Platforms don’t build culture. People do.
Companies invest heavily in digital workplace platforms, hoping they’ll magically solve the culture crisis created by hybrid work. Without the right plan and people behind them, these platforms become digital ghost towns. After 15+ years in this space, Bernie has figured out what actually works.
Culture Shouldn’t Need a Commute
“Your company culture shouldn’t require a postcode,” Bernie says. “Whether someone’s working from Dublin, Denver, or Dubai, they should feel just as connected to your organisation’s heartbeat.”
This is the foundation of Engage with Bernie – her personal brand dedicated to building thriving digital communities where culture is accessible, no matter where people work.
Many organisations treat
digital platforms deployments as IT projects. Tick the box, send the announcement, job done. Bernie treats them completely differently – as ‘culture’ projects – because it’s less about the tech and everything about the people and how they use it.
“Think about your favourite local café,” she explains. “You go there because it feels welcoming, familiar faces show up, and something interesting is always happening. That’s what your digital community needs to be.”
What Community Really Means
Community isn’t just a buzzword for Bernie – it’s the cornerstone of organisational success in the modern workplace.
“Real community creates psychological safety,” she explains. “It’s where people feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, and being themselves. When you build genuine community, you’re not just improving engagement metrics – you’re creating belonging.”
“If someone is left out, it’s not culture, it’s a club,” she adds firmly. In Bernie’s experience, thriving communities share common characteristics: they have clear purpose, consistent presence from leadership, champions who nurture connections, and content that sparks genuine dialogue. They’re spaces where both extroverts and introverts can participate in ways that feel natural to them.
But building community in digital spaces requires intentionality. Unlike physical offices where informal conversations happen naturally, digital communities need structure and strategy. They need someone to set the tone, seed conversations, recognise contributions, and maintain momentum.
“Community is how culture becomes tangible,” Bernie says. “It’s where values move from posters on walls to actual behaviours and interactions.”
Through her bespoke
Microsoft Viva Engage training, Bernie has helped organisations transform platforms into spaces with daily engagement, genuine conversations, and culture that transcends geography. While her primary expertise is in Viva Engage (formerly Yammer), her approach is platform-agnostic in principle – the fundamentals of building thriving communities remain the same regardless of technology.
Recently, she’s been supporting organisations transitioning from Workplace by Meta (now retired) to Microsoft Viva Engage. These transitions require more than technical migration – they need strategic community redesign to ensure people don’t just move platforms, but actually embrace the new space.
Bernie also walks the talk. She’s an active volunteer in two digital communities – one focused on
female founders and the other on people and culture practitioners – which keeps her connected to the lived experience of community participation from a member’s perspective.
Digital Leadership That Shows Up
Here’s the uncomfortable truth Bernie shares with every client: if your leadership is invisible on the platform, your culture will be too.
People often assume leaders are somehow different from the rest of us. But the truth is, they’re human too. They carry the same fears and anxieties, just in a different role. Digital leadership in today’s
hybrid workplace isn’t optional – it’s essential.
Bernie created her Engage in 10 toolkit after hearing the same concern from leaders repeatedly: “I don’t have time for this.”
The Engage in 10 Toolkit: Digital Leadership Made Simple
The toolkit is designed around a simple premise – meaningful digital leadership presence doesn’t require hours of effort. It requires smart, strategic engagement that takes just 10 minutes.
The Engage in 10 approach includes:
- React to 3 posts
Show support and acknowledge the content you’ve seen – it lifts community spirits. - Comment on 2 posts
Engage in conversation! Show the act of listening and empower others with your insights. - Create 1 post
Lead the way! Share an update, start a conversation, and showcase your expertise and unique personality. - Leaders tell me this simple 3-2-1 approach has transformed their relationship with the platform, Bernie says.
The Unsung Heroes: Community Admins
Bernie calls community admins “the VIPs of the network” – those passionate employees who volunteer to lead digital spaces but are usually left to work it out alone.
Her VIP training sessions equip them with practical skills, strategic frameworks, and the confidence to make their communities thrive. It’s an investment that pays dividends across the entire organisation.
The Internal Comms Partnership
Bernie is passionate about the critical role internal communications teams play in community success – and how often they’re under-resourced and undervalued.
“Internal comms professionals play an integral role in bringing organisational culture to life,” she insists. “They’re the ones translating strategy into stories, making leadership accessible, and keeping the entire organisation connected. Yet they’re often working with limited budgets, small teams, and constantly shifting priorities.”
In many organisations, the community platform sits within internal communications as a key communications and engagement channel. But Bernie sees this as an opportunity, not just a responsibility.
In Bernie’s model, internal comms isn’t just a stakeholder – they’re a strategic partner. She works closely with these teams to align community strategy with broader communications goals, ensuring digital platforms amplify rather than complicate their efforts.
“When internal comms teams have the right tools and support, magic happens,” Bernie explains. “They can turn a platform into a strategic asset that reduces email overload, increases message reach, and creates direct feedback loops with employees.”
Instead of relying on one-way broadcast channels such as newsletters and live events, they can facilitate genuine two-way, open, transparent conversations that transform static content into dynamic dialogue – elevating employee voices, building trust, and creating genuine transparency within digital communities.
Why Now?
We’re living through the biggest workplace transformation in generations. Hybrid work is standard. Remote teams span continents. Yet organisations keep trying to recreate the office water cooler online – copying and pasting old culture into new spaces.
“Digital communities aren’t a poor substitute for in-person connection,” Bernie insists. “They’re an opportunity to build something better. More inclusive. Something that works for everyone, not just people who can make it to headquarters or a leadership roadshow.”
The impact is real: parents can participate without staying late. Leaders can actively listen through comments and reactions. New hires feel connected from day one.
What Bernie Does
Bernie transforms Microsoft Viva Engage networks from corporate bulletin boards into strategic, engaging communities where two-way conversations thrive. She trains community admins to become confident owners. She partners with internal comms teams to equip leadership with practical tools to build culture actively, not just talk about it. She co-creates content strategies that bring platforms to life from day one. Beyond corporate community building, she offers live session facilitation services for female founders and small business owners.
The need is real. Mid-presentation, the chat explodes with questions, someone can’t hear you, and you’re juggling technical chaos while trying to stay focused. It’s a scenario every presenter dreads.
Bernie’s approach solves this: you focus on delivering brilliant content while she handles everything behind the curtain – from dress rehearsals and tech management to monitoring chat and keeping engagement flowing, ensuring a seamless virtual experience for your audience.
The Recognition
Bernie’s bespoke approach speaks for itself: Winner of Europe’s
Yammer Community Manager Award. Front cover feature in Brand Cult’s edition on Community & Networking.
LinkedIn Top Community Voice badge. Top 1% on LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index. 90%+ Excellent rating for her bespoke, hands-on training. Recognised as one of the top five global experts in building thriving communities on Microsoft Viva Engage through her contributions to the
Global SWOOP Analytics Viva Engage Benchmarking Report 2025.
The Heart of Company Culture
“This isn’t about the platform,” Bernie says. “It’s about creating space where people can access your culture from anywhere – where they feel connected, valued, and part of something bigger.”
In a world where work happens everywhere, Bernie is helping companies build culture that does too.
