How to Build a Strong Digital Workplace Culture

Speaker A: Hi everyone and welcome to our webinar on how to build a strong digital workplace culture. We're super excited today to be partnering with Jocyl. So for those of you who haven't heard of Jocyl, it's a cloud-based intranet software focused on helping businesses foster a strong— stronger company culture. So I think it'll be really interesting to see how we can use email and intranet to build that digital workplace. And just to introduce myself, I am a digital marketing manager at ContactMonkey, and I'm one of your hosts today along with Bev Atfield, who's the principal of workplace science at Jostle. And quickly going over the format, so we're going to be walking you through a couple of slides and sharing our insights, and then we'll be opening it up for Q&A at the end. But if you have any questions as we go along, just feel free to pop them into the Q&A box and we'll make sure to get to all of them. Also, we get this question a lot, so you will be receiving the recording of the webinar by tomorrow on email, along with some of the resources that we mention toward the end. And just before we begin, we'd love to hear from you guys what you consider the biggest challenge when it comes to building a company culture remotely. So we know that everybody wants a culture that's productive and rewarding, but when it comes to actually building out an effective culture strategy, we can get stumped. So, we just want to know from you, what do you consider the biggest roadblock as internal communicators when you're trying to build out that digital workplace culture? And, Bev, you can take it away.

Speaker B: Thanks so much, Matilda. Yeah, good morning. It's lovely to be here. Thank you. And I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of challenges people have been experiencing, because I know that, you know, we've all had our own individual experiences over the last little while here. But, you know, the rise of the digital workplace, you know, this shift was already underway before the pandemic arrived. You know, companies were starting to look at more flexibility for people. You know, the dispersed organization was starting to become a thing. But then the pandemic arrived and really just gave us this huge shove towards widespread remote work. Even those companies who were resistant to remote work were forced into allowing their people to work from home. And it's worth remembering that this tremendous shift that happened was in the context of a global pandemic. So it's not really a true reflection of what the digital workplace could be. And there is so much uncertainty that is still ahead of us. But what we do know with some confidence is that office-centric culture is history. You know, we can no longer rely on our offices to be the place where, you know, we come together to build our culture. Whatever the shape or form of our organizations look like going into the future, we know that office-centricity is not going to be the way forward. You know, One study by LiveCareer has told us that nearly 30% of working professionals would quit if they had to return to the office after the pandemic. In Jocel's study that we did with a company called Dialectic on remote work and how included people are feeling, we heard that 75% of our respondents wanted to continue working remotely, and they wanted to do it at least 2/3 of the time. And in that same study, there were only 3% of the respondents who said there was nothing good about remote working. So the writing is on the wall for us as people who are responsible for creating culture that we can no longer rely on perks and gimmicks and in-office face-to-face engagement to build our culture. So what does that mean for us? It means that hybrid is here now. And there's been a lot of talk about this future of work. And in my opinion, we are in the now of work. It's no longer talking about, oh, what is going to happen in the future? Living this now and we need to be thinking about and making decisions about our cultures now. And whether we like it or not, some sort of digital expression of our workplace culture is going to be part of how we work going forward. And hybrid is the obvious arrangement that has now sprung up as being that mix of some people in office some of the time, some people remote all the time, and maybe some sort of mix of those 2 things. The key thing here is we have to look at our digital environment as a place where we can maximise flexibility, keep supporting individual needs, give space for creativity and innovation. And that's going to come through a mix of in-person and virtual work experiences. And I know many of us are probably still trying to figure this out for ourselves, right? Like, what does this actually look like in practice? And, you know, as we wade through the coming months where, you know, we're allowed to start returning to our offices, en masse, these are some of the questions we're going to have to be tackling around, you know, what do we want our digital workplace to actually look like? And the key part of moving into this new framework— and Matilda, you can go to the next slide if you don't mind— is that culture is actually connection. It's never been about perks and gimmicks like the foosball table and the beer tap and the misuse in the office space. It's always been about the connection that we create to people, to purpose, and to projects. And what's going to be very important as we move forward into this new realm of work, which really the shift that we've experienced is equivalent to the shift that happened in the industrial age, right? We've never had such a big change in the world of work for many, many, many years, right? So we have this opportunity opportunity to be thinking about how do we actually create these beautiful, vibrant workplace cultures that actually take the best of both remote and digital spaces— and sorry, physical spaces. And to do that, we need to focus on connection. And a key part of connection is communication. So I'm going to hand over now to Maitili to walk us through what that looks like.

