Bendigo & Adelaide Bank: Conversations that matter: Continuous improvement for the frontline with #RetailWins
APAC | Yammer & Viva Engage Festival 2022
Learn about Leigh and Evita's journey in revitalising Bendigo & Adelaide Bank's Yammer network and about the #RetailWins program. It demonstrated how a combination of leadership buy-in, open conversation and ideas generation transformed Retail’s Yammer experience and delivered real business value along the way.
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Thank you for joining us today. Like we're really excited to be here. My name is Evita Puccio and I'm a Senior Internal Communications Manager at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
I manage our digital channels strategy within our Centre of Excellence function in the Internal Communications team. And I have Leigh Lutz with me today. Hi Leigh.
Hi, hi everyone. Great to be here. So I'm Leigh Lutz from the bank as well.
I'm the Senior Communications Manager partnering with our Consumer Banking Division which includes the retail network at the bank made up of around two and a half thousand employees spread across the country. Fantastic. And so today we're going to talk about a programme of work that was run through the Retail Division called Retail Wins and how Yammer was one of the key channels used to engage our people and encourage conversations and connections through continuous improvement.
So what we're going to do is we're going to talk about this programme though within the context of our Yammer journey because for a long time it really wasn't a popular or a preferred channel and there was a fair amount of resistance around the business to the concept of social. Turning that perception around and fostering a healthy, useful, productive network has been the work of many hands across the business. And so we'll get into it and start with a little bit of a background of where we started.
So here at the bank, Yammer is really not a new concept or a channel at all. In fact, it's been around for quite some time and before this session, I went back into Yammer and had a bit of time scrolling and I actually found posts from as far back as 2011 So this kind of a long tenure, like the amount of time Yammer has been available has been both a positive and a negative. Predominantly it was seen by a lot of people as a failed channel.
And while there had been some attempts in the past to use it when I joined the business in 2021, it was relying on organic participation from a very small group of users. And there were a lot of people who were already of the firm opinion that it just simply doesn't work. So we weren't starting from scratch.
We did have pockets of users who wanted to make a go of it. The business was changing. There were new leaders coming in, lots of different drivers to inspire us to kind of make another go of it.
And from a technical perspective, we already had a ready-made all company channel that was ready to use, which was also a benefit. Moving across to kind of the retail teams and retail specifically, as part of a branch immersion programme that we undertook in internal comms to better understand our retail audience, that year in 2021, we conducted a survey of our branch teams to get some understanding of their channel and communications preferences. And what we found was that not only was Yammer the least preferred of all of the channels, there was actually very little kind of interest or even understanding of why they might use it and what the benefits might be.
Because for us, this is an audience in our retail environment that is very compliance and process driven and ultimately very time poor. Every week, they're absorbing a huge number of changes and process updates that are vital to delivering a seamless and efficient customer experience. So to ask this group to spend time on a social network, there really needs to be a strong why.
And in 2021, we were encountering a very strong why that I'm sure a lot of you might have been encountering too. Aside from the more general business drivers pointing towards enterprise social as a core channel, we were still in the thick of the pandemic and managing our hybrid working environment and increasing issues around social isolation and disconnectedness. So from an internal communications perspective, the time was right to reinvest our efforts in Yammer, but to do so with a more purpose driven and strategic lens and start changing hearts and minds around the value of a social enterprise network and what it could bring to the bank.
So we're not here today to talk about how we tackled the entire network because that's a really long story. But what we're gonna do is I'm going to hand over to Leigh, who's going to talk about a really fantastic example that we have around building a purpose driven community, turning around negative sentiment and what worked for retail. So Leigh, over to you.
Thanks, Evita. So as Evita said, we did have our work cut out for ourselves with retail, sentiment was pretty low, but we also saw great opportunity with a team that was spread across the country looking for greater connections, new leadership. So for us, it was really around finding that why and establishing that clear purpose for the community and a content strategy.
As Evita said, the community itself was ready to go, it was there waiting. We just needed to find that why. And so the why sort of presented itself in the form of a new continuous improvement programme that was being developed for retail back in May this year.
