Welcome to the 20th edition of Intraskope’s Spotlight Series featuring Jane McConnell. Jane is a doyen on internal digital platforms and engaging the gig workforce. Over decades she has run global surveys that provided insights on how to make the most of digital forums. I had the honor of chatting with her on an important topic – the gig mindset and what it means for internal communication. She is the author of “The Gig Mindset Advantage: A Bold New Breed of Employee” and addressed a critical component of internal communications – internal digital media and how evolving staff expectations have disrupted how organizations can connect, engage and survive in the future. This subject has become even more relevant as we go through the covid19 pandemic. Watch this video to learn more on tips for communicators and leaders who want to get stronger with managing in these uncertain times.
Watch this interview with Jane to learn more.
Interview
To note: this blog works on the basis of a semi-automatic transcript. Please forgive orthographic errors and inaccuracies. Sometimes the script might be missing context — it is best “consumed” as a complement to the full webcast.
Introduction
I have been specialized in digital strategies inside organizations for about 20 years now with huge global organizations on their digital strategies. We’ve just been absolutely fascinated because I’ve seen the whole move from – not being digital to becoming very, very pristine. In 2006, I started a global survey looking at trends and at that time, I called is the Internet and It evolved to be become the digital workplace study – did it for 10 consecutive years, and I could see things happening gradually changing. The survey data was great because it was from 300-400 organizations around the world. It wasn’t a European centric, it wasn’t a North American centric, it was truly incredible. And I could see – what I call the ‘emergence of the individual’, the voice of the individual coming out. I could see that the attitude of senior management was pretty low. I don’t want to say resistant but pretty much at a low level, in terms of openness. And so there was a collision about to happen and that is what got me on this idea of the Gig Mindset. It is not getting workers in the gig economy, but freelance mental attitudes that employees have inside organizations, and I ran a survey about that. Very pleased about the Gig Mindset Advantage, which came out recently. It has case studies in it and a lot of conclusions and observations from all people around the world.
- Jane, you have been a researcher and advocate of using digital channels for many years. What do you see are the current trends considering we are in the midst of a pandemic?
A major trend is that are talking inside companies and have become by need, more dependent on digital. And there’s no other way to communicate and no other way to get your work done. And that’s my fear is different for a lot of companies. I know one company that launched a major revamp of their digital workplace, and lockdown occurred. This is a French company headquartered in France, but a global company. They managed to get it rolled out during the first months of the pandemic here in France. Around March 2020 was our first lockdown and they managed to get it rolled out. And they think it went faster and easier. I hate to say that but thanks to the pandemic it was no longer a choice of “do I use this new tool, we will not use it”. The big debate right now is going back to work. I’m thinking about countries where the vaccination rates are high, people are going to take off masks – in North America, Europe and India and South Asia. It’s very, very different. So, it’s hard to draw conclusions with our computers. But what’s interesting is this whole debate about a lot of people don’t want to go back to the office. They want to go back to the office – the whole debate is everyone’s talking about all the big consultancies are learning about it. It’s very nuanced. It’s depends on who and where, and I think about such being said about so I think that’s a trend.
2. You are currently researching gig workers and their mindsets. In the context of communications, especially internal communications, how different must be the communications aimed at this audience?
I hate to use the word “gig worker” with people that can be commonly known. And actually, the word that’s important for you is “mindset” – which is a sort of important but employee and salaried. So, it’s quite different from someone in the financial gig economy that didn’t have financial security. These people are salaried employees. And I think that the communication needs have changed. Not so much because of these people. But in general, because of the mindset of work culture. Communicators need to engage with people and to enable people to do more than what they’re doing. One of my favorite stories from the past – a speaker at a conference, told us that he had a lot of people in the company who complain about spam and internal email. He said sent me the spam so I can see the sources and you can just filter so you’re not disturbed by the spam. Can you guess what I’m going to say next? The leaders discovered that the mailers from corporate communications which were proper communication emails, were flagged as spam. It is an indication that corporate communication had a low appreciation that was not necessarily being handled in the most appropriate way.
3. What are some of the best practices you have observed in companies which engage with communications well for this audience?
There was major global bank told me about what they do. The communicators were completely changing their role. They put out a whole bunch of stories every morning, a bunch of news items on their digital workplace intranet. Employees of the bank could download certain stories on a mobile phone. People travelling to work could make a story that they chose, not the ones that were asked. So that’s, interesting for them to do. And I love it. I think the main thing there is that the mobile first corresponds with the way a lot of people work now. Mobile First is a very intimate personal gadget – the same as a big screen and you get the internet. So maybe give people more individual control.