Speaker A: Yeah, so when it comes to internal communications, it's been a really interesting year for internal communicators and for companies when it comes to building their company culture. So when we look at the relationship between the two, there's a lot that we've discovered. To begin with, we had a survey— conducted a survey earlier this year among internal communicators across the world, and one of the top goals that they had this year was ensuring an effective culture change. And that's because companies have had to make a complete shift to a digital ecosystem, and soon as we move into a hybrid model, each transition will necessitate a smooth culture change that helps employees adapt and feel stable in the face of the change. And without having that in-person interaction, without having to go into the office daily and connect with your peers and have, have a whole team that empathizes with what you're going through, communication is basically going to be the backbone of organizational culture change. It's also a really powerful way for companies to convey the vision and mission to a remote workforce. So earlier when we had offices, we were able to live out the vision and mission of the company just in the way that we interact, the way we hold meetings, the way we communicate, and just even the visual cues that an office provides. But without that, as we have an entirely remote workforce, most of, most of us at least, and then as we shift to a hybrid model as we go forward, you will have new remote employees that come in and how do you make them feel that resonance and that connection to your company vision. And again, internal communications will be the backbone of that as well. So it's just a big challenge and goal for internal communicators. And communication is also key when it comes to building a company culture because it is through communication that you can create connection when everybody is dispersed across geographies. And the way communication can do that is it allows you to put humans first. So you can really use communication to make your content relevant, personalize it, make it meaningful so that the people you're reaching out to actually feel like this is something that they can connect with. And also communication is so important when it comes to reducing friction and the friction that arises from being dispersed, which is that everybody is working alone at home. How are they going to feel like they know what's going on in the company? How are they going to feel engaged? How do they feel recognized and valued? And there's so much ambiguity that goes on and communication is key to providing that clarity and transparency that's needed to build an engaged workforce. And is anything different for internal communicators and just companies in general now? And the answer is yes. We, in that survey that we conducted earlier this year, 80% of internal communicators said that they've been elevated to a more critical position over the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic. And that ties back to what I discussed earlier, which is that communication has become essential for keeping your workforce engaged and keeping your company culture thriving at this really strange time. And then tying it to the digital transformation initiatives that companies may have already planned to undertake but were forced to undertake now that they were forced into this remote world, and studies show that 70% of digital transformation projects failed due to culture-related issues. So if companies are not able to keep the culture strong and tight and keep everybody on the same page while going through this digital transformation, odds are it's going to fail, and internal communicators need to be— are a critical component of making that a success. And finally, communication is now the cultural glue. As mentioned earlier, there were so many other facets that went into building a company culture that had to do with actually being in person. At the office and connecting with your peers and being in the office environment and layout and everything, everything represented what your company was. And now without that, you can't see everybody in person, but there are still so many ways to reach everybody using technology and using technology like intranets and email specifically, which is why we're so keen to dive deeper into how you can use these different platforms to use your drive communication and build that culture. So moving into how to build your digital ecosystem and engage a hybrid workforce, I'll first start with just talking about what email as a channel can do to provide that support in building that culture. And then I'll pass it on to Bev, who will dig deeper into what the intranet and how that can complement email going forward. So building a company culture with email. To begin with, email still continues to be one of the most commonly used internal communication channels over the past year. So we've been looking at trends from 2020 to 2021, and email came out on top. The reason is probably that it's the easiest way to reach a large audience, and it's a good way to ensure that you're sending out consistent communication to everybody. So it's still viewed as a really powerful tool. And in fact, 70% of internal communicators said that they rely more on email during the pandemic. So it's definitely a critical channel that has to be leveraged when you're trying to build a good company culture. It's also the fact that in a remote world, emails are a great way to showcase your company culture. So creating email templates and newsletters are a great way to embody your brand personality, very similar to how marketing is used to depict your brand and showcase your brand personality and narrative. It's the same way email can be used from an internal communications point of view to showcase how your company culture really is. It's also a really good way to introduce new employees to your company. So us at ContactMonkey, we've grown exponentially during the pandemic and a lot of us haven't even really gotten to meet our new colleagues in person. But email has been such a good way to introduce a new employee to the company. And each person who joins the company sends out a newsletter introducing themselves. So you get to know them on a professional and personal level. And it really helps to build that connection. It's also a really good way to share your company events or announcements or anything that happens. So in larger companies, you have a dispersed workforce. They're across departments, across geographies, across time zones, and emails are a great way to make sure everybody knows what's going on and everybody's on the same page because they're receiving the same consistent communication. Email is also really important for employee feedback. So when asked what their biggest challenge was, internal communicators said that gathering honest employee feedback was one of the biggest challenges, but it was also employee feedback that was considered the most valuable qualitative measure of employee engagement. So your culture is a two-way stream and like you can't know if you're creating it effectively and how your employees are feeling unless you hear directly from them what they're feeling, what they think, and The biggest challenge with this is not gathering employee feedback, but it's also gathering honest employee feedback. So for many reasons, when employees are feeling disconnected with your company, they may not feel motivated to even communicate to you, or they may not feel confident to give you candid feedback if they think it's something negative. So how do you create that environment in which employees feel psychologically safe to express themselves and you can actually gain the feedback that will help you improve the company culture? And email is a great way to do that once again. So with If you can see the image on the slide, this is how ContactMyKey allows you to embed pulse surveys and anonymous comments into your email. So these allow employees to safely and quickly give you feedback without having to disclose their identity, which helps the feedback be more genuine. And then you can— so you can ask, how did you feel about this company event? And they can rate it. That's a quick way to know, are these initiatives working? Are these initiatives clicking with employees? Maybe they didn't like it. We could do something else next time. Time. And then anonymous comments let you just get more qualitative feedback from the employees if they want to express that to you. And the other thing is also pulse surveys. So pulse surveys are really useful because they're not long, they're really quick. Employees can answer them in a click of a button and you can get a good sense of how employees are feeling about a current change or initiative or event. And that can help you once again inform your communication and culture strategy better. And finally, email is also really effective in gauging employee engagement. Of course, there are employee engagement surveys that you can conduct, but those are more lengthy and those are more one-time. But looking at analyzing your emails and seeing how employees have interacted with them can also tell you how engaged your workforce is. So for example, if you see an increase or drop in your email opens or clicks, you know that employees are now feeling more engaged or less engaged and you're able to cater your communication or dig deeper into those insights to see what you could be doing better. And another way is through ENPS scores, which you can see here. So it's basically an employee net promoter score that allows you to gauge how happy your employees are because it asks them how likely are they to recommend your organization as a place of work. This is a really quick way to again figure out how engaged your employees are at a particular point in time, because at the end of the day, if you don't have data, you're not going to be able to create a culture strategy that actually has the results that you desire. And now, Bev.

