The Art of ‘Doing More with Less’ with Martin Day, Principal Consultant at Silicon Reef #S3E5

In the world of modern work efficiency is the name of the game, but this can leave employee wellbeing by the wayside. Enter: The ethos of ‘Do More With Less’.

Microsoft’s consolidation of multifaceted tools into a single source is confusing for some, but for those who understand the potential, it’s the key to spending time wisely.

Martin Day returns to the Work Happy podcast to share how Microsoft’s tools are evolving, and how you can use their growing services to do more with less.

This episode covers

• Modern work tools’ focus on becoming a single source service
• The ‘Do More With Less’ concept, and how it avoids overworking teams
• How you can consolidate your existing tools into Microsoft 365’s growing offering
• Viva’s role in the future of Microsoft’s services
• Top tips for organisations looking to focus on doing more with less

A brand’s vision and values are integral to the decisions made day to day, but are they imparted onto a business, or rather uncovered to already lie within their DNA?

Being over 14 years into a journey of helping businesses share the big picture, Craig Smith - Founder of The Big Picture People - joins us on this week’s episode of Work Happy.

He takes us through the importance of defining and aligning values between the business and its people, how to share stories with increased visibility of our business leaders, and much more.

This episode covers

• Defining personal values and organisational values, and tying the two together
• Company values not being imposed on a business, but uncovered within
• Use of storytelling to convey a brand vision
• Curating a culture of collaboration
• The need to flex to meet the needs of your organisation, and vice versa
• Getting the values off the wall and into the business

There’s an ever-growing link between internal communications and change management across the board, which is clear to see from observing Asahi’s two functions working so closely together.

Asahi’s Head of Change Management, Soraya Abdelmageed, works closely with Sally Tidman, Internal Comms and Engagement Specialist, to combine the strengths of both teams.

Sally & Soraya join us on Work Happy this week to share how they’re creating ‘Digital Heroes’, tackling the challenge of access, storytelling as an essential quality, and much more.

This episode covers

• The relatively recent creation, and subsequent success, of Asahi’s change management function
• How storytelling is essential to creating change, particularly stories from senior leaders
• Video as an effective messaging medium
• Overcoming communications challenges like language barriers and reaching factory staff
• Asahi’s Digital Hero network

Microsoft Viva is an incredibly useful suite, but to many it presents a dizzying array of tools without the clearest idea on how to extract the most value from them all.

That’s where Silicon Reef’s very own Martin Day comes in, joining Alex Graves this week on the Work Happy podcast to simplify Viva and why it truly matters to your business.

We’ll hear how to pick the modules that best suit your team, allay fears that it’s the ‘death of the intranet’, and much more!

This episode covers

• What is Viva and why your business should be aware of it
• Which of the Viva modules can deliver most value to your team
• How to measure the adoption of these tools
• Pitfalls to avoid when trying to implement a vast number of Viva’s modules

Welcome back to a brand new series of the Work Happy podcast, kicking off with Sam Bleazard from Fortnum & Mason, inventors of the Scotch egg…

Sam is an Employer Brand Content Producer, and while that Scotch egg fact may seem trivial, it’s part of the all-important brand story and human experience that should underpin any successful business.

Join us for the start of series 3, where we dive into how vulnerability mirrors strength in business leaders, why you should roll out the red carpet for employees, and the merging of internal and external comms.

This episode covers

• The growing trend of merging specialisms, and cross-discipline work between PR and marketing
• Why it’s vital that there’s a human experience underpinning a business’ story
• How to protect your brand when it’s presented on external platforms
• Blurring lines between internal and external communications

Pearson is an educational company with a rich, 177 year history, and the global reach of its over-20k full time employees has impacted an unfathomable number of students. As a company ahead of its time in utilising video, flexi-time and WFH, they’ve quite literally written the book on remote working…

We’re joined by Kim England, VP Global Employee Communications, to share the incredible plethora of ways that Pearson are epitomising the culture of Work Happy, their Remote Working Manifesto, measuring engagement on their well-populated social platform, and much more.

