STG International: Digital

Marketing Challenge:

STGi, a leading professional services company that specializes in providing human capital management, healthcare, and early childhood education services, sought a strategy to enhance and modernize its communication platform. With more than 1,700 employees located in contracts throughout the country, the company needed to leverage a resource that would allow all employees to stay in contact with one another and remain connected to the company despite their various geographical locations.

As a company that prides itself on accountability and versatility, STGi required a solution to improve communication throughout all facets of the company, to facilitate a deeper understanding and adherence of mission and brand, and to encourage collaboration between headquarters staff, remote employees, and management of ideas and projects so as to leverage internal assets for organic growth.

STGi, like many who are new to Social Media, expressed a level of apprehension with this new media. But STGi was also aware of the growing movement and potential impact on influencing businesses on a wider playing field.

STGi looked to The Borenstein Group for assistance in devising a strategic solution that could be customized and scaled to their specific needs and concerns – immediately and for the longer term.

Strategic Solution:

To architect a successful solution, it was important to first help STGi articulate their specific communication goals and needs for which a solution could be built around, as well as to identify any obstacles that could stand in the way. Prioritized goals were to connect with field employees, facilitate communication and interactions between all employees, and to provide an internal platform for collaboration. The only stipulation was to maintain communications and collaboration within an internally facing platform versus one that was open to public view.

To achieve defined goals and provide STGi with increased exposure to the benefits of social media as means to become more comfortable over time with web 2.0 tools, TBG recommended Yammer, an enterprise social network designed to enable users to communicate, collaborate, and share ideas more easily and efficiently inside a private and secure network. The technology provided a virtual gathering place for all STGi employees to help them feel connected to one another, improve their sense of inclusion in the team, and to more closely identify with STGi’s brand and culture.

To implement a successful launch, TBG worked closely with multiple contacts across the client organization to develop a set of customized procedures and methods. By doing so, the TBG team engaged key executives as project champions knowing that new ideas need support from the top in order to gain traction and momentum. This led to the creation of a comprehensive social media policy and the formation of an Advisory Board to serve as an internal support structure once Yammer was rolled out. The Advisory Board also served as Brand Ambassadors who encouraged the wave of transition to Yammer by leading through example for colleagues at all levels of the organization.

To ensure a successful launch, TBG devised and activated a strategic roll-out plan, including an online campaign via a series of educational emails, a tie-in promotional campaign as a teaser element for Headquarter employees , and video “How To” webinars geared to increase understanding of guidelines and best practices.

Results

With 19% adoption rate within the first three weeks of launch the project received instant success as seen by high praise and positive feedback from employees in the field who expressed pent-up demand for the opportunity to be more connected and in touch with happenings at headquarters. Where once remote employees had felt estranged to the brand – inclusion by way of the social network led to an immediate sense of community and increased unity of mission.

As familiarity and comfort of social media as a technology medium continues to grow within STGi through increased engagement, TBG has been able to strengthen the company’s collective base of knowledge, facilitate the rapid distribution of important information, and directly impact the cohesiveness of STGi’s corporate culture.