The union I work for, the FSU, tries to address this by conducting joint pay equity audits and projects in Australian finance sector companies.
At a meeting with one of these companies we started fleshing out the joint communications strategy, including internal comms.
With around 180 staff in my organisation, I planned to communicate with colleagues via email and the fortnightly internal e-news. The finance sector company, with around 20,000 employees, said they plan to use Yammer.
I had no idea what they were talking about.
After the meeting I went straight back to my desk and looked up Yammer. This is what the home page said:
Connect with your coworkers
Yammer is the free private social network for your company
Enter your work email. Sign up.
“Free? Private?” I thought. “Yeah right.”
Then I figured, what the hell, I can sign up, have a play, and shut down the account if it's bogus right?
That was a month ago.
On the first day I read the FAQs, the privacy policy, and googled the company and the board members. The CEO is the guy who set up PayPal. There's a former Facebook exec on the board. All the others looked legit. The testimonials looked legit.
By the end of the first day I had invited a couple of people I'm close to at work to join Yammer. We had fun for a while chatting online, and then we got bored and got on with our work.
On the second day I logged on and discovered the Yammer population had doubled. Everyone had invited another co-worker to join. Even members of the leadership team joined in. We had fun for a while, chatting online, and then we got bored and got on with our work.
We were all really busy because our biennial National Conference was coming up and there was lots of preparatory work to be done, so Yammer was quiet on the third day and the fourth day. And the fifth and the sixth. On the seventh day I posted an update. “Not much yammering going on.”
A colleague responded quickly. “Too busy to be yammering.” And then my colleague mentioned the things she was working on, giving me insight into her working day.
I started thinking about other ways we could use Yammer. What could we possibly talk about that we couldn't get covered with emails and phone calls? Was it just a time-waster? A superfluous tool?
It was on my mind while we filmed interviews with conference delegates. They talked about the power of connecting people.
We decided to use Yammer to connect our own people with the conference that would determine their work priorities for at least the next two years.
We sent an email to all staff telling them we would be providing live updates from Conference via Yammer. We would also be publishing daily email updates, and they would receive those, but only people on Yammer would receive regular updates, as well as photos.
Our Yammer population increased dramatically, 80 staff signed up in 24 hours.
It was around that time that I had an email from Aaron, a San Francisco based Yammer account executive. He'd noticed an increase in our Yammer population, and wondered if he could be of assistance. He attached a case study guide to the email which talked about the sort of companies using Yammer (around 100,000 worldwide) and some examples of how some of those companies are using it.
Colleagues from all around the country are now connecting with each other using the in-house micro-blogging service that allows users to post updates and exchange private messages with each other. Yammer assumes you are talking about work by posing the question “What are you working on? “ in the status update field.
Over the four day conference we provided live coverage of the presentations, discussions and resolutions of conference. We posted over 700 updates, posting every few minutes during some sessions. Verbatim statements, as well as photos and links to the conference videos were published on Yammer. We even posted photos of the food.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Colleagues have said it almost felt like they were present at the conference, others said it made them feel included. They were able to ask questions, and make comments, and staff who couldn't follow the live feed were able to catch up at a time that was more convenient.
There were some grumbles about the volume of updates, particularly from people who had been out on the road for four days, but by using Yammer they could make their thoughts known and I was able to provide a short summary of what they'd missed.
So our first big Yammer experience has been a good one, and many of us are now talking about how we can best use Yammer in future.
And while we work those things out some useful discussions are occurring on Yammer, about how we should behave toward one another online, and the different things that we are working on. These insights can lead us to think about ways we might help our colleagues or contribute to their projects, or how what they're doing may help you and your work.
We are having conversations online that we wouldn't be having otherwise – how often do you ring a colleague just to ask them what they're working on? And if you don't know what colleagues are working on, how can you possibly link up, and share information?
When you publish on the company feed on Yammer you are talking to everyone in your organisation. It's an enormous opportunity that also comes with risks. It is incredibly important to think about how others may perceive you and the things you say when you post an update on Yammer. Like with any social media, rigorous care should be taken in order to protect your reputation. Choose your words carefully.
At the moment Yammer is providing us with the ability to work collaboratively, and stay in touch with colleagues that are not geographically close, and I'm enjoying getting to know them better. I am also excited about learning what other things Yammer can enable us to do.
Yammering
