Panel Discussion with Medibank and NZ Post: The role of Viva Engage as a part of a multi-channel communication strategy

APAC | Viva Engage Festival 2023

Learn how Medibank and NZ Post use Viva Engage to leverage value to deliver to their frontline staff. Our panellists will explore how they target specific content for specific audiences and reveal their top tips for highly engaging Viva Engage campaigns.

• Recording transcription

  So we're going to be treated to a panel session with a fantastic group of internal communicators.

  We're going to cover some topics that come up in conversations quite a lot for those trying to build engagement on Viva Engage. We've got Medibank and New Zealand Post. Of course, they've got a decent proportion of frontline employees that they need to reach with strategic comms.

  But they also have some really great insights about how they're using Viva Engage as a part of a multi-channel approach to internal comms. So at the moment, I am joined by Bailey Cunningham and Kat Owen, who are employee communication partners at Medibank. And I have Tara Hayes, the corporate communications lead at NZ Post, as well as Shaina Eng, who is channel specialist at NZ Post.

  So welcome to you all. I think we should just get straight into things. So perhaps if we kick off with the Medibank team, if you'd like to share just a little bit about Medibank and why Viva Engage was originally introduced.

  Yeah, I'll kick us off. Hopefully you can hear us. Kat and I are joining you from our Melbourne office this morning or this afternoon, I should say.

  So Viva Engage was launched at Medibank six years ago in 2017. We have just over 4000 employees in our business who are really geographically dispersed. We have corporate employees, we have customer facing employees within retail and call centre, and then we have a big chunk of our business who are healthcare workers.

  So they're out on the roads and people's homes delivering allied health services. So very geographically dispersed. And I guess we launched Viva Engage as that two way engagement platform and people being able to, sorry, the lights have gone off in the room, we need to move around.

  We launched the platform to create kind of that equal playing field when it comes to communicating and accessing information across our business. And ANZ Post team, where did the journey all start for you? Yeah, so for us, Viva Engage was first introduced in 2016 and similar to Medibank at the time, the intent was that it would be a place for two way communication and collaboration, but also to help build a sense of what it means to belong at ANZ Post. Since then, it's definitely been used in a variety of ways as part of our comms mix.

  And during COVID, it was the primary source of information about operations and used a lot for push notifications. And about Shaina and I both joined in 2021. And really, since then, we've been encouraging our stakeholders to provide the types of content to our people on this platform that we know they're more receptive to, which is a lot more in line with the original intent for Viva.

  And Tara or Shaina, on reflection of how far you've come with the platform, what would you say, what is the key value driver? What value does Viva Engage bring to ANZ Post? I can take this one. I think we would say for us, Viva Engage's value is really in its ability to connect our people from all around the country. So it allows our people to connect with colleagues over shared interests, gives them exposure to teams that they may or may not work with on a daily basis, because we are like Medibank, our people are geographically dispersed.

  So, yeah, within Viva Engage, the comms that are shared are predominantly leader-led rather than led by the comms team. And the reason for that is in the time that Tara and I have been at post, we really adapted our comms approach to this channel on how we have seen people use it rather than try to change those behaviors. Thanks, Shaina.

  And perhaps for the Medibank team, what about yourselves in terms of the value that Viva Engage brings? Is there a campaign that comes to mind that really demonstrates how culture is reflected? What's your insight on that? Sure, and Emily, we shared some slides, we're not able to share screen, so if you can bring up our first slide, we've got a couple of examples, if that's OK, of how Viva Engage and the posts that you see on there really reflect the true culture of Medibank. So similar to ANZ Post, it's not particularly driven by the comms team. We use it to amplify our communication across a range of channels, but our diversity and inclusion employee networks use Viva Engage a lot.

  So one of the examples that you'll see on screen shortly is our Rainbow Collective employee network. So our LGBTI employee network recently presented to our group squad, which is our executive leaders. So they had a chance to share their stories, you know, give some recommendations on what things are going well, what we could improve on.

