It's back! Diary of an Internal Communicator: Jenni Wheller - Week 3

By Jenni Wheller, Internal Communications Manager, SSP UK 

Back by popular demand, over the next four weeks the Melcrum Blog will feature another series of diary entries by an internal communicator. Previously Rachel Allen gave us all 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 our guest blogger is Jenni Wheller (pictured, right) who has recently taken on a new in-house role at SSP UK. Jenni was previ ously 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... here's her third week.

This week has been dominated by our forthcoming conference. I’m tasked with trying to make it more engaging than previous years. So, like any good communicator we’ve begun by finding out what everyone thinks of previous conferences. Given that our key audience are unit managers and they’re spread over three divisions including air, rail and retail, it’s vital we serve each area and their interest is maintained throughout. In previous years each board member has given a presentation, there’s been a supplier exhibition hall and a dinner and dance, with a few awards thrown in. This is also the first year when all the divisions are together – something we’re still culturally getting to grips with. So this year, how can we make it different, under budget and engaging?

We have been told to:

• Have fewer speakers
• Have more interactivity
• Include content that reflects the whole business not just each division
• Ensure that employees enjoy the supplier exhibition, and ask ourselves whether or not we need to make this more interesting
• Make sure the CEO speaks as everyone loved hearing from him

The brainstorming is under way and we’re working through options to provide interactivity before, during and after the event.

In the last week I’ve also been out with one of our operations managers in the rail business, which was great, and very useful to understand the difference between retail and rail. This was in the London satellite region and it was interesting to see some of our units outside some of the bigger stations.

I’m itching to start the survey now and in the process of sorting out the logistics of getting it out to those employees on the frontline, although analysing 10,000 results is going to be quite a task!

There’s still a lot to be done; meetings are going in the diary to find out what information can go to each level in the business. There’s a lot of duplication so I need to understand what information they want to cascade and what can go direct. I’m working with IT to sort out the various email groups in the business and we’re also looking into the role of unified communication across the business.

Over the next few weeks I should receive information from a few agencies about some of the tools I think will work and then we get into the process of applying for that budget. May is getting busier and busier as I plan to go to team meetings and away days with the divisions and get a real understanding of the business.

I’ve been here for nearly two months now and I can see some of my biggest challenges are going to be around messaging and audience. Getting the business to understand clearly what the message is they want to give, what the desired outcome should be as well as the relevance to the audience is going to be crucial.