adopt this product simply and easily as part of the Microsoft FastTrack program (150+ Seats) please get in touch. Or, take these ideas to your CIO, communications, marketing or collaboration people and adopt it yourself!
