WaterNSW - The ripple effect of Yammer

Sharing personal stories can help bring people together. For WaterNSW, it wanted to raise awareness around inclusion and diversity at work, as well as create a feeling of belonging, through a Yammer campaign called #ThisIsMyStory. The sharing of personal stories was aimed at breaking down prejudices and creating a more inclusive, respectful, safe and diverse workplace.

The #ThisIsMyStory campaign was an inclusion and diversity initiative launched during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns in the Australian state of NSW. WaterNSW asked its people to share their personal stories by answering a series of questions on Yammer and posting in the All Company community with the hashtag. The questions asked included where they live, their ethnic background, how they identify and they were asked to share something about themselves. They were then asked to complete statement: “One thing I will do to create an inclusive culture at WaterNSW is…”

Perhaps key to the success of the Yammer campaign was to finish the post by nominating a colleague to share their story, and @mentioning them in the post. It’s like passing the baton to ensure the campaign continues with new posts.

“It makes people stop and think, ‘What will I do at WaterNSW to make it an inclusive culture?’,” said WaterNSW Collaboration Analyst, Renee Briggs.

“It helps with forming connections with colleagues and has encouraged first-time Yammer users to post in a safe environment.”

Breaking down geographical barriers and levelling the playing field during COVID-19 lockdowns

It was January 2020 when WaterNSW began rolling out the M365 suite of tools across the organisation. Within weeks, offices were closed, and employees were working from home. WaterNSW employees are scattered across the entire state of NSW, which is four times the size of the United Kingdom, and bigger than the US state of Texas. WaterNSW manages the dams and raw water supply system across the state, and helps protect the health of the water catchments, which supply 80% of Sydney's water.

WaterNSW IT developer, Trina Thornbury.

IT developer Trina Thornbury lives and works in the regional town of Dubbo, almost 400kms from most of her team located in Sydney. Prior to the pandemic when everyone began to work from home, Trina says when the team held a conference call, a lot of the time her colleagues forgot she was on the call.

“You couldn’t see anybody’s mannerisms or clearly hear their tone so working from home has levelled the playing field,” Trina said.

“I’ve got closer relationships with my fellow co-workers now than I had before COVID, while working from home.”

Trina feels like working with the M365 tools means her voice is heard every day now. In meetings she’s seen and heard on Microsoft Teams, and across the organisation she has a voice on Yammer.

“It’s made working from home a lot happier and more enjoyable,” she said.

WaterNSW Collaboration Analyst Renee Briggs sums up digital collaboration and the importance of Yammer perfectly:

“Working from home meant we already suddenly crept into each other’s homes and lives and families. Then Yammer became the extension of that. Then suddenly it was like; ‘Here’s the kids’ birthday party’, ‘Here’s what I’m cooking for dinner’ and ‘Here’s a project I did on the weekend’. It’s really been a nice way to compensate for some of those missing kitchen-counter conversations that you used to have.” 

WaterNSW’s Most Engaged Communities

It’s not surprising the All Company Yammer community is the most engaged community at WaterNSW, according to data from SWOOP Analytics. The All Company community is a mix of important company messages, along with the inclusion and diversity initiatives like #ThisIsMyStory, and tips and tricks for M365.

Another of WaterNSW’s Most Engaging Communities is an employee recognition program called Splash. It’s a chance for any employee to write an e-card to recognise the work of a colleague, whether it be big or small. Prior to COVID-19, this recognition program was done on physical cardboard cards and posted to the office wall. Cleverly, the cards are now electronic and when anyone fills in a Splash card from WaterNSW’s intranet, it automatically posts to a Yammer community. WaterNSW call this the ripple effect.

WaterNSW Collaboration Analyst, Renee Briggs.

“It’s just a lovely way to go in there and say; ‘I really appreciate that you did this particular value of our organisation’ and express your appreciation amongst peers and then they can go in and support, cheer, comment,” Renee said.

“Those things make a big difference.”

Analytics from SWOOP show a 100% response rate to #RippleEffect posts on Yammer, and almost half the posts have received comments. Back when the cards were handwritten and posted in the office, there was little way to engage unless you happened to come across the person named on the card.

Examples of Splash values cards at WaterNSW.

Another way WaterNSW garnered adoption of Yammer was to embed Yammer on the home page of the new intranet on SharePoint, with lots of posts encouraging employees to join the conversation on Yammer.

WaterNSW also publishes a monthly newsletter which features a section on the most talked about topics for the month, linking to the relevant Yammer conversation, or sharing a link to some interesting Yammer posts, like when a koala snuck into a chamber under a dam.

Links to join the conversation in Yammer in WaterNSW’s monthly newsletter.

Yammer initiation and finding your influential people

In the early days of Yammer at WaterNSW, Renee says it was hard work to get communities up and running.

“After the initial hard work to increase Yammer engagement in the first year, the network now operates much more organically, with a healthy mix of social & wellbeing posts along with purely work-related posts,” she said.

Examples of posts on WaterNSW’s Animal Lovers – Pets and Wildlife Community.

There are also lots of fun communities and Fiona Wyburd. WaterNSW Collaboration Manager, speaks of the importance of these social communities to connect colleagues across the organisation.

She also credits WaterNSW CEO Andrew George with showing authentic leadership on the digital platform using the collaboration tools, including Yammer, to engage with employees.

WaterNSW uses SWOOP to look at the influencers and provides information to individuals and teams on how this can be replicated if they are interested in increasing their profile across the Yammer network.

Enabling and empowering employees

Trina believes Yammer has now become a part of the inclusive culture at WaterNSW. 

“It’s really a more relaxed environment where people can have a laugh and talk about things,” she said. 

“There’s no hierarchy between managers and executives and the workers. We’re all on the one playing field and conversations can go between myself and the CEO without any hesitation.”

The Collaboration & Internal Communications Teams promote Yammer across WaterNSW as a tool to share information, collaborate and have some fun. It is a great space to stay connected and with lots of contributors there is sure to be posts with topics of interest for everyone.

Fiona has a final piece of advice for any company launching Yammer.

“Our suggestion would be to let it flow,” she said. 

“Turn it on and let people go for it!”