the journal of internal - internal communication · the journal of internal communication •...
TRANSCRIPT
The Journal of InternalCommunICatIon
VOLUME 9
For further information about Gatehouseor any of our services contact us:www.gatehouse.co.ukTel: 020 7754 3630Email: [email protected]
@gatehousegroup
General disclaimer: No responsibility or liability is assumed by Gatehouse Consulting Limited for any views, opinions and content provided by contributory authors. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, Gatehouse Consulting Limited cannot be held responsible for published errors. The views or opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect views of Gatehouse Consulting Limited. Inclusion of any advertising material does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of any products or services or the claims made by any provider.
Gatehouse1 Vogan’s Mill Wharf17 Mill StreetLondon, SE1 2BZ
1
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
Foreword
There’s a sport called chess boxing. You step into a boxing ring and fight your
opponent for three minutes.
When the bell goes, you both sit
down and play chess for three
minutes – over and over again.
The hard part isn’t the boxing
or the chess – it’s the constant
switching between a full contact
bloodsport and a deep-thinking
strategy game.
People face the same challenge
at work when you ask them to
focus on where your company is
heading.
Often, they spend so long in the
ring – hopping from project to
project with inboxes they never
clear, and a growing guilt of
dozens of open to-dos – that when
you try to sit them down and show
them the big picture, they roll their
eyes and keep slugging it out.
Leadership doesn’t work if people
have to take off their gloves to
understand you.
That’s why storytelling is a great
way to lead.
With the right stories, you can
whisper encouragement from the
ropes. You can show them what
you’re fighting for while they’re
actually fighting for it.
If you’d like help crafting your
strategic story, that’s something
we can help you with. Get in touch
if you’d like to work with us. Enjoy
the issue.
Lee Smith
Simon Wright
2 www.internal-communication.com/joic
THE JournaL of InTErnaL CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
ContentsSTraTEGY
asking ‘Why?’ helped roche redefine its internal comms ������������������������������������������������������ 4
Joanna Hall turned a stressful campaign into an opportunity for change, thanks to a ‘root cause analysis’ that revealed the way forward for internal comms…
Developing a central IC function at Laird ������ 8
Starting an IC function from scratch to cover 9,000 employees from the ground up is a big task. VP of Communications and Marketing Paul Mottershead explains what steps he’s taken.
making it personal: how aXa uses communication psychology ���������������������������������� 12
Deborah de Satgé looks into the communica-tions psychology she applied, and the changes she made to increase engagement with HR communications at AXA.
oPInIonS
from finance to Energy – the challenges and rewards of moving between sectors ������� 18
After over a decade in financial services, Chris White switched to utilities. He shares his experience of moving between sectors.
Breaking through to off-line audiences at Crossrail ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 22
Suzanne Goldberg talks about the challenge of having a disparate audience at Crossrail and the value of giving them visibility over the bigger picture.
3
THE JournaL of InTErnaL CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
TaCTICS
How aVEVa conjured comms magic from its network of ambassadors ����������������������� 28
Debbie Install created a Global Ambassador Network to harness the passion of employees around the globe.
making the case for an employee comms app at Stansted airport �������������������������� 32
Internal Communications Channels Manager Zoe Spinks explains why creating an app was the next logical step for internal communications at Stansted Airport.
It’s ‘Show Time The Whole Time’ with aT&T’s Global newscast �������������������������������������������� 36
Telecommunications giant AT&T beams a bi-weekly video newscast around the world to more than half its employee population. Lead IC Consultant Jimmy Rice explains.
CaSE STuDIES
How did Britvic get 94% of employees to engage with their flexible benefits programme? ������������������������������������������������������������������� 42
Will Smith talks about the ‘back-to-basics’ approach that boosted participation to record levels and increased employee spend on optional benefits by a third.
making IT work at moody’s ������������������������������������ 48
Julie Pinsonneault shares the journey to a new searchable intranet, and shares her secret to a win-win relationship with IT.
Creating employee ambassadors at Coca-Cola Enterprises ���������������������������������������� 52
Neil Jenkins has played a leading role in deve loping and delivering a programme that articulates CCE’s commitment to sustainability and its role in society.
Joanna Hall turned a stressful campaign into an opportunity for change, thanks to a ‘root cause analysis’ that revealed the way forward for internal comms…
4
ASkING‘Why?’HELPEDRoche
REDEFINEITSInteRnal comms
5
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
I’ve been Head of Internal Com-munications for the Operations division of Roche for nearly
four years. When I started here it was just me, but I’ve now grown the team to eight people. Together, we manage an audience of 2,500 people across 75 countries.
Every year, we run an end-of-year celebration campaign that showcases our division’s achieve-ments. Last year, this project caused some friction within the team, with stakeholders not being managed effectively and some efforts being duplicated.
We could have glossed over it, but instead I decided to bring the team together to find out what happened. I felt that there were some deeper issues stopping us delivering an efficient internal com-
munications service.
We had an internal facilitator come
in and run a ‘root cause analysis’.
It sounds complicated, but it’s a
simple method that helps you to
identify the root cause of a prob-
lem. We brainstormed a list of issues
to define problem state ments, like
‘We didn’t manage our stakeholders
effectively across the team’. Then
took each problem one by one and
delved into the layers of each issue by repeatedly asking ‘why’?
Why didn’t you manage your stake holders effectively? Because we didn’t all review the stakeholder management plan. Why didn’t you all review the stakeholder manage-ment plan? Because we didn’t have it as an agenda item in our full team meetings. The process helps you to
6 www.internal-communication.com/joic
aSkInG ‘WHY’ HELPED roCHE rEDEfInE ITS InTErnaL CommS • JOANNA HALL
delve down into absolute granular detail. In this example, we now have standing agenda topics to review each of our campaigns as a full team each month, rather than just in our campaign team meetings. It gives everyone a better oversight of what’s expected of them, and insights into all the work we’re doing collectively, to see where there are touchpoints and possible opportunities to be more efficient or effective.
I was nervous about encouraging a blame culture, but it was actually a very open, honest environment. Having somebody independent was very useful because they set the ground rules, and managed the conversation with complete objectivity.
The session was a huge turning point for us. It made us realize that we hadn’t been clear on what responsi-
bilities everybody shouldered and the risks and opportunities that were present. As a result, everybody was inter preting the process differently – and it was causing friction.
Asking ‘why’ again revealed some-thing interesting: the reason we weren’t aligned was that nobody was clear on what we actually offer-ed. As a team we had a number of skills – consultancy skills, project management and of course com-mu nication expertise – but we didn’t have a strong, standardised process for how we approached each project and set our customers’ expectations.
We agreed that we needed a very clear client intake process to manage our stakeholders.
THrEE LEVELS of SErVICENow we’ve developed a process that maps everything that we do – from when the customer requests
help, through to when we deliver and close out our work. This helps us determine up front what level of service we can provide.
The first level is consultancy and advice – an hour’s worth of our time to advise them on their commu-nications projects. Some people come to us asking for help to develop a communications plan, for example. We sit down with them, then they go away and do it.
Support is our second level and provides a bit more hands-on support: they do the majority of the work, but we guide them and help them deliver.
Finally, the third level is what we call the construct level. It’s much more resource intensive – we own the project plan and deliver mostly everything ourselves. This kind of project is usually not just tactical;
7
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
it’s long-term and is meant to have a huge business impact. We insist on measurement.
We’re also now very clear on what services we don’t offer, which is equally important. In these cases we refer our customers to another team in-house, or we have a list of preferred vendors, who we’d recommend they connect with.
BEnEfITSRealising that we had all these skills but we weren’t working in the most efficient way was a real light bulb moment. We came out of this session with huge smiles on our faces and a tangibly strength-ened team bond – we knew we’d be using our skills in the right way going forward.
