Highlights from the Internal Comms Hub

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, Melcrum

Hi communicators,

You can find a number of new articles on the Internal Comms Hub, looking at topics ranging from internal magazines to volunteerism schemes:

• How to introduce Yammer to your organization
• Internal magazines witnessing a resurgence
• Strengthening the spirit of volunteerism at Deutsche Post DHL
• