Background
When we launched our Jostle(TM) intranet at the Town of Newmarket, we were hovering around 35% of staff that had an uploaded photo. We made many attempts to engage staff at corporate events and to host our own events, such as Photo Fridays before the launch. Fast forward a few months, we were sitting at about 46% of staff with an uploaded profile photo. We felt that we need a playful message but sent a clear message that if you do not have a photo then someone cannot recognize you from another blank profile photo. One major challenge we continue to face is that people are still uncomfortable uploading their photo to an electronic tool like Jostle, even though it is entirely a private corporate resource.
The Contest
Town Central (our name for our Jostle instance) implementation members took a group shot of them holding Jostle’s default profile picture, held in front of their faces. The group then created a bulletin with this picture and ran a contest which asked staff during a corporate event to write down who they thought these staff members are. We had well over fifty people stop by the presentation desk, but we only had 2 correct guesses and only 6 entries – people just could not guess and this was the point of our contest. Conversations at the presentation table with staff helped to explain our rational as well, particularly on why it is so important to have photos.
The Outcome
We noticed an increase in photo uploads by staff in the last few weeks, which we expect resulted from our contest and increased exposure to the Jostle Platform.
About the author
Julien Patel is a Project Analyst at Town of Newmarket.
