Welcome to our Epoch Year in Review! Thanks for being with us this year. Let's celebrate everything we've done together and for what's the come in 2023!
In 2022, we hosted 9 webinars with leaders and innovators in Employee Experience from companies like Stripe, Atlassian, Yelp, and more. Topics spanned across internal communications, L&D, DEI, internal events, and more.
"Events help employees make a meaningful connection. Rather than surface-level work communication, people can now share their passion, hobbies, and stuff that matters to them." – Liz Leary, Project Coordinator, Team Anywhere at Atlassian
In 2022, we hosted 7 roundtables for experts in Employee Experience. This is a safe space for our community to come together for insightful discussions, sharing ideas, leaning on each other for support, and building connections.
Onboarding new employees, introducing them to your company’s culture, and helping them create connections can be a difficult task to accomplish. A great place to start is by leaning into your existing culture and leveraging your company's existing traditions and values. Companies have found success in delivering ‘micro-experiences’ and leveraging existing niche, community groups. This can be done through ‘Slack-tivities’ (i.e. post a photo of your thriving plant in your #plant-enthusiasts-channel) or polling on Slack/Teams with fun weekly questions.
Supporting virtual events on top of in-office events places most people's teams in limbo. Teams feel they are constantly juggling 2 event calendars, and are tasked to manage everything from Zoom links to vaccine passports. One way to make this process a bit more manageable is by engaging in a tiered reopening strategy. This can look like beginning with managers and slowly moving to larger teams of employees. Another way to keep employees engaged throughout this awkward phase is to lean into a local ambassador program, where a few employees from local hubs/offices can help organize local events to build connections while adhering to local rules and regulations.
A growing number of companies have experienced times where leadership priorities are at odds with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). If your leadership is opting to not involve themselves in DEI initiatives, do not let that stop you from listening and supporting employee groups that need to be heard. Doing nothing is doing something. Instead start small, listen to employees, and do something when you notice something needs to be done. When it comes to dealing with leadership expectations and speaking up on DEI topics, ensure communications and events are authentic and cohesive - keep an eye on both the intention and the impact these events can have.
Communication and visibility are one of the most important things when hosting a successful event. One way to get higher visibility is by decreasing the number of channels and having just one for corporate announcements and another for company events and parties. If that method does not work then notifying friends to boost the event will have a higher engagement rate. People reacting to the event will make the event feel higher in priority. Lastly, using Cameo can help people be notified by their favourite influencer or celebrity of the event.
Many companies have struggled to maintain their return to the office or hybrid work strategies. With a larger distributed workforce and employees unwilling to commute, transitioning to a fully-remote working style has been a top priority. If your organization is navigating this transition, consider offering a remote office set-up stipend, in addition to adding smaller co-working spaces in multiple cities for employees that prefer to leave their houses to work.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join our IRL events! We know you're busy and your time is valuable, we appreciate that you were able to come join us for our in-person events. It was incredible to gather experts in Employee Experience to share ideas, challenges and wins. Looking forward to more Epoch community gatherings in 2023!
In case you missed the last one, Epoch's Employee Experience Symposium is returning in 2023! The EX Symposium is the premiere 2-day conference for top leaders and innovators to connect, learn, and share knowledge on engagement and Employee Experience for our new way of work. Last year, panelists from Adobe, Salesforce, Asana and more shared their experiences on workplace experience. This year will be even bigger! Register now for discounted tickets.
The Epoch Employee Experience community helps EX teams share ideas on inclusive events, gifting, new methods, and which vendors to use. Join our community today to be part of the conversation among other EX professionals!
If you haven't heard of us before and are curious after hearing what we've been up to: we're here to help you streamline all the important tasks for your next event. Crucial steps like an invitation, communication, registration, and confirmation are all handled by Epoch both easier and faster. Company events drive the employee experience, increasing productivity and connection with the organization’s culture and among employees. Epoch can help streamline the event planning process. Book a demo today!
Thanks for sticking with us until the end. We can't wait for what's to come in 2023! 🥳