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.

Increasing the representation of diverse faces and voices throughout the organization at Volkswagen Financial Services UK Ltd. 

THE CHALLENGE: GOING INTERNATIONAL WHILE KEEPING IT PERSONAL 

When Gilead Sciences made inclusion a core company value, it took its DE&I program to a whole new level. The mission was to create and foster a work environment  – around the world – where differences are valued and all people are involved, respected and connected.

Implementing that goal would require taking a holistic communications approach that would work on an international scale while also keeping it local, even personal.

From the get-go, Gilead’s Public Affairs and I&D Teams worked together with the Employee Resource Groups on the new DE&I communications plan. Nishma Patel, Senior Specialist in International Public Affairs at Gilead, in her role as communications lead for the Australia, Canada, Europe (ACE) region, leveraged Poppulo’s omnichannel platform to make it happen. 

Our definition of diversity encompasses diversity of thought, diversity of background, ethnicity, religion, sexuality… in short, what makes you, you.  Inclusion was then defined as bringing all of this together. We needed a way to put this value into action. Poppulo provided it.”

The Poppulo omnichannel platform gave the DE&I Team the capability to handle communications differently in each country while still maintaining overall governance and the ability to scale.

For example, the Gilead PRIDE Alliance had its own account and controlled all the LGBTQ communications worldwide. This account featured employee stories and personal messages from the leaders in all its PRIDE newsletters. People took comfort from the newsletters because it showed them it’s normal to be LGBTQ.  

It even encouraged people to come out at work. Patel says:

“The ability to reach thousands of people through Poppulo is brilliant. All of our collateral – the videos, Vimeos, Youtubes are presented beautifully in Poppulo. 

"The consistent and streamlined way in which we could tell people’s stories via the Poppulo newsletter made a huge  difference. The fact that everything was in one place was very valuable.  We were able to roll out awareness training sessions online for people to become advocates for LGBT inclusion and for allies as well, to understand the stigmas around LGBTQ

"The result was that the LGBTQ employees no longer felt different,” 

Poppulo made it easy for Gilead to measure tangible progress around DE&I. Using Poppulo’s metrics, the Team demonstrated the value of its communications to leadership. Open and click-through rates identified how much an issue was resonating. 

Leaders got actual statistics and benchmarks to measure progress. Poppulo CSMs provided insights into benchmarking data from other pharmaceutical companies; these industry averages on click and open rates brought the ‘outside-in’ and helped create more improved and tailored messaging.

THE RESULTS: Communications that are driving DE&I at Scale

Effective communications is enabling Gilead to create an inclusive work environment internationally, where everyone can bring their true selves to work. By making it possible for employees to share their stories in every location and providing the resources so that all employees feel safe and protected everywhere, the company is making DE&I relevant to everyone.  

Today, Gilead publicly supports DE&I special events around the world and works with local governments to create change and foster DE&I.

Gilead recently conducted a series of short DE&I surveys to get feedback on employee sentiment around the world. In Switzerland, employees noted the lack of women at a senior level. In response Gilead has increased by +20% the number of  Women in the Swiss Leadership Team and by +10% in the whole affiliate.

As a result of their efforts, Gilead Switzerland has been granted the Swiss LGBTI label for demonstrating special efforts on DE&I, especially for the LGBTI Community.

Externally, Gilead funds organizations to bring down barriers in countries where being LGBTQ is illegal. A point person on the ground looks after employees, answers questions and gives advice.

Gilead has leveraged the unique functionality of Poppulo to communicate its DE&I programs on a global scale, closing the gender gap that previously existed.

Poppulo enables the PRIDE Alliance to easily keep in touch with employees working at home. The most recent campaign focused on the glimmer of hope about being able to meet in person again and rolled out various collateral levels available for all employees to download, including PRIDE t-shirt designs, zoom backgrounds, face masks, fans for the heat and more.

Gilead continues to increase diversity in leadership with more black men moving into leadership positions. Post George Floyd, Gilead introduced an Advancing Black Equity Strategy and created a Black Equity Position at a VP level. Today, a black man who identifies as gay, holds the position and works with the CEO on DE&I.

“We face the unique challenge of global communicators of implementing DE&I programs at scale. Yet DE&I is personal; it's about hearing, understanding, and acknowledging individuals' experiences. Through Poppulo, you can speak to the employees’ range of experiences and situations when communicating on a global scale.”

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