The channel began as a response to COVID-19 and Work@Home, but has quickly become more than that. It’s already changing the way Comdata Morocco engages with its staff and delivers for its clients and customers.
To show how Comdata Radio is helping to create value, let’s go back to 2020 and the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.
KEEPING PEOPLE CONNECTED
As the pandemic took hold globally in 2020, Comdata moved rapidly to a new work@home model (Comdata Smart Hub). As well as deploying the technology approaches to make this possible, the Group introduced new management and internal communications approaches. The team at Comdata Morocco had already been exploring the idea of a corporate radio channel for staff, and quickly realized this could be part of its own COVID-19 response: an ideal way to help staff feel connected, informed and cared for while working remotely.
The team then worked with a radio agency, run by Faïçal Tadlaoui (a radio/TV producer and well-known TV and radio anchor in Morocco), and Franck Mathiau (former program director of a French and international radio station). The result was Comdata Radio. Initially launched on Comdata Morocco’s Intranet, it is now being rolled out as an app, with wider content and functionality.
“My team and I do our best to produce the radio station to the same high standards as mainstream radio, with serious information, packaged content, empathy, humour … and of course music,” says Faïçal Tadlaoui. “We are working hand in hand with the Comdata communications team to produce content and programs that work for Comdata’s own people and their own ages, mindset and expectations. So Comdata staff get the same quality of content as when they switch on any other radio station, but they feel it’s their radio – it’s all about them.”
A POWERFUL TOOL FOR ENGAGING STAFF
Feedback from Comdata staff has been enthusiastic, and it quickly became clear that Comdata Radio could be taken further. “We began to see we could use radio to valorize our people,” says Laurent Volkoff, Process and Methods Director at Comdata Morocco. Rather than just helping employees feel connected during COVID-19, the radio channel could also help them:
- understand more about Comdata and its clients
- get insights into their colleagues’ jobs and activities
- have their own role and contribution understood, recognized and valued
“We can see that Comdata Radio is a real medium for acculturation,” he continues, explaining that it’s an opportunity to immerse staff in Comdata and its clients’ activities, values, brand and people. “It goes beyond the social links for people tele-working; this is bringing Comdata live to the radio.”
The station now has a mix of general and Comdata news, music, content about wellbeing at work, interviews with Comdata Morocco staff about their jobs and ‘success stories’, and much more. There’s a ‘Comdata’s Got Talent’ show, for people to talk about their own talents or skills in music, painting, theatre and so on, and functionality for people to record and send their own messages for the channel.
BENEFITS FOR CLIENTS
The key question for Comdata Morocco’s clients is: how does Comdata’s radio show relate to customer management and customer experience? Laurent Volkoff explains: “Our clients want our staff to represent their brands, to feel close to their brands, and to convey that to their customers on the phone or other channels. Our task at Comdata is to train and equip our staff to do that.”
This is precisely where Comdata Radio offers value: as a unique tool to develop those feelings of connection, closeness and immersion among staff. In turn, each client benefits from Comdata Morocco employees’ greater understanding of their colleagues and clients, their pride in their work, and the way they deal with customers and represent each brand. The positive experience and sense of community they gain from Comdata Radio, they also pass on to customers.
WHY USE RADIO?
What makes that possible is the power of radio. “With the radio, you can transmit empathy, humour, emotions, serious messages, interaction – whatever you want,” explains producer Faïçal Tadlaoui. “It’s the only medium that hasn’t lost market share in these times when people have social media, digital platforms, and so on. People may not read or watch TV so much anymore, but they still listen to the radio.”
The team in Morocco also point to a generational element. A large proportion of employees are Generation Y and Generation Z, with high expectations of positive work experiences, recognition, connection and even celebrity. “The radio station is a way for us to provide those generations with the valorization and profile they’re looking for,” states Laurent Volkoff. “They are free to listen when they want, and to give us their ideas about what they want to hear.”
As a result of the Morocco team’s attention to the expectations of its staff, including Generations Y and Z, Comdata has been voted as a Best Place to Work in Morocco, and a Best Place to Work in Africa, for three years in a row.
WHAT NEXT?
The plan at Comdata Radio is to keep on evolving the content and format in response to feedback from staff. But while the content and format will not stand still, the objective will be consistent: to keep Comdata Morocco staff informed, engaged and valued, so they in turn can do the same for brands and their customers.
The team in Morocco are also keen to ‘export’ the idea to other parts of Comdata, says Laurent Volkoff. “With every project and everything we do here, we try to think what we could do better, what can we learn – it’s part of our DNA. With Comdata Radio, we will keep on surprising people, and keep on generating the excitement and benefits. We’re always thinking about the next round, the next ideas, how to innovate and how to improve our offering for clients. That’s the Comdata way.”
