The challenge: Aligning people and company goals to drive business results

As a contractor providing business process services to government agencies in several countries, 

 employees are distributed across a variety of locations, often working in highly secure and regulated environments. Maximus treats each team as a separate business unit, making it challenging to effectively communicate with employees and keep everyone aligned around company goals and initiatives. To address these challenges, Maximus adopted an integrated platform that allowed the Internal Communications (IC) team and business unit managers to connect, align and engage with its 34,000 employees on a consistent and timely basis.

Our initial communications goal was to help improve the overall company performance by creating a stronger alignment between our business strategy and our people. We wanted to enable our leaders and business unit managers to operate at a higher level – and it would all start with how we communicated with our employees.”

— Jared Curtis, Director of Communications at Maximus

To ensure that the program was successful, Jared and his team opted to take a data-driven approach to Maximus’ communications strategy. They wanted a fact-based method to determine how, what, when, to whom, and why messages were delivered.

The solution: Using an integrated platform for scalable communications

Using Poppulo’s Enterprise platform, Maximus implemented a holistic approach to its internal communications program. This approach leveraged four key capabilities: effective governance, personalization, data-driven analytics, and multiple communication channels.

Using role-based security, integrated calendaring, collaboration, shared content, and template libraries, Jared developed a governance model that allowed his IC team to work with other departments across the organization while maintaining visibility and control over communications. The IC team built an ambassador network among leaders and managers across the organization to assist with driving change and encouraging interactions. This approach improved messaging alignment and increased the reach and impact of the central IC group.

Jared leveraged this model across two key comms channels: email and mobile devices. Mobile was especially important given the complexities of the working environment for many Maximus employees. And when the pandemic hit, it became clear that a mobile app would be essential to reach employees who were at home without access to the office email system, particularly for sharing HR-focused items.

In designing our communications platform, we knew it would be critical to offer employees the choice to receive information and engage with us on their channel of choice. We have 7,000 employees using our mobile channel now. We can specifically target those on the Poppulo Mobile app for communications or even send on a different schedule.”

Content and tactics were guided by data, using in-depth metrics on time sent, open rates, and engagement levels across channels and departments. But this focus on data was not limited to just Poppulo data. “We knew a successful integrated communication platform that was driven by analytics and data would not be possible with just one data set. We needed to merge the Poppulo data with other components, whether it was Grammarly, Word, or other applications, to understand the readability, length, and other metrics of the emails. As a result, we have a holistic view built with the core metrics from Poppulo, enabling us to be more effective with our communications and guiding other team members to success,” said Jared.

Maximus uses this data to create communications strategies for larger campaigns.

We can set goals, metrics, determine audiences, mitigation steps, engagement tactics, and more to share with our leadership to set realistic expectations. Data is the key to how we communicate and take action.”

This data-driven approach was integrated with personalization for greater impact. To accomplish this, Maximus wove together various data sources including integrating its Workday employee data with Poppulo to segment communications by business unit, level, location, and more. The filtering captured trends of what was popular among the different groups for accurate targeting of the communications. And the integration reduced the workload on the company’s IT team by automating the maintenance of up-to-date distribution lists. Additionally, the Maximus team built an ambassador network among leaders and managers to assist with driving change and encouraging interactions.

The results: Driving quantifiable results across all channels

The combination of governance, multiple channels, data-driven campaigns, and personalization has enabled Maximus to optimize its employee communications activities. The results have been impressive:

An 80% open rate of its communications; with a 90% open rate among supervisors

A higher than expected average reading time of three minutes and 30 seconds

Insights that indicate Mondays and Wednesdays are the best days on which to share communications

Connected one-third of employees and growing through the Poppulo Mobile application

Top takeaways for enterprise communicators

Maximus optimized the impact of its employee communications by:

Extending the reach of the IC team by enabling a network of ambassadors while maintaining overall control

Governmental

Maximus

Leading government contractor, Maximus, implemented an integrated employee communications platform using a data-driven approach and multiple channels to improve company performance.

Aligning people and business goals through integrated employee communications

THE CHALLENGE: Scaling measurable communications impact campus-wide and beyond.