Our productivity levels are much higher, because we’re clear on our responsibilities and how we
actually deliver our services. It’s definitely taken the team onto the next level of maturity, in terms of how we are working together, and how we ‘sell’ our services and demonstrate value.
Because we’ve got clear objectives and measurements in place, we can turn to our customers and actually demonstrate that we are achieving their communication ob jectives. Communications are aligned to business objectives
because we do the appropriate contracting right from the start.
We’ve also developed the compe-tency and understanding of good communications within our organi-sation. Some of our stakeholders have been shy about coming for-ward because they thought we wouldn’t want to be bothered with them. We now give an hour of our time to anybody, which is helping us have a greater impact within the business.
BIoGRaphy • JOANNA HALL Jo has a wealth of experience managing global clinical projects, business initiatives and organisational change. She has been heading-up the Internal Communications group for the Operations division at Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, for almost four years. She holds an Honours degree, Post Grad Diploma and is
about to embark on a Masters in Internal Communication to fuel that passion for all things Comms!
Starting an IC function from scratch to cover 9,000 employees from the ground up is a big task. VP of Communications and Marketing Paul Mottershead explains what steps he’s taken.
8
Developing a central IC funCtIon
atLaIrd
9
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
Laird PLC is a 115 year old company which has grown through acquisition – result-
ing in businesses which operated
independently but in common
markets. Three years ago, under
a new CEO, the company started
going through huge change –
becoming more integrated and
operating as a more coordinated
company. Two years ago, I joined
Laird with part of my remit being
to put a formal internal commu-
nication strategy and team in
place. At that time, IC was main-
ly managed by HR teams and
local managers disseminating
their own messages. This was a
major challenge because of the
geographical dispersion of staff
– 6,000 of the 9,000 employees
are in Asia – and communicate in
multiple languages.
GooD PraCTICE, LImITED rESourCESThe first thing I did was to visit as many sites as I could and speak to lots of people. I found we had no real internal comms prior to my arrival, and no internal comms resources beyond a very old intranet, used initially as a document repository, with a thin communications layer over it. What we did have was a lot of good practice. Many sites did excellent regular briefings to employees. In Asia, they did some really good newsletters. The first step was identifying, and trying to get some of the other business units to adopt that good practice.
BuILDInG a STraTEGYHaving done the audit and understood where the business was going and what the challenges
were, I started to design a strategy. With the hiring of an internal comms manager, we reviewed some of the good practice and looked at how to replicate them - developing processes that could be shared across the organisation. We put some templates in place to implement a more formalized structure, a common look and feel, and language – we embedded a few controls, just to make sure we achieved some core consistentcy.
It’s been about getting the basics right first. The problem wasn’t the content – there are plenty of great stories taking place across Laird; it was surfacing it and sharing it in a timely manner. For example, we wanted to make better use of the intranet. We used to publish most things via email, now we put more on the intranet and send
10 www.internal-communication.com/joic
DEVELoPInG a CEnTraL IC funCTIon aT LaIrD • PAUL MOTTERSHEAD
a summary email telling people what’s available; we cut down their inbox count, while providing the information in a more dynamic way.
DELIVErInG THE mESSaGEA key aim has been to be consistent in our messaging. We have an internal mantra of innovation, reliable fulfilment, and speed. That came from a management meeting a couple of years ago, it exemplifies the way we do things in Laird, and it’s stuck. It really resonates with people, so we keep going back to this as a part of our differentiation strategy. When we send out communications, we always frame it so it fosters more of the same: “This is an example of innovation,” or, “This is a really good example of delivering with speed”.
We want to keep improving the channels. I’d like to develop an app-based platform to replace or supplement our intranet. Many of our people, particularly in Asia, don’t have a PC. But everyone’s got a smartphone. We use apps more and more for our events, hooking it into an internal network to retrieve documents and processes seems to me like the right way forward whilst reducing our reliance and cost on expensive IT infrastructure (which will make our IT team happy!)
Last year we implemented an ‘Essentials of leadership’ training programme, a one week-course targeted at all of our top 250 leaders, right up to the Chief Executive. We’re currently run-ning ‘Essentials of leadership 2’. That’s been a great help in driving
understanding of the need for
internal comms at the top.
CHaLLEnGES of SuCCESSI haven’t yet done a communication
survey as such, but I can see
the benefits by the feedback we
get. Since we’ve started internal
comms, the floodgates have
opened and we’re involved in an
increasing number of projects
at a much earlier stage. It’s been
a challenge to keep up with the
workload and still have time to
continue developing the function.
The company has very dynamic
targets. We aim to treble in size
which means that none of us can
just work harder or do the same
things that we do today in a better
way. We have to change the way
the company operates and the
tools and processes we use –
11
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
without damaging our fan tastic culture. Communication is a critical element of that. We’re introducing a new ERP system – a significant change in a global company with such a diverse geography as ours – this is a critical activity in our growth plans but one which will cause significant disruption. Getting our people to understand the need and willingly support its implementation is key to our success.
I’m developing the central team,
so we’ll have three new people by
this time next year. But I recognise
that proximity is critical and want
to also develop the network
further – people need to bring
messages together locally.
We will run our first communi-
cations survey later this year. We’ll
set up some regional focus groups
as well, to see what traction we’ve
got in the last 12 months or so.
LESSonS LEarnEDStarting an IC department from
scratch to cover 9,000 people
is a big task, but if you’re doing
something similar, these are the
two key things I would advise you
to bear in mind.
Be careful how much you take on
to start off with. Sit down with
senior stakeholders, understand
their expectations and deliver
those well. keep it narrow,
develop value in some key areas,
and then look to broaden out.
That will open up opportunities
for more resources and you can
build from that.
Be clear on messages. Get some
consistency and then some co-
hesion. Don’t change language,
especially in multinationals. Get
the language right to start off with,
and stick with it unless something
fundamentally changes.
BIoGRaphy • PAUL MOTTERSHEAD As VP for Communications and Marketing at Laird PLC, Paul is responsible for providing Laird with capabilities that deliver focused, consistent and cohesive messages to both internal and external audiences globally. Paul has held senior Communications posts for over 15 years in global organisations including Thales and BAE Systems.
Deborah de Satgé is Head of internal communication at aXa PPP healthcare. Here she looks into the communications psychology she applied, and the changes she made to increase engagement with Hr communications, as well as to collaborate with Hr more regularly.
12
makInG It peRsonal: HOW aXa USES communIcatIon
psycholoGy
13
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
HR policies and procedures are a large part of mana-gers’ lives, but by no
means their favourite topic to read about in our communication channels. A recent audit showed that HR communications were not well liked. People, and particularly managers, felt that HR communication was bossy, used too much technical jargon, put process ahead of purpose and used the word ‘mandatory’ far too freely! Armed with this evi-dence, I persuaded HR to let me experi ment with a very different approach to both language and style on a discrete HR topic – performance management.
nuDGED To CHanGEI’d long been interested in Nudge theory, as practiced by behavioural economists at the Cabinet office.
For example, a few years ago, the
government launched a campaign
to get people to insulate their
houses by offering them free
insulation. Surprisingly, very few
people took them up. The Nudge
Unit looked into it and found that
people couldn’t be bothered to
clear their lofts in order to put
the insulation down, even when
it was free. They realised that the
rewards of free insulation and
reduced heating bills were not
strong enough to win against the
sheer effort required to clear the
space. So the team advised a new
approach – offer to clear the loft
for people, but charge them for
the insulation. Far more people
took up the offer. The lesson?
Removal of barriers and making it
easy is a stronger motivator than
getting something for nothing.
Another finding of the Nudge Unit is around the power of social inclusion – you may have seen signs at supermarket checkouts telling you how much fruit and vegetables other people have in their baskets, or the recent campaign to take litter home (other people do). People like to feel part of the social norm and will take action if they feel they are outsiders.
