With the COVID-19 pandemic putting many of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ)’s ~50,000 employees in and out of lengthy lockdowns, Microsoft’s Enterprise Social Network Yammer has gone from strength to strength in supporting ANZ’s employees remain connected to each other, and the bank’s culture and purpose.

ANZ prides itself on being a vibrant, diverse and inclusive workplace focused on employees’ wellbeing, strong connections with customers, innovation and informed decision making. A quick glance at the data from ANZ’s Yammer network reveals the bank is achieving its goals.

ANZ ranked No.1 in the world in SWOOP Analytics’ 2021 Yammer Benchmarking for large-size organisations based on measures for participation, people-to-people engagement, responsiveness, and innovation.

The bank also has some of the Most Engaging Posts for 2021 and Top Yammer communities, according to SWOOP Analytics’ analysis. Community performance measures were based on the same measures applied at the enterprise level while the Most Engaging Posts were measured by the number of reactions, the cohesiveness of the discussion and the diversity of the participants.

ANZ’s Most Engaging Post, identified by SWOOP, was from a well-respected senior leader who was leaving ANZ to join another company. Her farewell post was heartfelt and authentic, and led to hundreds of replies of thanks and best wishes.

Online competitions boosting engagement and morale

The second Most Engaging Post on ANZ’s Yammer network identified by SWOOP’s data was a post submitted as an entry for a cooking competition. What does a cooking competition have to do with work, you may ask?

ANZ’s Digital Channels Adoption Manager, Richy Cartmell sums it up perfectly.

“It’s bringing people together online because we can’t do it in person,” he said.

In fact, competitions have become more and more popular on ANZ’s Yammer network since the pandemic first moved many people out of the physical workplace. Online competitions have kept people connected, brought some fun to work, and data from SWOOP shows connections are being formed across business segments.

Richy explains; “Our operations teams across several countries, including India and the Philippines, are extremely engaged and regularly run Yammer competitions to boost morale. They also have strong leadership support on Yammer.

“In late August 2021, ANZ’s Institutional Operations Service Centre teams decided to run a cooking competition on Yammer. Teams were asked to submit pictures of food, dishes with recipes, and dishes from someone outside the team - to promote social connection - with extra points depending on what was submitted.

“One thing that made this competition unique and notable was that they encouraged people outside their broader team to jump into the thread and share a recipe; helping build relationships outside of their normal spheres.”

Team Genie Bond 007’s post, an entry to the competition, below ranked as ANZ’s second Most Engaging Post in SWOOP’s 2021 benchmarking.

While only 66 people contributed to the thread, those 66 people engaged with it multiple times. The thread garnered over 230 replies and 981 total reactions, with most comments boasting 20-30 likes or reactions.

Enterprise-wide, the Institutional Operations Service Centre Yammer community is consistently amongst the most active communities on ANZ’s Yammer network, with 81% of the 1,288 users interactive in the past 12 months. To be deemed an interactive user, someone must have engaged with a post beyond just reading it, i.e. reacting or replying.

“This community is naturally very active. It frequently appears on our list of most active communities, and I regularly see their posts in my Yammer home feed. It’s nice to know that there are things bubbling away that are organically successful,” Richy said.

The cooking competition was one of numerous competitions held on Yammer to engage staff and boost morale. Other popular competitions that resulted in off-the-chart engagement, and connecting  geographically dispersed employees, included a “guess the number of jellybeans” competition run across the branch network. The competition helped launch a new insurance guide, aimed at taking the guesswork out of customers’ insurance needs.

Across Australia, ANZ also ran an #OutofDate campaign to support a new feature in ANZ’s banking app. Employees were asked to share “out of date” photos of themselves. It was supported by leaders, including CEO Shayne Elliott, with the top 10 most-liked photos declared the winning entries.

Connecting Philippines - #ThankfulEveryday

ANZ’s Philippines-based employees have faced lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns which, unsurprisingly, are having an impact on morale. Data showed a fall in engagement on Yammer from the usually highly engaged teams in the Philippines.

A simple yet effective Yammer campaign was initiated by the Wellness Squad in the Manila Service Centre to help employees struggling with lockdown, and to bring some positivity and social connection back to their days. It was called #ThankfulEveryday. This campaign, along with others, resulted in the “Connecting Philippines” Yammer community being ranked in the top three communities on ANZ’s Yammer network in SWOOP’s 2021 benchmarking.

The #ThankfulEveryday campaign ran on Yammer between April and July 2021 with simple gratitude posts asking questions like; “What’s one thing you are most grateful for in your daily life?” or “What/Who made you smile today?”. In total, 26 Posts, 850 replies and almost 4,500 reactions were made.

“It was a way to uplift our people who are in lockdown by focusing on the positive side of life,” Richy said.

He noted that the Philippines-based teams are very social across the network and they’re most active when sharing amongst their peers in their local communities.

This campaign worked well because it gave people the opportunity to connect informally again, as they might have done in the office before the pandemic.

“The top three conversations from this campaign all had a positive sentiment score over 95% which is well above average,” Richy said.

A Taste of Harmony

Another initiative to boost the Connecting Philippines community activity was the Taste of Harmony campaign, which celebrates cultural diversity in the workplace through food; something ANZ participates in every year.

Mark Morada shared his traditional Adobo recipe in the Connecting Philippines Yammer community after staff in the Manila Service Centre were asked to share  their recipes.

The three people with the highest number of points, judged on interpretation of the theme, presentation, storytelling, and Yammer engagement would receive a voucher.

Mark, a well-known face and currently No.1 on SWOOP’s Influential People list for the Connecting Philippines community, shared his Adobo recipes with the hashtag #ATasteofMSC2021. In total, there were 23 posts for the campaign, 328 replies and almost 1,400 reactions.

A big conversation starter – authentic questions from CEO Shayne Elliott

A very successful YamJam (a moderated, live Q&A/town hall-type event held on Yammer) about the future of work was held across ANZ in 2020. A follow-up YamJam was organised to engage people in a global conversation to help shape ANZ’s “next normal”.

Following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns at many of ANZ’s locations, the YamJam was postponed but CEO Shayne Elliott still asked a powerful question in the “Big Conversation” Yammer community.

“I’ve been thinking about what it is that makes ANZ different to any other organisation…,” he asked.

“If someone today were to ask you what it’s like to work at ANZ, what would you say? Would your answer have been different 12 months ago?”

Richy featured the post on Yammer for a week. It was also featured on ANZ’s intranet homepage and included in some employee emails. The post was seen by more than 5,800 employees and garnered more than 50 comments.

“The sentiment of the conversation was very positive, with most people giving multiple reasons why ANZ stands out, and why our culture is important to them,” Richy said.

A focus on employees’ wellbeing

The four Most Engaging Posts on ANZ’s Yammer network related to wellbeing and company culture; and the top two Yammer communities - Connecting Philippines and a Talent & Culture community - had a big focus on wellbeing in the six-month period of SWOOP’s benchmarking analysis.

Richy explained that while ANZ has made a concerted effort to keep health and wellbeing front and centre, he believes its success in driving engagement across Yammer is a result of employees’ increased desire to stay connected during the pandemic.

“The longer the pandemic runs, we’re seeing more Yammer communities being created that are based less on hierarchy,” Richy said.

“We’ve seen communities of interest created, many with a wellbeing focus, that enable people to connect outside of their immediate team and bridge the silos of organisational structure.”

He said there was no doubt people are feeling fatigued as a result of the pandemic and lockdowns; applying a wellbeing lens to Yammer provides plenty of opportunities to bring fun and social connection to the digital workspace.