ICYMI: Frontline Comms, 🍌, Next-Level Storytelling

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening! Let’s get right to it.

In case you missed it…

1. Staying Connected to Frontline Workers

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🎩 A tip of the hat to the internal communicators who struggle to connect with staff not tethered to computers. Across many internal comms blogs, opinion articles, white papers, and webinars, it seems like lessons and advice on how to engage with workers in the field are overlooked at worst, of secondary concern at best.

• The struggle is real.

Andrada Paraschiv, head of Hospitality for Beekeeper, sums it up:

One of the biggest lessons learned last year was that communicating with hotel housekeepers, laundry workers, roomservice attendants, wait staff, bartenders, valets, bellmen, and countless others who were either furloughed or employed but not on premises was extremely difficult since company emails for frontline workers do not typically exist. 

Before the pandemic, IC pros whose employee base sat in offices had it pretty easy. The intranet, digital signage, physical signs, emails, town halls, and desk drops made communicating with employees straightforward.

• Now with offices still closed all employees are “in the field.”

• We could learn a lesson or two from our peers in the hospitality, retail, and field industries.

Read Ms. Paraschiv’s lessons learned. What can you apply to your experience?

2. Thank you, Bananatag! 🍌

I’m thrilled that Mister Editorial is recognized as one of the top internal comms blogs. The first article I wrote for this experiment was published in May 2020. Look what we’ve accomplished in just 10 months!

Says Bananatag:

Miss reading actual, physical magazines? This blog is the closest thing to a regular magazine for [Internal Communications].

😊

It feels good to be in the company of so many other bloggers and doers in the IC world whom I also follow, admire, and borrow from.

Click here to see the list.

3. Should You Start an Employee Podcast?

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A few years ago setting up an internal podcast was cutting edge stuff. Now it seems every other week I see hands raised in IC forums of people looking for advice on how to start one.

Jen Grogono, CEO of uStudio Inc., is pro-workplace podcast. She presents some questions to ask as you consider the medium. Though her questions about employee engagement and messaging are sound (pun!), the audio solution isn’t right for every IC team.

• ✋ I know from experience that starting a podcast is not easy. How many times did my co-workers come to me asking to start one of their own, only to never get past the prototype.

• Before you jump into this production-heavy effort, ask yourself: are our employees really clamoring for a podcast about work?

Speaking of podcasts, here’s Redefining Communications’s list of worthwhile podcasts about internal comms.

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4. News Roundup

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• Learn from the best. That’s the call to action from Poppulo as they gear up for their popular Bootcamp, happening Feb. 23. If you can’t attend live, that’s okay. Videos will be available on-demand later. (Poppulo)

• Fellow Amazonians. Did you read Jeff Bezos’s letter to employees about him stepping down as CEO? Says Mr. Bezos: “I don’t know of another company with an invention track record as good as Amazon’s, and I believe we are at our most inventive right now. I hope you are as proud of our inventiveness as I am. I think you should be.” (Amazon)

• Only 6% of U.S. employers plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccination. A majority, 79%, said they were concerned about resistance from employees who are not in a protected category, but who would refuse to get vaccinated. (HR Dive)

• WFH Is Corroding Our Trust in Each Other: “While employees were willing to give one another some latitude earlier in the pandemic, now, almost a year in, their trust is wearing thin, and some find themselves wondering whether their remote employees are actually working at home. Companies that fail to address this crisis are likely to see lower morale, increased attrition, lower productivity, and stalled innovation.” (HBR)

5. Next-Level Storytelling

I’m always looking for unique ways to tell stories. You never know from where design, technical, or craft inspiration may spring. Ivy Bells: A Spyhunter Series Story is a unique web-based format that uses original comic-style illustrations and interactive elements to pull you along.

• What’s more, the wild tale is based on a true story.

• Can your intranet do this?

Worth your time.