We all know it: Marketing always gets all the fanfare when it comes to innovation. After all, stuff that contributes to bringing revenue to our corporate overlords is generally valued more than activities that keep the lights on --- like managing employee communications! We, as Fearless Communicators get that. We’ve all seen the Marketing Department’s budgets expand for evaluating, implementing and training on the “marketing communications stack”. But flying under the radar a slew of technology tools have been developed to meet the rapidly evolving needs of employee communicators. They don’t get the attention (or budgets) that marketing communications tools get but, they are critical in helping organizations establish and sustain employee alignment, engagement and community.

And, while employee communications tools are just, well, tools and not strategy, as Fearless Communicators we all need to keep acquainted with their strengths and weaknesses because they may help achieve our employee communications goals. That’s why we sat down with ClearBox's, Suzie Robinson. Suzie is responsible for the industry research reports that ClearBox publishes on SharePoint intranets, non-SharePoint intranet products, and employee apps.

While you can only go so deep in 39 minutes, we did manage to cover a lot of ground, including:

• A proven Digital Workplace framework for employee communicators
• Fighting the urge towards to go whole hog with one technology
• The role of employee-focused apps as part of the Fearless Communicator’s toolbox
• The secret to success for your next intranet project
• What an intranet strategy looks like

Key Topics

• Welcoming our guest, Suzie Robinson from ClearBox (1:10)
• Why you can't buy a digital workplace (3:30)
• A framework for your digital workplace (4:45)
• Placing into perspective employee Apps (9:00)
• Intranets, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams (16:00)
• Summary and some more cool examples (24:45)
• What we’re liking (33:35)

ABC Resources Highlighted in this Episode

• Overcoming Resistance
• Worst Company Ever: How to Respond to Online Reviews by Employees
• Employee Change Communications That Work

Other Resources Highlighted in this Episode

Watching & Listening

· Another Door (Podcast)

Reading

· What does an intranet strategy look like

· Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed

· The Appreciative Inquiry Summit - A Practitioner's Guide for Leading Large-Group Change by Ludema, Whitney, Mohr and Griffin

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