ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK

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1 CASE STUDY ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK Employees took responsibility at FBB and helped create a social intranet that defines the organizational culture and brings the company together as a team. WHO IS FARM BUREAU BANK? Farm Bureau Bank, based in San Antonio, Texas is the online banking arm of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nationwide nonprofit advocacy group for American farmers and ranchers Social intranets often outperform expectations because they are so effective at fostering employee engagement. Fully engaged employees seize the initiative and run with the intranet, and it suddenly takes on a life of its own. That was the experience at Farm Bureau Bank (FBB), online banking arm of the Farm Bureau, the nationwide non-profit advocacy group for American farmers and ranchers. FBB implemented its ThoughtFarmer intranet, the Insider, in mid-2010 as part of an overhaul of internal communications. Within a few months of launch, the Insider had surpassed expectations, says CIO Richard Hamlin. It was amazing to see. Management began to realize that this was a major system in the bank, Hamlin says. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT The business objectives for it were relatively modest at the outset. Increasing employee engagement was part of the agenda. And the bank did want to build a system that could become a primary means for management to communicate with employees and employees with each other. But no one dared imagine it could pull FBB employees together the way it has. It is the social aspects, the way ThoughtFarmer gives employees the tools to make the intranet their own, that has engaged them most and increased their engagement with the company. FBB s old intranet, which forced a top-down approach because all updates had to be done by IT, was very dry, as you can imagine, says Valerie Arocha, the bank s training director, Insider co-administrator and one of a cadre of departmental contributors who drive the intranet. This one does have its dry business side, built by IT, Arocha says. But the content contributors decided we wanted a more social intranet. She makes it sound like a coup d état, which in a sense it was, but it s one that management couldn t be happier about it. A SOCIAL INTRANET The Barnyard is the social heart of the Insider. It s a Facebook-cum-Kijiji space, where employees can post news, pictures and videos, advertise articles for sale, launch ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 1

2 discussions and use the calendar to announce milestones or plan social events. They particularly like the shout-out feature for posting thankyous to colleagues who have helped them. Having the sense that everyone is responsible for how the bank does that has come from The Insider. It s our intranet, it s our resource. Valeria Arocha, Training Director The Insider has really opened up the doors for employees in departments that don t often interact with each other for business, notes Janie Casas, FBB s HR coordinator and intranet co-administrator. It really has worked out perfectly. It s not a complete free-for-all. Even on the social side, the content contributor group, overseen by Hamlin, still manages some content closely choosing and posting the Employee of the Month, for example, another popular feature. It also posts interactive polls on behalf of committees tasked with organizing company social events such as the annual Christmas party or summer picnic. The online polls ask employees to vote for their preferred venue. The results go back to the organizing committee. We wanted to engage people so they realized they actually have a say in the social things we do, Hamlin says. The Barnyard the social heart of Farm Bureau Bank s Intranet ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 2

3 CONTRIBUTORS WHO CARE The Insider has really opened up the doors for employees in departments that don t often interact with each other for business. Janie Casas, HR Coordinator Appointing departmental content contributors and meeting with them as a group twice a month was a key part of the strategy. The biggest driving factor in the success of this intranet, Arocha contends, is having a person from each department who cares enough to spend time on it. Apparently most employees care. When one content contributor left the company recently, 70% of her former colleagues said they wanted the job. It s not just the social side that drives engagement. Much of the information on the intranet is business-related: policies and procedures, project updates, schedules, reports. Updates on the bank s key performance indicators (KPIs), have had a real impact. We re trying to create a team feeling here, Arocha says, a feeling that we all have to work together to meet our goals. The KPI page helps to do that. It s stuff that wasn t really exposed to employees before, Casas adds. Now it kind of feels like everybody is more involved. Every department has content contributors Gallup Inc., the polling and consulting company, uses a 12-part questionnaire to determine employee engagement levels. ThoughtFarmer co-creator Chris McGrath believes a well-implemented social intranet can have a major impact on results from such surveys. Do I know what s going on at my company? Is my opinion valued at work? Do I have a friend at work? Do I have the tools to do my job? McGrath is paraphrasing the Gallup Q12 questionnaire. Social intranets have a bearing on all four, he says. The Insider plays a vital role in providing employees the tools they need to do their jobs. One Insider feature lets them place clickable icons on their intranet home pages to launch business applications or jump to often-used pages. ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 3