4. What are some of the best practices you have observed in companies which engage with communications well for this audience?
There was major global bank told me about what they do. The communicators were completely changing their role. They put out a whole bunch of stories every morning, a bunch of news items on their digital workplace intranet. Employees of the bank could download certain stories on a mobile phone. People travelling to work could make a story that they chose, not the ones that were asked. So that’s, interesting for them to do. And I love it. I think the main thing there is that the mobile first corresponds with the way a lot of people work now. Mobile First is a very intimate personal gadget – the same as a big screen and you get the internet. So maybe give people more individual control.
5. What tips do you have for communicators to get stronger with using digital platforms while engaging gig workers? In terms of risks, culture, empathy etc?
in terms of internal communications, it’s a very important is to become more focused on the outside world and find ways of bringing the outside into your organization. Not being afraid of doing that because of the risk. If you don’t watch the external world, and it’s the people in the organization and parts of the organization who have your eyes on the external world, especially with customer facing people. So, you need to find ways of bringing that external world into the organization. I worked with a very large organization that would organize every month – they would invite someone from the external world. To talk to their people. They would start around six o’clock in the evening when we worked finished and that person would give a talk. All the people came they sat down but the high-level managers in the company would stand in the back of the room. They didn’t want to be too visible listening, but they will because they want something from the outside. When I was working on the book, and I interviewed a guy in a very, large investment organization. They have about 200,000 employees from five different countries. And they noticed that a lot of people were changing the way they were working in small little groups, looking at new documents and self-managing all these trends that are coming out. Finding out new ways of organizing, He set up on the social network internally so they could communicate with each other and share what they were doing with each other. He brought all that to the attention of management by organizing this event. Outside it was like a big Fair with posters and stands and all these different teams came in and talked about what they were doing, This whole event began to take place one afternoon, and he deliberately chose a place that was visible from the windows of senior management. If they asked what was going on and why we’re not down there with them. It is an example of someone who is bringing out the voice of the people and trying to make a connection with management because that’s the big gap that you have to try to bridge. I think it is important that communicators are used to be that sort of the center or the top of the pyramid where they share perspectives. The general guideline today is communicating in good faith, like networkers and how they can enable people throughout the organization to build their own networks with others in the organization. So, there’s a network of people contributing information and news to the organization and thinking as a network and I think what makes the internal communication person play a very critical role in the survivability of an organization.
Watch the complete video interview on YouTube or read the complete transcript above.
Missed the earlier episodes? Watch them here: D. Mark Schumann (Culture), Peter Yorke (Executive Presence), Sia Papageorgiou (Leadership Communications), Dianne Chase (Strategic Storytelling), Gloria Walker (Communication Planning), Rebecca Sangster-Kelly (Stakeholder Management), Ray Walsh (Localizing Employee Communications), Prof. Matt Tidwell (Reputation), Geri Rhoades (Manager Communications), Erik K Meyers (Business Acumen), Russell-Olivia Brooklands (IC Practice Governance), Paul Barton (Public Speaking and Business Communication), Cyrus Mavalwala (Digital Communication), Elvera N Makki (Social Impact Communication), Philippe Borremans (Communication Preparedness) and Magdalena Petryniak (Influence in Communications), Priya Bates (Communicating Diversity & Inclusion), Zora Artis (Communication Alignment) and Diana Bonczar (Communication Execution).
You can also look up the ongoing Intraskope’s Spotlight on Internal Communication Series featuring practitioners from around the globe sharing best practices and perspectives.
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Keen to participate in the ongoing series on Personal Branding, Crisis Communications, Internal Communications or CSR Communications? Drop me a note at [email protected]
Here are Internal Communications resources you can use:
- Learn: Internal Communications Fundamentals Course on Thinkific
- Internal Communications Series: https://forms.gle/KcqmPzLwq7NQi5Km6
- Chat with Aniisu – Internal Communications: https://www.instamojo.com/intraskope/connect-with-aniisu-60-minute-personalized-d/?ref=store
- Internal Communications workshops: https://bit.ly/2zdBRl1
You can also visit my website www.intraskope.com and You Tube channel to know more about my work.
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