Name: The Un-Wrap Party
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T19:31:17.092Z
Duration: 1 h 12 min 56 s
Description: The Un-Wrap Party

Transcript for "The Un-Wrap Party": Hello, friends. Welcome, everybody, to the first up unwrapped party. We're about to get started here. My name is Panaki Kathyari, and we have a great discussion ahead of us. You know, it's funny when the team from FirstUp reached out to me to, talk about this event. They said, we want this event to be like your Spotify rap for employee experience. And, you know, if you guys know me. You guys know me? Yeah. Question Yeah. for everybody who's out there. Who's on Spotify or Apple Music? Does anyone check out their, like, end of the year wrapped? Whatnot? Yes. Yeah. Right on. Yeah. Exactly. We have folks on line two. Keep that in mind. We're gonna come back to that and you folks on chat. Yeah. Keep keep keep I'm glad you all found the chat box because we're gonna, be keeping this, interactive and entertaining that way. So we have a great conversation. We have myself and two amazing guests with me. We have Renee Moreno, who's vice president of internal comms at BlackLine, and Desiree Becker, who's a program manager at the and global employee experience at ATCO corporation. And we're gonna have a conversation that reflects on the biggest wins of this year, some of the surprises and moments that we've had, and where we're going in 2026. So let's kick it off with just a little bit of introductions first. So, Desiree, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself, your organization, and what you do? Yeah. Thanks so much, Panaki. Hi, everyone. My name is Desiree Becker. I am really fortunate to be the program manager for global employee experience and culture at AGCO Corporation. And our mission every day, our purpose is to help farmers sustainably feel feed the world, with, tractors and combines and precision ag, technology and equipment. And as part of our listening team, I get to help create meaningful experiences or I'm sorry, employee experience team. I get to help create, meaningful experiences for our employees around the world and also have responsibility for our listening strategy. Outside of that, I also get to help create amazing experiences for five tiny humans at home who call me mom, alongside my amazing husband. So thankful to be here with you today, as we celebrate the end of the year. Thank you. Thank you, Desiree, not only for joining us, but for the work that you do in feeding us and, raising five little ones, definitely applaud you there. Renee, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself, your organization, and what you do? Yeah. Sure thing. Hi, everyone. I am Renee Marino. I head up the internal comms program at BlackLine. We are a global software company. We have about 2,000 employees in 14 different countries. We have a financial closed platform to help the office of the CFO be more efficient, be more effective, and to really meet the challenges of, today's business environment. In my role, I handle everything from executive communications to, our internal platform, which I'm excited to talk more about. And, also, the, the communications that really drive our our strategy and alignment with our global organization. I also have some little ones at home. Thankfully, not at home right now. There was snow on the grounds today, but they did get off to school. I'm based in Columbus, Ohio. So I'm pleased to be here today. Thank you. And thank you for joining us, Renee and, you do. And just to introduce myself, hello, friends. I'm Panaki Kathiari. I'm CEO of Local Wisdom. We're an agency that I'd like to say we're like spackle for comms teams. So mid to global fortune communications teams come to us when they need help with talent, technology, strategy, or execution. My background is in technology, psychology, and design, and I'm really interested in helping human centric organizations communicate well and shine above the noise. I do a lot in that space. I have a software company called Resource Hero that helps balance people's workload and, started a podcast a few years ago called why does it feel so wrong to be human at work. So enjoy the space, enjoy talking about the employee experience, and, well, even bigger than that, the human experience. So while we're at it, I also wanted to take a moment to shout out Erin Sherwood and Miranda Bucheit. They've done all the work behind the scenes to put this event together. So, if we can, even in the chat or somehow give a virtual round of applause to them and first stop for getting us together. Thank you all. So yeah. Besides us on stage, Desiree and, Renee, we're gonna we wanna hear from all of you as well. So I'll also give an opportunity for you all to join us on stage if you, feel like that or have that courage to do so because we are also giving away some prizes. So we have prizes for participation here. So make some noise in the chat, get on stage, get a little something at the end of the day. There you go. I like that. Zane put. up the the peanuts characters. So he's already he's already he's already vying for the number one spot. Thank you, Zane. So, yeah, with that said, let's just dive in. So we're going to talk about the biggest wins of 2025. And, so as I asked earlier, if, anyone was on Spotify or Apple Music and if you've seen your, like, year unwrapped, I guess, I'll ask, Desiree, Renee, you need to start with Desiree. Do you have Spotify or Apple Music and anything fun in your unwrapped? I do have Spotify, and every year, I'm so not disappointed, but I'm reminded on the side I also teach dance. So. my top five is every song that I've heard it dance too many times. I think this year was Waiting on a Wish from the Snow White movie, and then we had a little bit of Kanye West thrown in, and then some musical theater too, going back to Hairspray. So my Spotify Wrapped is just really another part of my work, and I I guess I love that too. It's fun to reflect on all that we did this year. That's that's it's it's so funny to kinda, like, see that because you, like, you get this bit of nostalgia and sometimes it's like, oh, man. That song is already played out. I don't wanna hear it again because I've had enough of it already. But it's just the interesting data behind it. Renee, anything from your side? I think you're on Apple Music, is it? Any fun facts coming from you? Yeah. I mentioned my my two little ones at home. I have two little boys, and here in Columbus, Ohio, we are Buckeye fans through and through. If there are any Buckeyes, let me hear it in the chat. Mhmm. And my my two little guys are obsessed with the Ohio State marching band. And so at the very top of my list, played, like, I kid you not, like, 325 times this year. We see Ohio State University marching band game day faves. So that is that's my list. It's almost exclusively the entire list too is the Wow. There's one song made up to the list. That is awesome. because I you know, there is something about, like, drummer and marching bands that I think that are, like, really just inspiring and it gets you exciting, so it gets the heart pumping. But yeah. Yeah. This is when Miranda, explained it to me about the unwrapped for employee experience. I was like, oh, that is cool. And then it just so happened that same day my, Spotify and rap came out. So it was, the the fun facts for me. I had, I guess, maybe similar to Desir. I had I didn't know that this was possible, but it said I have listened to 366 different genres throughout the years with Spotify. Couldn't really pinpoint what genre for me, which does make sense. I'm part DJ, so I'm listening to all different types of things. And, yeah, the top songs that came up on my, on my year end rap was all k pop demon hunter because I do have a five year old. And and, I say that's a likely excuse for me to, listen to it, but, yes, I'll that'll be my official answer. So, yeah, folks in the chat, like, yeah, let us know. Well, you yeah. You were a lot of listening age, and I was actually, happy that my listening age was younger than my actual age. So nice. Rachel got 271 genres. So there you go. I feel it. Excellent. Yeah. Keep posting things in the chat. I wanna hear songs so I could, like, start popping in my, like, 2026 playlist so I get something different next