RFU Intranet and Yammer Feb 2015

Editor's Notes

1. I’m Toby from the Rugby Football Union in England – also known as ENGLAND RUGBY Happy be here, thank you for having me First time in Copenhagen, reassuringly cold I’m here to talk to you – but mostly show you – what we’ve been up to with SP and Yammer Only one person at the RFU in my position, so refreshing to be with some INTRANETTERS, who get this stuff ! It’s nice to have had some recognition for what we’ve done, including being invited here We were just trying to get on the front foot with our Internal Comms – and address some challenges with the make up of our staff
2. I’ll take a few moments to explain about us I want to show how some of the cultural aspects of the RFU influenced our decisions And how timing was crucial to this – 2015 is a very big year for Rugby in England! Our purpose is GROWING RUGBY IN ENGLAND – PARTCIPATION NUMBERS ARE THE ULTIMATE MEASUREMENT Our 600 staff are spread out – an important area we wanted to address Our sport relies on VOLUNTEERS, so internal/external divide is less clear – our staff are ambassadors for the game
3. Twickenham Stadium is the home of England Rugby and primary office location Much of the revenues we generate from the game come from matches here 82,000 seater Great matchday experience for fans here - JOIN US
4. I mentioned timing – major landmark driving change has been RWC 2015 3rd biggest sporting event after the Olympics and Football World Cup Once in a generation opportunity for us to grow rugby in this country 6 weeks of competition, 13 venues (10 matches at Twickenham) £2bn impact on the UK’s bottom line No bigger reason for us as the governing body to raise our game.
5. I mentioned CULTURE We believe the core values of rugby set us apart (from football) We have our own philosophy of England Connected, where we try and keep the grassroots and elite elements of the game firmly in touch We at the RFU believe that we are the custodians of that Quick 2min video, with some key figures: Our CEO, England Head Coach and Captain and Head of ER2015 MESSAGE: Strong RFU needed for strong game
6. But what we had before didn’t give us the tools to be at our best
7. I’ll start by showing you our intranet – RFU Connected. Been in place around a year We launched Yammer some months before the intranet – quicker to do and gave us some breathing space for development Yammer launch anecdote Built using on-premised SP2013 – very early adopters of it (not long after the time of the Microsoft / Yammer purchase coincidentally) Moving to O365 and the cloud before long – and integrating OneDrive for Business
8. Homepage – classical news led format, except perhaps for the large real estate given to Yammer Right hand third of page is an individual’s Yammer feed Single Sign On across network is enabled – what you see here is a Yammer webpart Video and social content linked to external YouTube and twitter channels.
9. Other features include a FLY OUT MENU for tools and Apps.
10. And a MEGA MENU which we use to promote relevant activities
11. Our core working documents, including HR policies, Template, Forms and Popular Docs are presented in a nice Tabbed way on this page Various teams have access to the underpinning document libraries that support this We also have a Yammer feed – in this instance – Social Committee group – embedded on the page.
12. Various other pages, bring in feeds from Yammer, Twitter, Facebook and document libraries
13. The search page works well and looks good. Overall we have Google Analytics (same as our external website) set up to provide metrics on the whole site. Performance is pretty good.
14. We have various micro-sites set up for particular functions. This one hosts an easy to navigate ABOUT THE RFU section
15. We run a number of SP calendars across the intranet. Many of them OVERLAY into a master calendar that displays upcoming events on the homepage
16. News articles are colourful, linking We have a Keyword Tag Cloud and Recently Published Articles Also we have the ability to LIKE and SHARE something on Yammer (a nice feature to support Yammer, but probably better on paper)
17. Phonebook – there’s my glamour shot! Modified and heavily stripped back MYSITE Pictures, phone numbers integrate with LYNC
18. Flicking over the some Yammer screenshots now As I said we launched this first, so it wasn’t too much for people 18 months on, things have matured really nicely. Not perfect, but pretty good Let me give you a bit of tour