And it was developed in response to feedback from our employee engagement survey. The team wanted to really celebrate our people's feedback and demonstrate how they were listening and taking action. And there was a genuine commitment from our leadership team in retail to do that.
They wanted to show how they were delivering wins that would make it easier for people to do their job. So we saw that opportunity to tie it back to Yammer as we really wrapped our arms around this programme and we called it Retail Wins with the hashtag included in the name. So it was really that opportunity for us to activate and mobilise the community through Retail Wins by driving leader-led conversations.
It provided that why that we needed to demonstrate value to the network and how they could get the most out of Yammer. As I mentioned, we had some new senior leaders. So it was really about getting them on board and they recognised the value of two-way communication and really championed this programme.
So with their support, we worked closely with the broader retail leadership team to get them active on Yammer. They weren't really using it prior to May. So bringing it back to Retail Wins and showing them how they could get value out of the channel was really key.
And the leader who heads up that division set an expectation from him as well that they would match his volume of posts. So he really drove that engagement with his team and got them active on Yammer with our support. So we presented to their teams, gave them resources, sort of spoke to them about how they could be posting.
So for example, recognising team members, celebrating Retail Wins. We saw lots of selfies from branch visits, which were great. They also used polls and open questions to ask feedback.
And they made sure that they were keeping an eye on the questions and the feedback that came through and they responded to comments. So it was very much that two-way communication. And as they saw the positive response from their teams, they became more active themselves and we got that organic growth.
There was less of a need for comms to be sort of tapping them on the shoulder. They were active and sort of looking at the conversations that were taking place each day and their teams saw the value in hearing from their leaders and that open and transparent communication. As I mentioned at the start, our branches are spread right across the country.
So Yammer was really an opportunity to break down some silos and bring people together. I mentioned one of the ways that our leaders got on board was through recognition on Yammer. And that was because they quickly realised it was a simple way for them to drive engagement across their teams.
I had one regional manager in particular tell me how chuffed one of her team members were after she tagged them in a post on Yammer. It was a really simple post. She just, you know, she recognised a work achievement.
She tagged some of the leadership team. They left a couple of comments and the team member was blown away. You know, she couldn't believe that they'd taken that time to respond and to recognise her on Yammer.
And, you know, that's not to say they weren't recognising their team previously, but people weren't used to receiving that recognition in such a visible way where everyone could see. And so that was really well received and became a strong driver for engagement across the community. So the hashtag RetailWins really became bigger than the programme itself.
It wasn't just about the continuous improvement aspect of the programme, but for recognition as well and for collaboration. And, you know, we saw people celebrating the different ways they were connecting with each other and driving positive outcomes for the business and our customers. Jump across to the next slide, Aviva.
Thank you. So look, I've spoken a bit about the why and some of the different ways we use Yammer to engage employees, but I also wanted to touch on how we got there. And there's a few screenshots on this slide of just some of the different channels that we've used because, you know, for us, it was really important to take a multi-channel approach.
So, you know, while Yammer has been a key channel for us, we know it takes a mix to deliver impact. And for us, it was really around increasing the visibility of Yammer and making sure that we were taking a consistent and integrated approach. So for example, when we first launched RetailWins, we used email to educate our people about the programme and talk to them about how we would be using Yammer to drive connections and celebrate the process improvements.
And then, you know, we quickly, sort of shifted away from Yammer, from email, sorry, and integrated the programme into established channels. We've got a weekly retail e-news that comes out that we could leverage. We created a dedicated RetailWins section in that channel and we pointed to conversations taking place on Yammer to drive people there.
We also created an intranet site, which was designed by the front lines themselves as part of a competition to get them involved and engaged in the programme. We also provided materials to leaders and the leadership team. So when they were, you know, visiting branches and holding town halls and team meetings, they could also be posting about Yammer, on Yammer to drive conversation and be talking about the programme with their people.
So all of the different channels that I've mentioned would point back to Yammer. So it was really around, you know, driving that peer to peer connection and celebrating RetailWins through Yammer, but using other channels to support that. And people saw their colleagues and their leaders genuinely excited about the improvements that were making their life work better and easier and that were improving the customer experience.