  And that post on the left there that you'll see with the rainbow pen and lanyard, the two comments underneath, and there was a myriad of comments as well, are all our executive leaders commenting and sharing their support for our Rainbow Collective employee network. The example in the middle there is also a D&I related one around Wear It Purple Day. So an employee shared a very personal story about how she challenged some views that her family members held.

  So she shared an incredibly vulnerable post. And some of those comments you can see are on that second post there. So just so much love and support for people in that space.

  And then the final one on the right there is around our carers week celebration. So again, in the comments, you can see one of our employees in the carers network has shared a personal story. She's shared photos of her son, whom she cares for, who has a disability.

  So those are just some of the examples that you see. They're such lovely examples. And thank you.

  Thank you for sharing those, Kat. And thank you, Serena, as well, for the last minute screen share. Apologies about that.

  Now, on the topic of frontline members, I'd love to hear a little bit more about how each organisation is reaching them. So for New Zealand Post, I understand you have quite a few workers who don't necessarily have their own devices. I'd love to know, how do you reach those staff members? Yeah, so we define our frontline as people who are either processing or delivering parcels.

  So yeah, these people don't have access to Viva, but their managers do. And in fact, the customer service delivery community is consistently one of our most active communities. So the operations side of our business is quite well represented on this channel.

  But when we do need to communicate directly with our frontline, we rely on a weekly team brief, which is a summary of the important things that people need to know to do their jobs. And that's emailed to our operational leaders and shared with their teams at their daily stand-ups. If it was something urgent, we may use a scanner message to communicate with this audience.

  And there is a little bit of cross-pollination between the team brief and Viva. The team brief is posted to Viva, and sometimes we will include Viva posts in a printable format within the team brief so that our frontline doesn't miss out on important posts from our executive leadership team, for example. And I also want to... Oh, sorry, Shaina, you go.

  Sorry. I just wanted to also give an example of how our frontline leaders cascade those messages. And oftentimes they supplement some of those operational messages that we do cascade in other channels through some posts and campaigns in Viva Engage.

  So we don't have an example of it to show, but one of our leaders in the service delivery space, who actually was a finalist for the award just now, Jen Nakora, manages teams that were in the region impacted by Cyclone Gabriel earlier this year. And Jenny was posting almost daily about how people and operations were impacted as a result of the cyclone. So in all of our other channels, we were sending through that really operational information, where roads were closing, but she was sharing those really personal updates about how the people were doing and how our people were doing.

  It really served as a virtual pep talk for the really hard mahi the teams on the ground were doing, but it also offered the opportunity for those outside of that area. And even outside of the operation, it gave us the opportunity to highlight the work that they were doing. And people could also offer their virtual support and thoughts as well through that two-way channel that Viva Engage provides.

  And that was such a nice story that we shared as well. And sometimes I know when we're looking at this kind of multi-channel strategy, you've got so many different platforms you need to look at. I fully appreciate that sometimes you just need to meet those team members where they are.

  And then perhaps for Medibank as well, how do you engage with your retail staff directly? Or how do they interact with each other? So for our Medibank retail, they're quite active already on Viva Engage. So particularly our leaders are also very active. So when they're doing retail visits, they'll often take photos, they'll post personal stories of conversations they've had in store, tag members to create some of that two-way engagement.

  But an example I'm actually stealing from my colleague, Kate, she looks after Ampler Health part of the business. They've recently, so as Bailey mentioned, they're our healthcare side. They've recently joined Viva Engage.

  So to sort of set the scene that it is that really personal, two-way conversation vibe on Viva Engage, they launched a campaign called Your Career in Health Made Personal. So it was inviting our Ampler Health team members to share a photo of themselves, share a little bit about them and then tag another colleague to again keep driving that conversation. So it's early days for them, but so far there's been some really lovely engagement.

  And we've had some, we're lucky we've had some design support. So there's a really beautiful creative that's wrapped around the campaign as well. So you can see on the example on the right there, it was kind of like an Insta photo printout template and people can add their photos there and just kind of helps the engagement when it looks nice as well.

  Yeah, makes it pop. Yeah, it looks very inviting. I want to join this community.