19. A typical view – changing all the time Possible live demo??
20. A look at our groups Some of our top groups are for pretty functional but useful stuff, like TICKET OFFICE, and COMPANY CARS Social Events, Rugby World Cup, Learning & Development, Payroll & Benefits are popular ones The Rugby Development group is a real highlight for me – our field teams have really taken that on ALL COMPANY remains far and away the most popular area
21. A couple of the group pages Everything from ROOM TO RENT, to get your tickets for ENGLAND v FRANCE
22. We constantly see REAL VARIETY in our network People asking questions Our field teams posting ‘FIRSTS’ into the network New colleague benefits reaching staff as they happen Lots more
23. Most of all it ADDS COLOUR Without Yammer, the communications landscape is BLACK & WHITE by comparison With a quick sweep, here are some of the pictures posted recently If you are IN THE OFFICE – OR AT THE OTHER END OF THE COUNTRY – YOU SEE WHAT’S GOING ON As an Internal Comms team of 1 – User Generated Content like this is so important.
24. And the numbers do stack up We have a network size of around 700 Engagement scores show the network doing well. Between 400-500 engaged users every month I’m sure these numbers are made better through the profile we have given Yammer on the intranet. Perhaps not as many active groups as you might like Mobile use around 25%
25. Unexpectedly, the External Networking feature has been really useful to me. Rather than setting up microsites in SharePoint, it’s easy to spin off an External Network in Yammer I have a number running – which link in our VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY SAFEGUARDING HUB (for 50 or so people around the country tasked with safeguarding children) PLAYER RETENTION NETWORK (community to share resources with volunteers around this programme) RWC LEGACY GROUPS (volunteers involved with regional RWC legacy planning) Surprisingly useful
26. So to begin wrapping things up Where has all this got us? Well – Internal Comms performed really well in the staff survey – 3rd highest response I think – ALSO UNDERSTANDING OF STRATEGY Great scores within Yammer. Clearly it’s not for everyone, but it has unlocked the field team and placed more value on their work RFU Connected in SharePoint is a modern platform and is at the centre of things As we create more microsites and we increasingly manage our documents in SharePoint, this will only get moreso The CAPACITY issue we were experiencing at the start has gone. The balance of EMAIL. INTRANET and SOCIAL allow for better differentiation of content. Room for improvement, but we are very happy – it absolutely and VISIBLY supports wider changes in the organisation.
27. We put in place new channels because we needed to & the TIMING WAS RIGHT We chose the TECHNOLOGY TO MATCH OUR CULTURE Collaboration solely around business objects wasn’t going to match a COLOURFUL RUGBY LANDSCAPE Starting from scratch, means it’s an evolving landscape. GO WITH IT. There’s only so much you can plan out. In my experience, I’ve been surprised by how many of the ideas have taken shape by thinking about adapting the tools to suit as you go along. Now it’s a case of keeping the channels energised – and maintaining a level of differentiation.
28. What learnings can I share before signing off? I’ve been driving most of this, so it’s been quite hard work. Worth it and the organisation is in better shape I think. I’ve needed to sell things in – not because of resistance, but because not everyone knows what these tools are about. The ownership model of the last intranet was too broad, so this is pretty tight, but I have been short of good technical advocates (NOT BECAUSE IM A CONTROL FREAK) Whether to intervene to shape Yammer content around business priorities – up to you, but an interesting question. I think it’s important to MAKE SPACE FOR YAMMER – change your iC policies. SOCIAL, FUNDRAISING, TICKETS ETC Thankfully, I am a teccie comms person and have been supported by IT, but personally I think you need those skills in Comms to make the most of things. Yammer content is a bit forgettable. Clearly it has a cumulative effect, but find ways to give it extra longevity. Praise it, Run competitions, Re purpose it Some of the features listed there have made my job easier – so credit to SP and Yammer for that. ALL SCHOOLS example - I’m experimenting with STATIC CONTENT ALONGSIDE SOCIAL So that it really. I think we have a decent set up. But I’m still on the lookout for that killer application which will take us to the next level. Oh and perhaps a WORLD CUP WIN FOR ENGLAND TOO Thank you