Communications about perfor-mance management tended to focus far more on the process – having a review meeting and documenting it on the HR system by a certain date – than on the quality of the conversation, let alone the benefits of managing performance really well. I wanted to turn it around completely. I wanted to show managers that
14 www.internal-communication.com/joic
makInG IT PErSonaL: HoW aXa uSES CommunICaTIon PSYCHoLoGY • DEBORAH DE SATGé
15
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
we trusted them to be able to
do their job well, to reposition to
both employees and managers
the reason why it’s important to
manage performance properly
and to have a very light touch
when reminding people of the
deadlines (no more nagging). So
for employees we told them “this is
about you and your development,
so make your manager give you
the attention you deserve”. With
managers we made it more simple
and trusting in our manager ezine:
“You’re a manager, you know
this stuff and how to do it. But if
you want any help, here’s a one-
pager” (as opposed to the 52
page PowerPoint presentation
held on the intranet!). Reminders
were decidedly un-naggy “Just
a gentle reminder, the deadline
is coming up. I’m sure you’ve
already got it in hand, but just in case you haven’t...” and following nudge principles, “Most people have completed their reports on the systems – thank you. For the few who haven’t, the deadline is coming up”. Managers’ feedback on the new approach was that they massively preferred the new tone of voice and felt more inclined to respond to it positively. The opening rate of our electronic messages rose significantly. About 87% clicked through to the article – compared to about 30% previously. Best of all, 94% of managers completed the documentation by the deadline, which had never happened before – so a very good outcome for HR.
rESEarCH anD DEVELoPmEnTOff the back of that success, I
have started to get more people
interested in the idea of using
neuroscience and psychology in
the way we handle the people
side of change. In common
with every organisation, we do
a huge amount of change here
on a continual basis and have
well-honed project management
practices. And yet, every year in
our annual survey, people tell us
we don’t help people through
change well. Change sets up un-
certainty, and neuroscience shows
that our subconscious brain reacts
to protect us from the potential
dangers that uncertainty may
bring. Too often we focus on
getting the process or the system
in place, but don’t consider the
reaction of employees to the
change, we just expect them to
get on with it. An obvious starting
16 www.internal-communication.com/joic
makInG IT PErSonaL: HoW aXa uSES CommunICaTIon PSYCHoLoGY • DEBORAH DE SATGé
point was in organisational design changes. Happily we don’t do huge amounts of these, but when we do we traditionally take a risk-averse HR approach, where the priority is on making sure we adhere to employment law and success is seen as no formal grievances being raised, rather than the speed at which people settled into efficient working post-change!
I spoke to people in areas where they had had restructures and found that poor communication greatly compounded the natural anxiety caused by the change itself. So we examined and rewrote everything from the initial announcements through all the formal scripts and letters, writing for the audience, not for the speaker or for HR. For example,
I found that for consistency,
every script and every letter
would start with the same long
preamble covering the rationale
– a rationale which employees
had already been given. So at a
point when all you want to know
is ‘have I still got a job?’ you
would have to read through the
best part of an A4 page to get to
the bit that tells you. And if that
wasn’t bad enough, the language
was incredibly corporate and
cold, with managers doing
consultations being advised to
stick firmly to the script. My
task, therefore, was to put some
humanity back into the process,
and to help managers through
what is a very uncomfortable
situation. Obviously, change that
involves redundancy situations
is never likely to be a pleasant
experience; my aim is to make it a
bit less unpleasant by using more
natural language, being sensitive
People like to feel part of the
social norm and will take action if they feel they are
outsiders.
17
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
to the needs of the recipient and recognising the stress both employee and manager are under at the time.
STEPPInG onWe’re still at the early stages of using psychology and neuro-science in our communi cations. Later this year I really want to get in with the local change managers, who are responsible for the vast majority of change communication on the ground, and whose communication skills are very varied. My plan is to demonstrate success by working on a few discrete projects and then start to ‘infect’ others who have communication responsi-bilities within their departments. I wish I had done this sooner. I wasted quite a lot of time trying to persuade people to be
interested in the theory without
giving them the practical side.
Pick a problem – preferably some-
thing measurable, like perform-
ance management, but where you
could hopefully make a tangible
improvement. If you can say, “We
shifted this. We’ve got a better
result”, then people will take
notice.
BIoGRaphy • DEBORAH DE SATGé
Deborah de Satgé has been head of internal communication at
AXA PPP healthcare for 16 years. During that time her role, the
department’s purpose and the work itself have changed considerably
and internal communication is now seen as a strategic enabler for
the business,
Deborah spent many years working in politics for the Conservative
Party, firstly managing the approved list for prospective parliamentary
candidates and then managing the Political Office in 10 Downing
Street for both Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
From there she moved to an events management company where
her role was to help shift the business away from event management
and into communication consultancy. She was seconded to AXA PPP
healthcare, a client, to help with communications when they were
bought by Guardian and then AXA – and never left!
18
after over a decade in financial services, Chris White switched to utilities. He shares his experience of moving between sectors as a senior internal communicator.
FROM FInance TO eneRGy -THE challenGesAND ReWaRds OFMOVING BETWEEN SECTORS
19
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
I spent 11 years in financial services, including nine in internal communications and
engagement. However, the culture changed in the aftermath of the crisis, which prompted me to look for a new opportunity. I knew I wanted to work in a big organi-sation, as they offer good support networks and the resources to achieve a lot more. When an opportunity came up at EDF Energy, one of the Uk’s largest energy companies, I was excited at the prospect of working in a sector that plays such a vital role in our everyday lives.
orGanISaTIonaL DIffErEnCESI’ve been leading internal com-munications and engagement for the Customers business at EDF Energy for almost four years now.
A central communications de-partment oversees EDF Energy’s external communications and em ployee engagement, but the Customers’ Internal Communi ca-tions department is decentralised. My team of 10 communicators supports internal communications for a diverse audience of approxi-mately 6,000 employees: 3,000 people in call centres; a significant number of employees out in the field – meter readers, fitters, repairers; analyst roles such as the optimisation team working on hedging, even weather prediction and how that might impact supply and demand. Finally, we have approximately 1,000 people in management jobs.
Investment banking was generally controlled from the centre. We had a centralised intranet and
messages were pushed out from
one source to everybody on a
regional basis. At EDF Energy, I
work at a regional Uk level rather
than a global level. Although the
workforce I communicate to is as
big and diverse, I’m travelling to
Hove, Exeter or Crawley, rather
than New York or Luxembourg.
CuLTurE DIffErEnCESThe major change though was in
working with the trade unions.
Utilities have much higher trade
union membership and managing
communications in partnership
with the trade unions on a number
of issues was a new experience
for me. From a communications
point of view, it has been about
adapting what I do to ensure the
right processes are followed.
There’s also a difference in
20 www.internal-communication.com/joic
from fInanCE To EnErGY - THE CHaLLEnGES anD rEWarDS of moVInG BETWEEn SECTorS • CHRIS WHITE
culture. EDF Energy is the Uk’s
largest producer of low-carbon
electricity and operates eight
nuclear power stations at sites
across the country, so health and
safety is embedded in our culture.
On my first day, I sat down at
my desk and within half an hour
somebody I’d never met before
just walked past and pointed out
that my bag was a trip hazard.
We have regular internal aware-
ness campaigns on topics such as
our ‘simple actions’. These simple actions highlight that what might be perceived as small actions could cause quite significant injuries, such as not holding the handrail on the stairs. There’s also a general focus at EDF Energy on healthy physical and mental well-being, providing things like stress management tool kits and physical fitness clubs. I enjoy the culture here; that focus on well-being, a more caring culture with better support.
There are some commonalities between my old and current role. Both investment banking and energy have a high profile in the media and politically. Therefore, it’s critical we communicate the positive stories to our people, such as where we’re innovating our customer experience, so they can share our successes.
mY PErSonaL aDVICEThe most important piece of advice I could give is to understand the organisational structure and where to go for information. That should be your first priority. I looked at the organisational charts so I could understand who did what and how they all worked with one another. If you’re going to be a successful internal communicator in a big organisation, you have to know your way around.
