School of Communication & MediaPR 3380: PR Strategies & Tactics

Fall 2016Josh Turner’s Communications Plan

Background & Situation AnalysisThroughout its 25 years of operation, ABC Company has endured its

fair share of highs and lows. Many companies experience this cyclical nature of the economy, which has recently left our company in a compromising financial position. As a result, ABC Company made difficult decisions, including a merger and layoffs. These recent changes have forced the media relations team into a reactionary position. Not to mention, employees at various levels of the company fear for their job security and consequently are detached from their tasks. The company currently needs a unified, consistent voice in order to restore composure.

The unstructured state of communications at ABC Company is an urgent challenge. Employees are searching for assurance that their company is headed in the right direction, and that starts with leadership. Tactics that will directly impact the situation include monthly leadership conferences that ensure that top executives are on the same page as well as leadership blogs that give executives a personal voice. The purpose of this plan is to provide leadership with a persistent voice and steady presence. Without effective communication, every company’s leadership is vulnerable.

Audiences● Leadership

○ Unifying leadership is critical. When leaders don’t communicate, other employees’ performances suffer.

● Employees○ Employee engagement and satisfaction levels have declined as a

result of recent changes. ABC employees must know that their company is devoted to their well-being. Typically, happy employees are more productive.

● Media Relations Team○ With all of the recent changes, the company’s media relations

team has been busy reacting. Like employees, the media relations team needs established communication channels with leaders in order to provide accurate information about the most important issues.

Key Messages

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● Leadership Messages○ “As a leader, your role is valuable to the company.”○ “Be confident in your responsibilities and decisions.”○ “Remember that teamwork is key in improving overall company

communications.”● Employee Messages

○ “Be confident that your company is heading in the right direction.”

○ “You should be proud to work for this company, just as we are proud of you.”

○ “Your productivity is essential to the success of the company.”● Media Team Messages

○ “Be confident that your company is heading in the right direction.”

○ “Your productivity is essential to the success of the company.”○ “Develop new, proactive approaches to effectively interact with

external media.”

Strategy By uniting the leadership of the company, the entire company can return to success. It begins with giving leadership a consistent voice through the communication plan. With a unified leadership’s assurance, employees can be sure that their company is heading in the right direction and will become engaged again. By implementing this plan, the media relations team can return to its proactive state. The purpose of the plan will be to improve the relationships of all of ABC’s internal stakeholders. Our success depends on this.

Objectives & Goals● Objectives

○ Educate leaders on the importance of communication.○ Increase employee engagement.○ Improve employee satisfaction and trust in leadership.○ Increase social media usage throughout ABC Company.

● Goals○ Establish 5 new consistent communication channels to increase

employee awareness by October 2017.○ Increase employee satisfaction with leadership by 10% by

October 2017.■ This is done through quarterly anonymous leadership

surveys that can quantitatively gauge employee’s satisfaction.

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○ Establish 5 new social media platforms for ABC Company to engage in by October 2017.

■ Media Relations team.○ Increase employee social media usage by 250 employees by

October 2017.■ This goal will help familiarize employees with various

social media platforms and their capabilities.

Tactics● Leadership Tactics

○ Quarterly Leadership Retreats■ These can range from executive luncheons to weekend-

long bonding events. The aim is to strengthen personal relationships amongst leaders.

○ Quarterly town hall meetings with CEO.■ This gives the company’s leader a great opportunity to put

a face to his name for employees. Employees will be more engaged in the company if they personally know who they’re working for.

○ Monthly Leadership Conferences■ Whether in person or via video conference calls, these

serve as checkpoint meetings for leaders to maintain a consistent approach. Get as many company leaders as possible together to discuss the state of the company.

○ Leadership Blogs■ Leadership blogs give executives an opportunity to

establish their own personal voices in an informal fashion. This gives leaders a flexible option to reach internal audiences, as they can post whenever they have time.

○ Leadership Focus Groups■ This is a great qualitative research tactic. Put leaders in

the same room as the employees to discuss issues and challenges within the company. Group meetings can often bring out the best ideas in each group member.

● Employee Tactics○ Monthly Success Stories

■ Monthly success stories help demonstrate that the company is progressing in the right direction. They recognize that the employees’ efforts are improving productivity.

○ Monthly Employee Spotlight

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■ A monthly Employee Spotlight can be distributed throughout the company via email. The spotlight can feature an Employee of the Month and celebrate employee anniversaries and milestones. Recognize employees for their service.

