Yammer — corporate social network for business

Being able to stay connected under any circumstances and expanding the horizon of the communication space is more important today than ever. The use of convenient tools for communication and the ability to always be in touch are necessary factors for organizing joint interaction between employees under any conditions. It is important to have a safe space in which teams from different cities, offices and countries can meet, communicate and learn more about each other. This helps to build a more cohesive team to work effectively and achieve common goals.

Metinvest Digital launched its own corporate network using a program based on Microsoft 365. We conducted an internal survey among our employees, which showed that 82% of respondents are interested in informing about project and organizational processes. 72% –expressed a desire to receive educational content: publications on professional topics, news of IT technologies. And 59% – want to receive information related to internal personnel policy and various programs for personnel.

We chose Yammer as our corporate social network. This platform contains everything that is necessary for collaboration and communication of employees in one place: an official news feed, social communities, the ability to track updates and publications of your colleagues, participate in polls, organize live broadcasts of events and corporate meetings.

The implementation of a corporate network based on the Yammer tool allows you to organize effective collaboration between employees and maintain internal communications at all levels of the organization. Such platforms greatly enhance the sense of belonging to a common cause, help generate ideas, share knowledge and instantly inform all employees about what is happening in the company.

As part of the updated interface of the Yammer platform, it is possible to create communities with interesting and professional information, form a knowledge base, organize projects and ideas, exchange files and receive feedback from colleagues and top management. Yammer ensures the involvement of all employees in the communication process, provides a system for receiving instant messages and prompt responses regardless of the location of each employee.

Key features of Yammer:

•  Full integration with Microsoft 365 office applications;

• Corporate microblogging;

• The presence of both private and public communities;

• High level of security;

• Quick notification of important messages and announcements, ranking them by priority. 

In order for employees to be interested in the active use of the social network, it is necessary to develop an internal corporate culture, which will be aimed at attracting and training personnel for the implementation of such corporate platforms.
The corporate network at Metinvest Digital is a tool for solving such business goals:

1. Supporting the implementation of business and HR strategy.

Thanks to the active participation of employees and top management, the staff systematically receives information about the results of the company's activities. We do not have strict moderation. Employees can independently publish in all corporate communities. We direct our colleagues to generate interactive content on their own, involving them in active participation in thematic contests, sweepstakes, online flash mobs. These activities generate great interest, and also provide an opportunity for each employee to express themselves, and for the employer to reveal talents.

2. Information support for project and organizational activities, change management.

Employees receive information about the status of design work, changes in production and business processes. It is possible to quickly find certain experts, attract a large number of users to discuss project issues and organize joint activities.

3. Professional development and self-development.

Mutual exchange of industry knowledge and experience gained. We are developing Yammer as one of the educational integration platforms in the company. Employees are systematically informed about all training programs, can join various projects and receive alerts about important issues.

It is important for us to track employee engagement. We approach this issue systematically and closely monitor the dynamics of users, analyze publications by topic and reaction. In Yammer, automated content search by displaying information materials in specially created thematic communities and providing relevant information for each employee.

Nowadays corporate social networks are to a certain extent a cultural transformation of the ways of communication within organizations. The transition of closed structures to a more democratic way of thinking and a new, open space of relationships.