year. But right now, as we're kind of wrapping up, like, 2025, we wanted to talk a little bit about our biggest wins. So let's kind of get from music to our work world. So, maybe Renee, we'll start with you. When you reflect back onto this year, what's a win that comes to mind? Like, what's something that you're really proud of? Yeah. This is an easy one. We went live this year with FirstUp. So we had an aggressive implementation timeline, that took us from, like, maybe October '24 to going live in January. '25. So yes. Yeah. That's kinda what we said too. And we, you know, we we worked through the the tough year end, through holiday stuff, just to really gather the right information to make that go live to write to make the go live a success. Just gather the information, organize it in a platform, be really critical about how we learn to reach our black learners, our employees, with the information we know they would need and want and make it easy to find. So by far, the biggest win of this past year was was going live, and we've had, the the twenty twenty five year worth of, like, benefits from that go live. Right? Most of which I'm sure everyone on the call has seen. Like, the the data, the insights, Wow. analytics, reaching our our audiences differently, seeing them engage, having, insights into what they're doing to engage. Just like the power of that data and information to help validate that what we've done has has been successful and moved the organization forward has been been the biggest win for us this year. That is awesome. I mean, anyone on the chat or even, like, Desiree, have you ever launched anything in, like, three to four months like that? I mean, that's that's impressive. I wanna is a really quick turnaround. Kudos to you and your team, great. Renee. Well, thank and also to the first step, the implementation. team. They were awesome. They really were awesome. And that was actually one of the differentiators that we, picked out in the RFP process was a strength of the first step implementation team and how confident we felt that they'd be able to be a partner for us to get us live in that timeline. And it it really went as smooth as it could, over that condensed, condensed period and challenging time of the year. That's fantastic. And I'm glad. to hear you. Yeah. Like, that that commitment to, to launch by the first up team was awesome. Yeah. Mhmm. It was kinda around that that same time that this is around the time when we do, like, kind of unspeakable feats, isn't it? Like this, like, fourth quarter, beginning of first quarter. Yeah. Desiree, what about yourself? Any kind of notable win that comes from you? And I'll ask the folks in the chat if you've had a win as well. Pop it into the chat as well. But Desiree, anything come to mind for you? Yeah. Absolutely, Panaki. And we have been fortunate to be with Firstup for several years now. And, Renee, I'm sure you'll continue to see the amazing benefit that you've already seen. But one thing that we're really proud of is our employee listening strategy. And so we've made it a point every year since, I think, beginning in 2021 to ensure that we're listening to our employees and taking their feedback and turning that into action. And just, here at the November, we were happy to record record participation in our annual survey at about 85%. So really outstanding. I think it's a testament to the work that we're doing, as an organization, but First Step really enables us to reach our audience, our our full audience and population. So we have a little over 20,000 employees around the globe. Some are on the front line, shop floor workers, and we have many in the office. And without FirstUp, we wouldn't be able to communicate the actions that come from the results. And, you know, that action really helps to drive participation, and further engagement in our listening strategy and enhancing our overall experience. And so we're ending 2025 knowing that our employees felt confident and comfortable in speaking up, that we can take the feedback we've received from them, turn it into action, and then we're able to really use the FirstUp platform to amplify those employee voices and, create change. So we're looking forward to 2026 in and continuing our listening strategy. We know that there's a lot of work ahead, but also a lot of fun. That is awesome. And I I think I'm gonna. kinda pull a pin on that first of all, because we're gonna because those that data, those results probably kinda feeds into your 2026 stuff, and we're gonna hear about that a little bit later too. But is this your congratulations on 85%. Is that, like, the highest so far that the surveys ever received? It is. And we usually do have fairly high participation, but, you know, it just kept ticking up this year. And so we were watching it closely and, excited to share that with our employees last week as well. So, you know, it really is a big thanks to them for speaking up and sharing their voices. It enables us to do the work that we do. Right on. Do you do this, like, survey, like, around this time of the year, or when did it end, I Yeah. So it typically runs every November, but we do check-in with ploy employees, in the middle of the year just to? make sure that we're moving in the right direction as well. And so we just, you know, we like to say any feedback is good feedback. It it helps propel us forward, and so it's exciting to hear what they have to say. Yeah. That is awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. As we kind of keep talking about wins, I'll I'll share some of ours. We'll just keep talking to things that pop up for we've had a bunch of launches as well. And, like, actually, like, Renee's story reminded me of a launch. So I guess, it it was similar time frame as yours, but it was kind of one of the most, easiest launches. This is a. migration from an intranet. And we had, like, automated a good portion of the work, which is very interesting. It was one of the first times that we were, automate this much of the migration, which was cool based on, like, access to APIs and stuff. And when we launched, it was funny because normally when we launched, we we kind of have this, we call it, like, a a war room type of thing. As we launch, everybody's ready to make changes and updates. And so we launched and we're all in this meeting kind of talking about it and like, hey, what's going on? What do we need to change? What do we need to update? And it was by far one of the most boring meetings ever because there was nothing wrong. Everything just went smoothly, and everyone was just calm. And I was like, I've never experienced a launch this smooth or interesting type of thing, which is really which is really cool to to say. My, our our client, we were talking to her and she was like, you know, the night before launch, she was talking to a colleague and about that they're launching their new Internet and the calling colleague was like, you know, you're you're you're really calm the night before launch. And she was like, I am. And I was that felt really good because especially during this time and a frenetic time for things to just go right, I think it's a it's a blessing. No way. Other other things we've launched were on, like, corporate websites and and things like that where I really got excited in, like, launching new modern interfaces, trying to use new technologies and design and, things like that because we're also launching corporate sites externally. But, yeah. Let me transition back to you guys. Any other wins that come to your mind? Meanwhile, I'll kind of be, like, casing the the chats if I could pull anybody's, wins out as well. Yeah. Desiree Orbanay, whoever wants to jump in first. I can start with mine. And, again, like, being a a first stub baby, we are seeing our first year of data start rolling in, and are using that in new ways. So before going from an environment with almost no data. Right? We're on, like, a SharePoint backed Internet. We have Outlook that, you know, folks are are tied into, but really without a lot of insight into what or how our employees are interacting or what it is they were needing. So being able to use that data to tailor, our approach throughout the year to change our approach to make pivots or slight adjustments, was something we hadn't been able to do