The Communications Department at Augusta University oversees all the communications to the university’s more than 20,000 employees and students by managing a large network of communicators across the organization. A team of two from the department, Rachel Robbins and John Jenkins, is responsible for reaching that eclectic mix of students, professors and staff, as well as physicians and health care workers in the affiliated health system. 

As the central communications professionals, they manage 25 communicators spread across the 10 colleges and universities that make up Augusta. For example, the College of Nursing has its own communications professionals who send out a newsletter every week to the nursing students. Their newsletter highlights what’s going on in that particular program, congratulates staff members on achievements, spotlights students and covers events happening around campus.

Robbins, the Central Communications and Marketing department’s Senior Communications and Marketing Analyst explains, “It’s no small feat to leverage the power of our distributed communicator network. Before Poppulo, we had 27 different communicators spread across 11 colleges and two health care systems – all with different messages and audiences – communicating with everyone.”

The communicators had no organized way to create engaging emails and more importantly, could not target them to a specific college, group of employees or students. As a result, some communicators were sending daily emails to 20,000 or more people. 

Jenkins, Internal Communications and Publications Coordinator at Augusta University says, “It got out of hand. Too many uncoordinated emails meant that many were not read. There was no policing on our end and that was costing us a tremendous amount of money. Communicating effectively meant enabling our wider network of communicators to send targeted messages in a much more controlled and coordinated way.”

Reducing noise and creating clarity was key. To do that, Robbins and Jenkins were looking to align and empower their network of communicators. “Our goal was to turn our extended team into experts in delivering personalized, relevant and targeted content. Our communications experience platform, Poppulo, made that possible,” says Robbins.

THE SOLUTION: GOVERNANCE, TARGETING CAPABILITIES AND EDUCATION

To achieve their goal, Robbins and Jenkins designed their Poppulo environment to give each communicator access to only those individuals in their department with pre-designed templates. Regular training videos and a Poppulo FAQ on the Intranet equipped them to tailor engaging and measurable communications to their specific audiences.

The governance capabilities of Poppulo meant that Robbins and Jenkins could allow and indeed encourage their team to “be the communicators they wanted to be.” For example, Robbins sends a weekly newsletter, Jagwire Weekly, to all 20,000 students and staff. 

The central team also has the capability of reaching the whole campus via email as needed for important announcements. However, the governance feature restricts anyone else from sending communications to the entire university. Instead, individual communicators can send more targeted content to the students and employees in their own departments and colleges as required.

THE RESULTS: COMMUNICATORS CAN FOCUS ON WHAT THEY ARE SAYING AND HOW THEY ARE SAYING IT – NOT THE TOOLS THEY ARE USING. 

“After we showed the team how easy it was to create templates, target emails and personalize content, the overall volume of communications increased but average open rates tripled. The reason for this seeming paradox: people are only getting emails that are relevant to them. 

Today, we are effectively reaching more students and employees with clearer, more targeted communications,” says Robbins. In addition, the templates give them the power to accomplish things they could not before, and they are not afraid to experiment.

TOP TAKEAWAYS: WORK TOGETHER AND BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

Robbins is hyper-focused on the content that engages each audience. She knows that when emails are current and trendy, they do better. She recently changed the design of the newsletter and saw a marked increase in engagement – simply because it had a crisp, modern appearance. 

She notes, “Every year, the school takes an aerial photo of the entire class. We then email the students asking them if they can find themselves in the photo. That is always a huge hit. We encourage people to have fun. In fact, the subject line we can never top is the one offering free tickets to campus events.”

Robbins and Jenkins shared some of their key tactics for those wishing to amplify the impact of a small communications department.

Carry out regular refresher-training sessions to drive momentum and promote innovative ideas from the team.

Ensure communicators understand the power of data-driven analytics to monitor and increase open rates. This encourages them to experiment and find out what works best for each audience.

Adopt a personalized and conversational tone, which is central to driving engagement.

At Augusta, all communicators are part of a Communications Council where they learn from each other and share ideas and insights. This has been an invaluable learning forum.

Robbins concludes, “Our theme is, ‘Be the communicator you want to be.’ We have built up a close rapport with our team of communicators and they trust us. They have seen how we can help them be more successful. Now they come to us for advice when needed and run with it themselves when they don’t.”

