Using Viva Engage as a strategic change management platform (case-study)
Danske Bank
EMEA | Viva Engage Festival 2025
Consolidating thousands of employees spread across multiple locations under one roof is a massive change management project. In this session, we’ll hear how one of the biggest banks in Denmark - Danske Bank - used Viva Engage as a platform to communicate with employees, listening and reacting to feedback and celebrate successes.
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Louise, from Danske Bank, I have already introduced your presentation as a genius presentation, so a little bar to live up to there, but I am confident you will. You've got some great, great learnings coming up from Louise. So Louise, I'll hand over to you.
Please share screen, share your presentation, take us on a journey. Yes, thank you, Pete. I will, although it is very high standards that I will try to live up to.
Unfortunately, I haven't been here through all of the presentations, so I'm really happy to see that we're actually recording so I can see it afterwards. But let me try and share my screen and then you will let me know if you see anything. Yeah, let me check.
I just need to put it into presenter view. Like this. So does it make sense? Yeah.
Or do you see it in presenter view? It's the English language version, so the majority of people on the call will be able to. Okay, let me just see. So do you see it? I just need to see if you see it in the full format or if you see it in presenter view right now.
We are not seeing your notes in presenter view. Right now there are no notes, but thank you. Okay, great.
So I really wanted to share a couple of learnings, our experience with using Viva Engage during our move to our new headquarters, but I just shortly wanted to introduce myself. I work in, my name is Louise, and I work in group internal communications at Danske Bank. Although at the moment I'm actually helping out some good colleagues in our corporate brand department, which is a sister team.
And I've been with Danske Bank for about three to four years. And prior to that, I actually have primarily worked with external communications and branding, most recently at a Danish newspaper. So although I've actually never used Viva Engage prior to my job at Danske Bank, I think that I probably have used some of my experience, of course, from my work with external communication and branding in terms of engagement.
But let's get to it. So we had this major change project where thousands of our colleagues across locations in Denmark were to be gathered in our new headquarters, which is called Danske Bank at Copenhagen Central, because it's located right next to Copenhagen Central. My role in that project was that I was the communication lead, and I was responsible for internal communication and partly the external communication, because we started out with this project approximately a year and a half prior to actually moving in to the new buildings, which meant that our colleagues from external communications weren't really involved.
So there was a long period where it was actually both internally and externally. And then I was also part of the many different project groups we had, and it sounds crazy, but we really had many, because we had a group who were responsible for moving out of the existing buildings. We had a group, a project group, for all the colleagues who were managing everything with the new building.
And then we had the entire change management group. And I was really present in all of the different project groups, making sure that we aligned. But what was quite interesting with this project was actually that it would involve completely new ways of working for many colleagues.
So we went from fixed desk in many of our old locations to flexible seating. And it was actually something that had already been implemented in some of our locations, but there were also many colleagues who actually didn't live up to that yet, because they still had the opportunity to actually just agree internally in the different offices that we will just sit with our fixed desks and then no one will know. But in the new buildings, it was not possible in any way because we needed to have flexible seating in order for us to actually fit into the building.
So that was one big change. And then it was also new ways of interacting across areas, because a lot of people would be gathered physically. So we would also, of course, interact in many different ways and see a lot more colleagues than we were used to.
And it also meant new daily routines for a lot of colleagues. And that was actually something that took up a lot of space for our colleagues. And I mean, it was something where VIVA really, really helped us, because that was something that took up a lot of space and a lot of time.
And we had a lot of questions in terms of the daily routines. How will I arrive? How do I get there? How will my access card work? And so while we wanted to talk about all the strategic, nice stuff from a communication perspective, we also got really grounded in terms of what was important for our colleagues. And then just a few words on why we actually chose VIVA Engage for this project.
It was actually a quite easy choice, because VIVA Engage is part of our internal channel strategy, which is also developed by Group Internal Comms. And it is an active choice, and it is a platform where our leaders are also very present. And we have a lot of different groups.
And although I think the best performing group before, or active engaged group before this project and this group, I think it was corporate memes. So I mean, they're also, people use them very differently, or use VIVA Engage very differently. We have different channels for the different countries, which is quite used.
And we also see our colleagues in Lithuania, for instance, they use it a lot more than we do in, for instance, in Sweden or in Denmark. So but for this project, it was quite an easy choice. It also gave us an opportunity to talk to a completely defined segment.