Speaker B: Thank you. You know, from the intranet perspective, you know, to build on what Maitele was mentioning about, you know, creating these channels of communication and really having tools that can help us really support and enrich and build our culture is incredibly important in a digital work environment. You know, so I spoke earlier about how connection creates, you know, these pathways to people, purpose, and projects. And really, I think of an intranet as a go-to place for connections. So it is like a virtual HQ where your people can go and actually feel that connection. You know, people are surfaced, their purpose is clear through, you know, the types of content that you're providing there. And then it's really about getting work done. So, you know, making this be a place where people can actually go and be centralized and have clarity and purpose about what they're doing is critically important for using technology to help build culture. It's also a place— next slide, please, Matili. It's also a place where people thrive. If people don't know what they're getting from their intranet, it's really hard for them to understand the value that it adds to their day. And we all know how busy our workdays are, right? We have notifications, we have things coming at us all time, you know, we are on Zoom or whatever the equivalent is, you know, many times during the day. So, you know, our exposure and the competition for our attention has really ramped up over the past year. So we really need to be creating spaces where people want to be. They want to go there because it adds value to their day. It's not just more noise or fatigue in their day. And then next slide, And, you know, the key thing is that culture also thrives there. You know, when people come together and they have this connection, that is really when culture starts to show itself. And yes, we're missing those physical contacts with people, and we know that those are some of the key things that are missing in the digital work world. But we do have other ways to create that by using technology. And, you know, if we can get to that place of the hybrid environment where, you know, we are taking the best of both worlds, Like that is the perfect place to be. Now, in terms of some of the things that an intranet can do to help you build your culture, you know, I spoke earlier about how we create connection through communication, and we do so by putting humans first and by reducing friction. And if I think about an intranet that really would do that well, it's an intranet that is personal and an intranet that is simple. And those are 2 things that we've been focusing on at Jocel since the very beginning. It's been about enabling leaders and connecting their people so that everybody can come together and do great work together and flourish. So let's just quickly talk through, you know, what does an intranet do to help us either put humans first or reduce friction? So when we say humans first, it's really about people in front of technology and I was actually a Jocel customer before I joined Jocel in my current capacity, and one of the things that really stood out for me about using a technology like Jocel was that it actually disappeared into the background, and it was the people who were at the forefront, even though they were being delivered through the technology. We got to know each other because of the technology. So it's important to put people first wherever you can. Content needs to be relevant to people for them to care about it. There needs to be many ways to communicate. So, you know, what are the different ways that people can get into your intranet? So mobile app, desktop, you know, how are they actually experiencing the content that is being delivered there by whoever is responsible for creating the content? And then can connection be driven by preference? Sorry, may I take you back one? Can connection be driven by preference? So how are you allowing people to control the notifications and the delivery of content into their hands? And then is there visual and text expression? Like how appealing is the interface of your intranet and how are you making it visually appealing? And what's the quality of content that you're actually providing that puts humans first? In terms of reducing friction, to get people using a piece of technology, it's got to be easy to start. Getting people on there, getting them using it has got to be absolutely seamless. There needs to be clear functionality and utility. So Jostle's intranet has actually got the same views are provided to every single customer, and we do not work according to a model of widgets where you actually build your own intranet. So we provide clear functionality from the very beginning so that it's very simple for people to understand what each of the views is used for. For example, news is obviously to go and get news. Library is where documents are stored. People is where you go find out about people. So what that does is it actually settles noise and clutter. And by allowing us to target information to specific people or groups, it also makes sure that people are getting only what they need to get on and be participating and be part of your culture where information is trusted and active and current. And then finally, it needs to be scalable without adding complexity. So as we emerge, and many of us have, you know, continued to grow through this difficult time, and Maitele was talking about Contact Monkey, you know, adding people through the pandemic, which is amazing to hear. But whatever tool we're using to communicate and connect with our people, we need to be able to scale it without making it more difficult and complex for people. People. So that's a really quick overview of some of the things that you might want to think about around your intranet and how you might be using one if you currently have one, or if you're contemplating adding something like this into your internal communications realm. Excuse me. Next slide. Thank you, Natalie. Okay. So we've talked about email. We've talked about intranets. They're actually pretty good friends. They can help support each other. You know, some of our customers rely on both to perform their internal communications distribution. You know, things like using internet or sorry, using email as a notification to increase intranet adoption and use, or using email to launch an intranet to you know celebrate the great news that you're adding this amazing new tool to your company for communication purposes. And finally. Capturing weekly highlights on the intranet via email. So Jostle has a weekly digest that goes out to every customer's users who are on the platform, and it basically just brings the best of what happened on the intranet into the hands of people via email. So, you know, there are definitely ways that you can look to try and find, you know, these symbiotic relationships between the different tools that you have in your organization. And obviously, you know, Jostle and ContactMonkey, we're biased. We think email and intranets are the way to go. But, you know, there are other ways to do this, but just be thinking about how are you creating connection and what are you doing to communicate. Those would be the 2 things that if I could ask you to leave today to really think about how you're achieving that in your organization. Okay. So let's go into some tips for how do we actually build this in practice. So over to you, Matili. Thanks.

