Award-winning employee comms strategies for beating burnout and crystalizing culture

Employees are every organization’s most valuable resource. They give a company its identity and can spur innovation that pushes it boldly into the future.

We’ve identified several winners from the 2023 edition of Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards who delivered some of the most innovative initiatives to their workforces. To apply for this year’s edition, remember to apply before the September 20 deadline.

Innovation in Internal Communications: SAP Brazil, “Circular” 

When the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic struck, employees all over the world faced record levels of burnout. SAP Brazil was no exception. While the company made the changes it needed to help employees avoid burnout from taking hold, it knew it needed to do more. That’s what led to the launch of Circular.

Circular is a platform that allows employees to discuss topics and share content related to wellness, work, and beyond. This includes tips and tricks to help employees live a life with more intentional wellness, a Friday session in which employees share recipes, wellness tips, and more, and pointers on how to be one’s best self from mental health experts.

The team behind Circular made sure to emphasize that the platform was a truly open space in which anything could be discussed.

In the 200 days after launch, SAP began seeing major success. With a content push of 83 articles and 30 videos in those first few months, more than 50 people posted on Circular and more than 500 participated in sessions.

In the wake of an event that threatened the mental and physical health of many, creating a space for wellness at work became even more crucial. SAP Brazil took that to heart and emerged better for it through the Circular platform.

Mission and Values Communication: Canadian Tire Corporation, “Employee Share-Out”

Any company that knows how to communicate does so by leaning on its core values. In the wake of the pandemic, Canadian Tire Corporation needed to refresh its mission and values in the new world of business and life post-COVID.

The company decided to host a massive virtual event for all employees titled “Employee Share Out” (ESO). The forum provided a space in which every employee of the company could gather virtually, despite the physical distances between offices spread around the world and a rather sizeable remote workforce. The event took months of preparation and included a campaign of awareness for employees that began in the fall of 2021 ahead of the event in February 2022.

On February 2, 2022, the event began with a presentation on the history of the company ahead of the reveal of the company’s new ethos – “We are here to make life in Canada better.” This was followed by a talk that connected the new mission to the company’s values, and how employees can bring these into practice each day.

The event was a major success, with over 3,600 employees attending live and 4,500 watching the virtual recording. ESO was also posted on the company’s intranet platform and was seen in Canada, the United States, China, Norway and Bangladesh.

Whether your organization meets every day in person or is spread out all over the world, core values can unite everyone under one banner. Canadian Tire showed that when you’re running a refresh on your mission, you can lean on those values to get buy-in from all corners.

Amazing Workplace Culture: Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, “Workplace Engagement and Experience”

Tutor.com and The Princeton Review provide support to learners of all backgrounds, and that attitude of openness and acceptance is present in the organization’s approach to employee engagement and experience. The company offers numerous opportunities for employees to bring their best selves to work each day and to be well outside of it too.

Each month, Tutor.com and Princeton Review run a professional development series open to all employees. The series covers a bevy of topics including how to deal with leadership change, how to get the most out of colleagues with their given skill sets, and much more. Those who complete the series are awarded a special certified badge.

In addition, the company hosts a book club in which employees discuss books about the world of work, including those about better business practices, better communication and mindfulness. The group allows employees to reflect on the reading with colleagues and discuss how their new knowledge can apply to their roles and teams.

There are also committees and workshops employees can join to feel more fully involved in the goings-on at the company. The organization’s culture committee helps bring together the largely remote workforce for virtual happy hours, paint-and-sip nights, baking clubs, and much more. There are also diversity and inclusion workshops, in which employees can learn how to combat things like implicit bias in the workplace and make it more inclusive for everyone.

Just because you’re part of a dispersed workforce doesn’t mean that your employee experience matters less than anyone else’s. Tutor.com and Princeton Review leaned into its background as a place of education that opens doors and showed that opportunities to better oneself through work can exist for employees everywhere.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.