Working in some of the world’s most isolated regions can be a lonely existence, and keeping those people digitally connected with their colleagues can be a challenge. It’s a challenge Aggreko, the world’s largest supplier of mobile and modular energy solutions, is overcoming with the help of Viva Engage (Yammer).

Microsoft’s Enterprise Social Network Viva Engage connects Aggreko’s 6,500 colleagues to help them solve problems faster, which gives customers a better experience, and boosts morale across the entire organisation.

Aggreko’s colleagues are stationed in every corner of the planet – often in very remote areas – which makes it difficult to share news and collaborate. It can also be difficult to get immediate technical guidance when teams span time zones and continents. That’s where Viva Engage has filled a gap – allowing colleagues to share information quickly for immediate ROI by collaborating.

Engineers regularly post on Viva Engage asking for technical support or advice from colleagues, and they can share a photo of the issue on the post.

An example of an Aggreko engineer asking a question on Yammer to solve a problem.

Paul Brereton, Head of Digital Communications, Aggreko.

“We’re so geographically spread - we’ve literally got people everywhere,” said Paul Brereton, Head of Digital Communications at Aggreko.

“There’s a vast number of geographical hurdles to stop collaboration and conversations and of course Yammer just collapses all of those geographical barriers in a heartbeat.”

Before implementing Yammer/Viva Engage across Aggreko in early 2020, field engineers had no way to get answers to their technical questions except to call or email each other – and that’s assuming they knew exactly who to contact.

“So Yammer just threw open doors immediately for those people to be able to talk to each other and to ask questions of the experts,” Paul said.

Using Viva Engage to connect leaders with frontline workers

One of the drivers for using Viva Engage at Aggreko was to help the leadership team be more approachable, communicative and collaborative. Email is still very popular in Aggreko, but Paul said attitudes are starting to change.

“Email is often not the right vehicle for us,” he said.

“If our subject matter experts answer questions by email, the next day they’re having to answer the same question again, whereas if people ask it through Yammer then hopefully they’re only answering it once and it’s there to be discovered by whoever comes along next – with Yammer we’re actually building an online knowledge base.”

Not all leaders have been as active on Yammer as the CEO, so Paul and his team have held coaching sessions with the executive and senior leadership team to show them the value of Yammer and Microsoft Teams. That is having some great results in increased engagement.

“It’s really important to have the leaders on because it shows this is a safe place to be and it’s okay to be posting in there,” Paul said, adding that some parts of Aggreko have waited to see if their direct manager posts in Yammer before feeling they can do so themselves.

“If you’ve got those leaders in Yammer, the people deeper in the organisation will come on.”

Paul said working with leaders is one aspect of boosting Yammer usage, the other is connecting people in the field.

“Helping those field colleagues feel a bit more connected and helping them to feel more part of the family, even when they’re stuck out in the middle of the Australian outback working in an open cast mine, they can still reach out and chat to people,” he said.

An image posted on Aggreko’s Yammer network from the team working in outback Australia.

Far from home

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Aggreko colleagues were left stranded in remote parts of the world, unable to get home. Paul said Yammer became a constant place to connect colleagues, especially for those away from home.

He told the story of an engineer who was stuck on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific for almost eight months. He was there to do maintenance on a generator but once that was complete he was unable to fly home because of COVID-19 restrictions. Instead, he spent his days door knocking, asking if anyone needed help around the house.

“Rather than just waste his time, he got his tool box and he would spend his days wandering up and down the group of islands, knocking on people’s doors doing things like replacing washers on taps and other ‘odd jobs’,” Paul said.

“He became the handy man for the island and was then sharing photos and updates back on Yammer for us all to see.”

Leading up to the Tokyo Olympics, Aggreko ran a competition where colleagues could nominate their peers for tickets to the Tokyo Games, covering all their travel and accommodation expenses for them and a friend. CEO Chris Weston then personally selected the engineer in the Marshall Islands and recorded a Microsoft Teams call with him to announce his win and to congratulate him. Sharing this video on Yammer got a huge response from colleagues.

“It blew the guy’s mind,” Paul said, adding that without a platform like Yammer, these great stories would never be amplified.

CEO Chris Weston’s Far From Home Yammer message.

Picturesque Aggreko - sharing good news and building the community spirt

Another Viva Engage community that has taken off across Aggreko is called Picturesque Aggreko, where people share photos of the sites where they’re working. Paul said it is powerful in allowing every employee to see what those on the frontline are doing.

Aggreko’s internal communications team now has an amazing library of images to hand thanks to Viva Engage. Paul updates the All Company Yammer community each month with a new image and @mentions the photographer and those working on the site.

