All. Right so let's get the business my name is Chuck goes host of ultra combi cocktails, and senior, strategic, adviser at social forests, and I recognize, it in this new rubber and podcast. Listener ship has, dropped a little bit so, we're gonna do a little double duty and do an experiment, here with this episode you. Can keep listening where you subscribe, so if you bring this on, Apple. Podcast we will play Spotify, you're all good you, can also watch this interview on, social. Forces social channels or at social forest comm so make sure you check it out there I also. Know you want to hear directly from communicators. On how, they're managing, crisis, comms efforts and what's, next so I've invited a communicator, from trained technologies. To join me today, so. To bring our guest on your name is I. Am. Susan, Cleveland. And. Your job is I. Leave. Enterprise. Employee. Communications. For, trained technologies, and. Your favorite, cocktail is, a. Little. Bit of a tough question, I'm. A very mood based. Have. A very mu based preference, so if, I'm. In the mood for a good old beer I tend to go kind of toward an IPA but. Have also kind, of recently discovered. Peanut. Butter whiskey. More. Whiskey drinkers, they're probably like you got to be kidding, but, for me it's good just on a you know on the rocks, nice, little sipping, cocktail. Little, sweetness Center I have not heard of peanut butter whiskey so well, had that certainly, add that to the list but, thank you for taking time in, this crazy world we're all in now. So. What I want to just, level set for everybody who is listening train, technologies. Is a brand, new company but, also, yet. Isn't a brand, new company what a weird time to be doing that transition, so, explain, this for those listening and watching, yeah. And, there. Are very few people, in their career that will, say they've gone through a reverse mortgage trust or RMT. I don't. Know whether to call this a boast or uh, you. Know never. Do this again statement. But this will be my second, RMT and as much as a couple. Of employer so, that's. Basically what we did was a pretty, complex, transaction. Ingersoll-rand. Is, a hundred. And forty plus year old company. You. Know we've got. Brands. From Ingersoll, Rand to. Train, and. Thermo, King, some. Of the brands that people would be familiar with we. Decided, about a year ago to, spin-off. Our industrial, business, which is the business that, goes to market as Ingersoll, Rand and, merge. That business with another industrial company, called gardner-denver. Those. Two companies would combine to be a standalone, company, and would also take, the name Ingersoll, Rand so. What that meant is it left the. Climate. Business, that included, trained and thermo. King, as. A standalone, business still a pretty healthy sized business, is around 16 million in revenue and. Just. North of 30,000, employees. It. Left us working. Through our own transformation. Of who we're gonna be as, a standalone, company focused on climate innovation. As well. As needing a name so, we went through a fairly significant. Branding exercise, did. This announced, late, last year we were going to be called Trane technologies. And. Then. The deal or the transaction, officially, closed on, February. 28th. So, our day one as Trane technologies, was officially, March 2nd a Monday. Not, that long ago. Well. In March second now I think at times seems like two years ago based. On all the news than what we've gone through and, on. This day which is obviously very well timed I'm sure not. Coincidental. You went live with a brand new internal, comms platform, called. Climate zone, so. What has it meant to. Have, climate, zone in, place, or putting it a guess in place during. This health, crisis. I mean it's really not an over. Exaggeration, to say it's been a bit of a game-changer, for us, as. We were working through the business case for the investment. Crisis. Communications. Was. A big part of that obviously. Connecting, with our employees. Modernizing. Our platform, enabling. Effective leadership. Communication was, a big big. Chunk to you but you know in the past as you think about hurricanes. Right that's been kind of the. Crisis. That we've dealt with over the last few years, even, though they're nationally.