○ Cocktails & Coworkers■ This is a great tactic to strengthen personal relationships

between employees. Grabbing drinks outside of work provides employees with a casual setting to be themselves.

○ Work-Related Incentives■ The point of work-related incentives is to show employees

that they are appreciated. They can include catered or extended lunches or even scholarships for continued education. Reward employees.

○ Anonymous Leadership Surveys■ This tactic is essential to measurement and the success of

the plan. The surveys will be in likert-scale format to quantitatively measure employees’ awareness, satisfaction with the company and trust in leadership. Similar issues will be discussed in the focus groups, but surveys give employees the opportunity to provide honest personal answers.

● Media Relations Team Tactics○ Weekly Briefings

■ Weekly briefings will be held in order to keep members of the media relations team informed on the state of the company.

○ Editorial Board Visit■ Invite editorial boards of various media outlets to maintain

relationships and update company status.○ Subject Matter Experts (SME’s)

■ The media relations team will compile quarterly SME’s to distribute new information to media.

○ Updated Media Kit■ Due to the company’s recent changes, the media relations

team will compile a new company media kit with updated information.

○ Stakeholder Mapping■ The media relations team will perform stakeholder

mapping biannually to address which stakeholders need most attention.

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Best Practices● Quarterly Town Hall Meetings with CEO

○ American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) CEO Rush Holt met with his organization’s Atlanta members and donors. Town Hall meetings can give executives a face and voice.

● Employee Spotlight○ Mignon Faget put their employee spotlight on I.T. Coordinator

Sami DeVille in 2013. Employee spotlights can highlight successes within the company and/or personal characteristics of employees, like DeVille’s.

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● Stakeholder Mapping○ The United Kingdom’s Forestry Department mapped its

stakeholders. Stakeholder maps can determine which stakeholders need to be targeted in specific issues.

Measurement● Measurement is what determines the success of the plan. There are

several ways to measure success in reference to the plan’s objectives and goals.

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● Qualitative Measurement○ Monthly leadership conferences serve as checkpoint meetings.○ Leadership focus groups measure audience awareness,

engagement, and satisfaction.● Quantitative Measurement

○ Social media success will be measured in the amount of platforms that ABC Company adapts within the timeline of the plan (goal is 5). It will also be measured in terms of how many of the desired 250 employees join social media in some form.

○ The success in the plan’s attempt to improve leadership-employee relationships will depend on whether the goal for 5 established communication channels was met.

○ Quarterly anonymous leadership surveys can quantitatively measure employees’ levels of satisfaction with the company at points throughout the length of the plan. Likert-scale responses can help determine the percentages of employees who are strongly displeased, displeased, apathetic, somewhat pleased, or extremely pleased with leadership or other aspects of the company.

Budget● Leadership Tactics

○ Quarterly Leadership Retreats: $500-$2500 each○ Quarterly town hall meetings with CEO: $50 each (snacks,

refreshments)○ Monthly Leadership Conferences: $0○ Leadership Blogs: $0○ Leadership Focus Groups: $0

● Employee Tactics○ Monthly Success Stories: $0○ Employee Spotlight: $0○ Quarterly Cocktails & Coworkers: $400 each○ Work-Related Incentives (monthly lunches for most productive

departments): $150 each○ Biannual Anonymous Leadership Surveys: $10 total (paper)

● Media Relations Team Tactics○ Weekly Briefings: $0○ Annual Editorial Board Visit: $50 (snacks, refreshments)○ Subject Matter Experts (SME’s): $0○ Updated Media Kit: $0○ Stakeholder Mapping: $0

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Timeline

Plan Wrap-up & ResultsCompleting the plan and sharing it begins with measurement. We’ll

look at the objectives and goals that we started with and analyze whether we accomplished them. The 4 anonymous leadership surveys executed throughout the plan’s duration will serve as the main measurement of audience engagement, satisfaction, and trust in leadership. Measurement will also involve analyzing how many new social media platforms and communication channels were created by ABC Company throughout the plan. Monthly leadership conferences will serve as checkpoint meetings to gauge success of plan at each stage.

To share the results of the plan throughout the company, I recommend that the CEO write about the results of the plan in a letter regarding the state of ABC Company. This gives our CEO the chance to analyze the progress with both words and numbers. If done correctly, the CEO’s letter can be shared with all employees to show how the leadership, employees, and media relations team each contributed to the turnaround. As the face of the organization, the CEO is the best spokesperson to deliver the results.

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