before with as much confidence. You make changes sometimes. You kind of put a, you know, hope and a prayer and and hope that you're you're shooting at the the right target. But this year with First Step, we were able to understand, in a much more granular level of detail where we needed to focus and how we could change our strategies to have a higher impact. I could go on about all of the wins, that's fantastic. this year. Again, just being was like, being the I became, like, platform. slightly curious over the data. did you have any, Yeah. like, The data was the big. into certain actions based on the the data? Yeah. Sure. So our our managers, our people leaders, were consuming the content at a much lower rate than the rest of the organization. And with the analytics and insights, we were able to dig into that entire major population, see, okay, where, who, which managers, what departments, what countries, what regions, were you know, taking its average down. And we found it concentrated in a certain region. So we were able to pinpoint and target work with the work with the folks in that region to understand, hey. What what do you what do you need here? How is this not meeting your needs? What can we do to meet you where you are in a different way? And it was effective, without the the insight to, again, like, track and diagnose where that problem really was in our organization on our prior tools like SharePoint or Outlook, we couldn't have had that impact, and it did make a big impact for the employees, and for the business overall. That is so fantastic. Yeah. Kudos to that. Like, that's a new superpower or insight that you have that it amazing, like, what you can. do with. the the data you have? It really is, a way to make an impact like ever before. Absolutely. You didn't realize that you're flying blind all this whole time and type of thing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Any any, one or last, wins for you for, Yeah. Absolutely. And I think it really, relates well to her what Renee said. Right? In identifying people leaders and people managers and ensure that they're digesting content, segue into that. We wondered, you know, how often are our employees connecting with their managers? Are they communicating? And how is that impacting their overall engagement? And so one really cool correlation that we were able to find this year is that our employees who are having regular conversations and connection with their manager are, I think, something like 20% more highly engaged than employees who aren't having those meetings and that connection. And that allows us, again, to also ensure that we're communicating effectively and reaching audiences appropriately and adjusting our strategy where needed, to meet those needs of the employees and the managers. So that was our other win this year. That's so fantastic too because you can allow that learning and that could be, a teachable thing to those who don't have that same level of relationship to the overall increase, the engagement for all employees. So good. You know, love to hear from folks on in the audience. Again, like, Randall was saying in the chat, if, anyone wants to raise their hand, we could pull you on stage. I'll let you think about that for a second, but we'd love to hear your stories as well. You know, there's a few folks on here. Don't make me call somebody out. But in the meantime, I will read something that was mailed in by, other first up customers. And, actually, Zane Zane, I think, is in the chat somewhere. He, he sent in something. Zane is from ECU Health, and he's the internal comms manager. And one of the wins that he shared was a a few weeks away from celebrating the first year with, First Stop. The Internet is called The Current, but the focus has been building community and culture and pride across the hospital system. And that system is with, 16,000 team members serving rural Eastern North Carolina. And The Current, their intranet has really reshaped how they share their company team and member stories and connecting people across the community of hospitals and and clinics. So The Current is helping to build a stronger community among multiple sites in a thoughtful way and especially with people who are just hardworking team members, especially in the hospital system. So way to go, Zane. I to that. I think that's so awesome to hear that the culture is being amplified too. That's something we've been really excited about at AGCO, that we're able to bring our culture to life and see what it looks like for all our employees and team members around the world. So, Zane, that's that's great. And I think Firstup is an amazing platform to help make that happen. Fantastic. Thank you. And said for anyone, if you don't feel, like getting on stage, feel free to share on the chat as well, any wins that you have. And let's give Zanes more kudos for for sharing that big win. Alright. Right. Yeah. We're gonna jump into the next topic that we're gonna talk about. So I always like, adventurous stories and drama. And what makes stories dramatic and fun and exciting is they're defined by surprises. It's like the sudden struggle that you didn't see or challenges that pop up. It's those moments, or I should say, that make make life interesting. Those gotcha moments, I should say, that make life interesting. So let's talk about that. So let's start with you, Desiree. What's, one thing that surprised you this year in a good way or maybe in the other way? Yeah. So I don't know if it was necessarily a surprise so much or maybe just a challenge, but I think most organizations can relate to needing to navigate and manage change and transformation. And I think that has been, not an obstacle for us, but, you know, a step in our journey forward as an organization. And, again, we've really relied heavily on the First Stop platform to help communicate with our employees and our managers on, the state of the company and how we're evolving to really, enhance work for all of us and make our experience better. And so through that, this was a new area for me, a new topic. I've personally had the opportunity to learn so much about managing and navigating through change. I think we've been able to help our employees with that as well, and so I'm sure more to come. Right? Everything, everything changes all the time, but I know that we're really better equipped every day to help navigate that change. Totally. I think that's probably the one thing consistent and the only thing I could probably rely on in this world is that it will keep changing. And I found that as an interesting surprise, for me as well or a trend. I've seen it as it's not just change, but it's change on top of change, on top of change, on top of change, which is a pretty interesting thing when and and so because of that, I think one of the interesting topics that I think really got the light shone on it, especially for internal communicators, is burnout, because it's kind of like grappling with all of this and being that person that has to communicate it and figure out how to organize it and make sense of it, is a tough tough ask. And then you add kind of pressures on top of that, I think could lead us into burnout places. So we've been doing a lot of talking and mindfulness about that, just keep that in mind, as far as all the work that you're doing. But, Renee, any any surprises that come out of change or any surprises that came up other than Yeah. change? I mean, so many so many things there. So many places could go with that. You know, I I think, as I mentioned, changing from that, like, SharePoint backed, you know, Outlook backed into a platform that has the data, what lots of surprises in there for us as well. And you meant you mentioned. before what you just said sparked, like, kinda sparked a memory for me too about you mentioned trying to take all those pieces, put them together, and tell a story. Right? And that's what we what we do in our roles is take those communications from across the organization, whether it's change management or otherwise, and put them together to tell a story. And so this year, the first step platform helped us helped us to do that, I think, in a way that we hadn't been able to before and were effectively than we had before. Being able to have that centralized place, I think, for