  So now from some of the conversations in the lead up to the festival, it sounds like there's many different tools as a part of your channels mixed for both organisations, but I'm sure that's the case of any of the people that are dialing in today. So I would like to know what content do you find is best for Viva Engage? How does your Viva Engage content sit alongside other communications channels as well? Perhaps NZ Post, if you'd like to start us off. Within our team, we manage content posted on the internet.

  There's a monthly newsletter, a weekly operational focus newsletter, a fortnightly newsletter sent to our delivery partners. And then we have Viva Engage. So we have quite a few different content channels.

  Formerly, when we used to share content, the copy that was, for example, in an intranet post was then cross posted. So we would copy and paste it and then share it and replicate it in all of our other channels, including Viva Engage. But we noticed that most of our people are on Viva Engage in the late afternoon, generally more commonly on a Friday.

  So we can deduce that we know that they're not using the platform to access information that's really necessary for them to do their jobs if they're accessing it late in the afternoon on a Friday. So when we do share content from the NZ Post comms account, it's usually right to the point, purely factual. That helps us bridge the gap in how we used to communicate in the era of COVID-19 in those lockdowns and how we envision using Viva Engage in our future state.

  But really, our most used tool on Viva Engage is the featured conversation because we see our role as really trimming the hedge rather than plotting a garden. So we'll use that to highlight posts from others because we know that our people are more open and receptive to engaging on Viva Engage, pardon the pun, when they're choosing to open the platform on their own. So we use this more than announcements to float specific conversations to the top of our users' feeds because we know that we can get them when they're actively interested in engaging with the content.

  So for example, updates from our executive leadership team, posts about the rollout of new laptops from our data and technology team, those are the types of things that we would use featured posts on. But we really want to challenge our stakeholders when they come to us for comms support to have them think of different ways that they can tell their stories and use Viva Engage to amplify a message rather than just pushing out that need-to-know information, the bullet point facts. So we've been encouraging our partners to take a personal approach to engaging on Viva Engage, like wrapping up a reminder message with a more human interest story, like an employee profile, because we know that our people are really more likely to engage with this type of content through analyzing different themes of some of our high-performing content across our channels.

  So for example, during Mental Health Awareness Week on Viva Engage, we know that people are more receptive to receiving stories or hearing stories about teams, people. They want to hear from individuals versus New Zealand post comms. So rather than posting that awareness message with the bullet points and a link to resources, the best way for us to get that message across to our people is to ask a leader to post what they do to take care of their mental health, to lead by example, by illustrating examples, rather than just having a call to action and those bullet points.

  So it really brings that story to life, I think, in our channels. And that's what Viva Engage is. It brings the personal story to life.

  I'm sure people are madly writing notes at all of the things that you've just mentioned there, Shaina. And for Medibank, what content works best? How does this all work across your comms channels? Yeah, we have a mixed comms kind of environment as most corporate businesses do. So we use SharePoint online for our intranet and then Viva Engage as a platform, really from a comms perspective specifically, to amplify those messages and drive people back to the intranet as the source of truth.

  So one example is I'm leading the change in comms for our Melbourne office to move to a new office next year. So using Viva Engage as a way to get employees' feedback. So the example I've just shared here on the right, I put out a poll to say, how would you prefer to access our new office? Would you like to use your traditional pass or would you like to use digital access through an employee app? So we had over 400 people vote in that poll, which was pretty impressive.

  And that solidified the predictions that the property team were making in terms of how many physical access cards to order. So that was a great example. And then I'm also just playing around at the moment with the Viva Engage widget as a web part on a SharePoint site.

  So traditionally SharePoint's quite static. You know, it's one way information. But through this widget, I've been able to tag all of my Viva Engage posts with MQT, which is Melbourne Quarter Tower.

  And then all of those posts are feeding through onto the internet page. So trying to create two-way engagement on a one-way engagement platform. And then Kat, you've got some really nice examples as well.

  Yeah, so we use Viva Engage for a lot of the fun stuff. So about 12 months ago, we launched a whole piece of work at Medibank around what if work didn't feel like work. So we're trying to inject a lot more joy into the work that we do on a daily basis.