That also meant that we could really reach the colleagues who were moving locations and make sure that we didn't spam a lot of colleagues sitting in Lithuania and other locations, who maybe didn't need to hear everything about the new NICE headquarters in Copenhagen. But everyone was still, everyone with a curious mind was still invited, I mean, welcome in the group. But we really defined it as something that was nice to know and for the colleagues moving, or for every other curious colleague who wanted to join.
And then it also gave us the opportunity to use announcement, which was really a strong tool for this project. And then two of the core value in Danske Bank is actually team up and be open. So we definitely had a desire for employee involvement, and to actually understand where our colleagues were during the entire process, which leads me to the next one, which was the proximity.
We definitely needed to stay close with our colleagues and Viva Engage is just such a strong tool to do that, because we really encourage everyone to speak up. And although we don't have any censorship on any of our channels, but Viva Engage just, we can use a more informal tone than we have on our intranet, for example. And that definitely spikes engagement, which we have also really learned during this project.
And then we just had a nice to know information, or a nice to know channel. That was not right. We had a channel for nice to know information that we could use in real time.
An example was actually we had a couple of delays, which is quite known in such big constructions. But we actually had a live camera on the site, on the construction site, so all our colleagues could actually follow the process in real time. And that was one of the things that was also actually quite engaging for many colleagues.
Okay, so I've brought along some different posts, and that is just to simply in an actually in a very low practical way show how we used Viva and how we drove engagement. And it's also just to show which posts actually had high engagement and interaction. And for us, it was quite clear.
It was when something was at stake. It could be a competition, for instance. It was when the tone was very informal.
And then it was when the content was very clear. When it was very concrete. So the first example is how we use Viva Engage for a naming competition.
So we had actually asked about naming the meeting rooms at the new office because we found out that we had more than 500 new meeting rooms. So it was an excellent opportunity for our colleagues to actually chip in. But we weren't allowed to do that because it had already been fixed and all the meeting rooms had names.
But no one had really considered naming the buildings. And we had two buildings. So what we thought about was that how do you actually know which building you're talking about? It's probably going to be something with about the high because one was a nine floor and the other one was five floors.
So instead, we actually did this naming competition. And this was an example of a clear desire for involvement and co-creation, which really fostered a sense of ownership and increased excitement among our colleagues. And it really performed well.
And what was really funny was that the project owners of the entire new buildings actually said, you can do the competition, but it's not going to change anything. It's not going to be part of our wayfinding system. It's not going to be in the system anywhere, but you can do it and then it could be like a fun competition.
But what actually happened was it ended up being part of our wayfinding. So we have signs in the building now stating the different building names and our colleagues can actually see have a clear example of how they contributed. So what we actually did was first we let them submit suggestions and then we selected three finalists with together with the top management, who also really impressed of like the high level because it was some really good suggestions.
And then we gave our colleagues the final word and they had to choose between the three finalists. And as I said before, engagement was really high and the price, of course, was related to the move. So you could actually win a tour around the building before the move in.
So it was probably about four months before moving in and everyone was really excited about the move in and wanted to see the building. So it was actually quite interesting for a lot of colleagues to win. And then you could also win.
It was for you and your team. And then alongside the tour, you would also win an exclusive dinner on the top floor, which is usually reserved for our biggest customers, whether it's a private chef. And so that was something our colleagues really talked a lot about.
And as mentioned, we had some really, really, really good suggestions and we could have chosen a lot more than three finalists among the suggestions. So it was really a success for us. The next example I've brought is a Christmas calendar that we actually ran and that we used to share knowledge about the new headquarters every day.
And of course, we also had prices here. It was smaller prices, so it was chocolate. But I think for the more times you had actually participated in the Advent or Christmas calendar, a bigger chance you also had to win the big prize, which was also a tour.
So again, it was something that was related to our actual move. And I have another example of how Viva actually really became or came to our advantage in Group Internal Comms, because it was a way of using a tool to constantly take the temperature among our colleagues, so we could constantly measure where they actually were in the change process. So these two examples, which was one, a small exhibition program, and the other was a video we did with two of our executive leadership team members.