Education

Augusta University

A communications team of just two people at Augusta University took advantage of enterprise-wide governance capabilities to empower dozens of communicators 

Targeted emails and personalized content help Augusta University triple open rates

VWFS kicked off an entirely new DE&I initiative after an open forum where senior executives listened to a diverse group of employees share their experiences. Deeply touched by what they heard; management decided to relay these stories to others in the organization. Using Poppulo’s omnichannel platform, a full-blown DE&I communications program has since taken root and become a permanent part of the VWFS culture. The new approach incorporated three components: listening, educating and change. The General Manager of Communications and Engagement is one of the project leads and explains,“We wanted to cultivate a work environment that is open, authentic and based on trust, and enable employees to be their true, authentic selves 100% of the time.”

Enabling people to confidently speak up and tell their stories.

Celebrating and embracing differences and utilizing those differences to achieve the best business results.

Removing bias and ensuring the same opportunities are available to everyone.

Sharing the diverse culture with external audiences, making VWFS a desirable place to work – for everyone. 

VWFS leveraged Poppulo to foster a true sense of belonging amongst all employees:

Internal Communications kicked-off its new communications and engagement strategy with an off-site event where it asked all the employees what diversity meant to them. The insights learned were used in follow-up Poppulo campaigns.

Next, IC invited people to meet with Board Members and senior management to discuss DE&I in a safe, open environment coined Creative Coffee. The entire Board and 30 employees participated. In an emotional and eye-opening session, employees shared heart-wrenching stories of discrimination, whether it was in childhood, the workplace, society, due to the color of their skin, disability, religion or sexual orientation.

IC worked with employees to create a series of videos themed 100% Me. Poppulo’s omnichannel platform gave the employees a safe platform to share these stories and bring them to life.

Today, the 100% Me series celebrates all different types of diversity including ethnic, racial, sexual, neuro and religious diversity. In addition to the videos, each week the Poppulo newsletter focuses on a different type of story, ranging from the meaning behind the Pride flag to who inspires you in the organization.

VWFS is not afraid to make it fun. For example, IC took advantage of how the UK celebrates National Superhero Day and decided to honor its “diversity superheroes”. Using Poppulo, employees nominated colleagues who were fostering DE&I. Poppulo’s custom banners and drag and drop components made executing the campaign easy. The campaign culminated with a winners “reveal" on National Superhero Day – celebrating those employees who heroically act with integrity to inspire positive change in the business. They added a superhero name generator, and the response was overwhelming with an 81% open rate.

The General Manager sums up the impact it made, “By changing the behaviors and the mindset from the inside out, VWFS naturally and organically started growing the diversity of the business rather than focusing on quotas and not doing things in a true, authentic way. For the first time, people within the business are starting to understand how diverse VWFS is as an organization.”

Today, the 100% Me videos are on the company LinkedIn feed so that anyone can listen to the information rather than just reading it. VWFS has had positive feedback from job applicants who cite the videos as the reason they applied there. For example, one new hire said, “It made me feel more confident during the interview process.”

VWFS expanded the 100% Me series to include sensitivity videos where employees provide short videos about terms they find derogatory or offensive and why, and what are more the appropriate terms to use. Since people want to talk about DE&I, but are reluctant to, for fear of getting it wrong, these videos help people feel more comfortable about getting it right.

The company now has DE&I advocates in every department. Managers across the organization are onboard. Today, the 1,200 employees at VWFS are more informed, engaged, and motivated.

VWFS has surpassed the goals it set for its communications initiatives. Thanks to these efforts, being part of a global organization means that having a diverse and inclusive company is not only a priority but is something to celebrate.

VWFS continues to place DE&I at the top of its agenda and is currently launching a reciprocal mentoring program that will enable better two-way communication, aid broader understanding of some of the challenges faced by individuals and drive a more open and inclusive culture. 

She concludes, "Poppulo is a great way to deliver the message and help us celebrate those people who act with integrity to create positive change in the business."

Finance

VW Financial Services UK Ltd

When one of the world’s largest car finance companies used Poppulo to launch a DE&I employee engagement initiative, it saw instant results – including an 80 percent open rate in its weekly newsletter.

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