  These are some teaser campaigns in the lead up to that launch. So we use Viva Engage to really build anticipation. Our CEO DK does a fortnightly DK live via Viva Engage as a way to connect with our people.

  They can post their questions. So the idea was to get as many people as possible to this Viva Engage launch. Sorry, lights have gone up again.

  So he normally gets about 300 people there. But in the lead up, we created a new Viva Engage campaign. We didn't tell people what it was.

  We got them auto added to the community. All we had was all will be revealed at 1130 on Tuesday in September. We then posted a little sneak peek behind the scenes of a WhatsApp, fake WhatsApp chat from our executive around getting ready for launch to build anticipation.

  And then some comments from employees, a little video Vox Pop style around what it would look like if work didn't feel like work. So all of this was to build anticipation and excitement. And we ended up getting close to 1000 people on that DK live to hear the launch of work reinvented.

  So we have a lot of fun, a lot of competitions, a lot of engagement. So yeah, that's just one example of how we use Viva Engage. They're great examples.

  I love seeing how this all comes to life. It sounds like there's a lot of fun happening. Now, before we get into a bit of the Q&A that we have coming through from the audience, I'd also love to hear if you're, you know, how you're measuring the effectiveness of your content or your conversations.

  How does that all work? Maybe NZ Post, if you want to start. Yeah. So we really encourage our stakeholders to look beyond just views to like the number of reactions and the number of comments.

  But where success is, where we really value the success of a post is if the comments continue to be a really good demonstration of our values. So bring the real you is a value that we hold dear at NZ Post. And if that's supported and celebrated in a safe space within a post, then that is also a benchmark of success for us.

  You know, if a post is performing really well, it can also be a source of content for our other channels too. So we've been able to uncover some really great stories from within our organisation that we wouldn't have otherwise through a post that is getting a lot of love on Viva. And a really good example of that was a service delivery manager in Christchurch who put up a proud uncle post when his niece was representing New Zealand as part of the FIFA Women's World Cup earlier this year.

  And as a result of that post, we were able to do a really lovely interview with him, subsequently found out that his niece had also worked at NZ Post and we had a beautiful story for our newsletter and our intranet as well as a result. That's so nice. And then Maddy Bank, how are you measuring everything? Oh, were you swooned? Probably not.

  I forgot to say, Emily, were you swooned all the time? You don't have to mention it, it's okay, but it's welcome. But things like the hot topics, so trending hashtags, maybe some emerging influences within groups. So one of the tactics I use to get 400 votes for my poll was to see who the influences were on that topic so far.

  And I did a little side email saying, hey, could you vote in this poll and tell your friends about it as well? So yeah, SWOOP's very helpful in identifying those avenues. From a content perspective, it can be really easy just to have that surfaced for you rather than having to go digging around across the entire network. I know it takes a lot of time and we've heard some horror stories, but I'm hoping it makes it a lot easier for you.

  Now, I had another few questions, but maybe we can wrap up with those after we get to some of the Q&A that's coming through from the audience. So I do actually have a question for the NZ Post team. Are the weekly wrap-up comms automatically created or are they curated specifically for the frontline staff? So that would be a question about our team brief, and that's curated within our team for those operational teams leaders and then sent out by email and then posted to an NZ Post announcements community as well on Viva.

  Thanks, Tara. And then there was also a question about, and this might also be something for anyone in the audience who might be able to provide some insights in the chat. If anyone can share thoughts or experience on launching Viva Connections together with Engage, what are some of the best practices and pitfalls to avoid? I'm not sure if you have any insights about that at the moment.

  So perhaps we will maybe have a bit of a conversation in the chat if anyone would like to share. But otherwise, let's keep on the, if you do have any other questions, please do pop them in the Q&A and I can jump back to them. I know that Kai had asked about how they, how you have your frontline people find value in Viva Engage.

  I know that obviously you've shared some really great examples. Any more insights around frontline employees finding the value in Viva Engage? I can share one around. So as part of reinventing work and bring more joy, health and creativity into our daily lives, alongside that we encourage people to ask what if.

  So what if we launched a podcast for our retail frontline? So it's really encouraged people to come up with their own ideas. And then Viva Engage has enabled people to really trial and error without the help of employee comms. So a great example is a retail employee in WA.