And these are two really great examples of deliverables that we actually did based on listening on Viva. Because as I mentioned in the beginning, we had a lot we wanted to say, and we had a lot from the top management that they wanted us to say, which was, of course, something that was more strategically focused. And messages like that definitely found their way out.
But what we had the chance to do with listening through Viva was actually to time those messages, so they could actually be digested when our colleagues were ready for them. So what we did with these two deliverables was one was a mini exhibition that we actually did on all. So it was a physical mini exhibition that we did on all of our existing locations, because we found out through Viva that we had a lot of colleagues who were actually really worried about what chair they were going to sit on, how the new laptop setup would be, how their new desk would be, how they would plug in their computer if it was a MacBook, because that's not the standard computer that we offered at Danske Bank.
And there were a lot of practical, very low practical questions that took up a lot of our colleagues' minds. So what we decided was to do a mini exhibition on all existing locations where all our colleagues could actually come and meet some representatives and some of our change ambassadors that we also used and who also played a really big role on Viva, because they of course added a lot of positive engagement. But then they had the opportunity to actually try the chairs and mention if they had any special needs.
And the other delivery was a video that we did, because we had, as I spoke about earlier on, we had a couple of delays. And we also had a very unfortunate situation where we had communicated everyone who had to move. And then it turned out that we actually were way more colleagues than initially planned for, which meant that approximately 500 colleagues who had initially been told that they were going to move actually couldn't move.
And that was of course something that, I mean, there was a lot of negative voices on that. But what we did to try to solve the many questions that our colleagues actually had, was we talked to our top management and asked them to do a video. And we told them about the situation.
We get a lot of questions that are related to the changes. Are you up for doing a video answering all the questions that our colleagues actually have? So what we encouraged our colleagues to do was to send us all the questions that they had. Then we tried to consolidate and then we did the video where they actually answered a lot of questions very openly and honestly, and also gave some sort of apology to, of course, for the process that hadn't been as planned or as easy as planned.
Okay. Then I have a final example of one of our best performing posts. And it's quite interesting because is it business critical? Is it strategic? Not at all.
It is a flea market, but it was greatly appreciated from our colleagues or among our colleagues. And it was a really lovely way for us to actually carry on the history because our colleagues had the opportunity to buy some of our art collection from our existing sites. And that was also just a really great and easy way to engage our colleagues.
And it also, because the engagement was so high, it was also really talked about on the different offices. And the show up for these flea markets was insane on the different locations, but it was also a way of us, including our colleagues in our history. And it was something we talked about if we should actually share to Viva, but it was such a nice tool to have Viva because it would have been more difficult to actually share that on our intranet, which is more strategically focused.
And it would probably, it could have been a bit harder maybe to convince some colleagues that that would have been the right forum. So again, Viva was really, really a nice channel for us to have here. Then the last low practical example I have is actually not one of the best performing posts.
It is an example of knowledge sharing and conversations among our colleagues when they actually become more comfortable on the platform. So it is quite a funny example, but we've had similar cases involving portion sizes, cutlery sizes, children at the office. And I could mention many more, but we've had continuously discussions on how much we should actually get involved because in the beginning, the need was definitely greater as no one really saw themselves as experts.
But the plan was for this to get gradually also transition to our colleagues, because it is very time consuming, of course, to run these different communities on Viva. And it is prioritised from our side in Danske Bank. But of course, the aim for us is also the knowledge sharing between our colleagues, because that is where the platform also really shines.
But over time, more colleagues actually have gained experience and taken on that expert roles on themselves. And that has been really nice to see. But we constantly have the talks in our team in terms of when should we get involved and when should we just let our colleagues answer each other.
We also had an example recently, actually, where we had issues with the internet. And then a leader or a manager reached out to me and actually asked me, can you please reply? I can see that someone has asked about the internet. And I was like, let's wait a couple of minutes, maybe a half an hour to see if it's actually an issue for several people.
And it turned out it wasn't. But that's the talks that we continuously have in the team. But we also had some internal challenges along the way.
And Pete, you can just interrupt if time is running up. I don't have a lot of slides left, but I will try to go a bit faster through the last ones. Because everything was actually going quite well.
OK, you see the right one now, right? Everything was actually going quite well until the change management program was shut down during our move. So we had, of course, thought that we had been preparing for a year and a half prior to the move. We were going to move and then we were expecting that we would probably run this change management project probably a year after.
