On July 20 participants from organizations such as Bank of America (Hyderabad), Cipla (Mumbai), HCL (Chennai), Ness Technologies, Hewlett Packard, Flipkart, TE Connectivity, Manhattan Associates, GE Healthcare and Grameen Koota (Bangalore) brainstormed on employee engagement best practices, shared internal social media insights and ‘crystal balled’ the future of the workforce and workplace.
As the facilitator I personally came away from the workshop energized by the passion and commitment of this group of enthusiastic communicators to stay ahead of the curve and be at the forefront of change. From my observations I can safely say that the future of communications is in the right hands!
During the day we covered trends shaping the world of employee engagement, common challenges faced by communicators and the evolving internal social media needs at the workplace. We looked at models and elements needed to make internal communications robust and effective including pointers from my book – Internal Communications – Insights, Practices and Models (Sage Publications, 2012).
As the workshop progressed we discussed various tips and ideas to overcome hurdles while implementing solutions, social media planning, building a social media network and auditing communications to extend value of engagement practices in organizations. The exercises included defining a social media policy and strategies to engage employees and leaders on social media and exciting employees to participate on internal social networks. Inclusiveness, empowerment and co-creation emerged as sure-fire ways of success.
Later in the day we conducted an exercise to predict the future of the workplace and workforce. Using their creativity and imagination participants looked into their crystal balls and ‘crafted’ vivid imagery of the world in 2030! I could see the pride and excitement with which these practitioners shared how the workplace will demand a new way of thinking, unique approaches to problem solving and a greater understanding of employees’ needs. Finally, we spent time discussing tips and ideas to use persuasive communication at the workplace.
Overall, I felt the day helped us reflect and reconnect to the changing dynamics of the workplace and participants realized how they were pivotal in making greater impact through their work.
All participants received a FREE copy of ‘Engaging Staff With Internal Communications’, an e-workbook on employee engagement worth INR 499. You can download your Employee Engagement E-Workbook-sample and order your copy by writing to [email protected]
This workshop, the 3rd in the series of internal communications engagements for practitioners in the industry is India’s first and only such forum for sharing knowledge, learning and practice. Details of the earlier workshops conducted are here – Internal Communications 201 and Internal Communications 101
If you are interested to participate in future workshops or have a point of view on the themes that you would like to see covered in these forums please feel free to write to me at [email protected]. I will be delighted to take your suggestions and have you participate.
Download a FREE article – 6 Tips To Start Your Internal Social Media Journey
thanks Aniisu, the workshop really helped me to understand future trends and current practices of internal communication across industries. the most importantly brainstorming sessions were extremely helpful. the workshop was quite enriching and i am sure this will help me to put my learning into practice as well as to design concrete structure and road-map of employee engagement for my organization.
Thanks Aniisu. The workshop was a great experience. It helped me to understand the importance and challenges of IC in today’s world of transparency and democracy. Best of all was the knowledge that everyone brought to the table.
Congrats, Aniisu…
I believe that this workshop is a key milestone and a logical successor to your Internal Comms book. All support to your pathbreaking work ahead!
Thank you, Aniisu. It was an enriching experience, and we definitely took back significant learning that can definitely be put to use/action.
The workshop gave diverse insights on how messaging can be made simpler and delved into aspects that all of us could actually implement back at work! Thanks a ton!
The workshop was good and gave good insights on engagement and communications. I loved hearing different industry perspectives.
Great workshop!!
Thanks Aniisu, the workshop was really very interesting and insightful. It helped me to understand the internal communications practiced in diverse industry sectors. While our organization practices internal communications at a very niche level and department-wise, ideas and thoughts discussed in the forum has given me a benchmark for me to put across an uniform internal communications strategy for the organization as a whole.
I believe frequent workshops like these would set a platform for the communication professsionals to exchange ideas and thoughts, thereby build internal communications as one of the important stakeholder communication for the future. Many thanks once again!.
It’s been just 2 months since I have been inducted into the Corporate communications team in my organization, and this workshop gave a very holistic understanding of internal communications. Different perspectives, from experienced industry experts added value to my learning.
As the workshop progressed, I learnt there is a lot of scope for improvement, and as a team we hope to bring in positive changes in our organization. It was certainly a lot of fun working on the collage, ‘envisioning work place at 2030’.
Thanks to Aniisu and the other participants for ‘Co-Creating’ a knowledge database, which we could take back home. Hope to be a part of more such fun learning workshops.
Thanks Aniisu, It was very interesting workshop and exchange of ideas and thoughts helped me a lot.
A good workshop with the chance to meet other communicators from various inductries. Lots of ideas & thoughts exchanged. Looking forward to the next one! Thanks.
*industries
Thanks Aniisu, for making the efforts and taking time out to organise this workshop. It was inspiring to know how others carry out the Communication role in their companies and their respective practices. The knowledge and research facts that you shared were an eye opener for me, considering that I was on a year long sabbatical. Eagerly waiting for the next workshop to learn more!!!
Great interactive session and new light on some of the key things that can be used in our approach towards internal comms.
A highly engaging and interesting workshop. Full of fresh insights and new trends and interesting perspectives. Eagerly waiting for the next workshop!
Thanks Aniisu for giving the Internal Communicators this opportunity. It was an enriching experience. The session was interactive and helped us to gain insight about the best practices across different industries.
Looking forward to the next workshop!
The workshop was an effective mix of hands on exercises and presentations that touched on so many relevant aspects of communication. I particularly benefitted from the passion, energy, perspectives and varied experiences from other participants. Thanks Aniisu for this opportunity!