Facebook, Pages have been kind of the best option, for reaching. Employees, in the moment, get, connecting, them with resources and with with, our operations, so this. Was a, big. Step in that direction, it, just caught us at a moment where we weren't really a hundred. Percent um. Fully. Adopted, like any company, when you when you begin, working. With social, chorus, and you have a growth plan we had done, a. Pilot. With, one, of our larger. Operations, in Texas, one of our larger plants. To. See what we could learn right, and then replicate and start putting ourselves on a growth plan. But. We've. We've accelerated that. Considerably. And. So, how did leadership. And the. The comms team there, respond. To, this like what where, was that enthusiasm, or excitement or energy put and perhaps even more importantly. What. Feedback, have, you gotten from employees. About, having climate zone in place the. Feedbacks, have been very positive. On. The, first week we, were heard around the third. Adoption. Across, our employee population. Again. That was more. Heavily weighted it was about 50%, of our salary population. That was included in that. Since. You know that was kind of our tech ready, population. Which. Includes a combination of the app as well as the web experience, we, did integrate, with. Our homepage. For. Our intranet so that's a you, know still continues to be a critical delivery. Mechanism, for us, but. Since then we're we are nearing. 50. Percent, we're just a little south of 50 percent total. Adoption, so I think that, alone, is an expression that there was an appetite. For this type of platform. And tool. Because. We've accelerated our, operations, in the last week and a half our team has trained fifteen, of our. Site leaders. In. Our operations, in the Americas on. Setting. Up a local channel, for, their plants, we've, streamlined kind, of what their capability, is to try to meet a very you know immediate. Needs, and. Get them rapidly. On-boarded, and. But, it's been an incredibly easy impact, from those leaders. Even you know who their day job is not communications, it's HR plant, plant, operations, have. Been just amazed at how easy it, really is. So we're we're anticipating that. We're gonna see a fairly, good, spike. You. Know kind of out of necessity in, our hourly, population. Coming. On board here, in the coming days. As we, bring those 15 sites on, pretty, quickly. And. If you had to think back. What. Channels, are how would the company responded, in this time if climate zone, hadn't. Been available it's. Hard to go back and, maybe. Anticipate, that but yeah. What. Would the responsive, look like it's, a little scary to even think. One. Of the reasons we moved too fast with the plants again was they were starting, to think about bringing old private Facebook, pages back and you.
Know For us that well that's a great tool certainly. Accessible. For people it, you know it makes it challenging for us to know um kind. Of how the message has been controlled we don't have access to those those. Local channels so. So. That was one, way for us to really streamline, and. You. Know kind of focus our efforts in one place. Um, I. I. It's. Hard to express even just how much time it took us to get simple things out the door, videos. Here. We are doing a video versus, a podcast. A kind of a traditional, audio podcast, our. Leaders have been embracing, homemade. Self-made. Videos because. They're at home without us so. It's been a great steep. Learning curve, for everybody on the technology, front but. You, know I mean, at the at, the tip, of my fingers is, the capability for. Either. Them to upload it directly or for me to upload it very. Very quickly, and do this simple, fine-tuning, that's needed and. Getting it out the door to speed over, perfection. It's kind of where we are that's. A great point Susan I had not thought of that around. Where. For, long for a long time communicators. Have been encouraging, leaders to do more communication. Themselves, and then, leaders have defaulted, to relying on the communicators, to do it for them and. We are in this world now where, there. Is no elaborate, video set up to be done in someone's office or to. Get the lighting perfect, for them for those leaders that thought that was important, they, are now having to embrace this. New world in their own communication, efforts and, a. Platform, like climate. Zone facilitates. That perfectly for them yeah, yeah. I think our employees are sort, of really appreciating, sort of being, invited to our leaders homes, you. Know it's almost, it. Hasn't become a thing yet but I'm anticipating as, our CEO puts, more videos, from home and he moves about different-looking. It's. Gonna be the Micra where is Mike next he, comes to you from home. So. Now that this. World of Kovan. 