Speaker A: So yeah, one of the main things that we need to keep in mind as communicators is to also encourage leadership to be communicative and be transparent in their communication. So research showed that organizations led by strong communicators actually had 47% higher returns to shareholders compared to firms that had leadership that wasn't communicating that transparently. So transparency is just really important, and it's a strong component of ownership because it helps to make sure that everyone knows where you're coming from, understands why a change is taking place, understands why certain decisions have been taken at a C-suite level that now affect them. For everybody to be on the same page, to adopt the mindset that you want them to adopt, to kind of align with the company vision and mission. The company needs employees to get all the information they need to have that clarity and to feel that alignment with the company. Another important aspect of communication is finding ways to appreciate your employees. This could have been done a lot easier when offices were open because managers could be talking daily to their employees. You could just give a quick pat on the back or a thumbs up and say you did a good job, but it has to be a more concerted effort now that we're remote, and finding a way to do that is really important. So a study by Smart found that 69% of employees said they would work harder if they were appreciated more So employees do have a lot of potential, and if you're not recognizing that potential, maybe they just need a little bit of recognition. And that recognition doesn't have to be confined to bonuses or promotion, but just expressing appreciation in everyday conversations or giving shoutouts in your employee newsletters or choosing an employee of the month can go a long way in building that strong company culture. And finally, making use of feedback and analytics. So I touched upon this a little bit earlier, but at the end of the day, all initiatives need to be measured in order to judge their efficacy and in order to do better. And employee feedback is really integral to developing a culture of trust within an organization when employees are feeling disconnected. So ContactMonkey allows you to do that by— with pulse surveys, emoji reactions, and employee comments. But there are so many other ways to garner it. You need to find the way that best suits your organization. Whether it's— if it's a smaller company and you can do that through face-to-face interactions on Zoom. If it's a larger company, maybe these— maybe email and intranet is a better way to reach a larger audience. But the point is that at the end of the day, you need to measure each effort that you're doing in order to make a data-backed strategy that actually has the results and that can actually translate to higher employee engagement, lower attrition, and any other goals that you may have.

