CASE STUDY
Microsoft & tribute:
Solving problems just-in-time
The Opportunity
Microsoft’s enterprise sales department saw a unique opportunity for micro-mentorship to unlock productivity within their salesforce. In the hybrid work era, the lack of in-person connection only grew amongst their already remote workforce, making it difficult to keep team members engaged, and learning from one another.
This need was the most critical amongst new employees within their first six months to a year of employment. So, Microsoft’s sales team leaders decided to try something new. Typically, companies pair the highest performing salespeople with new hires or randomly assign pairings. While it makes sense that a new employee would learn most effectively from the best, that isn’t necessarily true in sales. The best salespeople are busy, out in the field selling, and often don’t have the time to connect with new hires by answering simple questions, explaining tools, and generally being a sounding board.
The enterprise sales team found themselves with a sales problem that was ultimately a people problem. How could they increase productivity and job satisfaction while delivering a better onboarding experience?
Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President, Modern Work at Microsoft
“Things are clearly tipping into a hybrid world. You have to think of new ways to do things that used to happen a little more naturally or organically like mentorship. From my perspective Tribute is a really exciting app just at the time companies need it.”
The Solution
Microsoft’s enterprise sales team was committed to increasing their employees’ –– and especially new hires’ –– connection to the company culture, which meant getting them connected to the right people, real-time, in moments that mattered most. By introducing an intuitive and familiar user experience that was easy to use and in-the-flow of work, Tribute was the solution they needed.
Having better access to each other would lead to an increased connection to the company, which would lead to higher productivity, and ultimately happier customers. What made Tribute the perfect bridge to this gap was their unique personal storytelling approach. Salespeople are some of the best storytellers, so Tribute’s storytelling prompts were a perfect fit for the team’s skillset. In their search for a new way for team members to build more meaningful mentorship relationships, Tribute allowed both new and senior salespeople to learn from each other.
Ultimately, Tribute’s micro-mentoring approach paid dividends in employee retention. And it makes sense: real-time knowledge sharing allows employees to learn-in-the flow of work. Unlocking productivity and increasing job satisfaction. After their pilot program ended, leadership was able to see tangible results.
2X increase in sense of belonging
75% of users said finding a connection was easier
7 out of 10 people wanted to continue using Tribute as a resource for connection and peer to peer sharing