19, is is sadly, becoming a bit more normal for, us everybody was in very much reaction mode getting. Information out, now it's. Reinforcing. Information. And giving people updates, I know. You guys entered, launching. Climate zone at a at a very fortuitous time, but also very hard time. How. Much of the communication, in there is, Cove. At 19. Coronavirus. Related, or themed versus. Kind of the stuff that's, business. As usual, or is that still a transition, that's happening. We're. Word business. As usual does not look like business as usual right now um, you, know because I, mean, we rolled right out of our day one messaging. About, you know any brand-new, purpose, or kind of refresh purpose. Around. Sustainability. Right. Into. Kind. Of the ramp, up on crisis. Communications. And, you know so we we've really, had to do a balance, and figure. Out you know what's what's, sensitive, to the kind. Of world we're in right now. One, example is, where you know again as a company we've made a very strong commitment to sustainability. And. Earth. Day is coming up here. Next, week. So normally, that'd be a time where we're really kind of putting together a pretty robust set of content, and trying to think about using a tool like climate sounds really engage employees, of. The social advocates, and. You. Know storytellers, and doers, and. You. Know we're kind of having to take a different look at that so we're really looking through the lens right now of what, is. What's. Important, or to be thinking, about as you're sitting in a work from, home environment. What are the things that you can do. For. The comply m't that. Are things, you can do right there and the space that we're all operating in, so. A little different Burks. Is kind of cutting down on your commute time does it make a lot of sense as, a message, goes right now so, so.
We're Not scrapping. It we're really, rethinking. It a little bit we are scaling it back I will say there was a you know definitely, you. Know too, much would be too much. But. Well, over I ran a report last night letting. Our executives. Know kind of where we are on crisis, communications. And we've been tagging. Our. Coronavirus, communications, as an, initiative, so. That it's easy for us to run a report on our initiative, content, so we can very clear, see everything, that's within that space and it's, it's. Well, over 50% of, our, content. Right now, and. How would you even been able to run reports like, that in the past what is this having this data, now. I just mean to use communicators, and what does it mean to, your. Leaders that, you can now share this kind of data yeah, you know again we're we're literally, at the tip of the iceberg, as the user is I mean we're just a little over 30 days in, with, really utilizing. And I'm kind of being fully up and running. With the tool and the platform. So, we're still even kind, of playing. Around with the reporting. Capabilities but, absolutely, not before, I would, have had to we would have had to do, a fairly Herculean, effort to kind of build a manual, tracking. Mechanism. So, you, know the, initiatives, reporting. Came out just a nick of time and. We quickly kind of switched that year to make sure we were tracking everything in that initiative, space. Because. We really had an outlines kind of what our initiatives, we're gonna be. More. Tied to our strategic themes. This. Is really kind of taken. The, front seat, but. It's been very, powerful I'm, excited, to kind of dig into the next level of analytics, quite honestly and look at you, know what contents, performing, best why is it more engaging is, it, because it you know often our CEO messages, are most, engaged that has kind, of always been the case. But. You know we're starting to see things and, pushing. Ourselves on you. Know what's it the visual was that this was the headline is it the piece, of content itself, that, drove you know a lot more commenting. We're. Still working through kind of the sharing, aspect with. Social especially, good because we've kind of scaled back a little bit and. Kind, of what's appropriate to, be kind, of pushing out in. Our social advocacy, space but. It's. A powerful tool and, we. Definitely, we. Could, have gotten there in the it would have taken a, pretty. Major effort. And. Thinking bear that's kind of a good segue to to, my next question getting back then you said I'd you had to of. All like your Earth Day plans I'm sure there's all kinds of other, company. Or community. Related things that that organization communicators. Have had to respond to, probably. Your thoughts around what chromosome, was going to be, when. You were going through the planning stages probably end up being very different, than what it was in March so. Have, there been any surprises. That. You've seen from either how employees, are using or, benefitting from, climate.