Speaker B: Yeah, those are 3 really good points. And I'll run through, you know, a few of my own that I think are important here. And the first of those is for us to remember that building culture is not HR's job. You know, it's not really up to any one group in an organisation. It's actually up to all of us in an organisation. Culture is really ultimately an expression of every person who works for an organisation. So, not making it something that is someone someone's problem to solve is an important tip to remember. And, you know, that's why when you're thinking about your internal comms strategy, it's important to liberate people to actually have a voice to add to your culture. So, you know, on our intranet, especially, you know, at Jostle in particular, we are heavy users of our own product and we don't restrict who can post a news article or who can contribute or comment on things because we really want to have a level playing field for all voices to be heard. So That's really something key to remember as we go forward here around as the, you know, individual needs are coming to the forefront for people and the democratisation of the employee is underway as much as the hybrid workplace is underway. So giving people that room for personal expression is really important and it will ultimately build and solidify your culture. The next one is about finding ways to bump into each other. In that study that I mentioned that Joscelin Dialectic did, You know, we heard that over 80% of our respondents were feeling some degree of social isolation. They were feeling disconnected from their workplace culture. They were having communication and collaboration troubles. And really what that comes down to is, yes, it's the physical distance that we have with people, but it's because we've shifted into this transactional mode of operating where it's really about just getting done. Getting things done and making sure we know who is getting it done. It's not about looking at the messier sides of the human experience when we are working together. And one of the key things we're missing in our workplaces right now is those accidental bump-ins where you walk down the hallway and you bump into Bob and you have a chit-chat about your weekend, or you are in the kitchen and Sally comes in and you're making coffee together and you have a chat about something that you both are interested in. We're missing those those elements of our culture. So in a digital environment, we've got to try and find something that can stand in for those accidental moments because that is really what enriches our culture. And as, you know, we're talking about communication being the cultural glue, so looking for those ways within your organisation, and we do it at Jocel on our intranet, we have a water cooler chat, we try and find space for people to actually have sort of one-on-one connections with each other where where they can talk about things that are not work-related. So those would be some things to think about, about what really is building your culture right now. And then lastly, embracing individual preferences. So I talked about the democratization of the employee. And really what that means is that employees have power. They have individual needs that have now been expressed and supported through this shift to remote work. So when you're thinking about how you build your culture, it really is about a collection of individual preferences now. And those organizations going to thrive through this next phase as we move into what the now of work is like, it's going to be those organizations that just let people be who they are. And again, that is what builds and solidifies your culture. So those are 6 things that you can take away and think about in addition to the tips and thoughts about email and intranet that Maitili and I have both shared. You know, we are You know, very excited about what the future holds for us in terms of how technology can help build culture. But we'd love to hear from some of you if you've got questions about anything that we've addressed today, or if we haven't touched on something that you had as a burning question coming into this. So we'll open it up now onto the Q&A. Let's have a look. Matilde, should we just pick them up and answer them?

