Imagine attempting to communicate a merger between two large organizations to an audience of 45,000. Now imagine trying to communicate that message during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the majority of the workforce suddenly found themselves working remotely.
That is the exact challenge T-Mobile faced earlier this year when a uniquely timed merger with Sprint left them with limited opportunities to connect and engage employees during this time of uncertainty. In a recent webinar, we learned how the T-Mobile team turned to an enterprise webcasting solution to communicate critical messages and to ensure a high level of business continuity in a newly dispersed workforce.
Approximately 83% of mergers & acquisitions fail, with weak communication often cited as a primary reason. It was therefore imperative that the T-Mobile team did everything possible to ensure employees remained informed and connected.
Fortunately, the Sprint/T-Mobile team were early adopters of live video and had ample real-world experience of how to stream large scale webcasts. David Scarborough, Systems Integrator III, T-Mobile, is no stranger to webcasting. Having first dabbled in video 13 years ago he understands the complexities of live webcasting. “It’s not YouTube out there at your house. You’re delivering a stream inside of a corporate enterprise, which has a lot of other traffic,” said David.
Unlike other communication mediums, video allows employees to visually connect with their leadership—which is critical during times like a merger and acquisition. “Visual cues make all the difference when you’re trying to talk to people in an unsettled environment,” added David.
David also recognizes that a successful webcast isn’t a solo venture. He has developed partnerships with networking and corporate communication departments to ensure a successful webcasting experience.”It’s just not the webcast team. It really does take many departments to come together and make a webcast successful.”
David enjoys seeing just how far video has evolved in the last decade—like having slides with video, and replay options. He knows having employees attend live events isn’t always realistic, so providing video-on-demand opportunities is critical, and allows participants to hear the same message that was broadcast live.
Perhaps the greatest outcome has been how enthusiastic the executive team has been in embracing video, “Our executives just seem to be very forward-looking and we have had some fantastic executives that embrace this technology as a means to get the message out
to the employees very rapidly,” said David.
As for how David felt on the day his team was responsible for broadcasting an important message to 45,000 employees? “It was a little nerve-wracking… but so rewarding.”
By Nicole Olsen