those communications also made it easier for employees to digest. And so I think one thing that did surprise us this year was the opportunity to do it differently. We were looking for that and hungry for it, but I think we were surprised by how effective that could be in the platform. And we created a a topic called executive communications. And we would kind of cherry pick, if you will, some communications from executives across the organization and put them in this one topic to build that cohesive story. And then we use that as kind of like the start here button for employees. Like, you're out for a week, you're on PTO, vacation, great. Come back. Start here. Catch up right here. Read these last three posts, and you're right back into it. You know what's going on, and you're informed to be able to stay, you know, stay in lockstep with the strategy, and alignment there. So I think that the surprise was the opportunity to do it do it differently and also the impact that it that it did have in the organization. Yeah. I think. that's that's the one that's the one. it's one beautiful It's one beautiful thing. getting access to data is that you could find little surprising nuggets that you could take action on and everything like that, which is, which is really cool. Maybe because you just wouldn't know and wouldn't know how people are taking it. And I think it's the one beautiful thing about, like, access to that in change, because we know that change is just no matter what gonna happen. So and I always think that kind of how change is also like a two way dialogue. Right? Like, as if I'm asking you to make a change, I also should be open to hear your opinion about it or what concerns do you have or what are the things that I'm not seeing as far as this change. So I think the ability to have that two way conversation that First Stop provides is really key for that. And I'll I'll say this for everyone else too, a little housekeeping. Everyone there, you if you pop questions into the q and a, I am keeping tabs on that. We will have q and a time at the end, so we'll we'll we'll get into that. But if anything shows up that I think I could, like, interject into the conversation right now, I will do that. But feel free to add your your questions in there and vote them up, so that, you know, the more we have, we'll have time for that. And also while we're talking about surprises throughout the year, feel free to pop in your surprises for the year in the chat as well because we'd like to know. Yeah. I think one of the big changes or surprises for me, and probably probably all of us is how, like, AI tools have exploded. Mhmm. You know, it's like at the end of 2024 and 2025. I think around this time last year, like, I was just playing with graphic creation tools like Midjourney and things like that, and then turns into, like, sound and audio creation tools. And then, like, throughout the year, I just, like, research tools and then starting to, like, tie things together to create workflows with AI and and and things like that. So that was a that was a big and interesting surprise for me. Have you has has the world of AI served any kind of surprise or interesting, surprising change for you this year for either of you? Yeah. I I I'm going back to our listening strategy again, but it's also about equipping our teams to help make change. And so AI has been really instrumental in helping, you know, review employee comments or even the data itself, like the overall data, to help develop action plans. And we even have, like, an internal agent now, that's AI that can help, really take all of that and put it together and come up with a robust action plan. And I don't wanna remember what life was like before we had that. It was pretty manual. So we're really excited about the benefit that AI has for our employee listening strategy and how it can able us to even move even faster on the results that we receive. So I think that's just one way I AI is enhancing the way that we're working at AGCO. That's right. At least a happy surprise there. Yes. Yeah, Renee, any AI insights or other surprises for this year? Yeah. Absolutely. AI is big for us. We're a software we offer software platform. Right? So we are building AI agents, into our external products and also internally to equip our employees. We have an internal AI platform for our employees that we partner with our AI team to roll out this year. So partnering with that enablement strategy, kind of the the launch strategy, kinda getting the word out and driving adoption. We've actually connected that internal, it's Google Gemini, internal enterprise AI platform Nice. to FirstUp. So we've overlaid or we pulled in the data from our Internet from FirstUp, to be able, to be accessed by all our employees in, in the AI platform. So it allows them to ask questions. Right? It's like a it enhance it's not just enhanced search, but it's like you're you're able to ask questions or use important data we put in there about our company strategy or, you know, where we're going next for our road maps, that's all pulled in. So employees are able to interface with that in many, many different, different ways to enhance their work and their output. That is fantastic. And it's so good kind of like the the way organizations kind of, like, embrace AI in in a way because, yeah, so much benefits even, like, I was just kind of researching on this. Like, 86% of folks said that AI saves them time. 65%. is, like, satisfied with the role it plays in their work. Then there's this whole interesting stigma because 69 still percent still feel that they wanna hide their usage, while 70%, like, report feeling judged for using it. And that's from well, from Business Insider. But it's kinda one of those interesting relationships because it I feel like that's what it is. We're developing a new relationship with this artificial intelligence because it sounds. so human that it feels like it in that way. Right on. You know, oh, we have some things like Zane is using Copilot to help analyze analytics as well. So that's pretty awesome. So, yeah, we're wanna see if there's, anyone else who wants to share any surprises or might kind of, like, scour the chat to see if there's any interesting surprises that are going on here from you all. Raise your hand if you'd like to get on stage, but I'll share one that came in, via email. This one was from Gina Tissingh, internal comms manager at, the central care team. But basically, the so if anyone is on, the first up, community, I think there's a lot of, fun bracket games that are going on. So so the Sentra team, Gina, kind of pulled from that bracket games to, come up with the ultimate Halloween candy bracket. So that, you know, so 15% of 11,000 team members took part in it. That incredible engagement, comments like this was made comments like this was way more fun than it should be and keep doing brackets that were left all across the rounds. They, they followed it up with an ultimate Thanksgiving side dish bracket. The also a best holiday doubleheader poll that's going out, with with very diabolical pairings like Love Actually and Die Hard double headers. That's very fun and interesting. So it's really, really cool to, like, see those brackets coming to life in different places. I don't know if first up to you. Was that Chuck Ghost or who did that? Like who started that? Because I feel like it was. But, that's a great one. Have you guys ever did anything silly like that? Oh, Zahid did that. Saheed, we all offer you a round of applause. So yeah, any any fun like, tidbits or any thoughts on that? Have you ever thought about doing a bracket game? Yeah. I haven't yet, but I'm going to now. That sounds so good. It's like, what a great way to get folks to engage. It's very cool. Yeah. It always kinda draws me in when I see that email cup pop up in, like, from the the community. Whatnot. So yeah. Right on. Always super fun. Keep the brackets going first up, please. We like them. Yeah. Let's go into the next topic a little bit. We're gonna move into the future. Alright? Because, we're all headed there. We're all in 2026 planning mode already. So let's talk about that. And maybe, Desiree, we'll start off with you for a second on this one as well, because you talked about the employee engagement, survey, and it's given