Zone That you maybe didn't expect from early on. Honestly. You, know I think we knew this was going to connect people and by connecting people I think we were thinking about that maybe even a little shallow I'm, like, oh they're gonna get information they never did get before they're gonna be digitally. Connected, I think, the depth of this is that now they're emotionally, connected. You. Know at a time where that that, sort of empathetic. Kind. Of community, is needed, more than ever we had, created a channel for, day one called. The uplift Channel you, know the team from social chorus gave us great guidance and examples, of other. Clients. And companies that have had, open channels, you. Know very much recognition, kind, of Bravo based. Content. For. Us uplift. Uplift. Is actually, a visual. And. Kind. Of essence symbol, in our new brand identity, where our a in, our name is you, know the shape of them, kind. Of a pointing up uplift. So it's. Meant to reflect kind of what you know we're capable of as we uplift each other and uplift the world and you know really take on some pretty major challenges, around sustainability. So. We, asked everyone to, use the uplift channel right out of the gate to share their photos of, uplift, whether, it was an. Architectural. Look at an uplift, that they see in the world it you know sometimes they occur in nature right, sometimes. It was people doing, things. Or. Just things that were uplifting. To them we, had over 1400, post. Coming out of that channel, so talk about employee source content, there was a lot and. It was great but. Then it has shifted right, it has shifted into. People. Uplifting, each other talking. About what they're doing to stay positive in, this. Pretty. Difficult time. And. I it. Hasn't really kind of fully formed yet but I can tell there's this little kind of community, being built there and then I you. Know there's we've. Had someone even posting, some recipes, and you know you're. A little bit like it's, that really kind of core but. It's what is, important. To them and people are reacting to it and that's. A personality. That. You know we don't want to suppress, so. I. Think. That's maybe been a little bit of surprise and, kind of take, the, communications. Control freaks, we all know we are, have. To kind of step back a little bit and let that happen we're, gay mcli because that's where it really the I think.
The Power is. Yeah. I think that can be a little scary sometimes when. We. See or we find out what's important, to other people that as communicators, we thought we knew what was important to them and. Maybe in that case it is that employee who's sharing a recipe, or that family photo, because. Then what I see as other employees, rallying, around that and responding. To it and if I'm giving them, permission. To be themselves, where often and, people. That listen to this all the time hear me say it all, of, our employees are used to just receiving. Communications. They've never had the opportunity to participate, in. It and some still. Take a backseat but, others take advantage, of that and want to share because in their, personal lives they're used to sharing what. Matters to them. Now. We talked about that from a employees. Standpoint what about as a communicator. Being. The one meeting that control-freak and talked about. How. Has had a climate, zone in place meant, to you. Our. Team. Was. Suffering, not even silently, I would say we were pretty vocal. Kind of the lack of really. Powerful, and efficient and effective tools, um. You. Know I came from a previous. Role where, I had done digital. Technology. And digital communication. So I've, had the benefit of seeing kind of where investments, can take you with. Having you know really the right the. Tools available. You, know we. As a team, are also trying to think more like content, marketers and you, know you know the data and analytics, are so important. When it comes to kind of what's working. If. You're really thinking like a marketer. So. There. Was a lot of you. Know kind of angst, I would say in the last year in particular as, people were kind, of raising up that like this. Technology, is unsustainable. It, is, just, difficult, to work with you know posting in something as simple as a video just took miles. Of time, and. So. Our. Transformation.