Speaker A: Yeah, would that be Okay. Okay. So we have our first question. It is, what is a good way to ensure your emails are effectively creating a strong culture? So one of the main things, what a great way to use email is by creating an internal email newsletter. A lot of our clients use those newsletters to build out planned, structured, and consistent communication, which just goes a long way as compared to something that's dispersed or impromptu, which could be hit or miss. So having that, having a regular cadence with your email newsletters is a good way to set employee expectations. It also makes them feel like I am going to hear from the company and here are all the updates that are relevant. So they're getting that transparency and that communication. And also another useful thing is to use emails to give you those analytics because that's a really really important way to measure your efforts. Okay, and we have another question. How can we prevent silos from forming between remote and in-office workers? Beth, do you want to take that?

Speaker B: Yeah, sure. Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you, Faye. You know, I think one of the key things we're going to be needing to pay attention to as we move forward here is fairness and how do we fairly create an environment for people to work and thrive regardless of where they are located. And the same holds for our culture, right? We can't have a culture that is created for remote workers and a culture that is created for in-person workers. There are all sorts of inequities that start to arise in that sort of scenario. So one of the things we can do is consistent communication regardless of where people are. You know, making it a priority for managers and leaders to be on the lookout for ways to actually bridge, you know, in-person and remote workers is another key factor. And really, if we think about those, you know, some of the principles that we talked about in the beginning around, you know, what actually creates connection and how do we actually give people the ability to be part of their culture, it's really about emphasizing connection to people to projects and to purpose. And if you do that fairly, that will hopefully prevent silos from forming. But it really requires us to have a mindset going into this that we are being as inclusive as we can and as respectful of every person's circumstance, regardless of where they're located.

Speaker A: Great.

Speaker B: And we have another question for you, which is, how can we encourage informal discussions on an Yeah, so depending on which intranet you're using, on Jocel we have a discussions view, and in that view we have a few different kinds of discussions that can take place, one of which is what we call discoverable discussions. And this is absolutely for that purpose. It's for those employee interest groups. It's for people who want to just have informal chat about, you know, we have a group called the Mixologists, and they talk about cocktails and, you know, what's the latest gin that they're into. You know, we have all sorts of other employee interest groups where people are, you know, coming together to get to know each other in the absence of being able to see each other in the kitchen or the lunchroom. So, you know, I would think that just finding those ways where you can encourage two-way dialogue is really important. And people are really creative. Like, we've had some really Really amazing customers who've adapted the view of what they're using into something that we never really designed it for that purpose, but they've been able to use it for that purpose to create connection with with people. So it's just about thinking about what your objective is and then using the tool that you have to do that.