you some results. And I'm always want to think that, you know, you ask people for feedback, you gather the feedback, but then it kinda turns into here's what I'm gonna do with that feedback. So what are some of the what are some of the survey well, I suppose what are some of the prior priorities priorities that you'll be, like, moving forward on from the that you learned from the survey? Yeah. I think, you know, we're still analyzing the data. We have some high level insights, but I think one thing that we will continue to do as we move forward is to continue to really ask our managers to lean in and help our employees, navigate life at Adco, whether that be through change or maybe, you know, the positive implementation of maybe a rewards and recognition platform down the road. So we know our managers are the most effective at communicating with our employees or passing those messages along. So I think we'll continue doing that, and that's a result of feedback we've seen in the survey. I think, one other thing that we're really interested in, and I know I mentioned that we have really strong frontline participation, in the survey and high engagement with those employees that is really helping to bring them even more on board with platforms like First Step, and other systems within the organization, so that it's easily accessible and readily available at their fingertips too. And so that's one big project that I think we'll have as we move in to 2026, and then we'll take the rest of those insights that we've gained. One really cool thing that I love about working at AGCO and the team that I'm part of is that we don't sit on the results. We really take them to drive action, to ensure that we have employee driven business change. And I think something that we'll be utilizing the first up platform for is really amplifying the action that comes from those results. So, you know, it's easy, for things to be implemented throughout the year and to maybe lose sight of them because they become a part of your daily life right at work. And so I'm looking forward to utilizing FirstUp even more to help highlight the change that's made because of our employees speaking up and sharing their voice. So looking forward to that too. Yeah. Seriously. Yep. Exactly. It's a great way to Straight, like, a priorities bracket, like, which is gonna win. Yes. So there we go. Start mixing business with this whole thing. But I really love the, like, the focus on manager comms, especially for what you do and especially when, like, when there's, like, frontline, employees in place because I think people trust their managers, people trust their supervisors more so than they trust, quote, unquote, corporate. So I think that's a really, really great approach. Yeah. Renee, I'm on your side. What are some of the things you you're excited to tee up for, 2026? Yeah. So 2026 is, actually BlackLine's twenty fifth anniversary. Wow. Yeah. Which is exciting to say. It's a software company. I don't think a lot of us in in the industry get to say that. So we're proud of it, and we're excited, for it. One of the things we have not done in this first year, with First Step is really focused on UGC, those user generated content. We really haven't done much of that. We're seeing a little trickle here and there coming in from this just organically from employees, but we're excited to really focus on that in the coming year, in a new way. So asking for more employee stories, showcasing them differently, having employees share their own stories even through the platform through some of the, you know, ways to post or share their own pictures or content. Just those haven't done before that hopefully will, kind of drive some of the culture pieces that we're spoken about before. Right? If you're able to help build more culture and showcase that culture and make that dispersed organization in the cases feel more connected. So we're looking forward to really leaning in hard to that next year, in a very different way for our organization and hopefully seeing some of the results at the end of the year. That is fantastic. I think, that. is a tough nut to crack as well depending on, like, your, I your audience. I was just gonna it will be for us. after you after. you, Renee. I don't mean. I skip. think I think you're you're right. It's gonna be, I think, a tough one for us. A bit of a different, ask of our black liners, and a different way for them to engage. So we're hoping that by centering it around the twenty fifth anniversary, like, it's personal. Right? It's, like, emotional. People, like, true blood, sweat, and tears. Not blood, but, like, sweat and tears for sure, have gone into the past twenty five years. And we're excited to use that as a catalyst to hopefully drive that, that UGC and start to build up that strategy based on what we hope will be a really high impact way to to try and launch that to get more engagement from our our black liners. Any any advice, Desiree, for Renee? Have or how are you how are you doing at, UGC content? We have plenty of it. So I think it was it it took some. time. Right? And employees becoming comfortable with the platform, again, with sharing their voice even if it wasn't necessarily work related. So I think, you know, we have an AdcoPets topic and, you know, just an opportunity for employees around the globe to connect, and I think that's been really important to us as an organization. And we're pretty relaxed on what employees share. So, we've trusted them to to speak freely and openly and share topics that are important to them, and I think that's so important. So no particular advice other than have fun with it. Yeah. I love logging in every day and seeing the pictures of every peep everybody's pets, you know, dressed up for the holiday season, or maybe on an adventure with their families. So, yeah, have fun with it, I guess. And I I think tying it to your twenty fifth anniversary will absolutely help that. That's. our hope, and what what cool things you do there. That's awesome. You have, like, the pets topic of effort. Others do that as well. So looking forward to exploring more of that. So, I will. be picking up for you. Desiree. Absolutely. I will have some questions in the chat about that we'll get into as well. But I think I always kind of say about, like, it's always. tough when it's forced. So if you're making it as kind of, like, chill as possible is the is the best way to do it, I think. Because when it's when it turns mandatory, it's just not fun anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Let me ask a with you too. Any other kind of strategies or plans that you're excited about in 2026? I'll also, like, ask the folks, who are in attendance. Feel free to pop things in the chat too because we wanna know. Desiree, how about you first? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So I think, well, let's see. What else am I looking forward to in 2026? I think I'm really actually looking forward to the organization going through more change, right, in a in a good way. I love that we're positioning ourselves for the future. I love that I get to be a part of that. And I think another really cool thing that we're doing is really focusing on our culture and bringing it to life. So we have, it's silly, but we have a it's not silly. We have a lighthouse, and it's kind of a model for how we want to show up at work. And so. we actually had a site make those lighthouses. They turned them into awards, and we were able to see that on first step. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have known about it, but I think it's more of that too. So seeing. our culture come to life more around the organization, the more embedded it becomes. I'm looking forward to more change. I think it's exciting, and I'm excited to see where we end 2026. So That's a very great way to go into, like, the year. I find myself saying that every year too. It's like, you know, next year is gonna be a really exciting year because this is it feels like a a chapter change or not. But, yeah, being open, or kind of taking on change with open arms is a great thing where to look at it as well. Yeah. Renee, anything else you'd like to add as far as, like, 2026 plans are that you're excited about? Yeah. Sure. Again, still a bit of a first step baby here, and you're number one. So building more content creators, so really expanding our content creator community, with other department leaders or leaders around the business. We're still a bit centralized with how we, create and push out content, but we, through the analytics, know what employees are hungry for. We don't have a formal employee listening strategy yet. So we've tried to use even, like, little things like the search, you know, search word or search topics things, right, and the insights to kinda give us at least a direction around what, what information employees might be looking for more, more of. So building our content contributor strategy to help build some of those holes, to help get more information out to our black liners who are looking for it and who need it and will use it, is something we're excited for for next year as well. Excellent. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. A lot of that. And there's so much of, interesting things to do in the next year. And, like, kind of the way we're seeing things from, like, trends from a bunch of different organizations. Kind of looking at things of, like, affecting leadership authenticity and two way listening, I think, is a big thing. I think kind of, like, when I think about internal comms and employee experience, it is communication in multiple directions, like up, down, left, right, down, up type of thing. And so I think, that's one of the things that we're working on. And you guys all are talking about listening. And it's I guess there's hearing and then there's listening. And I suppose, you know, a lot of times, you know, we hear, but I'm not sure we're always listening and taking that in. So I think that's kinda one of the things that I'll, like, be focusing more on with with clients. I think frontline is another one that's, incredibly important. I think I think, like, there when I kinda think about employee populations, I was kinda think about who's the biggest and most influential audience would probably be your frontline employees because they're right on the ground kind of where the rubber hits the road, you know, fulfilling that promise, that brand promise in that way. So that's exciting. I think there's some things around AI personalization things. Things are just only gonna pick up there. So we have to figure that out. But I'm also thinking about the human bits that are in between AI and automation. Because I see what's happening across a whole bunch of different areas is technology is making things move really fast, but they're the human bits between the technologies that is really, really difficult to keep up with it all. So I think that's the one part we have to be careful of in automation and AI throughout all of this stuff as well. So fun times. And I I think one of the big things that I'm, like, gearing up or interested to talk about next year, and we're starting to plan this right now, is I think functions like corporate comms, internal comms, employee experience, HR, and even some of the external comms, I think we'll have to be start banding together even more because I I think, the the shift that's happening both from, like, technology and that speed and how all these functions are starting to, like, commingle and co co relate, like, need one another is really interesting. So I think there's gonna be a lot of, like, figuring out the right communication channels to, like, building those internal capabilities of working together. And just going beyond messaging, but just really having that dialogue, I think, are things that are becoming up as well. Now any any thoughts on any of that? I just hit you all about a lot though. I think that's great, Penaki. And, you know, the the AI piece of that is so interesting. I mean, it is moving so fast, like you said. And part of that human experience, our CEO actually said this in a town hall about a few months ago. He said, we're the last generation of leaders to lead only human teams. Right? You think about AI and then rise like agentic. team members. It's happening. Mhmm. It's what a different, you know, what a different experience that's going to be. So what an opportunity to lead into that human experience as you said, and to make sure those moments are are still high impact. They are high value. How do you keep that? How do you harness that value? And that's all that the change and the the breakneck speed that I think we're all just seeing happen before our eyes with this pace of work. It's a while. Yeah. The future is exciting in that way. The future is now. The know? future, is now. It's it's happening. It's mean, it's very exciting. true of sci fi, sort of thing. Right? Like, yeah. We we see. some. others in movies and now it's in real life. But that's, I guess, how technology works. I think, even like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were inspired by Star Trek before they created the the computer there. So yeah. So exciting things for 2026. I I think for those of you on, listening listening in, love to hear anything you're excited with that way. Yeah. Let me talk about one thing. So I think, we had, Gina also shared, about, the strategy hers, was they, are really looking to launch the, the team had been maintaining a standalone website with an external agency. And so they're they're they're deciding to shift that into knowledge hubs, and kind of using that knowledge hubs add on to recreate the content that's currently hosted on the external process. So they're excited really excited about this strategy because it'll increase that connectivity to content. It'll make it more efficient, and it'll make the content more timely because it'll they'll be getting there faster and it's an overall better user experience there as well. So excited for that. We'd love to hear any other thoughts on strategies that are coming up for anyone on, the chat. But I think what we'll do because there's a lot of, like, q and a kind of queued up here now that I see. So we're doing so thank you all for submitting. I think we'll get into some of the q a q and a stuff here as well. And there's been a lot around the UGC conversation, so this might be good for for everyone here. But Zane, our all star here, is talking about would love to hear about anyone who is making it happen with UGC, not just the fun stuff, but the content that connects mission, vision, values. So definitely understood. How do we kind of, like, get UGC going for things other than pets and Halloween and things like that? Have you have either of you had any luck with that or heard of any other company having luck with that? I don't know how it really started for us. I wasn't really utilizing or I wasn't involved with FirstUp at the time, but I think now it really is organic. So there's just, you know, we have a lot of content creators around the globe who are capturing those really impactful moments across the organization, whether it's tied to our purpose, our vision, or our cultural beliefs. And so I think even getting started, it just helps encourage others to to do so and making sure that they're comfortable and confident and sharing. And I think one thing that's great is that we're not expecting perfection from any article that shows up on our internal platform called Our Field. It's really just providing that insight and shining a light on what our employees are already doing. So it may have been shared previously, you know, on a bulletin board or in a local newsletter or maybe via email, and now we've been able to funnel that content into the FirstUp platform. And I think that too, you know, is really it's been about not limiting our employees and what they're able to share, and so it just it happens organically for us now. But it did take some encouragement at first. I'm certain of that. That does. I always think you kinda kinda ease into it and, like, you almost it's like whatever, like, hiding broccoli and brownies type of thing. You know? Like, how do you how do you talk about the business while it's not really about the business? So some things that we do, we do have, like, kudos and appreciation that we do at our organization. And, that doesn't directly speak to a specific, value or strategy. But what it is doing is it reinforcing values and strategies. Right? So and and through the actual kudos or through the appreciation where