But for some reason, it was shut down during the move because everyone thought, well, now we've done what we could and now the move has come and everything is great. But that meant that we had to actually start handing over the project to a group of colleagues who would be responsible for managing the building going forward. So we had group internal communications.
It looks a bit dramatic. It wasn't that dramatic, but we had group internal communications on one side and then our colleagues, our good colleagues from procurement and premises on the other side. But because we didn't completely agree on the importance of Viva Engage, it also became a bit challenging because where we in group internal comms saw a good dialogue and openness and something positive, other colleagues actually saw it as a bit more disruptive and controlling for the agenda.
And where we maybe saw psychological safety, they saw a lot of colleagues overstepping boundaries and they saw bad behavior. So the channel was really not prioritised, which led to massive dissatisfaction and actually also a harsher tone on Viva Engage that we hadn't really experienced in the same degree before that. So what we really learned here, really valuable lesson in this transition was also that our colleagues don't necessarily want answers to every question or every outburst that they share, but they do want confirmation that they've been heard or that their concerns are being addressed.
And that's the way we actually handled it prior to this transition. We really tried to answer everyone in the beginning, in the initial period to actually also just acknowledge that, thank you for your input, it's really important. And it was really important and we did take it in because the more comments we had on the same subject, the more important it was to actually address.
So what we also just simply had to acknowledge is that everyone have different boundaries, but we in group internal communication set the standards, the tone, and luckily we own the channel, so we could continue. And what actually happened maybe, I could just, before the two last slides, I can also just say, what actually happened was that we got Viva Engage back and then we managed it for about seven or eight months longer before handing it back to our new group of colleagues who had at that time then set aside time to actually manage the channel. So everything ended well, but it was a really, let's say, learning experience and interesting period in the process where a lot of negative voices actually came up.
So I have two slides left and we've actually tried to sum up our biggest learnings, both the positive and the more challenging throughout this project. So I have the positive top three. It is one, listening and calibrating.
It was really, really important for us doing this project because our initiatives, a lot of them were developed based on the insights that we actually got through Viva. And for us, it was a constant compass that I really have a difficult, it would be difficult to see the project, how it would have evolved without using Viva in this case. And then of course it was the employee involvement.
As I also said earlier, a foundation or one of our core values is being open. So it is a foundation for an open culture. And lastly, time and proximity.
We had the opportunity to make really quick decisions. And that is something that we rarely see when we use our internet and when we use our article formats, because they have a completely different, what's the word? They need several processes to be approved. There's a lot of eyes on our articles when they come out, whereas Viva is a way more informal community, which actually enabled us to take very quick decisions.
And what was really, really valuable in this project was also that, as I said prior, we had a lot of input in terms of this. I have a specific example where one of our executive leadership team members came to me and said, I really want to send out this article now. And I really want to acknowledge all the hard work that our colleagues who've been working on this project have been doing.
And I said, it is a really good idea and I understand where you're coming from. But right now, all our colleagues are talking about chairs and desks and set up and where they exactly need to sit. So they're not even ready for those types of messages right now.
It's really bad timing. And they actually ended up listening to us throughout the entire project because they knew we had the voices of our colleagues with us when we were actually advising what to do and what not to do. Then the last one, that's the challenging top three.
And that is you have to have room to act. Don't involve colleagues in a greater dialogue or make them give input if you can't make the changes. It can really create more frustration.
We really tried not to do that. So hopefully, we don't have any colleagues who felt like they contributed with something that wasn't listened to. We really tried to address everything that we put out there.
We knew that there were some things that we couldn't change. So we didn't address those issues on Viva. That was something that was addressed on our intranet.
Yet another channel. We have a lot of different channels and colleagues may lose track of the purposes and the channels. We really tried to make the purpose clear and continuously communicated to make sure that we reminded our colleagues what it was for.
But we still have a lot of other channels. So that can be a challenge. And then time and ownership.
It definitely takes time and it also takes some shared ownership over time in the organisation or else group internal communications or whoever is heading or managing the different channels can end up being the face outward for everyone that for everything that is communicated. And of course, that can be harsh when it's communicated through our intranet that sorry 500 colleagues are not moving as previously communicated. So it really also takes some co-ownership from the rest of the organisation.
Meet the speaker:
Louise Durmus Kay
Chief Communications Consultant
