Achieving Business Impact with Comms: 3 Key Steps in the Maximus Communications Journey

A top priority for Internal Communication teams is to ensure employees have the information they need, when they need it, wherever they are. 

But when you’re facing a full rebrand, the opening of a new HQ, and dealing with changes brought on by the pandemic, it can be challenging to make sure the right information is getting to the right place.

This is exactly the challenge that Jared Curtis, the Director of Internal Communications at Maximus, had to face when he joined the company.

During the pandemic, employees and businesses were forced to change the way they work overnight. With most people working remotely, employees needed new communication tools and systems to work in different environments like remote, hybrid, or back in the office. 

And on top of this, Maximus was making a number of large corporate changes that needed to be properly communicated to their 36,000 employees.

Jared and his team tackled these challenges by leveraging the full capabilities of the Poppulo Harmony platform. To get the full story, check out the whitepaper here—or keep reading for the top 3 takeaways from the Maximus communications journey.

1. Leverage a Full Omnichannel Strategy

Communication is constantly evolving, and businesses, managers, and leaders need to keep up with the changes. Employees now have a greater choice of where they work, and which new systems and tools they need to complete their tasks.

So how can communicators reach employees and partners meaningfully?

"Last year, our company rolled out a new brand and strategic plan to be a leader in innovation and problem-solving. Our overall mission shifted to align with that focus, and it was our job to communicate this clearly to employees,” said Jared.

The team had to be ready to communicate changes as they happened—which is difficult in the midst of a global pandemic with employees scattered across the world.

Jared knew they needed a flexible tool to get the message across to everyone in a way that works for their role and preferences. And they needed to be able to communicate on-the-fly to keep up with the constantly changing rules and policies stemming from COVID-19.

The team initially used a single internal comms channel—email—for all communications, but eventually grew to a full omnichannel strategy that includes mobile, digital signage, and integrations with other applications like Microsoft SharePoint and Teams.

These channels are monitored by a centralized IC team, allowing individual departments to contribute content for their separate teams.

2. Link Communications with Business Initiatives

The hardest part of implementing new communications tools can often be getting the budget. The truth is, many executives don’t see the quantifiable business value behind internal comms, and aren’t willing to spend the money on it.

So in order to get stakeholders on board with a new communications solution, the team at Maximus needed to find a way to link their project with the long-term goals and objectives of the company.

As part of the plan for Maximus to become a leader in innovation and problem-solving, they needed to present themselves as a modern, tech-forward company.

So they saw the opening of the new HQ as a way to create a modern, digitally integrated space that also allows the comms team to communicate with visitors, partners, and employees.

“During our budget review, one of our project leaders asked if we could reduce the number and size of planned digital signs in our lobby. I asked them to consider our new values and the perception that employees and visitors will have in our space. If we want to present ourselves as tech-forward innovators, we need to reflect that in our space. Ultimately, we got the budget.” –Jared Curtis

By connecting the comms strategy with a larger business initiative, Jared Curtis was able to get the stakeholders involved to see the value of investing in comms.

Another key objective was keeping employees connected to the business and each other throughout the pandemic. With an increase in remote and hybrid workers, this required implementing additional communications channels to give employees multiple ways of accessing information.

The Maximus leadership team saw the value in investing in a new comms solution to help achieve this objective.

3. Use Data to Demonstrate Value

After the initial investment, the team continued to prove the value of their solution by collecting data and metrics. With the Poppulo platform, they could look at detailed email open rates, click rates, and lists of which employees and departments engage the most with their content.

They also started sending out pulse surveys to get feedback from employees and continue to improve their strategy.

Through these surveys, the team learned that more employees wanted to come to the office and collaborate in their space—giving stakeholders more reason to invest in the workplace experience.

As they continued to hone in their strategy and deploy more personalized comms, the team saw a 10% increase in email open rate and a 50% increase in average page time, proving that a targeted, data-driven approach can increase engagement.

Today, Maximus has a fully integrated internal comms, customer comms, and workplace experience platform that continues to drive value for the business.

Maximus continues to partner with Poppulo to integrate more data sources into its solution, add more communications channels through Content Feeds, and transform its physical workspace to meet today’s expectations.

To learn more about how Poppulo can help your business achieve more with integrated communications and workplace experiences, contact us today.