Speaker A: And we have another question. It's from Mabel, which is: How do we encourage more positive online interaction when employees? are apathetic toward video chats, which I think you kind of answered right now, but do you have anything else to add?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's sort of the most prominent issue for people at the moment is this whole notion of Zoom fatigue, and, you know, I think it depends on the quality of the interactions that people are having on Zoom. You know, I think that, as I spoke about earlier, giving people a reason to be there and making them care about being there is key. To any technology use, right? So if you arrive at your Zoom call and you're straight into business and, you know, it's boring or, you know, there's no visible reason for why someone would be there or even want to be there, you've lost them at the beginning, right? So thinking about ways where you can build in, you know, something to break the ice at the beginning, having clarity about your agenda, keeping your meetings crisp and to the point, And making sure that the way that you conduct those meetings are in alignment with your culture so that they actually build on your culture, not take away from your culture, I think is really important. How about you, Maithili? What would you think around the whole Zoom fatigue thing?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think everyone resonates with Zoom fatigue and it's just because we're using it so much. So like you said, I completely agree. It's about the quality and it's It's also about really maximizing your time on a call without actually increasing the duration of a call. So just reducing how much time people have to spend on a video call will encourage them to want to be part of it more. But you can also just mix it up because there's so many other ways. So there's a whole bunch of introverts who are now forced to be on video and make small talk, and maybe they just feel more engaged if they didn't have to be on camera. So finding ways Like using Slack. I've heard from a friend of mine, his company, they have like a daily challenge on their Slack and then every employee who wants to participate just does it. So they actually love it because they don't have to actually hold a conversation but they're still playing a game with their teammates. So those are just different ways in which you can do non-video interactions and probably that'll also encourage more video interactions because they become more scarce. And then again, even on email, that's like we get to know our colleagues like I mentioned through an email newsletter that we get when somebody joins. So it's just a good way to get to know somebody, and you can have features which, like, somebody can send a poll as part of their email and say, hey, I love this, how do you like doing this? And that's a good way to get to know your colleagues without having to maybe have them hop on another Zoom call for the day.

Speaker B: Yeah, and I think if we're looking at, you know, online meetings in the context of culture building, really think about the prescription that you're creating for how people need to show up on those meetings. If you've written a policy about, you know, Zoom call attendance, you know, if you're forcing people to be on camera, like, what's the reason for forcing people to be on camera? You know, when do you have those meetings? If you're having them in the morning and like at 8 o'clock in the morning, but really everyone only starts working at 10, you are building in resistance to participation in those, in that Zoom opportunity, right? So just, and it's the same holds for anything you do to build your culture, like email or intranet. Like, it's the same argument. You've got to be thinking about what actually fits with your culture and what is going to help your people be part of and contribute to that culture.

Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. So, do we have any more questions? Let's give it a few moments. Okay, it looks like we've covered everything. And if you have any more questions that you think of feel free to email us afterward. We'll be happy to answer. And just before we wrap up, just want to talk about those of you actually interested in using email for your internal communications and your culture building. We've recently come out with an internal email benchmark report. So as internal communicators, we don't really have a lot of information out there on what the benchmark should be for your particular industry. And this actually helps to get an understanding of how well your emails are performing within the context of your industry and your company. And it also includes a lot of tips and best practices to improve your performance. So here's the link to download it, which I'll also include in the follow-up mail with the recording. And finally, if any of you are curious about ContactMonkey to see how you can use it to engage your employees, you can use this link to book a 15-minute call just so we can get to know you and put Yeah, and from Jocel's perspective, if you're interested in the research report that I mentioned during the presentation, feel free to download a copy of it.

Speaker B: It's free. It's jam-packed with some really interesting thoughts around, you know, how included and connected people are feeling at work right now. And the link will be in the email that gets sent as a follow-up. And then similarly, if you'd like to give Jocel a try, you're more than welcome to get started for free. Yeah, so we've got a link in the chat. We'd love to chat with you, see, you know, if this is a fit for you, and just to talk through some of the challenges that you might be having with building your culture. And if there's a way that we can help you, we'd love to do that. So, again, there are a few links there which Maithili will share in the follow-up email, but you can find me on LinkedIn if you have any specific questions that you'd like to get through as soon as possible. And yeah, I'd love to hear from you, and good luck with your culture-building activities.

Speaker A: So thank you everyone for joining us today, and thank you, Bev, so much for joining as well. And you should receive the recording by tomorrow, and see you next time.

Speaker B: Thanks everyone. Thank you.