Helping to save the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children, fostering a culture of connection and collaboration which has helped deliver medication to the elderly and establishing a network of community managers to foster conversations – these are just some of the feats achieved by this year’s Yammer & Viva Engage Community Champions.

The SWOOP Analytics team faced a tough task last week working through the 77 submissions for the 2022 Yammer & Viva Engage Community Champion award. In the end, we narrowed it down to five outstanding finalists from each region and announced the overall winners on Wednesday, December 7 at the 2022 Yammer & Viva Engage Festival.

It wasn’t easy to decide on the winners but once you learn more about each recipient, we think you’ll agree we got it right!

Drumroll please! The 2022 Yammer & Viva Engage Community Champions are:

Paola Storchi

Paola has been the driving force behind UNICEF’s push to get tens of thousands of UNICEF staff connected on Yammer to share their stories and experience to ultimately better serve, support, educate and care for the world’s most vulnerable children.

UNICEF image - Children at school in Cameroon.

“Paola has almost singlehandedly guided and inspired growth of the Yammer universe of communities in UNICEF from its inception over 10 years ago to over 20,000 users today,” Jim Protos, Communications Adviser and Manager at UNICEF, wrote in his nomination for Paola.

“She advises managers and staff, subject matter and technical experts how to make the best use of Yammer to suit their needs and build conversations and connections across our global presence in 190 countries.

“She presents tools, case studies and best practices, monitoring advice and content sharing tips to engage our people on the topics that interest them. She is our Yammer Champion.”

During the Yammer & Viva Engage Festival, Paola shared a presentation on how UNICEF uses a micro-story model for internal communications: a 100-word summary that captures the essence of a longer conversation. The impact and reach of these conversations is captured with data from SWOOP Analytics to measure employee engagement and connection across Yammer communities spread across the world. Watch Paola’s presentation:

Jorn Nurkka

It takes a village to build a successful Yammer network but often it also takes one person to initiate it and Jorn Nurrka was that person at global technology supplier Danfoss.

Danfoss image - Silicon power factory, Germany.

"Jorn initiated the implementation of Yammer earlier this year across Danfoss globally. First with a range of pilots for location-based, department-driven and subject-driven communities,” said Hanne Schou, Digital Employee Experience Manager at Danfoss, in her Yammer Community Champion nomination.

“He arranged both user onboarding sessions, training material, governance setup and training of community managers.

“He is the go-to person inside Danfoss and keeps nurturing the need for community managers to drive active communities. He doesn't miss out on an opportunity to also have top managers engaged and visible/active.”

Jorn has also been a key driver for Danfoss’ SmartWorker community, a highly active and popular Yammer community adapting new possibilities for productivity by utilising new Microsoft 365 applications and features.

Hear from Jorn and Hanne in their Yammer & Viva Engage Festival presentation on how Yammer communities aren't born successful, they take careful nurturing.

Kim Tunbridge

After reading the nominations for Kim, we were left in no doubt that here was a woman passionate about collaboration, employee engagement, connecting people, aligning people to strategy and connecting with hearts and minds to inspire people’s pride. A true champion of Yammer.

In her nomination, Deborah Barndon, Service Co-Ordination Manager at The NRMA, explained how Kim helped merge from two separate businesses into one by utilising a new Yammer community to merge cultures, break down silos, collaborate on member experiences and get to know each other.

“Kim has shown the value of storytelling to connect; engaging the hearts and minds of our employees from helping with medication to elderly through COVID all the way through to getting people on board for our electric future for the next 100 years of our business,” Deborah said.

“She encourages people to know their personas, ask questions, get curious, make videos and connect and tell their stories of helping members in so many ways.

“She even managed to get our leaders to use SWOOP data as part of the talent and pay review process, showing that true leaders are visible and connect in this hybrid world.”

Deborah spoke of how Kim took employees’ No.1 frustration of not knowing when employees were joining or leaving the business and created a Movers and Shakers Yammer Community. It fast became one of the top communities across the business and is now a wonderful outlet to let people connect, find out about job opportunities, promotions, welcome new employees and pay tribute to those leaving.

“But the best part about Kim as a Yammer Community Champion is the heartfelt stories she brings and inspires others to share,” Deborah said.

“The way she connects us as people first, professionals second. The way she helps employees work together, enjoy work, improve the employee experience and yes, in turn our member experience and business results.

“She genuinely cares about connection, collaboration and culture and utilises Yammer communities to foster that deeply."

That left us in little doubt about Kim’s worthiness to be named 2022 Yammer Community Champion for APAC! Learn more about Kim’s work with Yammer in this case study.

We want to congratulate Paola, Jorn and Kim and acknowledge the dozens of others who were nominated for the award by their peers, and the five finalists from each region. We’re on the lookout for the 2023 Viva Engage Champion so please start thinking about your nomination for the year ahead. You can find more details here.