It's back! Diary of an Internal Communicator: Jenni Wheller - Week 1

By Jenni Wheller, Internal Communications Manager, SSP UK 

Back by popular demand, over the next few weeks the Melcrum Blog will feature another series of diary entries by an internal communicator. Last time it was Rachel Allen who gave us a fascinating insight into her new role as head of communication at London Overground Rail Operations.  Read it here if you missed it.

This time round our guest blogger is Jenni Wheller (pictured, right) who has recently taken on a new in-house role at SSP UK. Jenni was previously business development manager at internal communications agency theblueballroom, and prior to that, internal communication officer at Thomson Local. We look forward to hearing how she tackles the many challenges she will undoubtedly face in the coming weeks at SSP UK... over to Jenni.

SSP is a company you may not have heard of but one that owns many well-known brands that I’m sure many of you will have seen or visited. It’s a global business and, until recently, had no internal communication function in the UK, hence my appointment as its internal communications manager, which began about a month ago. In the UK alone, SSP has 10,000 employees that include a mixture of operational and support function staff. 

SSP brands itself as “the food travel experts”. It owns and manages brands like Upper Crust, Caffe Ritazza and Millie's Cookies in railway stations and airports across the world as well as the franchise to operate Burger King and M&S Simply Food in these locations. And this is where the challenge lies. There are people all over the UK working for SSP but representing other brands. In total we have over 40 brands in our portfolio.

So what have the first four weeks been like? Where do you start when it’s a blank sheet of paper?

Well, it isn’t entirely blank. Pockets of the business are doing their own thing – we have weekly operational alerts in railways, action packs in airports and "Your Shout" employee forums within retail outlets. So, in my first few weeks I’ve been meeting as many people in the different support functions as I can. I’ve met with everyone on the board, various other key stakeholders in the business and attended a number of internal events.

Next up is the operational side, spending days out in individual outlets or "units" as we call them, talking to unit managers and operations managers to find out what they receive from the business and what they would like to see change. In conjunction with that, I’m also going to carry out an audit across the entire business to find out whether employees are reading the information they currently receive and what they think of it. This is no mean feat when we also have a unit manager conference to organise for November, new IT systems being rolled out and new learning and development tools to be communicated.

I'm amazed at how complicated this business is and how fast paced everything has to be. The communication is so quick and needs to be out weekly which is a challenge I cannot wait to get my teeth into!

Comments

[Rachel Allen]

Good to read how you're getting on Jenni, sounds like an interesting challenge ahead. Looking forward to reading more over the next few weeks, Rachel.

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[Ravi S]

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