Leadership engagement and active champions triple Network Rail's Yammer usage

Published on December 12, 2018

Summary

Network Rail is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales. Network Rail recently devolved it’s organisation, splitting it’s functioning and it’s 34,000 e3mployees into separate routes so that 99% of the decisions are now made locally. Network Rail’s main customers are the private train operating companies (TOCs) and freight operating companies (FOCs).

Network Rail launched Yammer four years ago but have had low levels of engagement. This is because there has never been an active campaign for its use and it is perceived as being purely social rather than collaborative or professional. By training leadership and creating a champion community, the organization tripled their Yammer usage and engagement.

Challenge

Great divides existed between levels of the hierarchical organization and between the different geographic regions (routes). As a result there is little collaboration, bottom -up feedback nor inter-route communication.

Furthermore, many employees are often isolated and have little connection with the organisation, resulting in negative attitudes.

Strategy

Over 80 leaders were coached and trained on Yammer. Visible engagement from the CEO are engaging and active on Yammer. Additionally a Yammer Champions community with 80+ members from around the organization was created. The organization created route specific Yammer campaigns.

Results

Because of the leadership sponsorship and active engagement and champions, the active Yammer usage tripled. The group also was able to expand throughout different parts of the business by using practical examples of the frontline using Yammer.

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