How do you connect members of an organization scattered across the four corners of a region as huge as Quebec so they can still share files and information effortlessly and efficiently? Such was the challenge Place aux jeunes en région solved thanks to Talkspirit!
Place aux jeunes en région is a Quebec-based non-profit organization that helps young people aged 18 to 35 find work and settle in the region. The organization brings together around 100 agents scattered throughout 80 of Quebec’s regional county municipalities (MRCs).
A few key figures:
- +100 agents in 15 of Quebec’s 17 regions
- +1,500 young people settle in these regions every year thanks to their services
- 98% of all users are active on Talkspirit each month
How does the organization use Talkspirit on a daily basis? How does it help them? Catherine Beaucage, recruiting agent at Place aux jeunes en région, provides answers.
The challenge of bringing agents scattered across the countryside under the same umbrella
“Before we implemented Talkspirit, we shared our important information and documents across a multitude of channels such as email, SharePoint, Google Drive—even a Facebook group,” Beaucage reports. The end result: agents often had trouble finding their way around!
Another problem was that “many agents felt isolated working alone.” In short, they lacked the tools to discuss matters with their colleagues.
“Our main challenge was to bring all our agents together on a single platform, enabling them to more easily exchange information and network. All this came with an added perk: reducing our volume of back-and-forth internal emailing.
As agent turnover is quite high, we were also looking for a tool to centralize all our documents,” adds the recruitment officer.
The quest for an easy-to-use platform
To meet these various challenges, the organization began looking for an all-in-one intranet platform.
“I spent several months benchmarking and testing different platforms. And I realized that Talkspirit best met our needs.
The cost was very attractive. But what really made the difference was the ease of use and intuitiveness of the platform. We tested it with people who were less comfortable with technology, and they managed to get the hang of it very quickly!
Talkspirit also excelled in functionality, as it facilitates exchanges via chat and videoconferencing, document management, collaborative working, a network-wide calendar, logging in with different email addresses, and for agents setting up their account in English, translating publications from French into English with the simple push of a button.”
A rapid rollout
Thanks to its intuitive design, Place aux jeunes en region fully implemented Talkspirit within just one week.“The secret is preparation! Before the launch, I took the time to set up the platform properly (colors, settings, creation of groups, etc.). Deployment then took place region by region over the course of the first week. For each region, I organized a meeting with the agents working there to train them on the tool and explain how to use the various functions.
It proved to be an intense week, but in the end, it really made a difference: every agent adopted Talkspirit in no time at all!” Beaucage exclaims.
Also read: 4 steps to launch a new internal communication tool
Talkspirit, an indispensable work tool
“Talkspirit is the first application our agents open in the morning.” It’s a tool that allows them to share information, communicate with colleagues, and collaborate more closely on projects.
“We’ve created several groups in order to organize these exchanges, and they’re proving really successful:
- regional groups allow agents can exchange and collaborate with each other
- a working group for the national team
- a group bringing together all members of the organization, to share top-down information
- a self-help group for sharing best practices and finding inspiration for projects
- a ‘wanted’ group to share candidate profiles and job offers matching those profiles,
- a group for English-speaking agents
- a casual group where agents can share whatever they want to decompress and have fun.”
Better information sharing
No more information scattered across multiple emails and Facebook posts. With Talkspirit, agents can now share information directly in a chat or a publication.
“Our network loves to chat! It’s quick and simple to use and makes it much easier for agents to chat with the national team, colleagues in the same region—even colleagues with a certain expertise over 1,000 km away. Quebec’s regions have never been so close!” Beaucage boasts.
“We also use publications to share news, best practices, new processes, and training documents. We classify all these with a tagging system. Thanks to the “I’ve read” functionality, each user can then indicate which publications they’ve consulted so they don’t miss out on any information.
With the calendar, we can also highlight external events linked to our recruitment activities, as well as our internal events such as conventions, monthly agent meetings, training sessions, happy hours, etc.),” says Catherine Beaucage.
These events are then integrated on the home page, which brings all the organization’s main news and statistics together.
Simplified document management
“We’ve also created a general drive where we archive all our long-term information: communication documents such as logos, templates, and graphic tools; learning materials such as video tutorials, pdf documents, and useful links; and finally, resources to help agents in their day-to-day work. Alongside this general drive, each group has its own drive where agents can store and co-edit their working documents.” In this way, they can access information and collaborate remotely with ease.
The chatbot, an asset for information retrieval
The FAQ chatbot is a real asset for Place aux jeunes en région, as it makes finding information on the platform even easier. “I’ve integrated a lot of questions and answers that I update regularly. For example, there are questions related to agents’ tasks, our candidate management software, and services we can offer different candidates.
When an agent has a question, they can ask it directly to the chatbot. If the chatbot doesn’t have a definitive answer, it notifies me so I can reply privately. This saves us time on a daily basis and gives us a better understanding of our agents’ needs,” Beaucage reports.
Quickly visible benefits
For Places aux jeunes en région, the implementation of Talkspirit has paid off at every level. The tool has made it possible to:
- reduce isolation
- facilitate sharing and access to information (especially via the drive and groups),
- streamline formal and informal interactions between colleagues via chat and videoconferencing
- strengthen cohesion and mutual support among colleagues
- boost intra-regional collaboration
- reduce internal email
“Before, we could send three to four emails a week to agents. But since we’ve been using Talkspirit, we’ve been sending no more than two or three a month,” reports the recruitment officer. Statistics-wise, the results are just as positive: “93% of users have logged on to Talkspirit over the last seven days—and 98% over the last month.”
The votes are in, and it seems the launch of the platform has been a real success!
Talkspirit’s take on Place aux jeunes en région
Talkspirit’s extensive range of functions covers all the regional needs of Place aux jeunes. From now on, agents can exchange, collaborate, and consult information concerning themselves via a single platform.
Unlike email and Facebook groups, Talkspirit lets you organize information and documents by group and locate them easily via the intelligent search bar. No need to spend hours searching for information!
Their next step? “Demonstrate how agents can use Talkspirit’s more advanced functionalities such as parameter customization. Perhaps use the LiveNow webinar module to replace Zoom. We’d at last have literally everything we need in one place,” adds Catherine Beaucage.
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