In a big organisation how you get there might be different, but
the core skills are often the same.
21
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
I’d also advise choosing a com-pany that you genuinely like. At EDF Energy, my colleagues and I are all passionate about doing the right thing for customers, in particular supporting our vulner-able customers. We’re also trying to address one of the biggest challenges facing the sector at EDF Energy – climate change and our future energy mix.
Lastly I’d tell you to focus on similarities. The sectors I’ve spent most of my career in are quite different, but there are similarities. The scale is similar, so are the channels. In a big organisation how you get there might be different, but the core skills are often the same. You need to write well, understand your audiences, be a good relationship builder, you
need to plan and influence your
stakeholders. One of the first
things I did at EDF Energy was to
go around and speak to people,
doing so gave me a great deal of
insight. That’s the same in any
sector because you’re dealing
with people and the messages
you have to give them. You can
learn about any company, but
the key skills are harder to teach,
and they’re transferrable.
BIoGRaphy • CHRIS WHITEChris White is Head of Internal Communi cations & Engagement for EDF Energy’s Customers business, an operation of over 6,000 employees responsible for the supply of gas and electricity to residential and business customers across the Uk. Since joining EDF Energy in 2011, Chris has led a large team of communications &
engagement professionals, overseeing a wide range of projects from major organisational restructures to the business’s sponsorship of London 2012.
Before that, Chris spent 11 years at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, most recently as Vice-President of Internal Communications, EMEA. Originally from Derbyshire, Chris now lives in Stockwell, South London and counts singing tenor in a choir, overseas travel and supporting Derby County F.C. among his main interests.
22
Suzanne Goldberg talks about the challenge of having a disparate audience at Crossrail and the value of giving them visibility over the bigger picture.
BREAkING THROUGH TOoFF-lIne audIences AT cRossRaIl
23
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
I’m currently working as an internal communications officer for Crossrail, Europe’s
largest infrastructure project, building the new high frequency, high capacity railway for London and the South East.
Crossrail is unique from any other organisation I’ve worked at before. At any one time we have up to 11,000 people working on the project. Around 3,000 of them work for Crossrail Ltd or one of our project partners, and are on the Crossrail IT system; the other 8,000 work for contractors across 40 construction sites. Each of these construction companies has its own communications systems; so how do we reach out to all the contractors who are digging the tunnels, building the stations, or are getting ready to lay the
tracks in early autumn? We want
to make sure that everyone from
carpenters to crane drivers feel
part of Crossrail as a whole, not
just their own company or the site
they’re working on.
I manage a series of channels
including: the Crossrail intranet
news pages, a weekly email
newsletter, a senior leader blog,
and Toolbox Talks – talks about
health, safety, the environment
and sustainability, which each
site delivers every week. I also
provide content for our monthly
newspaper that goes out to all our
construction sites.
GIVInG VISIBILITY of THE BIGGEr PICTurEI always get really excited about
wanting people to see the bigger
picture. Once a month I join our
CEO at a breakfast meeting at one of the sites with about 15 construction workers. He likes to get a feel for what people working on the project think. He always wants to know about health and safety on site, but he also asks people, ‘what are you working on?’ People usually answer Farringdon station or Paddington station rather than Crossrail – because their focus is on the specific contract they’re working on. It’s important to remind people what a huge project they’re contributing to, and that they’re helping to build this brand new railway that’s going to make a massive difference to London and leave a lasting legacy.
We like to celebrate milestones. Tunnelling has been a major milestone in the project. At the
24 www.internal-communication.com/joic
BrEakInG THrouGH To off-LInE auDIEnCES aT CroSSraIL • SUZANNE GOLDBERG
beginning of June our final tunnel boring machine, Victoria, broke through into Farringdon station – joining up all our tunnels under central London. This means our heavy civil engineering work is coming to an end, and a whole new team of systems and operations people are coming on board to build the trains, install the power, signalling and communications systems, and lay the track. We had 11,000 commemoration badges made and shipped to our sites to mark the end of tunnelling; every person who wants one can have one to show that they worked on this project. I wear mine with pride on my jacket lapel – which my friends think is hilarious!
We also have operational messages to share with anyone involved in the project. For
We run big briefings at sites as well as
smaller group discussions – where senior directors
talk to the teams about their challenges.
It’s important for directors to recognise the people, the successes and the
challenges on site.
25
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
example, safety is our most im-portant value, and one of our principles is that ‘we all have the right to go home unharmed every day’. Here again, we try to make sure we reach everyone. Each site and contractor does its own local safety briefing that you have to go through before accessing the site. We’ve recently launched a new Project-wide Induction to try to make it more joined up; anyone who regularly works at any of our sites has to do this induction – no matter who they work for.
rEaCHInG ouT rIGHT aCroSS LonDon We run big briefings at sites as well as smaller group discussions - where senior directors talk to the teams about their challenges. It’s important for directors to re-cognise the people, the successes
26 www.internal-communication.com/joic
BrEakInG THrouGH To off-LInE auDIEnCES aT CroSSraIL • SUZANNE GOLDBERG
and the challenges on site. And it’s also really important for anyone working on the project to see the senior leaders speaking passionately about what they believe in. People need to see the passion and enthusiasm right from the top.
Probably the most efficient chan nel is the smaller, face-to-face briefings teams have at the start of their shifts. They’re generally led by the contractor site managers and are operational; focused on the tasks they have to perform that day. One of our ideas is to use those briefings to communicate wider messages. We’re about to trial a new process where we provide a nugget of news from across the project to be included in the next day’s briefing, for example a successful handover, or a milestone reached –
27
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
so people can feel the excitement
when something important has
happened, and know how it may
impact their work.
We have a really great awards
scheme, based on our five values:
Safety, Collaboration, Integrity,
Inspiration and Respect. Monthly
values awards recognise the great
work people (or teams) have done
on a local level. Monthly winners
are then put forward for a quarterly
award, and then the quarterly
winners are invited to an annual
awards ceremony – where they
could win an annual award. It’s not
particularly fancy, but it’s a great
opportunity for people to come
together from right across the
project – and we make sure we tell
the stories using all our channels.
Top of my wish list for Crossrail,
would be a news app for site-
based staff. It would mean that it
also doesn’t matter what email or communications system you’re on – so long as you have a smartphone or tablet. I know Balfour Beatty have trialled it with construction workers with great results. But as a publicly funded project we need to be smart about where we invest – so there’s a bit more work to be done to see if it’s a viable opportunity.
For me, though, the best thing about working on Crossrail is knowing what a difference it will make to people’s lives. Whenever I visit our site at Farringdon it takes me about 40 minutes from our office in Canary Wharf, with at least one interchange. In three years time I’ll be able to do it door to door in less than 10 minutes. Now that’s something worth shout-ing about!
BIoGRaphy • SUZANNE GOLDBERGSuzanne worked for the BBC making children’s radio programmes until she decided to take a career break to do an MA in Acting at East 15 Acting School. Since then she’s juggled acting on stage and screen with contracting work in some high profile organisations including the Department for Business, Innovation and
Skills, Barnardo’s and the Metropolitan Police. She’s been at Crossrail since January 2015.
28
aVEVa’s Debbie Install created a Global ambassador network to harness the passion of employees around the globe.
HOW AVEVA CONJURED comms maGIcFROM ITS NETWORk OFamBassadoRs
29
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
AVEVA is a technology com- pany. We create engineering, design and information
management software that helps
the process plant, power and
marine industries design, build
and operate facilities and ships
across the globe.
I’m the Head of Global Internal
Communications, and one objec-
tive that I’ve been set by the
Executive team is to stop us
appearing to be too Cambridge-
centric to our 1,700 employees in
50 countries.
