Blog helps widely dispersed employees gain a sense of community

Travelex—the currency exchange organization you see in virtually every international airport—needed a new approach to its intranet. The old intranet was “nothing more than an archaic website for holding forms and policies to make day to day life functional but not fun.” The new intranet, The Lounge, includes a blog that has won Travelex first place in the “Blog” category of Ragan’s 2017 Employee Communications Awards.

The Lounge is a shared space for the organization’s widely dispersed employee population to come together and support each other. With anybody able to contribute, blog posts are shared by executives (offering monthly updates) and by associates working in bureaus who share “every aspect of their lives.” 

On the one-year anniversary of the blog’s launch, employees were invited to vote for their favorite post. The winner was a sales consultant “who shared how the business had helped her put her life back together again.” That post attracted more than 400 likes and more than 250 comments. 

It was not an atypical post; the blog routinely hosts tales from employees about their personal hardships, including divorce, job challenges and even terminal illness. Employees value the support they get from colleagues as much as the formal Employee Assistance Program. 

In addition to creating a community-based support network, the blog also has also reflected the organization’s diversity: locations, employment level (including the CEO, who shares a video), race, religion and gender from across Travelex’s population are all well represented. 

Congratulations to Travelex’s Tricia Scott and Interact.