ANZ - The evolution of the world’s top Viva Engage network
When ANZ launched an elaborate phishing simulation on unsuspecting employees, someone in the security team blew the cover by posting on Viva Engage and warning everyone of the scam.
Some questioned why anyone would spoil the simulation by revealing the details on Viva Engage. On the surface, it may seem like a fair question. In fact, it is absolute best practice to share details of the scam in a way that gives thousands of employees an immediate warning.
At ANZ, Viva Engage is one of the best ways to get information out to everyone, quickly, and provide a platform where every person has an equal voice to join in the conversation and share knowledge.
ANZ was ranked as the world’s No.1 Viva Engage network in SWOOP Analytics’ benchmarking of Viva Engage networks in 2023/24. It’s the first time in SWOOP Analytics’ nine years of benchmarking Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) networks that a large size organisation has topped the list. It’s a testimony to the culture at the bank that an organisation with more than 40,000 geographically dispersed employees outperformed all small-size organisations on SWOOP Analytics’ extensive measures including participation, reciprocity, diversity, curiosity, response rates, @ mentions and more.
Start with executive leadership to create a culture of collaboration
This culture of collaborating on Viva Engage hasn’t happened overnight. ANZ has clawed its way up the rankings in SWOOP Analytics’ annual benchmarking before reaching the No.1 spot for large-size organisations in 2021, retaining that position in 2022, and claiming the overall No.1 place for all 97 organisations benchmarked in 2023/24.
SWOOP Analytics has been fortunate to ride this Viva Engage and Yammer journey with ANZ, and the bank is a role model for any organisation to follow. ANZ’s Yammer journey started with CEO Shayne Elliott at the helm, using Yammer (now Viva Engage) to connect with his employees in genuine two-way conversation and taking the time to understand what’s important to them. Back in 2019, pre-COVID-19, Shayne was asking his employees their opinions on Yammer and listening to their answers. Read about his leadership in this case study.
Shayne Elliott, CEO, ANZ.
In 2020, when the world of work changed due to the global pandemic, Yammer went “berserk” at ANZ and Shayne Elliott was again at the helm, doing a webcast every week, with the link shared back into the Yammer Q&A Community for everyone to join the conversation and ask questions.
Under the CEO’s leadership, the 40,000+ employees at ANZ have learned to come to Viva Engage and Yammer to connect, to learn, to ask questions and share knowledge. Over the years, Viva Engage has become a part of the culture among ANZ employees, and it’s allowed the CEO to now take a back seat role on the enterprise social network because while his leadership was needed in the early years, almost every leader, and the majority of employees, now know to come there, and the network is thriving.
Ryan Crocker, Adoption and Communications Lead, ANZ.
“As a larger organisation, it takes quite a while for things to catch on and grow over time, so I think we’re just witnessing that,” said Ryan Crocker, Adoption and Communications Lead at ANZ.
“Viva Engage is embedded in so many different areas of the bank and so many different people are using it in different ways that it’s just slowly but surely making its way throughout the organisation.
“I think what we see in our team day-to-day is probably just the tip of the iceberg as to how Viva Engage is being used.”
A screenshot of a Viva Engage post about the phishing simulation, seen by more than 27,000 employees with more than 75 comments.
Back to the phishing simulation. It is an example of how employees use Viva Engage to help each other, to alert everyone to news quickly. Knowledge is power and sharing information about a potential cyber security threat makes for a safer workplace and a safer bank for customers.
“Building this practice over time is what prompted people to strike up a conversation about this most recent phishing drill that really got people to stop and think,” said Matt Nicol, Internal Communications Advisor at ANZ.
“Employees shared how they almost got tripped up and it sparked a huge conversation in the All Company feed with employees sharing how they spotted it, and in some cases almost fell for it.”
Champion communities
As well as being the No.1 Viva Engage network in SWOOP Analytics’ benchmarking, ANZ boasted five communities in the top 20 from the almost 5,000 active communities analysed in SWOOP Analytics’ 2023/24 Viva Engage benchmarking study.
Among these top communities is one called Tech Talk. It’s a community aimed towards reaching every employee, not tech specialists, and a place to share and ask questions about technology.
Matt said with cyber security and scams being such a big topic in Australia, there have been many questions asked and answered in the community, and it’s also helped break the divide between the technology and business sides of the bank.
“Yammer (Viva Engage) has arrived and its done away with that hierarchy so it’s a completely egalitarian system,” he said.
“We’re all equals on Viva Engage. That’s really helped with that space where people can connect and ask questions and get answers and share success and best practice.”
One of the most popular Tech Talk posts was shared in the All Company feed.
Some of the success in the Tech Talk community, Matt says, is the use of hashtags. #TechWins is among the most popular, and can be tracked on the SWOOP Analytics dashboard.
“No one really drives this activity, it (the hashtag) was just created and it works,” Matt said.
The above post about a keyboard shortcut to emojis was so popular it was shared to the All Company feed, where it was seen by more than 27,000 employees, with more than 70 comments.
“They are those little tips, they seem so small and almost novel but people really value them and it makes them more productive,” Ryan said.
The Tech Talk community is supported by the bank’s central communications team. The comms team searches for the hashtag #TechWins and collates a short, bullet-point addition to the weekly newsletter, with links back to the original Viva Engage post.
A snippet from the ANZ Weekly Wrap newsletter, linking to #TechWins posts on Viva Engage.
An example of the corporate giving program at ANZ for #TechWins posts.
Another benefit of posting with #TechWins is a corporate giving scheme whereby corporate giving is pledged by ANZ for every 200 posts, and then used to support charities.
It’s not just tips shared in the Tech Talk community, but updates from leaders and others across the bank.
As ANZ went through a lengthy and intense program to upgrade the bank’s mainframe, David Squires, ANZ’s Senior Mainframe Engineer, kept employees up to date with progress in the Viva Engage Tech Talk community. This led to a well-received ANZ bluenotes article, ANZ’s engine of trust.
“The conversations on Viva Engage can, and frequently do, provide great story leads for us to share within ANZ as well as outside,” Matt said.
Viva Engage is also used a place to recognise the great work down by teams and employees.
The below post is an example of how Viva Engage can be used by anyone at ANZ to share their voice and be heard. Alex Williams is an engineer who has declared himself as a bit of a maverick and chronicler on Viva Engage, Matt said.
“He often gets very large view numbers on his long form posts, and comments showing a high level of engagement,” Matt said.
ANZ Chief Technology Officer Tim Hogarth’s Viva Engage post on a #TechWins virtual coffee recognition session in September 2023.
Constant curation
While Viva Engage at ANZ is undeniably a success story for employee engagement and leadership connection, Matt credits Ryan and his team for carefully curating Viva Engage, especially the All Company feed, and ensuring posts that don’t belong there are instead moved to the relevant community.
“We’ve educated people over the years. If you want to stick something in All Company, your potential audience is 50,000 people,” Matt said.
“Really it’s incumbent on us not to waste their time.”
Ryan said he and his team will ask people what they are trying to achieve and help them to craft an accurate and concise post if it needs to go into All Company. Otherwise, the post would receive better engagement in a relevant community.
A recognition post by Alex Williams on ANZ’s All Company Viva Engage feed, with almost 16,000 views.