And we've got a video, Abid, if you don't mind just playing that on the side. I think this is a great example of a piece of content showing that genuine excitement. And it was created by Ali and Gaffer branch, no prompting from comms or the leadership team.
They created it themselves and it ended up being one of the most highly engaged pieces of content in the community. There's some music that sits behind it too, but we thought it might be easier to leave it off for now, but you can just imagine the music supporting that video. So yeah, it was a really good piece of content and that, you know, that genuine excitement, it was so positive for us to see the impact that it was having and for them to create that piece of content, it was awesome.
So going back to sort of how we got there, I did also want to just touch on one other important aspect and that was the open and transparent communication and strong governance that sits behind the programme. You know, you hear that a lot with sort of continuous improvement programmes that they don't work because, you know, you get all these ideas coming through, but nothing is done with them. So it was really important through the programme that, you know, all ideas that came through were reviewed, they were analysed and they were triaged through a working group.
And the programme is also part of the division's employee engagement action plan. So there's a clear commitment from the leaders to respond to people's feedback and there are KPIs associated with that. And, you know, when an idea comes through that they aren't able to action, because of course, you know, they're not able to deliver every suggestion that comes through, but they're really honest about it, they explain why and they share that with the whole business.
So they're very clear around what they can deliver, what they can't deliver and why. And that transparency and that commitment to change has really helped turn around sentiment and get that buy-in from people. And I think it's why the community has continued to grow organically and, you know, why we've had the success that we've had.
I'll hand over back to you, Avita, to talk about the outcomes. Brilliant, thank you, Leigh. So with the time that we have left, we did wanna share some of those outcomes that came out of the Retail Wins programme.
But we'll start back with retail before we kind of go out to that kind of broader network. Broader network outcomes. So Leigh, what are the kind of the headlines in terms of outcomes and benefits for retail? Sure, so look, I'm conscious of time, but I do want to rattle off those numbers on the slide because they're pretty impressive and we're proud of them.
So in the first month of launching Retail Wins, the number of active users in the community went up by more than 900% to almost 2000 people. So as I mentioned before, we've got about two and a half thousand people in the network. And the number of new posts went up by 2300%.
So an awesome result. And now sort of six, seven months later, it's continuing to grow organically, as I mentioned. And we're at the point of maintaining strong engagement in the community.
There's around 150 to 200 new posts each month and about two and a half thousand active people. And that includes people from across the bank who are interested to see the conversations taking place. So a massive engagement, uplift in engagement.
We've also seen other little communities pop up just showing that level of interest. We've seen an uplift in our ongoing engagement results, really positive feedback coming through directly to the leadership team. So yeah, very strong impact in terms of engagement and collaboration across retail.
But I know there's been a significant impact across the whole bank as well, Aviva. Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, in thinking about the benefits to the bank of a whole, I think it's brought a level of visibility to our people in corporate to really understand the issues and topics that are important in the retail environment.
Especially because for our people, if you're not on the frontline serving customers, then certainly a part of your role is to support in some way the people who are out there providing that customer experience. There's also been an increased sense of community impact and shared purpose. Our people are great at posting stories around the many local sponsorships and initiatives that our branches participate in, particularly through the community banking model.
Our purpose, which is to feed into the prosperity of the community, not of it, is a real point of difference in our EBP. And it's a point of pride for our people who work here as well. So that's really come to life through the network where people can share all of the local initiatives that are happening across the country.
And also across the board, our people are starting to participate and celebrate a whole raft of cultural days, such as R U OK? and Wear It Purple, Biggest Morning Tea, the list goes on. YUM has been a fantastic way to kind of share that excitement and creativity and fun and community around those days as well. And so that's really taken off, and has become a real sense of shared fun and community and purpose across the network.
So I think that's actually all that we have time for today. 15 minutes went by really quickly. So we hope that was interesting for you to hear about.
Leigh and I are going to stay back and answer any questions that are in the chat, but thank you so much for your time. I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival and we'll hand back to Emily from SWOOP now to continue with the program. So bye for now.
Thanks everyone. Bye. Thanks, Evita.
Meet the speakers:
Evita Puccio
Senior Communications Manager, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank
Leigh Lutz
Senior Communications Manager, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank
