Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by communities, both at work and at home. Studies show that in the office, maximizing your community members’ engagement leads to better retention and higher productivity. But how do you maximize that engagement?Take a journey with me as I dissect the elements of a strong community. I’ll start with my full circle career from Community Relations Intern with the Baltimore Orioles to Director of Talent and Community Engagement at a cutting edge software company. Next, we will look at building a community in your office, metrics and ROI around community engagement, and real life examples of community building successes. We’ll even identify your less active members and discuss approaches of how to engage them more- or even get value from them at their current status. We’ll also analyze the relationship between culture and community- how they are different and how they are dependant upon one another.Finally, I’ll provide suggestions on a handful of resources that can be be helpful in your workplace community planning.

1. Corralling Your
Community:
Erin Fristoe
May 23, 2019
Finding the Intersection of
Culture and Community

3. Here’s what you
and I are going to
do today:
1. Why do we talk about
Community Management?
2. How do we successfully
manage a community?
3. Sample initiatives
4. Metrics
#squadGoals

4. who am I? • Studied PR and Sports Marketing (Go Hokies!)
• Interned in Community Relations for the O’s when I was 17 because I was
interested in people loving the same things I did.
• Realized that I wear that same hat in my personal life
• Explored different roles after school, but eventually got into recruiting
• Found myself at a software startup that emphasized culture and was a
different work experience than I was used to
• Realized that for the culture to be positive, communities had to flourish, so I
worked at it on my own
• Developed the role for Opower and then was asked to do a similar thing at
Research Innovations, Inc (RII)
• Role at RII – Director of Community Management, Talent Acquisition,

5. A “psychic wellness program” in which
an organization ensures that the
community is engaged and actively
involved.
what is
community
management?

6. why it matters
• Happier Employees
• Higher Retention
• Sense of Belonging
• Helping shape company culture
• Recruiting and Employer Branding

7. community impact
Research presented in State of Community Management 2018 Annual Report (SOCM 2018)

8. industry support
“Organizations function best when committed people work in
cooperative relationships based on respect. Destroy this, and the whole
institution of business collapses—as is now evident in so many
companies.”
“Belonging factors” are strongly and consistently
correlated with employee engagement.
Rebuilding Companies as Communities, Henry Mintzberg, HBR 2009
Culture Amp, The New Technology Industry Diversity and Inclusion Report 2017

9. From
leadership
From
engaged
employees
Core
values
a zen diagram

10. Stage 1
Hierarchy
Stage 2
Emergent
Community
Stage3
Community
Stage 4
Networked
Strategy Familiarize & Listen Participate Build Integrate
Leadership Command & Control Consensus Collaborative Distributed
Culture Reactive Contributive Emergent Activist
Community
Management
None Informal Defined roles &
processes
Integrated roles &
processes
Content &
Programming
Formal & Structured Some user
generated content
Community created
content
Integrated formal &
user generated
Policies and
Governance
No Guidelines Restrictive social
media policies
Flexible social media
policies
Inclusive
Tools Consumer tools
used by individuals
Consumer & self-
service tools
Mix of consumer &
enterprise tools
‘Social’ functionality
is integrated
Metrics &
Measurements
Anecdotal Basic Activities Activities & Content Behaviors &
Outcomes
community
maturity model

11. ● Productivity improves by 20-25% in organizations with connected employees
● Teams with high employee engagement rates are 21% more productive than those with low
engagement
● High performing employees have three things in common: talent, high engagement, and 10+ years of
service within the company
● Organizations with highly engaged employees had an average 3-year revenue growth 2.3 times greater
than companies whose employees were only engaged at an average level.
● Increasing employee engagement investments by 10% can increase profits by $2,400 per employee per
year.
● Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by 202%
● Disengaged workers had 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and
defects
● Organizations with low employee engagement scores saw 18% lower productivity, 16% lower
profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time.
Community impacts Productivity,
too!
Sources: The McKinsey Global Institute, Business 2 Community, Workplace Research Foundation, Queens School of Business, UNC Kenanflager Business School and Gallup

12. ● Extra effort required for building those
relationships
● Always should be in maintenance mode, not
just reactionary
Remote Employees

13. example productivity disruptions (active)
“Cribs” style video
Community Intranet Pages
Lip Sync Contest
Fashion Show/Archives
Swag Store Commercial
Art Show
Prince Memorial Day
Dress like a coworker
Pod decorating
Onesie Tuesday
Holiday Video Card
Shake it off/MFOCS videos
Establishing Remote Community
Carpool KaRIIoke
Random Trivia
Back to the Future Day
Star Wars Day
Tom Petty-fores/ALL CAPS
First Friday Movies
RIIo/KoRIIa Olympics
On site Laser Tag
Petting Zoo
Improv Class
Team Outings
Pi Day contests
Video Gaming Lounge
Private Movie Screening
Team recognition
Employee recognition
Wellness Program
Women in Tech initiative
free < $100 > $100

14. fashion show

15. Lip Sync Contest

16. 3D Medal Printing Contest

17. Onesie Tuesday

18. RIImote Sync

19. halloween

20. • Visual cues facilitate cross-team
conversation
• Prompts: Pet Showcase, Oddball
holidays
example petri dishes (passive)

21. • Internal education across
teams or about the
organization’s domain
• Teams create their own
content
minding the gaps

22. metrics
attendance
event participation
wiki views for initiatives
readership
social media statistics
attrition numbers
quantitative
qualitative

23. Resources
Fierce Loyalty
Sarah Robinson
Community
Peter Block
Professional Groups
Erin’s DC Tech Meetup
“Community & Culture in
Tech Startups”
Advocacy for CMs
Excellent Stats

24. Rules of
thumb
• Take Risks
• Know your communities
• Encourage ownership from team
members
• 80/20 rule
• Silos
• Don’t be afraid to let your geek flag fly
• Create the conversation