Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Hey Devin! I’m a Comms Coordinator at a 200-person hybrid/remote company, less than a year into my role. One of my biggest observations is that our fully remote, out-of-province employees are seriously under-engaged. I’ve been quietly building what I think of as an internal social media presence inside our company-wide Microsoft Teams channel — “share your ___” style posts that have been getting record-high engagement. It’s working, and now I want to expand into a dedicated Team with sub-channels for things like community volunteering and work vibes (pet pics included). But here’s my grey zone: do I keep riding the organic momentum, push for a formal platform like Viva Engage or Slack, or just let culture do its thing?
When do you know it’s time to formalize something that’s already working and how do you do it without losing the magic?
LOVE this question — and I’ll be upfront that I track a little more on the “where’s the SOP, let’s document it” side of things. But one of the best things about working alongside people who think differently is that I’ve genuinely learned to lean into the magic of just letting things happen. So I think the sweet spot here is right in the middle.
First, I want to name what you’ve actually done here. You’ve positioned yourself as a sort of a “culture curator” — someone who cares about connection and is willing to show up and create space for it. That’s not nothing, especially less than a year in! Because of that, if you went back to those same employees and asked what they’d want to see next, it wouldn’t land like “who are you and why are you doing this?” It would land as exactly what it is: someone who’s invested in making their experience better. So before you go any further, get some lightweight feedback. A poll, a thumbs up/thumbs down in the bottom of an email, a respond-with-emoji prompt — something easy that lets people tell you which channels they’d actually want. You have great instincts already (community volunteering, pet pics — 10 out of 10), but opening it up to them makes it theirs, not just yours.
And here’s the piece I’d really encourage you to sit with: the magic of organic engagement isn’t just about what you’re doing — it’s about empowering other people to do it too. If someone feels strongly about the volunteering channel, ask them to lead it. Give them the tools and get a little adjacent. At Workshop, we have an internal podcast, and one of our most engaged remote listeners just… created a Slack channel to talk about it. Unprompted. That happened because everyone here knows they’re allowed to, and feels like they can. I’d imagine that’s the environment you’re building toward too!
As for the bigger platform question, i.e. Viva Engage, Slack, etc. I wouldn’t rush it. Heavy change management is real, and you don’t want to swap the momentum you’ve got now for infrastructure. Keep building the culture first. The platform conversation will make a lot more sense once you have proof of what your people actually want.
