On this episode of Culture, Comms & Cocktails, Chuck Gose is joined by Jeremy Ball, who has earned the title of VP of Internal Comms, Philanthropy and Events at Big Lots. They talk about how the communications team rose to the challenge of keeping Big Lots employees in the loop through the pandemic; how they are encouraging good mental health and how they connect their people to their strategy.

“Our entire work comes down to sharing the strategy of the company and helping people see themselves in that strategy.”

Jeremy Ball

Jeremy shares his experience of moving to two-way, digital communications. He credits his leaders for embracing their role as content creators and he highlights how employee ‘super users’ can shape the conversation about topics like diversity, equality and inclusion.

“The old way of communicating was just to put up a poster, share a flyer, send a message, post something on the internet and just share it. And we know that that's not how people consume information these days, right? It's now done in shorter clips of time. It's done in smaller bites of information. People want to like, and comment and love and forward and tag someone to say, Hey, did you see this? And so the value of that human nature is really what we've harnessed”

Jeremy Ball

Featured in this episode:

Find out what makes the communications team at Big Lots so effective.

Get some insight into how employees across multiple Big Lots locations and roles are kept informed, inspired and involved.

Learn from Jeremy’s description of how content, comments and interaction from leaders and employees is encouraged on their new digital employee experience platform.

Pick up some tips on how your employees can help your organization with their recruitment needs.

Be inspired by the impressive philanthropic achievements the Big Lots team have made for children’s charities.

On this episode of Culture, Comms & Cocktails, Chuck Gose is joined by the inspirational Kelly McCarran, Corporate Communications Manager at Weatherford. They talk about how to keep employees connected to their company’s culture, the role of data in communications and how to build humor into your messaging.

Kelly shares some examples of the engaging campaigns she’s led, using employee’s stories. She describes the active role her leadership team have played in internal comms activities and talks about the importance of recognition in building an engaging culture.

Featured in this episode:

• Find out how Kelly chose internal communication as a career.

• Learn about the cultural journey Weatherford has been on and how communication and sharing employee stories has been central to that.

• Discover what Kelly uses the One Weatherford app to share, including how the ability to translate content has helped employees feel more connected.

• Get some insight into the role leaders play in internal communication at Weatherford.

• Listen in to Kelly’s secrets for building humour into her communication in an effective and engaging way.

On this episode of Culture, Comms & Cocktails, Chuck Gose is joined by the amazing Shereen Daniels, managing director of HR Rewired and the HR Conversationalist.

Shereen and Chuck discuss how HR professionals can rewire the culture of organizations to ensure they step up to the requirement to embed anti-racism and ensure racial equity. Shereen describes the maturity model she uses when working with CEOs to assess their current position and clarify their need to change.

A prolific content creator and commentator, Shereen talks about how to recognize the potential you have to raise your voice, share your experience and be part of this essential cultural shift.

On this episode of Culture, Comms & Cocktails, Chuck Gose is joined by two amazing guests from Extreme Networks, Jasmine Davis, Internal Communications Manager, and Lisa Yeaton, Senior Social Media Specialist, as they talk about the intersection of internal communications and social media, the importance of video content, and how to keep CEOs real.

Double the guests mean double the content! Listen in as Jasmine and Lisa give a unique perspective on how their roles form a ‘dream team’ for reaching employees and how data helps them target and customize what and how they present their content for maximum effectiveness.

Episode #48 - Nicole Alvino, SocialChorus by Chuck Gose, SocialChorus

With many workers going remote and frontline employees needing easier access to information, the digital employee experience (DEX) is at the top of mind for communicators, HR leaders and IT departments. Mike Walsh, product marketer at SocialChorus, joins the podcast to talk about recent research about DEX and trends we're seeing.

Comms transformation and digital transformation are both hot topics with internal communicators. And with the launch of CommunityONE, Kristen Cronyn is leading the charge at M&T Bank. As the Administrative Vice President, Employee Communication Product Owner, listen to Kristen share their early successes. And when a company focuses on the customer experience AND the employee experience, you know the results are going to be fantastic.

Burlington Stores faced the same challenge that a lot of retailers faced at the start of the pandemic. But their response, at least when it comes to internal communications, was a bit different. Karen DiScala, VP of communication at Burlington Stores, talked about their aggressive approach to keeping employees informed during the crisis. And the results were astounding and rewarding.

Go all the way back to the beginning of this podcast and you'll find that Rey Bouknight was the very first guest. And now he has joined SocialChorus as a strategic advisor. After leaving MGM Resorts, Rey then went to work for the Michigan Department of Health and led communication efforts during the pandemic.

Kyla Turner was the fourth guest on this podcast, all the way back in 2018 when she was the communications manager at Love's Travel Stops. Flash forward to 2020 and Kyla has now joined SocialChorus as a strategic advisor. Listen to Kyla talk about her career path, her experience as a SocialChorus customer and what attracted her to join the SocialChorus advisory team.