GLoBaL amBaSSaDor nETWorkOne way we’re addressing this
is through a Global Ambassador
Network. The idea itself isn’t new
– many organisations have comms
champions. In fact, when I joined
we already had a similar network
of 50 people across the globe.
However, like a lot of organisations
we weren’t using them effectively.
Some of them were only on the
list because they’d been told to
be a champion.
We decided that what we really
wanted were people who were true
ambassadors for AVEVA. People
who really felt passionate about
the organisation, but who wanted
to develop themselves as well.
To elevate the programme, and
communicate that it’s something
really important to the organisa-
tion, we decided that we didn’t
want people to take on the full
role of ambassador forever but
that they’d do it for six months,
and pass on the duties to another
suitable candidate in their region,
but of course remain an ‘ambas-
sador’ in spirit. Eventually, we’d
end up with quite a lot of the
organisation having experienced
being ambassadors and continu-
ing to support the cause in their
daily roles in AVEVA.
We also branded this as an
exercise from two senior
executives – rather than an
initiative from internal comms.
They champion the network,
and personally welcome all the
ambassadors, underlining that it’s
taken seriously.
CHooSInG amBaSSaDorSRecruiting good ambassadors is
where ‘comms champion’ networks
often falter. Instead of waiting for
people to apply, we reached out
to individuals we thought would
be great. We asked our Regional
30 www.internal-communication.com/joic
HoW aVEVa ConJurED CommS maGIC from ITS nETWork of amBaSSaDorS • DEBBIE INSTALL
Operations Managers around the world to work with line managers to identify and invite people they thought would be right for the role.
We’ve been able to recruit people who are developers, finance people – we’ve even recruited a sales person. It’s quite an achievement to convince a sales person to focus on something other than their targets for the quarter! I think we’ve got one from most of the different roles we have in the organisation.
Often with comms champions, people aren’t clear what responsi-bilities they’re taking on. We came up with a formal role profile for our Global Ambassador Network. We make it clear that this is addi-tional to their current role, and that they don’t get paid extra – but what they can do is put this on their per formance record, and it’ll be
recorded at the end of the year that they’ve done this extra piece of activity. We effectively strike a deal: there’s something for you and there’s something for the organisa-tion. We also provide communi-cation skills development through professional networks, Webinars and the sharing of case studies etc.
Don’T PICk JunIor PEoPLEIn the past, people selected very junior roles to be internal comms champions. You’d ask the receptionist, or the admin assistant.
That’s because these schemes are sometimes made to sound like a ‘post box’ job – putting up posters and printing name badges for events.
I think that’s a mistake. We actually chose people based on their skills, so we cut across a spectrum of
roles. We’ve got a couple who are senior managers, and then we’ve got middle managers. We’ve tried to avoid just going for people in junior positions – we wanted people who could talk with lots of credibility, and people who others would come and talk to.
With the Global Ambassador Network, if one of our Executive Team is preparing for a regional
31
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
visit and we’re going to run a meet and greet event over there, the appointed Regional Ambassador will actually be hosting it with the Executive team. It’s a completely different ball game than somebody who’s just sending stuff out.
amBaSSaDor fEEDBaCkIt’s early days, but we’ve already had several successes.
Obviously, AVEVA has the usual employee survey and a few other carefully chosen channels. What we didn’t have is really good, instant feedback – a temperature check that we could call on at any time. That’s definitely one thing the ambassadors excel at.
Recently we had to send a message out that wasn’t positive, and we wanted to make sure we gave some honest and direct feedback to our
Executive team about how it had landed. So, as it was going out we sent a note out to our ambassadors to give advance notice that a message was about to go out, and could they give us any feedback as it hit their areas. They came back within minutes. We had a full report that we could take straight back to our leaders, to help us understand the reaction across the globe.
oTHEr THInGS You Can DoIt’s got to the point now where our ambassadors contact us when
some thing’s happened. They’ll share bril liant community news stories, CSR activities, or any great events that are happening in the regions.
That information goes out onto our intranet on a section that’s called ‘all about us’. At the end of May, we probably only had two stories that were from Cambridge – the rest of them were from our regions.
That’s something we wouldn’t have been able to do without our global network of ambassadors.
BIoGRaphy • DEBBIE INSTALL Debbie Install wants to live in a world where shoes, chocolate and bottles of wine are free… and good manners are compulsory. When she’s not communicating with lots of people in lots of countries about important stuff (of course), you can find her sat in the garden – weather permitting – reading a book and relaxing.
32
Internal Communications Channels manager Zoe Spinks explains why creating an app was the next logical step for internal communications at Stansted airport.
MAkING THE CASE FOR AN employeecomms app AT STANSTED AIRPORT
33
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
I love the variety of my job and the fact that we are normally the first point of contact for
our colleagues, as it helps me
understand what is happening
across our business. We are
often the eyes and ears for the
organisation and it’s important
that we find out what’s going on.
Our colleagues trust us and they
need to feel confident that we
are going to address issues or
concerns which can range from
their rest room being a mess
to questions around the latest
balanced scorecard. Being the
first point of contact also helps
us build trust with our directors
– they understand that we are
normally the team who has a good
overview of what’s happening
across the airport and generally
find out what’s going on.
Across Manchester Airport Group
we have more than 4,500 col-
leagues who are based at four
different sites, Manchester, Stan-
sted, East Midlands and Bourne-
mouth. From these 4,500, more
than half are colleagues who
are at the front line and are the
face of our business. These guys
generally don’t have access to
emails or PCs, so it can be difficult
to get a message to them. One of
the first questions I asked when
joining was “Do we have an app?”
as it seemed the logical thing to
me. The operation is so busy that
having time to sit down and absorb
a newsletter isn’t always possible.
Given that, it seemed logical to
develop an app to reach this
audience; it’s accessible by many
more people than we can reach
by email and you’re not pushing
the content in their faces. It’s on their personal devices and is free to download. We undertook a big project and had Wi-Fi enabled in all nine of our colleague rest areas at Stansted, because we know people are likely to download it if they don’t have to use their own data packages.
makInG THE CaSEThis was the first business case I’d had to build, and was quite a daunting task to begin with. However, with a strong supportive team and clear guidelines I built the case for moving forward with an app. That was one of the first lessons in terms of a business case; how to make it strong. I knew what I wanted it to say and do but that passion and faith has to be backed up with solid data and evidence. I collated data on
34 www.internal-communication.com/joic
makInG THE CaSE for an EmPLoYEE CommS aPP aT STanSTED aIrPorT • ZOE SPINkS
the number of colleagues with PC
access, the scores they gave us in
our annual colleague survey with
regard to communications and
also data from the outside world
around smart phone usage.
The arguments for proved to be
really compelling, and pre sent ed
as a package of other activity
to build engagement, the app
concept really captured every-
one’s imagination. The app was
mentioned in a presentation along-
side our engagement strategy
which was presented by Head of
Internal Comms Anna Russell. It
was picked up on quickly. “Ooh,
an app?” Tell us more about that.”
It was then a case of yes, we love
it, go for it!
From the initial idea, to having
an app ready to go was about
6 months. The team at The-
AppBuilder are just fantastic to
work with.
There were some challenges as we
worked through the various risk
and assurance processes which
large organisations have for safe
guarding purposes, but ensuring
we had the right measures in
place to monitor content going
into the app and making sure it
was compliant was essential.
As a result of the business case
and for the benefit of future app
developments we identified a
need for all colleagues to have an
email address and using these as
unique log-ins. We can then look
to personalise the app and tailor
it to each colleague. Colleagues
could securely access their annual
leave, wage slips etc. via the app.
It’s about the opportunity to
build on the app’s capability and
functions.
Since launching two weeks ago
over a quarter of the population
have already downloaded the
app, and almost all of those have
supplied feedback and suggestions
for the next phase, we which we
are working to implement.