“That’s starting to drive a bit of engagement with people wanting to get their image up on the All Company feed, so we’re seeing people post even more images, which is great,” Paul said.

“There’s definitely a lot of pride shared on Yammer about what we get up to.”

Images shared on the Picturesque Aggreko Yammer community.

Connecting with colleagues

Paul shared stories of Aggreko engineers supplying power to communities in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where they are issued with military grade body armour and helmets as they are exposed to threats from not just terrorism but civil unrest, crime, unexploded ordnance – they are even taught how to deal with rocket or mortar attacks.

“They can come under attack by militia and terrorists mainly because they want our generators – it’s amazing and humbling to hear about the risks they face on a daily basis!” Paul said.

“Without Yammer there would be no way to share these stories across the global organisation and share in colleagues’ experiences out in the field. And it’s morale boosting for our colleagues out in those remote or dangerous parts of the world to receive messages of goodwill and recognition for what they do.

“Yammer gives us windows into all the different parts of the business which is very powerful given that our colleagues are so geographically dispersed.

“And I think that helps light it up for people. Some might think Yammer is just people chit chatting about X Factor, and then they have a look around and they go; ‘Wow, it’s so much more’.”

An example of a Yammer post showing what’s happening around the world with Aggreko.

CEO listening in

Aggreko CEO Chris Weston is a regular collaborator in Yammer, often popping in to comment on posts in different communities. Sometimes the original author of the post doesn’t even realise who Chris Weston is.

“Chris is pretty active, he’s quite autonomous,” Paul said.

“We don’t have to ghost write anything for him. He will just wander around Yammer, see something and he will add a comment which has huge impact.

“Some of our colleagues deep in the organisation may not even know who Chris is and all of a sudden they get a comment from him and look him up and see he’s the CEO! And that has such a positive impact when they know their CEO is visible and supports their hard work.”

Bringing global events to every corner of the Aggreko world

Aggreko supports some of the world’s most prestigious and well-known sporting and entertainment events. Some of the first ever images of the venues in Tokyo were shared on Aggreko’s Yammer network, from the events team in Japan.

The team across Aggreko was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the venues from their colleagues in Japan who were installing electrical distribution and backup power, across all the sporting venues.

An example of a Yammer post shared by Aggreko’s events team in Japan.

“We provided the grid distribution across three different voltages, and backup mobile power for the event this summer, so we had a whole team of people in Japan setting things up and managing our equipment through the event,” Paul said.

“The number of pictures they’ve shared behind the scenes has been an amazing insight for our colleagues located around the world…we even got to see the new BMX and skateboarding track before it’s even been shown in public. The amount of stuff we got to see was incredible and it really brought the event to life for us.

“Without Yammer you wouldn’t have got to see that. It’s a real eye opener now wandering through our Yammer network to see just what it is that we get up to as a company.”

Some examples of Yammer posts shared by Aggreko’s events team in Japan.

Aggreko has seen many benefits from its implementation of Yammer. Colleagues have formed connections across geographical and organisational boundaries. People can feel proud of the company's impact and see the benefits its products bring to remote communities.

The success of the Aggreko’s Yammer network is no fluke. It was identified as the top Yammer network for medium-sized organisations for EMEA in SWOOP Analytics’ 2021 Yammer Benchmarking Report, based on measures for participation, people-to-people engagement, responsiveness and innovation. 

Measuring success with SWOOP Analytics

Paul relies on data from SWOOP Analytics to track topics, hashtags, campaigns and leaders on Yammer. He also uses the data to produce a monthly report about Aggreko’s Yammer usage, which he shares on Yammer for all to see. Paul @mentions the most influential colleagues in the monthly report – the movers and shakers, as he calls them.

“It’s creating a bit of buzz,” Paul said of his monthly report.

“People are starting to say; ‘I want to be in there, I want to be the top 10 engagers’ or ‘I want my community to be in the top five’ and asking for advice as to how to get there.”

An example of Paul’s monthly Yammer report, with data from SWOOP Analytics.

Community mangers have contacted Paul to ask him to create similar reports for their own community. Paul plans to go one step further and give every colleague access to their own personal SWOOP dashboard before the end of 2021.

“We want to be able to say to people; ‘Here’s your own data and have a look and see how you’re using Yammer and your network’,” Paul said.

“Our Yammer network is quite a special place and it will be great for colleagues to see where they fit in and how they’re contributing and adding real value to it.”

Aggreko - Breaking geographical barriers with Viva Engage