4 We thought the Insider should always be open on employees computers, Hamlin says. This was a way to encourage them to keep it open. Rather than having to go back to the [Windows] desktop and launch an application, they can do it right inside the intranet. Employees rely on this feature so much, in fact, that there was some consternation when the Insider server briefly went down several months ago. The support we get from ThoughtFarmer is phenomenal. Response times on help requests are great. We just wish all our vendors were that way. Richard Hamlin, CIO MAJOR EFFICIENCIES That was just one of the tools they missed. Every department uses the intranet for a range of critical applications. Most save time, and ultimately money. We ve saved hundreds of person hours, just in the last year alone, Hamlin says. There have been huge cost savings as well. Casas, for example, uses the intranet to post information for employees that she would have ed or sent in memos before. They get it instantly, and it saves a few trees of paper. It also saves me the time. Now I just post it on the intranet and I m done, and I know everyone got it. Arocha publicizes upcoming training courses she s offering. If I slap an article on the home page about a course, it generates a lot of additional enrollment, she points out. She also uses ThoughtFarmer s calendaring to schedule courses, and use of the training room. And she posts information for managers about which employees have completed required training. It means managers can find information they need themselves without bothering her, and it s always available when they need it. INFORMATION ON DEMAND We re getting so much more information out to the masses now, Arocha says. It has seriously cut down on how much we send in Outlook. That s the biggest value: getting information out so no one is caught off guard. Sarah Sanchez, a sales support and reporting specialist, does exactly that, posting information about the marketing promotions and sales contests she runs for outside agents. That way, other departments know to be ready for the phone calls from customers and enquiries from agents, and how to respond, Sanchez explains. Her department also uses the intranet as a project collaboration tool. Participants post results, observations, ideas. It saves having to have constant meetings, she says. Sales reps use the Insider to collaborate on developing new sales materials, to source existing materials and submit time and expense reports and help requests. Regional reps working outside the bank s San Antonio, Texas headquarters especially appreciate the Insider. Just the time savings alone when they re searching for sales material it s massive. Hamlin says, And they feel more part of the team. They can see everybody, talk to everybody. ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 4

5 CONNECTING, ENGAGING It always comes back to that: keeping employees connected, engaged, informed. The business benefits are welcome, but the Insider is first and foremost about engagement. Having the sense that everyone is responsible for how the bank does that has come from The Insider, Arocha says. It s our intranet, it s our resource. Hamlin goes further. To be honest, before the intranet, we did not have a readily identifiable corporate culture. The Insider has become the very root of our culture. From a section of shout outs to news the Insider keeps employees connected. Would any social intranet have achieved the same? Hamlin thinks not. FBB chose ThoughtFarmer over competing solutions such as Claromentis and Confluence for a few reasons. ADVANTAGE THOUGHTFARMER It s more, and more easily, customizable, so it was relatively simple to give the Insider the same look and feel as other company materials, including the public website. This was a key requirement. ThoughtFarmer is also easier to integrate with other systems. FBB could continue to use its Docutrieve document management system, for example, making all its documents available through the intranet without duplicate storage. ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 5

6 Given the importance of winning employee buy-in, ThoughtFarmer s ease of use was probably the biggest factor. Hamlin set up demo environments for each solution considered, and let end users play with them. ThoughtFarmer just felt better, to everybody, he says. Today, he has nothing but praise for ThoughtFarmer, much of it centering around the way the company engages with customers not unlike the way smart organizations engage employees. The support we get from ThoughtFarmer is phenomenal, Hamlin says. Response times on help requests are great. We just wish all our vendors were that way. THE BREAKDOWN WHO HOW PAY-OFF Senior Management Employee engagement, team building Employees focused on shared company goals IT Off-load intranet updating chores Time savings, feeds into employee engagement HR/Training Simplify, streamline information distribution Employees better informed, HR saves staff time Sales Improve collaboration, remote sales reps feel connected Time savings, more motivated Everybody Build a social community, sense of belonging Employees feel connected, responsible, motivated ENGAGING AND EMPOWERING EMPLOYEES: FARM BUREAU BANK 6