4 Reasons to Reconsider Yammer
Often overshadowed by the collaboration tool of choice, Microsoft Teams, discover how Yammer can help build community and connection in the modern business landscape.
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As organisations moved more and more of their communications and collaboration to the cloud with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams rapidly emerged as the central hub for teamwork. Enabling the transfer of in-person engagements into chats and meetings, providing a cloud-based platform to organise content and simplify collaboration and facilitating seamless team interactions outside the confines of the traditional office setting, Teams provides a single place to bring employees together.
But as many organisations have come to realise from this rapid adoption of MS Teams, the closed communication style of Teams is not suited to the broader, cross-team communications required to foster a sense of belonging and enhance business culture.
To address this challenge, Microsoft has brought the power of their corporate social media platform, Yammer, to MS Teams with the 'Communities' app.
What is Yammer?
'Facebook' for your business, Yammer is a social networking service designed with enterprise communications in mind. Instead of posts from friends about what they did at the weekend along with sponsored ads, think content specific to your organisation posted by your fellow employees (or dependent on your settings of choice suppliers, partners and clients).
Business Benefits:
Connecting people and information to enable better decisions, faster Yammer has emerged as an internal communications tool of choice for over 85% of Fortune 500 companies, so let's explore 5 of the ways in which Yammer can add value to your business.
Increase Engagement
Improving morale, reducing absenteeism and helping organisations increase profitability by 21%, employee engagement, has become a focus area for HR teams globally. By enabling every employee to get involved in company discussions, Yammer helps organisations boost employee engagement, encouraging employees to connect with their peers via updates, surveys, events and announcements. From top-level management to front line workers, Yammer provides a platform for all employees regardless of title, geography or department to connect with the wider organisation. Improved dialogue and communication and ultimately driving up employee engagement.
Enhance Culture
Improving engagement and promoting open two-way communication within the organisation will in turn have a positive impact on corporate culture. Instead of mailing a survey, you can collect feedback through Yammer, providing a platform for further dialogue and offering invaluable insights into employee sentiment. Achievements and updates can be shared with the wider team in a few simple clicks, this ensures everyone stays up to date on what teams are working on, what is coming down the line and most importantly integrates previously unrelated departments as discussions happen outside the closed team structure associated with MS Teams.
Foster Innovation
When organisations start to listen to employee ideas by promoting open dialogue and transparency a culture of openness, collaboration and entrepreneurship emerge, where employees are empowered to share their ideas without fear of judgement or ridicule. Big or small, practical or exciting, employee ideas can provide the bedrock for future growth, helping generate new products or services, improving customer experience and finding new more efficient ways of operating. Whether your organisation chooses to set up specific groups dedicated to asking and answering questions or simply allows employees to build groups based on shared interests or challenges, Yammer provides a constant stream of widely accessible content, helping spark employee curiosity and igniting conversations that drive meaningful change.
Reduce e-mail noise
One of the biggest challenges faced in the remote working landscape is the amount of emails employees now receive, with analysis by McKinsey revealing that the average professional spends 28% of their workday, reading and answering emails. Instead of adding to this email noise, reduce inbox clutter by simply posting a message to Yammer. Everyone can view the message and responses will appear clearly below each other and people can add comments or tag messages with a subject for easy retrieval at a later day, all without distracting employees with the back and forth e-mails often associated with corporate announcements and e-mail banter.
Seamlessly integrated with the Microsoft 365 applications your team uses day-to-day (SharePoint, Teams, One Drive) is it time your organisation reconsidered the role of Yammer in your organisation's internal communications strategy? Book a call with one of our Modern Workplace solution specialists to find out more.
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