everyone gets to hear, you you're validating and further emphasizing positive behaviors that way. So it's, just fostering that. So that's kinda one way I've always thought about how do you kinda tie user generated content with, like, actual more business stuff. So we also have, like, a channel, at our organization that's, like, local wisdom wins. So whenever someone has a good win or a good, someone did good work, got good, engagement or get got had a good, kudos, they'll they'll pop it into this channel and then people will, like, thank them. And, again, it's kind of another way to kind of reinforce stuff in that way. Yeah. Any other thoughts? Or and and, folks, I know there's been a lot going on in the chat about this, about UGC, but if there's any other thoughts that are specific to UGC to the business, pop it in there. Any any other ideas to add on for, like, user generated content that's kind of more that's less but I'm I'm kind of assuming that there's, like, a leader somewhere and there's, like, you know, we don't wanna see pets anymore. I wanna talk about business. Just talk about business and stuff like that. We have Mr. Business out there. So I'm I'm feeling like that's happening in the background. Any other advice for that? We're just like I said, we're just getting started. So I'm taking all. the notes back here from all these tips that we're hearing about UGC, and I appreciate them. Yeah. Again, in the twentieth anniversary, we're hoping to, like, kind of start that mix of, like, business. How did you impact the business? Or something you're proud of, connecting, again, like, the the mission or our, you know, our goals to an individual's work and their contributions, being able to show that. We can get the opportunity to do through some of the UGC content that we hope to get with the twenty first, twenty fifth anniversary campaign. So, Yeah. hoping hoping there. But, again, taking the notes and all the great tips that have been shared so far. Absolutely. I'd say the main thing is just like it just it's hard to be when it's forced and and to. course in that way type of thing. Right? I I think I was, we have. an annual like, we're a virtual company, so everyone is remote, and we have an annual everyone gets together type of thing. And I was explaining that to, an HR executive once, and I and I said to him that, you know, I don't make it mandatory. He was really surprised. Like, why don't you make it mandatory? I was like, well, because it's not fun. And, like, people are gonna you know, you read things because you wanna read things or because you have to read things. I'd rather they read things because they want to in that way. So I hope that helps. Another question is all on frontline employees right now. So how are you reaching frontline team members outside of manager touch points? Folks who may not have access to a cell phone while they work at computers. Is it posters? Is it digital screens, etcetera? Maybe, Desiree, you have a little bit more of a frontline population. Yeah. So it is absolutely that. It's posters. It's digital screens. And we have many employees where that is that is how they're receiving their information. So, you know, a lot of things, our listening strategy, for example, we treat it as a marketing campaign, and so we've got multiple ways of sharing the same message. And I think that's really helped us to be most effective in ensuring that we're reaching the majority of our audiences. So Yeah. And if anyone else on the chat has any advice for that, I also kind of do the same things and, like, we have to be careful. Sometimes the frontline employees, they're just not even allowed to have their phones, with them in certain areas for safety concerns and things like that. So it's really on like understanding that audience and trying to cater to them. So in those scenarios, I think of break rooms quite a bit and even like kiosks or touch screens or things like that that might be able to get the message across. And even, not in break rooms but in not in production areas, those screens could have like QR codes and things like that that could, that could load up the app, and things like that too. And I've always heard kind of like great things that, great stories of using like of using, like, greens three. to have contests. So, like, as a way to, as a way to get engagement. So a little bit of like UGC and screens or it's like, hey, you know, trivia day, what's, you know you know, what year was our organization founded and by who or something like that. And then you can get them into a poll onto the first app, program and things like that. Yeah. We have a sixtieth anniversary Rosie just talked about here. We asked the staff to share their favorite moments at the organization. I saw that. Going to do that. Love that. idea. Starting with something, again, personal, passionate, fun, not so much business businessy. It's a great way to approach. it. I love that. Thanks for the idea. You know what? Another one that came in from Beth was, I'd love to hear more about, the launch adoption strategy of, for the frontline employees as well. Because, yeah. How did you how did you reach them when you first launched, FirstUp? We had a a campaign again to really help, encourage employees to join the platform. We also made it, you know, like a single source of truth. So any links that they might need, those are all on the homepage of our field, our internal platform. And so payroll, benefits, really, you name it, the link to it is there. And, I mean, we didn't remove the links from everywhere else, but the primary place to go to get those links is within our platform now. And so that really helped. But we also did, you know, a boots on the ground campaign to help get employees registered and enrolled. And so that was, I think, probably over five years ago now. Somebody on first the FirstUp team could correct me, but, that I think was really helpful to to be on-site, to help explain the benefit, and they're in really to make it the place to go. I think that's a key, here is to, like, be on-site and visit, in that way. Because I think when they see the team or see the people behind it, it's it's a little bit less scary. And I know, like, frontline, there's a lot of, like, different, psychological things. Like, I don't want big brother. I don't want, you know, to be tracked. And there's and so there's a bunch of, like, also myths out there that I think could be swimming around in their minds that we, like, in a live conversation, you'd be able to, like, dissuade that. So I really like that. I think, if, if you're working on, a campaign to increase adoption for, frontline, I think trying your best to get out in front of them in real life, real person would, I think, be helpful there. Yeah. If anyone wants to add to that, let me know. So what do we have here? Oh, How are you balancing overloading topics and including culture while keeping revel relevant news? Other things. So how do you kind of keep the feed, not overwhelming and a nice balance between, like, business versus fun, I guess. That's what I say. Is there any strategy that either of you have for that or thinking about for that? You know, we we are just starting to to get into this. When we launched, we to say cuts it mostly business feels too dry because that was not the intention. I don't think that's what we actually produced either, but it was more just like the information folks were looking for, to to help them with their day. Right? Like, kinda meet them where they are with what they need. So it is mostly, at the moment, kind of that businessy type information. But we are looking at, how do we integrate that for next year? How do we really bring more of that culture piece into it? Because we are really feeling a strain there across the organization, with how do we keep that culture as we grow, as we change, and as we, you know, I think become more dispersed. We are organization's global. We're expanding globally, and we are feeling like we're losing some of that culture. So what we're we're going to endeavor to do next year, is to have a bit of a schedule with how we plan our content. I can do that pretty easily in the platform. Right? We're like, okay. We're we're even able to, in different kind of color codes, some of the topics that either, like, the content