Celebrating the people of the Leukaemia Foundation
The Leukaemia Foundation’s sole purpose is to help people with blood cancer. Given its focus on supporting and caring for people, it’s apt the Leukaemia Foundation’s “Celebrating our People” Yammer community was identified among the top five in SWOOP Analytics’ worldwide benchmarking analysis.
The Celebrating our People Yammer community has become a reflection of the culture at the Leukaemia Foundation of caring deeply about patients and staff. Yammer is a place where people share stories of their commitment to patients and their families, reinforcing every employee’s purpose to be there every step of the way to help people living with blood cancer. It’s this simple formula of sharing incredible stories that makes the community so powerful, says Susie Howard, the Leukaemia Foundation’s General Manager Brand and Marketing.
With much of Australia in and out of lockdown during 2021, the Celebrating our People Yammer community has become the digital place to share stories that otherwise might be told in offices. It has also been a place where the Foundation’s new CEO Chris Tanti has been able to connect with his people when he has been in lockdown in Melbourne, unable to meet in-person with the 185 employees of the Leukaemia Foundation scattered across Australia.
Chris joined the Leukaemia Foundation as CEO in February 2021 and had just a few months to travel the country to meet employees face-to-face before much of eastern Australia began to move into COVID-19-enforced lockdown. In May 2021, the Foundation switched from its former enterprise social network to Yammer, supported by its executive.
Susie Howard, General Manager
Brand and Marketing, Leukaemia Foundation.
“As the new CEO, Chris takes great responsibility for making sure that people have a voice and that we’re all empowered to ask questions and to take the lead with our work,” Susie said.
“We’re having an online experience that’s quite warm that we would never normally get with our CEO, especially when he’s in Melbourne locked down and we’re elsewhere.
“It really demonstrates the value of this tool in bringing people together with a new CEO at a time where he can’t physically be with us, no matter how much he wants to.”
Susie shared the recent example of a post in the Celebrating our People Yammer community from Danielle Langelaar. The Leukaemia Foundation provides free accommodation for families from rural and remote areas undergoing treatment in the city. Danielle shared the story of a family who stayed in the accommodation while the mother was undergoing treatment.
The first person to respond to Danielle’s post was CEO Chris Tanti, proof he is listening to his people and sharing patients’ journeys. More replies and rich conversations followed celebrating the story and Danielle herself.
The first person to respond to Danielle’s post was CEO Chris Tanti.
Data from SWOOP Analytics shows Danielle is the only non-executive on the Leukaemia Foundation’s Yammer network with a post in the top five Most Engaging Posts in the first three months of using Yammer.
“She was a late starter to Yammer through nerves of using it properly, but is now one of our top people in this space,” Susie said.
“We rely on the influencers like Danielle to really drive engagement because we don’t have a team of internal communication professionals to lead by example and demonstrate the value of this communication tool for leaders and staff.”
Some of the replies to Danielle’s Yammer post.
Susie said Danielle’s post above is a perfect example of sharing the Leukaemia Foundation’s value of caring deeply.
“This is a beautiful example of our culture in action,” she said.
“People are celebrating Danielle and what we do and Yammer has shifted how we all connect with the people we support.”
For more than 45 years, the Leukaemia Foundation has been attacking every blood cancer, from every direction, in every way it can. It is committed to making sure every Australian with blood cancer gets access to the trusted information, best-practice treatment and the essential care they need.
