Keeping a remote company in the conversation
Most mornings at Publishing Concepts (PCI), one of the first things I did was update the revenue dials on the intranet homepage. It took about five minutes, and it was only one small piece of supporting a company of approximately 200–300 fully remote employees.
I maintained the everyday information employees relied on, built new intranet areas for company programs, and supported leadership communications and employee activities. Some work needed a consistent routine. Other projects called for a little creative problem-solving.
At a glance
Audience: Approximately 200–300 fully remote employees
My role: Intranet content and page development, employee communications, video production and editing, executive content publishing, and workplace-recognition communications
Platforms and tools: ThoughtFarmer, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and video production tools
The intranet was part of the workday
Employees came to the intranet for company announcements, events, resources, recognition, and updates on how the business was doing. Keeping those things available and current was a regular part of my job.
I also built spaces for programs that needed more than an announcement. Sales teams had their own areas, and I created sections supporting sales mentoring and Meaningful Conversations.
Keeping the everyday information useful
The homepage revenue dials are a good example of making a practical decision with the tools available. Leadership wanted a fully branded visual showing company performance, but ThoughtFarmer didn’t have a built-in dial component that fit the request.
Revenue numbers were sent to me, leaders, and managers at the close of each day. I updated the graphic first thing the following morning. It wasn’t automated, but it was a reliable five-minute task that delivered the visual leadership wanted.
There was plenty of other information to keep current. I maintained the company events calendar and helped HR keep employee resources updated. Birthdays and work anniversaries were connected to associate profiles, while company photographs were organized into accessible albums. I also maintained recognition boards and built spaces for specific programs and teams.
This wasn’t all about posting new announcements. It was about keeping the intranet useful after employees had read the latest news.
Making Halloween a company-wide celebration
Halloween was our CEO’s favorite holiday to celebrate with the company, and the rest of leadership enjoyed getting involved, too. At PCI, that meant costume contests, games, prizes, and live events for employees across the remote workforce.
But we had a practical challenge. Many of our sales associates needed to stay on the phones. They couldn’t necessarily step away from work to attend a scheduled activity, even if they wanted to participate.
We didn’t want those employees to miss out simply because their responsibilities kept them from joining at a particular time.
I worked with HR to develop a variety of ways for employees to participate. Some activities were live events, while others were games people could complete on their own schedules. We included downloadable and printable games, activities employees could submit for prizes, and scavenger hunts that took place throughout the intranet.
The costume contests invited employees to submit photos and vote for their favorites, giving everyone a chance to participate regardless of whether they could attend a live event.
I built the intranet section that brought the celebration together. Each activity had its own information about what it involved, when it was happening, who could participate, and what prizes were available. Live activities included Zoom links, while games had the instructions and materials employees needed to participate.
The result was a holiday experience that employees could explore and participate in throughout their workday, rather than one that depended entirely on being available at a particular time.
We used a similar approach for Christmas, although on a smaller scale because more employees were away on vacation.
I enjoyed the creative side of building these experiences, but I also liked the problem-solving behind them. We had employees with different schedules and responsibilities, and we found ways to make the celebrations more accessible without losing the fun.
Supporting the daily company meeting
PCI also held a 30-minute all-company meeting every morning. The agenda followed a familiar structure, but the topic highlights changed and a different person hosted each day.
I published meeting information on the intranet and helped with presentations when needed. I also encouraged participation and spotlighted speakers.
My part varied depending on the day, but publishing the meeting information was a regular responsibility.
From daily publishing to an RSS feed
Another recurring responsibility was Rise With Drew, the leadership blog written by PCI’s CEO, Drew Clancy. I designed, built, and maintained the external site, risewithdrew.com, and published his writing to the intranet every day.
At first, that internal publishing was a manual task. Eventually I set up an RSS feed to automate it, removing a step I no longer needed to repeat each morning.
I also edited and helped publish Drew’s weekly videos. His words and perspective remained his own; my work involved the website, the video production and editing, and making the content available to employees.
The externally published Rise With Drew blog had about 200 regular readers. High-performing posts topped 400 views, and a couple of posts approached 2,000 views. Those numbers describe the public website, not employee engagement with the internal posts.
Company news, inside and out
I also created and supported company announcements, intranet updates, and business and sales communications. These messages served a more immediate purpose than a leadership reflection or a holiday game: employees needed to understand what had changed and where to find the details.
Some news also needed to reach people outside the company. PCI earned Fortune workplace recognition in 2022 and 2023. When PCI ranked #55 on the 2022 Fortune Best Medium Workplaces™ list, I wrote and published the press release with CEO and leadership approval.
The internal celebration and external release shared the same achievement, but the audiences had different starting points. Employees knew the culture firsthand. External readers needed an introduction to the company and the significance of the recognition.
What this work required
The work was rarely a single big launch. It was the ongoing responsibility of keeping the intranet current and finding ways for employees to use it, whether they needed an HR resource, the latest company numbers, or something fun to do between calls.
I learned when to improve the process and when to keep a straightforward solution. Automating Drew’s daily posts gave me back a repetitive step. Updating the revenue dials by hand took five minutes and did the job. For Halloween, the problem called for something more creative: activities designed around the fact that not everyone could leave the phones.
On the same platform where employees checked company performance, they could cast a costume-contest vote or find a sales mentoring resource. That mix of practical information and room for participation is what I liked about building and maintaining the intranet.