35
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
WHaT’S on THE aPP?There’s a lot of content going in to
the app which will be updated on
a daily basis. There’s a group page
and one for each of the airports,
all with the same structure; group
news headlines, localised news,
leadership galleries, key contacts,
MD news, links to social media,
vacancies, Google Translate (for
our operational teams), our
weekly newsletter and lots more!
We also have nomination forms
for our employee recognition
scheme, VIP, Values in Practice.
The direct link allows colleagues
to nominate their peers in recog-
nition of going above and beyond
in their role against one of our
values. We have five values:
‘Finger on the pulse’, ‘Brilliant
at what matters’, ‘Why not?’,
‘Power of team work’ and ‘Safe
Hands’. For example, ‘Why Not?’
is about allowing our people to
be innovative, to ask, “Hey, why
not? Why can’t we do this?” I’m
actually awarding a Why Not?
pin badge today. A member of
our security team came up with a
design for a poster to display the
data from the annual employee
survey. It was a brilliant design
and one which can be duplica-
ted across other departments. A
perfect example of Why Not?
LESSonS anD aDVICECreating an app was the next
logical step for our communica-
tions. We needed a solution for
reaching our frontline teams and
the app solved that for us. It puts
news, information at their finger-
tips and encourages that two way
conversation.
If I was to offer advice, I’d say
surround yourself with a great
team, listen to your stakeholders,
build your business case, believe
in it, be passionate about it and
most importantly, want to be the
driver for change.
BIoGRaphy • ZOE SPINkSZoe Spinks is Internal Communications Channels Manager at Stansted Airport. After working in finance in the early part of her career she retrained in HR, joining Stansted in her current role two years ago.
36
Telecommunications giant aT&T beams a bi-weekly video newscast around the world to more than half its employee population. Lead IC Consultant Jimmy rice explains…
‘shoW tImeWhole tIme’WITH
AT&T’S GloBalneWscast
THE
IT’S
37
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
AT&T is a global telecommuni- cations company with over 240,000 employees around
the world. We run a bi-weekly TV
newscast called ‘Around The Globe’
that covers what is happening
with in our company as well what
might impact us externally. It goes
out every Tuesday and Thursday.
Most shows are less than three
minutes long. The newscast gives
employees the headlines, and
they can then visit our intranet for
more details.
Most employees watch it from
their desktop or laptop, but also
increasingly from mobile devices. Some of them are desk-based but a lot of them are mobile in the field – technicians or sales representatives.
ToPICS CoVErEDOur company is increasingly mov-ing towards being a tech nology company, and the stories we cover help our employees understand what it means. We cover all sorts of stories – customer stories, marketing campaigns, HR updates or leadership messages.
We also talk about HR messages, which in many organisations don’t
resonate with people. However, the latest big changes to our vacation policies happen to be our biggest story so far. Over 70,000 people watched that episode because we managed to show how it would impact them personally, so it resonated with them.
The newscast has also proved to be very effective at making our CEO and other leaders more ap-proachable. Throughout the year we run our Leader Series where we interview our executive team on or off set about the direction of the company. It lasts around
The newscast has also proved to be very effective at making our CEO and other leaders more approachable.
38 www.internal-communication.com/joic
IT’S ‘SHoW TImE THE WHoLE TImE’ WITH aT&T’S GLoBaL nEWSCaST • JIMMY RICE
five minutes and we get about 38,000 views from the first show. The CEO is always a hot topic. Frontline employees don’t really know him so those shows are very helpful. People like seeing leaders in such a casual way, and in a short amount of time. Town halls last an hour and people can’t always con-sume that much information. The newscast gives them those high level views of where we’re heading as a company – they love it.
Around The Globe goes out to every single employee. But we have started to develop local ver-sions of it – there’s Business Beat which is just for our mobility and business solutions teams – about 12,000 employees in that area. We update them on what we’re doing to support B2B, business to business activity, as well as our
mobile activity – what’s happening
in those worlds. We have plans to
develop other local versions.
CHaLLEnGESOne of our initial challenges was
wondering if we would have
enough to share. Now it’s the
opposite. Some people come to
us with stories that are not appro-
priate for this medium. The other
issue is that you always need some
sights to go along with the sound
– it has to be visual.
There have been good stories with
technicians out in the field helping
people. Once a plane crashed on
the highway and we showed how
our technicians used their training
to respond. We used pictures that
people had taken on their phones
and then interviewed a few people
who were there. This type of story
works really well because it’s visual.
Of course that content doesn’t
come every day.
We’ve also tried to educate people
on what this medium has to offer
and what is a good story. We always
ask, “Why should they care?” If it
doesn’t really apply to every single
employee across the company, we
tell them to use a different medium.
The timing is also a challenge. The
stories have to be approved before
people leave work, so we need to
be very responsive and quick. We
also need to capture each story
in about 20 seconds. Writing for
a broadcast is very different from
writing for an intranet, where you
can go into immeasurable details.
We’ve been teaching people to
take a 1500-word story and edit it
down to a 50-word script.
39
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
40 www.internal-communication.com/joic
IT’S ‘SHoW TImE THE WHoLE TImE’ WITH aT&T’S GLoBaL nEWSCaST • JIMMY RICE
The print version of a story might be, “Johnny was headed towards San Francisco when a huge storm came and blew him off of his bike. He fell and rolled over three times, scraping his knee and breaking his leg. One of our technicians was right behind him, helped him up, put band-aids on him, stopped the bleeding, called 911”. In television you don’t have that luxury. You need to figure out what the headline is: “Johnny fell off his bike, the tech was there
to help him back up, got him to
the hospital, he’s recovering and
doing well”.
ImPaCTOur average viewership is around
21,000 views per episode, while
intra net articles typically get around
10,000 views. This medium has
proved to be a blockbuster when
it comes to employee engagement.
More people want to watch and
listen to company news than want
to read it on a website.
Last year we ran a survey. We found that around 108,000 people have watched the newscast at least once, so almost half of our employees. Around 30,000 of them stay with us for a 70% play-through ratio. 96% of respondents thought our content was interesting, an-other 94% said it’s relevant. And 93% would recommend to other co-workers.
I think the newscast speaks to the power of sight and sound in this generation. People want something they can take in in a bite size, snack-able way, but feel like they’ve been very, very well informed. They want to be able to listen to it or watch it whenever they feel like it. That is what Around The Globe is providing to our employees – something fresh and unique they can watch on demand.
BIoGRaphy • JIMMY RICEJimmy is a dynamic, innovative and bold producer and communications specialist. He is currently a multi-media storyteller at AT&T. With attentive eyes and ears, he captures company news and creatively shares it with colleagues.
Are your internal comms hitting the spot?
Call us today on +44 (0)20 7754 3630 or visit www.gatehouse.co.uk to find out more.
Research is a critical part of the internal communication mix. Without it you can’t demonstrate your value to senior leaders, build a robust strategy or know whether your channels or messages are really making a difference.
Over the past decade Gatehouse has conducted internal
communication audits for some of Europe’s biggest businesses –
from Bupa to GSK; Barclays to Virgin Media – as well as a host of
public and third sector organisations.
The insights we deliver help our clients get a handle on their
internal comms and drive through improvements.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
JOIC_audit_ad_Final.pdf 2 17/08/2015 15:17
Will Smith is Britvic’s Senior reward & Per-formance manager. His
team worked with Gatehouse to develop a high impact campaign to improve employee take up of Britvic’s flexible benefits.
HOW DIDBRItvIc GET 94%
employeesTO ENGAGE WITH THEIRFleXIBle BeneFIts pRoGRamme?
42
OF
43
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
DrIVInG EmPLoYEE DEmanDWe set out to address three main challenges. First, like many large organisations we suffered from a relatively low level of engage-ment around the programme and par ticularly amongst employees at manufacturing sites. We relied heavily on electronic channels and this wasn’t really cutting through, we needed to figure out a different approach and develop a sustain-ed programme of communication to build awareness, understand-ing and, most importantly, drive action.
