Inside: Telekom RTO (kinda), Delta & Shopify Memos, Amaze-ing Cities
Insider Comms for internal comms
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening!
ICYMI: Here’s my interview with McDonald’s UK/Ireland internal comms manager, Chris Bicknell, which includes:
the tools they use to communicate with employees
a screenshot of an employee newsletter
access to the first video in a new editorial series connecting employees with senior leadership, including the CEO
🔑 Scroll down to access more Insider Comms:
Delta Airlines’s memo to employees on vaccine requirements
Shopify’s CEO muddled memo on leadership
1. We Need a Little Practice
Telekom is returning to the office with self-awareness and humor. The telecommunications giant made this parody video (4:44) showing employees having difficulty shaking off WFH habits, such as making lunch during a meeting, wearing pajama bottoms and a button-down top, and listening to loud music.
The Bonn-based company has more than 225,000 employees in more than 50 countries.
Telekom makes available its new vision for the work environment, which diminishes the role of the office to “meeting places.”
Timotheus Höttges (CEO) and Birgit Bohle (CHRO) make an appearance at the end of the video. After observing his colleagues awkwardly trying to reacquaint with office life, Höttges jokes, “Well, I think we have to practice a little bit here.”
2. S.T.R.E.A.M.L.I.N.E.
Greater autonomy is one reason employees choose to work from home. The distance from interruptions, teammates, and management can provide a zone of exploration and productivity that a busy work environment can’t exactly match.
But how do managers strike the balance between giving remote employees autonomy and unchecked independence?
Laura Spawn, CEO and co-founder of Virtual Vocations, invented an unwieldy acronym. Her concept wouldn’t look great on an inspirational poster, but she does have several good ideas buried inside.
Spawn’s S.T.R.E.A.M.L.I.N.E. for managing remote employees:
S - sharable
T - technology
R - responsiveness
E - engagement
A - automation
M - metrics
L - leadership
I - inclusivity
N - newsletter (a woman after my heart)
E - evaluation
Get the details (CMSWire).
3. Industry News
Ragan Communications is accepting submissions for its 2021 Employee Communications and Top Places to Work Awards
Employees at game engine maker Unity are decrying the lack of transparency within their company on whether they’re doing work for the Pentagon (Vice)
Sajjad Bazaz writes of “communication fiascos” when you don’t get internal comms right (Greater Kashmir)
Apple employees are organizing under the banner #AppleToo (Twitter)
Shot: The “great resignation” will likely continue for another year (CNBC).
Chaser: Can Internal Comms Thwart Post-Pandemic Job-Hopping? (Mister Editorial)
🔑 4. Insider Comms
Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Airlines, sent this memo to all employees outlining rules and surcharges applied to those who are unvaccinated.
The memo is clear and spells out a) the financial reason for the company’s decision and b) exactly what unvaccinated employees can expect from Delta.
“This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company,” Bastian writes. “The average hospital stay for COVID-19 has cost Delta $50,000 per person.”
75% of Delta employees are vaccinated.
Shopify’s CEO sent this muddled memo to his leadership staff on what leadership should look like at his company.
The memo is long-winded, the call-to-action is mysterious, and it’s just not very motivating.
“Shopify, like any other for-profit company, is not a family. The very idea is preposterous,” he says. “Shopify is a team, not a family.”
If you’re a free subscriber, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to unlock more Insider Comms to help improve your IC game.
5. These Mind-Blowing Drawings
Using only a pen on paper, artist Benjamin Sack captures fantastical metropolises that are entire worlds in and of themselves.
Among his newest body of work is a large-scale drawing entitled Roots of Being: Per Aspera ad Astra.
This piece was a massive, Daedalian undertaking that was started at the outset of the initial lockdowns back in March 2020 and finished upon my receiving the first dose of the Moderna [vaccine] in April; a large labyrinth emblematic of the epoch we persevered, Sack tells My Modern Met.
While from afar this drawing resembles a straight-forward maze, a closer look reveals miniature detailed structures built into the walls of the maze.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter | Mister Editorial archive | editorshaun@gmail.com
Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I work in employee comms at Splunk. The views in this newsletter are my own.