Marketing Excellence Awards: New Employee Questionnaire

AC Martin Partners, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA), an 85-person architecture firm, is taking home fifth place in the Internal Marketing category of Zweig Group’s 2015 Marketing Excellence Awards for its New Employee Questionnaire. AC Martin typically sends out a general email to all staff when new employees start. It’s a simple note that includes the employee’s picture, title, department, projects, and their educational background. Unfortunately, the email alone is not enough to prompt the rest of the staff to engage in dialogue with new employees outside of the usual project discussions. The firm wanted to find a way to provide insight into the new employee’s personality through their likes, dislikes, passions, travels, and design interests. The general purpose of the New Employee Questionnaire is to demonstrate that there is more to an individual than simply their title, department, and project. They hoped that by posting the New Employee Questionnaires on the firm’s Facebook page they would be seen as more informal and casual, and could prompt staff to seek out the new employees if they saw a shared interest. They wanted an eye-catching design in order to grab people’s attention. Even with a quick glance at the unique photo layout, staff can get a better sense of the new employee. AC Martin’s goal of increased camaraderie and congeniality was met. Current employees have either found things in common with the new employees and have engaged them in “around the water cooler” conversations, or have looked into design inspirations that they were introduced to through these posts. These informal conversations would not have taken place in the past, because shared interests were unknown. An unintended benefit which contributes to the firm’s overall social media goals, is that these posts showcase the firm’s culture in ways that a website is not equipped to do. For more info on the Marketing Excellence Awards click here. The 2017 Marketing Excellence Awards are open for registration! Click here to register your firm.