The second challenge was out-side of the manufacturing sites, engage ment was actually okay. However, the question we kept getting back from discussions with those em ployees was, “that’s
all good, but what should I pick?”
They wanted more help and guid-
ance in what to select based on
their lifestyle needs. I think this re-
flects a wider change in consumer
attitudes; when ever you go online
to buy any thing you get feed back,
reviews and recommendations
such as “If you bought this, you
might be interested in this”. People
are used to that way of purchasing
online and this expectation was
beginning to affect our benefits program. It’s no different than any other consu mer experience, so how do we start answering that question up front?
The third issue was messages were getting lost in the ‘background noise’ of other communication. How did we make sure employees knew what they needed to know, what the program was all about and what was right for them
44 www.internal-communication.com/joic
HoW DID BrITVIC GET 94% of EmPLoYEES To EnGaGE WITH THEIr fLEXIBLE BEnEfITS ProGrammE? • WILL SMITH
personally? We spent a lot of time and effort asking, “how do we create high impact statements that grab people’s attention?” For some reason, we had ignored the all important messaging piece up until that point.
STronG BranDInG anD GrEaT CrEaTIVE EXECuTIonDuring initial planning the big insight was that, especially at the manufacturing sites, low levels of awareness and a lack of know-
ledge was the problem. We had focused previously on email and online communication, but the message wasn’t getting through to the manufacturing side, because they have little or no time to use a computer during their working day.
45
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
So, working with Gatehouse, we
took a “back to basics” approach,
using impactful high visibility
communications. The first task
was to communicate specifics
particularly directed at the sites.
They wanted something we could
put in their hand and say “this
is all the information you need.”
The best way of doing that was
to go back to basics and produce
a booklet – it’s what works best
for non-wired employees. People
engage with the booklet, scribble
on it, make choices and then use
the online portal to select their
benefits. We also used visually
interesting posters that had less
of a ‘corporate’ feel. Although
we maintained email communica-
tion, which worked in a lot of
cases, we also focused on less
obvious ways of communicating
– for example, using vinyl static decals in the coffee area to create more interest.
We maintained email communi-cation because what we were doing wasn’t failing – it just wasn’t working for everyone. We wanted the big drive to be in educating employees, guiding them through the selection process – instead of just giving them a list of stuff they could have, actually going into the detail. We simplified the messages. Across the booklet, the
decals, email and online channels, we kept it simple. It was a pro-ductised, expert approach. We wrote the booklet in consumer friendly lan guage. “This is what this benefit is, this is what it does for you, and this is how much it’s going to cost.”
We wanted to come up with a consistent internal brand, so we used colour coding to distinguish between different types of mes-saging. We went a bit further with our look and feel than we
We took a “back to basics” approach, using impactful high
visibility communications.
46 www.internal-communication.com/joic
HoW DID BrITVIC GET 94% of EmPLoYEES To EnGaGE WITH THEIr fLEXIBLE BEnEfITS ProGrammE? • WILL SMITH
have done with other corporate
materials. It was a lot glossier than
anything else we’d produced. I
think it was a great example of
how you can stay within corporate
guidelines but create something
that stands out from the crowd,
to make it more engaging for the
intended audience.
THE kEY To SuCCESS: mEanInGfuL auDIEnCE SEGmEnTaTIonWe recognised three key groups
within our people: Family-orien-
tated people who had chosen
family-focused benefits; an older
population whose key interests
were in retirement and savings and
a population of users who were
more interested in activity and
fitness-related benefits.
We tried to take an ‘Apple genius’
approach: You’ve told us what
you like, here are some benefits
that you may be interested in,
how it will all work and this is what
it costs. We saw big increases
in the uptake of things people
probably had bought elsewhere
47
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
– like critical illness cover. People
were saying, “I’ve been paying
a fortune for this through my
mortgage provider”. People were
basically moving their business
in-house, and saving themselves a
lot of money in the process.
Finally, we spent more time face-
to-face with our people, guiding
them through the process. We
can really see it working; people
are helping others, actively en-
couraging them to go online and
make purchases for themselves.
DrIVInG EnGaGEmEnT To nEar unIVErSaL LEVELSResults were better than we
could have hoped. There was a
13% improvement in overall en-
gage ment. 89% of our overall
population actively went online
and made their choices. At the
manufacturing location that we specifically targeted, engagement went from 60% to 94%, way beyond our target of 75%, which is incredible.
We saw a 26% increase in core bene fits selections; classic insu-rance based products. We doubled purchases of voluntary benefits; cycle to work, computers for home and gourmet cards. Overall, we saw a 33% increase in employee expenditure through the flexible benefits portal. Our
employees have become savvier
buyers and they ask more ques-
tions now, so we want to address
those in the future too.
We started off in a good position,
but we’ve constantly improved
it by continuing to invest in –
and getting returns from – good
communication. Our people are
engaging with the process much
more. It just shows what clear
communication, done well, can
actually achieve.
BIoGRaphy • WILL SMITH Will Smith is Senior Reward & Performance Manager for Britvic plc responsible for Pay, Bonus and Benefits strategy and related communications across the organisation. He has global experience in reward, buying and strategic marketing across different sectors including FMCG, retail & financial services.
48
moody’s Julie Pinsonneault shares the journey to a new searchable intranet, and shares her secret to a win-win relationship with IT.
MAkING It WORk AT moody’s
49
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
When you mention ‘Moody’s’, people usu-ally think of our rating
agency business. That is one of
our core business, but there’s
another half of the business that
focuses on providing solutions
and training to help companies
assess and mitigate their risk.
Our company has been growing
exponentially over the past 4 years.
We’ve grown from approximately
4,500 to 10,000 employees. Much
of that expansion is happening
internationally, so I’m about to
move to London to set up a
regional presence in EMEIA.
BuSInESS CaSEIn February 2015, we launched
a new company intranet called
MINT, which stands for Moody’s
intranet. Like many global cor-
porations we’re a very email-
heavy company, and one of the
reasons we wanted to overhaul
our intranet was to try to reduce
our reliance on email.
We had identified a number
of issues with our previous
intranet. Our previous intranet
– ‘MoodysNet’ – was based on
SharePoint 2010. The search didn’t
really work, which is a problem
because people are so used to
Google. They expect the search
to pull up what they’re looking for.
We wanted our new intranet to
be a consolidated space; a go-
to platform where employees
could access internal news, but
also quick links to all sorts of
applications and systems that they
use on a regular basis. Instead of
having to save those links in their
favourites or in an email, they can
access all they need at the click
of a button: our time keeping
system, our compliance policies,
our ADP-pay portal, and a link to
book travel. Some people come
here for informational purposes,
but for the most part they come
to get something they need in
order to fulfil a task.
ConTEnT STraTEGYBefore, the big problem was that
the content was rather outdated.
People would just end up emailing
and asking questions instead
of using the portal for self-
service purposes. One priority
was to make the new intranet a
trusted source of information for
employees.
So we decentralized the govern-
ance. Representatives from each
50 www.internal-communication.com/joic
makInG IT Work aT mooDY’S • JULIE PINSONNEAULT
of our business units now “own” the content in their particular space. We’ve hired a full-time intranet content manager to help them shape content; but the business representatives are really the subject-matter experts. This ensures that content is as current and relevant as possible – they’re better placed to talk about the benefits packages that we offer in different locations for instance.
Soon, we will also have an auto-mated archive to ensure that
content remains up-to-date. The idea is that business represen-tatives will receive an alert when a piece of content has been on the portal and untouched for a year so that they can either update it or remove it.
We only just launched MINT, so it’s still early days. We’ve just sent out a survey and we will soon be running a few focus groups. We’re also in the process of setting up our Webtrends reporting so we can start reviewing metrics
quarterly and understand how people are using it.
