Bendigo and Adelaide Bank revives Yammer with branch project

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has revived a decade-old Yammer environment as part of a continuous improvement program in its retail banking operations.

Speaking at a Swoop Analytics conference this month, senior internal communications manager Evita Puccio said the project, started in May, helped connect staff in the branch network, and gave corporate insight into "the issues and topics that are important in the retail environment."

The retail (branch) network has about 2500 staff nationwide, about 2000 of which engaged with the rebooted Yammer platform in the first month.

Across the bank, including corporate head office staff, there are now "about 2500 active people" on Yammer, senior communications manager Leigh Lutz said.

The continuous improvement project, called 'retail wins', was established following an employee engagement survey.

The purpose was to collect, review and implement some ideas that could improve retail branch operations and customer experiences.

It also wanted to "celebrate" and shine a light on actions in the branch network, from individual and team efforts, to community sponsorships.

"The team wanted to really celebrate our people's feedback and demonstrate how they were listening and taking action," Lutz said.

"There was a genuine commitment from our leadership team in retail to do that. They wanted to show how they were delivering wins that would make it easier for people to do their job."

This was to be mostly powered by Yammer, with the aid of other established staff communication channels such as email and newsletters.

One of the desires to use Yammer was that it already existed in the bank, but in an under-utilised capacity.

While Yammer had "pockets" of use, it had been at the bank since as early as 2011, but "wasn't a popular or a preferred channel" among employees, particularly branch staff, Puccio said. 

"Predominantly, it was seen by a lot of people as a failed channel, and while there had been some attempts in the past to use it, when I joined the business in 2021 it was relying on organic participation from a very small group of users and there were a lot of people who were already of the firm opinion that it just simply doesn't work," Puccio said.

Changes in the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank business inspired the company to have another crack at encouraging Yammer use.

"There were lots of different drivers to inspire us to make another go of it," she said.

Use of Yammer as one of the main channels to implement the 'retail wins' continuous improvement program in the branch network had altered perceptions of Yammer's utility.

The bank saw a 900 percent uplift in active users and 2300 percent increase in post frequency inside the first month.

"Six-to-seven months later, it's continuing to grow organically and we're at the point of maintaining strong engagement in the community," Lutz said.

"There's around 150 to 200 new posts each month, and about 2500 active people, and that includes people from across the bank who are interested to see the conversations taking place.

"So a massive uplift in engagement."

The program had also created greater visibility into and understanding of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank's retail operations.

"Thinking about the benefits to the bank as a whole, I think it's brought a level of visibility to our people in corporate to really understand the issues and topics that are important in the retail environment," Puccio said.

"Especially because for our people, if you're not on the frontline serving customers then certainly a part of your role is to support in some way the people who are out there providing that customer experience."

Puccio said there was an increased sense of community and shared purpose across the organisation, since staff in geographically disparate areas were more connected via Yammer.

“Our people are great at posting stories around the many local sponsorships and initiatives that our branches participate in, particularly through the community banking model," she said.

Puccio also said the Yammer platform has also been “fantastic” in enhancing staff participation in various cultural and social initiatives.

Lutz added that the 'retail wins' program had created opportunities to “drive leader-led conversations” with frontline staff, and that staff liked the engagement.