type, like, sentiment or feel or goal. Right? So we're able to understand we're trying to do this content. We're gonna fall on that spectrum of, like, purely culture, purely fun, purely business, a little dry to try and move us more toward the middle. We're a little far on the the spectrum right now to the the business side, but we're gonna start little by little. And so we're not going to overload it first. We're going to endeavor to start with some, office spotlights. So around the globe, some more regional, like, bring that employee, that that global employee feel to our platform. So starting there, with some office spotlights and some business spots in different regions to help bring in more of that connectivity and cultures, how we how we plan to start. But, Desiree, I'd love to hear what what you've done to really keep that great culture so prevalent in your organization. Yeah. I I think that's a really great question and a great point. And, actually, some feedback we received this year was how are we making sure our employees feel like maybe they're missing some of the really important topics, because there's quite a bit of content, coming from around the globe. And so every two weeks, we kind of send out a highlight campaign through FirstUp to say, here's the news you may have missed, or you may want to go back and review. And we've had great feedback on that. So I think that's been really helpful for us. We don't wanna limit the content that's coming on the platform, but we do wanna, again, bring to the surface the things that are really important, to the organization and to, you know, broader group of employees. So that has been useful. We also try to really utilize the featured function for our homepage. So, you know, there there are no parameters about what should go there or what has to go there, but I think we use pretty good discretion in identifying what's featured news and what's really just beneficial for employees to know. And so that's been helpful as well. think I think that is kind of, like, key to kind of, like because I think when you you think of, like, business and dry information, it's just it's just kind of not speaking to you that's relevant to what you do in that way. And I I think kind of so if you could make business information relevant to the individual, I think that kind of starts it starts making it more relatable, and I think that might be one thing to kind of look at. Actually, it reminds me of, the, another, win that, was mailed in by Laurie Madden, who's a senior communications consultant, in corporate communications at Phillips sixty six. They had good success really utilizing design features in the studio to in they enhance the way they set up their news content and visually breaking it up. And basically, like, adding other relevant content at the bottom, kinda like the Amazon recommends model. So, like, providing video shorts that hit main highlights. That's kind of one way that they're using to kind of, like, switch it up. Like, the the team is really honing in on the messages that matter to employees and upping that number of interactive links. So, you know, to that question, like, you're always also when you're coming up with your editorial cadence, but you're also measuring what works better than others to try to do more of what works in that way. And, yes, if you could, like, hide broccoli and brownies, that'll always be a good way to move forward in that. Right on, folks. Let's see. What are we doing on time here? We're about getting ready to close out. I think maybe let me see if I could find one quick questions. And, you know, I'll ask this last question and, there'd be a good kind of, like, who's out, is how do the speakers intend to sustain the how do you both intend to sustain the great adoption and momentum that you've had? I'll go really quick. So relevant content, forcing functions, to be honest. Like, it's it's at everyone's desktop. It's the first screen they see, and paying great paying close attention to our data, understanding, if we're seeing drops or otherwise and being able to pivot and address quickly. I would just echo what Renee said. I think, you know, it's really important that it be at the forefront of every employee's mind that this is their source of information. And so I anticipate that we'll continue to do the same, to be that source of truth for our employees, and continue to communicate through the platform. And I think that in and of itself, is getting employees the information that they want and need. Excellent. Thank you so much. With that said, I was, I've just gotten instructed that we have some winners that we could talk about right now as well. So, we have some gift card winners for sharing your stories. Ahead of the event, we wanted to celebrate you, and there's going to be an Amazon gift card coming to anyone who shared their stories. And we can't wait to hear, like, any other twenty twenty six wins and we definitely appreciate your candor. And also a huge thank you to Zane and and Gina, who have submitted theirs. Our submitters are also going to win something to smash in your twenty twenty six goals. So, there's a pinata coming your way. We want we want you to record that and send that over when, when you smash that pinata. To our story sharers and, like, five randomized participant, you're also getting a pinata. And our five randomized winners are Karen Nelson, Tamara Kramer Rosie? I'm sorry. Rosie Daly, Katie Dimon, Mike McCullough. Thank you all. I'll say that again. Karen Nelson, Tamara Kramer, Rosie Daley, and Katie Dimon, and Mike McCullough. Thank you all. We can't wait to see you get those, pinatas and smash year 2026. Please share and tag, when you if you do it, take a photo of it. We wanna see it. Share and tag, First Stop or Local Wisdom so we can celebrate alongside with you. Definitely appreciate it. We are kind of heading, about to close out. I wanna say this too for, maybe, for Desiree and Renee. If you're open to it, I know there's still a lot of questions out here. I know people would love to connect. Would you be open to sharing your, like, LinkedIn profiles on the chat in case anybody would like to connect or have a question after this? If not, Of course. I. will I will. put mine. Here we go. I might be a little bit delayed. I had to join from my phone today. Technology is great when it works and is cooperative. So I will work on getting my LinkedIn. in, No. but I also think, pretty easy to find. So That's fine. So search for me. just to. Same. I'll pop you in, Desiree. Real quick. Here's Desiree. It's Pinaki. You're welcome. Boom. I'm getting mine then yeah. too. And I'll I can get Renee as well real quick. Oh, you're faster than me. Thank you. I appreciate it. If I can do that. Oh, here it is. You're all we're both on speed dial right now. Awesome. Excellent. Yeah. Thank you all for joining. Thank you both for, being open and willing to, like, chat through your, your year end review, the surprises that you've had, and some of the things that are going into 2026. Thank you also for answering the questions that came out in the chat and whatnot. So, I wanna give like a little call to action. First up has created this, like, planning template, to, and we're gonna once we close out, you could also grab this template as well. There'll be, some I think if you click on the docs tab that's right next to the chat box and right between the chat and the QA, you'll see how you could grab some of these templates. You could just click on them and open them. And, yeah. That being said, thank you all. I think we've come to the end of this program. We'll give you just a few minutes back to just WUSA because I know it's a crazy time for you all. Any last words Desiree or Renee before we before we, let these folks go into the holidays and new year? Panaki, thank you for being such an amazing host. It was great to partner with you and Renee, and I I hope everyone has a great end of 2025. Embrace those challenges and changes you head into 2026 and hope to connect more then. Thank you. Couldn't say it better. I think Desiree thinks it's great to be with you today. Thank you. Thank you both. It's been a pleasure. And, yeah, I wish you all the best holidays and looking forward to see you all in 2026. Yeah. Let's, let's, smash it. Be well, everybody.