We still need to do more to develop content and make the portal as robust as possible. A lot of content still sits outside of MINT – team sites and operational content that people have built up over the years because MoodysNet didn’t offer the workflow they needed. I’d love to see this incorporated into MINT as it would offer a seamless end-user experience where anything can be found on MINT. My mission
As an internal communication expert, I often feel that we bring a more
customer-centric approach to IT projects
51
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
over the next year will be to
persuade people into valuing the
intranet and make them want to
come into the fold.
WorkInG WITH THE ‘IT GuYS’One big reason I think we were
able to launch this successfully is
the fact that we have a close rela-
tion ship with IT, so much that the
same people have continued to
sup port our portal. Every single
quarter we work with them to
build out requirements for new
enhance ments and fixes and
things of that nature.
One of my major relationships is
with IT. Companies are investing
a lot in technology, which means
there’s always projects coming out
of the IT department. I like to get
involved with the IT managers, and
make sure they understand the
potential impact of their products
on employees.
Typically when you’re working with
an IT project manager, engineer
or developer, they’re focused on
getting the product to work. Their
focus is not user interface, or the
best way to apply the technology
to the employee base.
Because they’re not thinking
about the end user impact of these
sorts of things – and I am always
focused on the end user impact
– sometimes I’m able to identify things and say: “Oh, does that really have to be 10 steps instead of one?” It’s my job to bring those things to the table. Sometimes I feel like I’m the inquisitor! When you’re managing an internal rela-tionship with people who are technically minded, they key is to ask them a million questions.
As an internal communication ex-pert, I often feel that we bring a more customer-centric approach to IT projects.
BIoGRaphy • JULIE PINSONNEAULT Julie Pinsonneault is an experienced strategic commu-nicator for internal audiences with a special interest in increasing employee engagement by reinforcing the connection between everyday activities and overall business goals. She is currently an Assistant Vice President – Internal Communications at Moody’s.
52
neil Jenkins is Director of Internal and Digital Communications for Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE). Since 2013, he has played a leading role in developing and delivering CCE’s ambassador programme – designed to help employees understand and articulate CCE’s commitment to sustainability and its role in society.
CREATING
employee amBassadoRs AT COCA-COLA ENTERPRISES
53
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
Corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) has been alive in Coca-Cola
Enterprises for over a decade; this year we published our tenth annual CRS report. Over time, it has grown to be embedded in almost every business process. It is also a high engagement driver, typically one of the top three based on our employee survey.
In 2011 we published our first sustainability plan, to set challeng-ing and measurable targets and push ourselves further in areas such as energy and water reduction, packaging and recycling, wellbeing and our work in the community. Every year we measure our pro-gress, and we ask ourselves: “Are we doing enough? Can we do more to achieve our sustainability commitments?”
Over the years, we’ve rolled out a number of initiatives to promote CRS to employees – including an annual week of activities and learn-ing relating to our commitments. While they have valued this, they
wanted more – and a focus that
could be sustained throughout
the year.
BuILDInG ConfIDEnCECCE’s Ambassador programme
started in 2013, at the same time
it was being introduced by Coca-
Cola and its system of bottling
companies across the world. We
wanted to ensure employees un-
der stood our sustainability goals
and commitments in detail – and
in particular, ensure they felt confi-
dent to answer questions from
friends, family and customers about
our business and brands. When
you say you work for Coca-Cola,
you get lots of questions about the
heritage of the company and our
products and their ingredients.
Our Ambassador programme is
designed to help maintain the high
54 www.internal-communication.com/joic
CrEaTInG EmPLoYEE amBaSSaDorS aT CoCa-CoLa EnTErPrISES • NEIL JENkINS
level of pride that people have to work for us and allow them to feel confident answering questions about our role in society and our sustainability commitments. It’s about equipping our employees with the knowledge to help them understand how the business operates and what we stand for, and the skills to deal with the questions that might come their way.
Our first step was to engage our leaders, using our annual leader-ship conference as the launch pad. We explained Ambassador in an engaging way, using videos and featuring the CEO and his executive leadership team to demonstrate their personal com-mit ment to the programme. Be-yond the sustainability elements, we made it clear that being an Ambassador was also about being
proud to drink our products and
to share them with family and
friends, support our customers by
shopping in their stores or eating
at their restaurants, and being
active in the communities where
our business operates.
Leadership buy-in is essential to
the success of any new program-
me, and it gave us a solid start –
they understood the goals of the
programme and how they and
their teams could support it and
get involved.
We’ve designed the Ambassador
programme so the majority of
content is shared with employees
through regular channels – includ-
ing our magazines, e-newsletters,
intranet and internal social net-
work. This helped to build an
understanding among employees
55
THE Journal of InTErnal CommunICaTIon • VOLUME 9
about what it meant to be a Coca-Cola Ambassador – whether they work on a production line in our plants, are on the road in a field sales team or as a service tech-nician, or based in an office.
But information has to go hand-in-hand with involvement. We created a one-hour roadshow experience, bringing a pop-up area to offices and sites so employees could listen to key facts in a fun way, linking it to brand initiatives like the FIFA World Cup. These even ran through the night at our factories so shift workers didn’t miss out. We’ve also partnered with our learning and development team to design and deliver intensive training for more than 200 customer-facing em-ployees – the key account mana-gers who have the day-to-day relationship with major customers
like Tesco, ASDA and Carrefour. We’re equipping them to have conversations about where our sustainability commitments have a natural fit with their customers’ own commitments, because it can
drive competitive advantage for
our business.
aCHIEVEmEnTSIt’s been a promising start. Feed-
back from the roadshows and
56 www.internal-communication.com/joic
CrEaTInG EmPLoYEE amBaSSaDorS aT CoCa-CoLa EnTErPrISES • NEIL JENkINS
training programmes has been strong, with almost every employ-ee saying they feel more confident to answer questions about our business and brands. In our last internal communication survey, about 12 months after the launch of Ambassador, 70% of employees told us they were aware of and understood the programme. In September, our next employee engagement survey will be a measure of the programme’s impact on engagement at CCE.
As well as the impact on employee engagement, our Ambassador programme is also about trust. At a time when trust in big businesses is so low, it’s vital to build it from the inside out. If CCE’s 12,000 employees trust the company they work for, because it’s transparent about the way it does business
and honest about where it can do more to support society, that radiates to the outside world – and one of the most trusted sources about a business is its people.
Just like our reputation for sus-tainability leadership, engagement and trust take time and effort to earn and maintain. This means our Ambassador programme is only really just beginning - and it’s why it’s here to stay.
BIoGRaphy • NEIL JENkINS Neil Jenkins joined Coca-Cola Enterprises in 2008 and is responsible for the company’s internal communications strategy, channels and content. Before joining CCE, he held senior internal communications roles at Vodafone and Siemens. Follow him on Twitter: @neil_jenkins.
Coca-Cola Enterprises manufactures, markets and distri-butes Coca-Cola products in Great Britain, France, Benelux, Norway and Sweden, employing 12,000 people. Find out more at www.cokecce.com.
OPEN A NEW CHAPTER IN InteRnal comms
FOR FRee!Get inspired with real-life stories and expert advice.
Learn the latest internal communication tactics direct from leaders inside the world’s most exciting companies.
Don’t be left on the shelf – get your professional subscription to the Journal of Internal Communication today.
www.internal-communication.com/joic
To be featured in the Journal of Internal Communication, contact [email protected]
We proudly work with over 25% of the
FTSE 100 companies
25%
We have completedprojects for over 100
blue chip clients
100+
We have trained more than 4,000 communication
professionals
4,000+
Research &Evaluation
Training &Development
Strategy &Consulting
Creative &Delivery
Resourcing & Recruitment
The go-to employee communication and engagement agency
www.gatehouse.co.uk
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
JOIC ADVERTv2 .pdf 1 11/03/2015 13:31