  She has launched the frontline podcast. So each couple of weeks, she interviews a member of Medibank's team. We've had the CEO on there.

  They talk about what beverage they like to eat, their drink, their health and wellbeing tips. And so she's used Viva Engage to share her podcast, to seek feedback. And it's been a really fun way to broaden that message outside of what would have just been her WA retail store.

  Obviously they can feel a little bit removed on the other side of the country. And there's only a few of them in the store. So she's been able to connect with the whole retail network across Medibank, which has been amazing.

  And usually Viva Engage is that publication platform, right? So it doesn't have to come through the comms team to get a message out there. And it's kind of self-servicing with her awareness of her podcast, which is awesome. They're great examples.

  Oh, I think I have a few quick ones coming through now. For NZ Post, Shayna, I would love to unpack what leader-led comms approach looks like in your network. Yeah, well, speaking of frontline, our frontline employees actually do not have access to Viva Engage.

  And I'm sure a lot of people that have frontline audiences will attest to how difficult it is to reach the frontline. So our channels to reach the frontline are pretty much limited to flyers and QR codes to get them to where we want them to go. But when we say leader-led communications, a lot of the, we rely on the leaders to share messages that we want to share to our frontline leaders, to our frontline.

  So anything that we would want our leaders to share their frontline, we have to ask and hope that our frontline leaders will share that information. So it means that our leaders are the ones leading the charge. It's really been great to see, especially since Viva Engage is so heavily used with our service delivery teams and our operation team, that there has really been a great top-down approach.

  Our chief operating officer is a huge proponent for Viva Engage and really encourages his leaders to engage on the platform. So when we say that it's leader-led, that's another way that we can think about it is that it's also our leaders leading that engagement and leading the use of Viva Engage to then share those stories and have that be a two-way communication channel. So the leaders are sharing information, sharing stories about their frontline, celebrating their frontline and posting about that on Viva Engage.

  But then we're also having those same leaders cascading information that they see in Viva Engage to their people as well, whether it be finding a great post and printing it out and putting it on a notice board so that more people can see it or sharing it like on their phones or on their devices. We don't really know exactly how they're being shared and how often that does happen, but we do know that it happens often enough that it's part of our strategy that we try and keep in mind and oftentimes we'll also even preempt that by say, if there's a post that does really well, we'll create a PDF version of that so that our leaders can print it out and share it. But we really do rely on our leaders to communicate and cascade that information.

  Awesome. Thanks, Shaina. And I'll just pull out one more final question from the Q&A.

  I think this is a question for Medibank. So with the CEO live chat that you spoke about, was this done as a Q&A in video format and what platform do you use for that particular initiative? Yeah, so we use Viva Engage. Our CEO has his own channel or sort of community on Viva Engage and so it's hosted as a live event.

  The background is the team's presenter mode so that we can have guests from internal or external, but we use the Q&A function so people can post questions in the lead up or during the event and then we have a team that sits behind that that curates the questions and pushes them through to the CEO to be able to answer. But often he will come to us live from a retail store if he's out on the road visiting the teams. Sometimes he invites a retail store member to come in and sit with him and share what's happening from the customer space hearing directly from a store leader.

  And yet various topics every fortnight he'll join online. They're always recorded so we get about on average 300 people watching live and then about 150 to 200 watching the recordings which we then share on Viva Engage post event. Now we've actually just had a last minute flurry of questions in the Q&A.

  Kat, Bailey, Tara, Shaina, if you are around to hang around and jump into the Q&A maybe just provide a few quick written responses. But otherwise I just wanted to thank you all again. I think it's also worth mentioning that both Medibank and New Zealand Post over recent years they have been recognised by Swoop as either having a top performing Viva Engage network or also being the home to some of the top thriving Viva Engage communities globally.

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Meet the speakers:

Cat Owen

Employee Communications Partner
Medibank

Bailey Cunningham

Employee Communications
Partner
Medibank

Tara Hayes

Corporate Communications Lead
NZ Post

Shaina Eng

Channels Specialist
NZ Post

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