Babilou Family runs 1,200 early-childhood education centers under 25 brands in 10 countries, with 14,000 educators. Rightfiber provides fiber broadband over a 28,000-mile route to more than 400 communities across 20 U.S. states. Their work is different, but both companies face the same communications challenge: reaching frontline employees who don’t work at a desk.
Camille Biau, Babilou Family’s global communication director, and Jessica Nixon, Rightfiber’s public relations manager, discussed how they approach that challenge in Poppulo’s webinar, Reaching Frontline Workers: Two Companies Getting It Right. Joss Mathieson, founder of Change Oasis and a former head of internal engagement at GSK, hosted the conversation.
These are some of the takeaways from the discussion:
- Plan around employees’ time. Keep messages short and easy to read on a phone.
- Give employees a reason to contribute. Make room for them to share what they know.
- Know your audience and what they want. Address the everyday details employees care about during change.
- Repeat key messages. Try another format, with a little more fun.
- Bring other teams in early. Give departments beyond communications a role in the work.
Plan around the working day
At Babilou, educators spend their day with children. Most have no professional email address, they can’t use their phones in the centers, and in Germany, for example, data-protection rules also stop the company from sending work email to employees’ personal devices.
Camille noticed that educators used breaks and time after work to browse Instagram and TikTok, often looking for material about early-childhood education, and it sparked an idea for her. She brought that interest into MyBFF, Babilou’s employee platform on Poppulo, where educators can share ideas about their work with colleagues.
Camille counts a change in thinking as one of her two big breakthroughs, alongside the launch of MyBFF itself. She described it as moving from a broadcasting mindset to a receiving one. Internal communication used to mean HQ wrote and sent, and teams could read it or not. Babilou measured its comms by volume: how many newsletters went out and how many posts were published. Now Camille starts from the person receiving the message, the educator with five minutes on a break.
That’s why her team keeps company news short and uses more video, designed for a phone.
Give employees a reason to take part
Across Babilou’s countries, languages and regulations differ. Camille’s approach is to keep a shared foundation while adapting to local needs. “Consistency can never mean identical,” she said.
Babilou rolled MyBFF out across every country it operates in within about two and a half months. Camille’s global team was small, so it relied on a contact in each country to guide the local launch. The team kept the initial offer simple: a space to share with colleagues around the world.
To encourage people to join, Babilou ran a chain-style photo challenge. Employees posted a photo and a short story, then tagged a colleague to continue the chain. If a country’s chain stopped for more than 24 hours, it was out of the contest. The challenge ran for three weeks and helped the team spot employees who hadn’t yet joined. Some countries kept it going after the contest ended.
The rollout taught Camille that change has an emotional side. People want to feel part of the wider company, beyond their own center. It also showed her that leading by example matters. Babilou’s CEO started the chain himself, and Camille saw that as a strong signal to every employee.
She learned to trust her local teams as well: “The more ownership you give, the faster and the further it goes.”
Once live, MyBFF gave all employees a dedicated channel focused on education and teaching practice.
By Camille’s count, employees now create 83% of the content on the platform.
That gives HQ a different role. It can join conversations employees have already started and share company news when it matters.
HQ needs to dare to let go of control. HQ is no longer the only voice. We’re only a guest in the conversation.
—Camille Biau
Babilou’s CEO, who never used to communicate with frontline staff, now records a monthly video for MyBFF. He speaks only when he has something relevant to say. Once a month is enough, in Camille’s view, because speaking too often dilutes the message.
Know your audience and what they want
Rightfiber was bringing two workforces together after a merger that took it to about 850 employees. Both companies were owned by the same private equity firm, so they had four to five months before the merger closed to plan together. Jessica’s task was to keep employees informed, including frontline staff who rarely use a computer or mobile device at work.
The merger raised practical questions.
They’re not always concerned about how we’re going to shift our budget from two organizations to one budget. They want to know when they’re going to get new T-shirts, when they’re going to get new decals on their vehicles, and when their home site will have updated logos on the building.
—Jessica Nixon
Jessica’s team posted answers on RightNow, Rightfiber’s employee platform, which also runs on Poppulo. Employees then shared photos of their new gear and rebranded vehicles, helping spread the news across the company.
The platform also changed how employees received updates. Rightfiber’s former monthly digital newsletter could run five to seven pages. RightNow lets employees comment on and share live updates, and Jessica wouldn’t want to take that voice away from them.
Half of Rightfiber’s workforce has used the platform for about a year and a half. As the company brings in new users, the aim is for them to feel as comfortable contributing as those who have used it longer. Jessica will look for signs of that in the photos and videos employees submit, especially the fun ones, such as a team pulling faces in their new branded shirts.
Leadership adoption is what Jessica is watching most closely. If leaders use RightNow in their daily work, frontline workers are likely to follow. Leaders can encourage employees to use the platform and support the communications team’s messages, without policing what employees post.
Rightfiber is also rolling out new mission and vision statements, and Jessica plans to use challenges on RightNow to ask employees what those statements mean to them. The platform’s analytics will show which departments and employee groups are engaging with them.
Repeat key messages
Jessica’s biggest lesson is that the same message has to go out more than once, in different forms. Her team might post a video covering several topics, then follow up on each one with a graphic or a short article. People who miss the first message will probably catch a later one.
Field managers help with that. For Jessica, they need training on how to use the platform and a clear idea of what’s expected of them. They also need resources and messages they can pass on to their teams, timed to work with what RightNow has already posted.
Her parting advice was simple: “Say it, say it again, and then say it one more time, but a little more fun.”
Bring other teams in early
Both speakers would have involved more departments sooner. Camille’s launch relied heavily on the communications team, and she would have brought HR and other business teams into the work earlier. Jessica would like department leaders to feel comfortable posting to RightNow themselves, rather than sending material to the communications team to post for them.
What comes next
Both see room to grow employee advocacy. Camille hopes to start a program next year. Jessica sees a possible connection to hiring:
When your employee advocacy program grows, it almost functions as a talent acquisition asset. Our employees’ sphere of influence on social media and in their personal lives is so much larger than what we probably understand.
—Jessica Nixon
Camille’s advice to anyone trying to reach frontline employees:
Listen before you speak. Speak little but well, and let others speak. Your frontline teams are the most credible and the most heartwarming storytellers because they are authentic.
—Camille Biau
This was a fascinating conversation with two comms pros working in very different sectors who both arrived at the same place: let employees do most of the talking, and make what HQ says worth hearing.