This episode covers

• Keeping connected to a massive, global workforce
• Flexible working & identifying your best working hours
• Pearson’s social network Jive, and how it’s keeping their staff connected
• Evolving Pearson’s long-standing values to reflect modern working
• Supporting employee wellbeing through events, tailored content, and music

Links and references at: https://siliconreef.co.uk/work-happy-podcast/

For a business the size of GSK operating around the globe, the comms challenges around language are more than just tone of voice - translating their messaging throughout the multinational pharmaceutical giant is a vital step for Communications Director Cheryl Field.

With around 20k employees in the Pharma Supply Chain section of the business alone, finding the right channels and tools is key to spreading the essential messages to every corner of the company.

Cheryl joins Alex this week on Work Happy to discuss the 3-pronged approach to measuring engagement, the growing prominence of video content, and how to reach the thousands of employees who aren’t desk-based.

This episode covers

• Managing comms in a 20k-strong organisation
• Delivering messages to staff without company devices
• The prominence of video as a messaging tool
• Overcoming language barriers in a multi-lingual, multinational business
• Balancing a single point of contact vs appearing where your audience is

Links and references at: https://siliconreef.co.uk/work-happy-podcast/

It’s often been said that two heads are better than one - so consider the collaboration between Penny Richards & Helen Hartley in their joint role as Head of Internal Communications at NHS Digital as an exhibition of the key role that effective communication plays in any organisation. 

Naturally for NHS Digital, wellbeing is a priority for those working on the frontlines, in the back end, and everywhere in between. In this episode of Work Happy, we discover how Penny & Helen are measuring engagement, and using persona analysis to ensure their comms strategies combat an industry-wide focus on talent retention.

This episode covers

• NHS Digital’s unique challenges with attracting and retaining talent
• Measuring engagement and persona analysis
• Internal comms’ involvement in shaping work and wellbeing within a hybrid model
• Maintaining boundaries between work and personal time, particularly considering Penny & Helen’s job-share setup
• What it means to Work Happy at NHS Digital

Links and references at: https://siliconreef.co.uk/work-happy-podcast/

Internal news has been brought into the 21st century - gone are the generic weekly news emails, left to gather dust unread in employees’ inboxes. SharePoint, News Boost and Viva Connections present an appealing arsenal of tools for internal communicators to bring teams together.

In this bonus episode of the Work Happy podcast, we’re taking a dive into Viva Connections, SharePoint’s helpful tools for boosting particularly pertinent new stories, and using data analytics to personalise & revolutionise the traditional email format.

This episode covers

• How Viva Connections is creating a digital gateway for engaging with your users
• Using News Boost to prioritise key information amongst lots of news
• Structuring your intranet to take full advantage of Microsoft’s tools
• Combining the traditional email with personalised data to communicate important information more effectively
• A sneak peek of future developments in Microsoft’s ecosystem

Links and references at: https://siliconreef.co.uk/work-happy-podcast/

Engagement is more than numbers and metrics; the freedom to provide feedback, and the sentiment behind that feedback, is immensely important to employee engagement. It’s vital at the best of times, but with the so-called ‘Great Resignation’ on the horizon, the role of internal comms has never been more essential…

Sharing how an open approach to intranet comments and sentiment analysis is helping keep the Department for Transport’s team in touch with their values. Tom Miles, their Digital Channels Lead, joins us on episode 2 of the new series of Work Happy to delve into using data to better understand their teams, the imminent uptake of hybrid events, and keeping internal communications’ seat at the table.

This episode covers

• How Tom’s computer science background helps him fully utilise internal comms tools
• Using blogs and video to facilitate better engagement 
• Sentiment analysis, and how to best use qualitative data
• Encouraging live events and meetings through Teams as a part of a hybrid future
• Internal Communications’ seat at the table, and how we can stay there
• Minimising the impact of a post-pandemic increase in changing job roles

Links and references at: https://siliconreef.co.uk/work-happy-podcast/