Attune Summit day 2 recap — Building an equitable digital experience

The second day of our Attune summit concluded with engaging sessions and practical learning centered on making the digital experience work for all employees.

Recap Attune Day 2

Our first annual Attune Digital Employee Experience Summit was a huge success! As Firstup employees, this has been our most fulfilling conference experience to date, and that’s really saying something considering that we’re still in an all-virtual environment. It seems like attendees and speakers feel the same way as we’ve received an incredible amount of positive feedback!

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For anyone who couldn’t attend, we’re once again recapping all the day’s main events. But since a recap is no substitute for being there, we recommend watching the sessions you’re interested in by registering at the Attune website.

Here are our top highlights from Day 2:

How Hilton leveraged global events to create a seamless digital experience

When Hilton developed a cross-functional team to reshape the company’s employee experience, they knew that experience would have to work for everyone from frontline guest services to corporate leadership. The team was making gradual progress on this transformation until the impacts of 2020 hit—COVID-19, global protests, economic recession. What was a Fortune 500 company to do? 

In her Day 2 keynote, Erica Cary, Hilton’s VP of HR product and services, shared how these seemingly negative events actually helped the company lose digital clutter, center what was important and build an equitable digital experience that met the needs of all their people. These new pressures enabled Hilton’s HR, IT and comms teams to collaborate like never before and truly future-proof their digital workplace

Transformational leadership can be uncomfortable. I know it requires motivating and delegating and applying and advocating and convincing and mobilizing the masses, but more than ever, it is necessary. To be successful, develop an actual strategy. Design for the modern workplace. Execute with confidence, and measure your impact.

— Erica Cary, Hilton

New product sneak preview: the reimagined FirstUp Studio

A core belief at Firstup is that equitable digital experiences must serve the frontline workforce as well as they do those who work at a desk. With that in mind, we’ve reinvented our platform, and today CTO Tim Christensen gave attendees their first glimpse of the reimagined FirstUp Studio. Bringing together the best of content design, marketing technology, campaign automation and analytics, the new FirstUp Studio makes it easy for anyone to create professional-grade content and deliver personalized digital experiences.

Watch the first look video below, or read the full story on FirstUp Studio’s capabilities

Core learnings from our practical breakout sessions

The Attune breakouts on Day 2 featured tailored learning sessions for IT, communications and HR audiences. Despite the diverse needs of these groups, some common themes emerged between all three sessions:

  • Technology is currently hindering agility as often as improving it. As the digital workplace has grown rapidly over the past year, it’s also become increasingly fragmented in many cases, making it more difficult to provide a unified digital experience for every employee. 
  • Company culture must adapt to how people are working today, whether they’re working from home, onsite or in the field. Organizations will have to find digital methods to create human connection, promote engagement and keep every worker involved even at a physical distance. 
  • Communication is a critical priority for all departments — not just comms. Giving lower-level managers and workers a way to get the word out more broadly will foster alignment and allow companies to mobilize their people quickly when needed. 

More Day 2 highlights

A key part of creating equitable employee experiences is building a culture of inclusion. Michelle DiTondo, former CHRO of MGM Resorts International, shared that companies can’t get there through diversity training alone. Instead, she provided guidance on how companies can model right behaviors and use technology to reinforce and reward them. 

UC Berkeley professors Dr. Sahar Yousef and Lucas Miller, founders of consultancy Becoming Superhuman, gave one of the most individually relevant sessions of the day. As leading neuroscientists, they explained what behavioral science tells us about optimizing our experiences to regain focus and become more productive. If you missed it, watch their presentation to learn how to manage distractions, find time for your most important work and stay connected in a balanced way.

Catch up on anything you missed

Ran out of time for that DEI session? Missed Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote? No problem — the entire 2 days of Attune content are now available on our website.

Related resources

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Firstup

Firstup is the world’s first intelligent communication platform. More than 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies use our platform to connect with their people, design and deliver personalized communications, and gain engagement insights throughout the employee journey. With Firstup, employers can view engagement data in real time, by organization, department, or employee. That helps leaders better understand their workforce, make informed decisions, and provide better experiences from hire to retire. Companies like Amazon, Tesco, Ford, and Hilton use Firstup every day to improve outcomes for their employees.

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