This Train technologies, was a great, opportunity, for us to say now or never we've, got technology in our name we. Need to get out there and kind of like be ahead of this so. We. Were fortunate to kind of get that nod and be able to put that in place and, just. You, know last night I pushed. Out a video, from our CEO. Ran. An analytics, report, and then, we pushed out an e-newsletter. Kind. Of recapping, the most important news of the week including. That video from our CEO and. Did. It and just, you. Know it I won't say instantaneously. Because we still have to sit and think about good, positioning, and good context, for, all of these things but, really. Fast really, easily. So. I. I'm. Hearing, great things from our team, as. Communicators. We. Are we, still have a ways to go to learn kind, of how to think, and behave and, and. Treat. Communications, differently. Both. In format, in. Campaign. Right, we don't normally think about kind. Of technology, and digital campaigns. Because. We didn't really have that that, sort of capability, so we're. We, whenever. The. Kind. Of most immediate, crisis, piece ends I think we'll regroup see. What we learn see, what we really liked what we want to do more of. And. Really. Do some deeper analysis, probably work with our workforce analytics, team as well as a social chorus team to get back into metrics, and measurement. And set some goals first. You, know so that we are tracking, toward a trajectory that, we've set. Yeah. I loved hearing you mention. When. You're looking at it from a marketer standpoint, because with, all. The various channels and endpoints, and metrics you can see what's working or not and I've seen people start to think okay how can we write. Better headlines how, can we write better stories how, can we, not. Not from a cliff baby standpoint. But get people excited about the content that's that's, going in there so that's it's, great to hear that you and your team have embraced that yeah. I think it's gonna be important, and even in the social advocacy, space and like what. Isn't it employees, want to tell about who. They are at this company it's. Not what well. So. That's gonna be really interesting, as we work through kind, of our social content. And. Determining. Kind of what speaks, to them to. Speak on by our behalf and, I'm. Not sure it's gonna be what we would think necessarily. So, there's gonna be some good evaluation, opportunity. There and. The great part about that is the data and metrics will also not just tell you the what they like sharing, but. You will find surprising, audiences, of the who the people that you never thought before it would be big. Content, shares in fact our content. Shares I think. That's great what. Susan. Thank you for taking the time during, this very busy area of. Our lives but. I did want to, take. It back personal, to you I wanna find out how are you and the people you care about doing. During. This crisis, I appreciate. That Chuck. You. Know we. It's hard to sit kind of on the day-to-day front, lines I I, posted, to the uplift Channel today a piece, of content.
That Was just for pure levity, that was basically, nobody knows what day of the week it is you, don't know how many days are in the month I mean not even sure quite what year, it is. So, you, know it's it's hard to kind of stay. Grounded. But. Also in, tune and, sensitive, to everything that's going on so I'm. Very fortunate I have. You. Know two. Boys who, are age, 16 and 10 who. Are. In. A way blissfully, unaware of. Kind. Of the full. Reality of this you know for them their reality, is I'm not going to school every day mom, and dad or tried to teach me stuff what what's that all about. We're. Not we're, not Carla's there we will not be homeschooling, we will not be that family. But, they're, doing great we live in Charlotte. North Carolina so. Spring, has been here for a while along with the pollen but, it's allowed, us to be out you know we're in a neighborhood where we're able to be sort of separated and distant but still out without a lot of DIY, work, that we've like kind. Of tossed ourselves, in I need like good hardcore, labor sometimes. Just, to kind of get, my mind off of the, work piece. So. We're. We're. Doing really, well everybody's, healthy. My. Family's, done Zoo meetings, like this now we've, had three birthdays, already, in this, phase. Of my my, immediate family will, have another my. Own soon so. We're. Kind of working through it. So. I think, for. Me personally the. Hardest thing is that I'm. A kind, of run to the run to the fire run to the rescue type of personality. And. So. Not being able to kind of help people very, directly, is difficult, so just you know trying to think about the little ways. That. I can, contribute. You know certainly helping our employees understand. The resources, that are available to them as they're dealing with this. You, know as a part of that but you, know I'm, just used to being out kind, of on the front lines you know and. Not, able to do that, but. It's been great to hear, your story here the success of climate zone thank you for all the work you've done getting. It here. I don't, know that probably, you'll ever hear, the true appreciation from employees, of what it's meant to have this available, to them either, to receive, updates from the business or to share, what's. On their mind so. Again thank you for taking the time and enjoy that glass of peanut. Butter whiskey. If. You enjoyed what you heard from this episode and want to check out others fine culture, comes in cocktails on Apple podcast, Google Play Spotify, or wherever you, like to listen and when, you do hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any future episodes, this. Has been culture, cons of cocktails internal, comms served straight, up thanks, for listening.
2020-04-25