Internal Comms

I don't know about your workplace, but when the world ground to a halt at the start of the pandemic and two week shutdowns turned into months, it became clear that "normal" communication channels weren't coming back anytime soon. The ways that we used to reach out to our colleagues globally needed to change. Straws were being grasped at and we may have gone too far at times trying to implement new programs to make sure everyone was thriving. The trouble is, it was starting to seem like trees falling in the forrest with no one around. So how do we keep people up to date, connected, aware, and actively participating in the absence of in-person check-ins, site posters, and site activations? Welcome to Stand-up CSS. 

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We already had some remote worker channels like Microsoft Teams and Yammer to at least post to, but it was often cold and emotion-less, black text on a white screen that after a long day of already staring at a screen meant nothing. Since I had been an active content creator for some time, as well as had a background in performance art, and I wasn't going anywhere to work on my initial priorities, I had an idea to create a magazine series to keep everyone up to date. I worked with my manager to define parameters that would keep episodes moving quickly with minimal oversight so that we could launch weekly- like only covering existing content, and not announcing anything new. I then dove deep into creating a toolkit of assets to allow me to hit the ground running- motion graphics kit, stock video library, needle drop music, and a global network of the site managers who were working at the local level to create moments for everyone to keep content flowing. Ideally over three months, this program would establish the channels as the go-to resources for everyone so we would easily transition back to normal at the end of that three months. The establishing of the channels was successful, the return to normal...well, we all know how 2021 went.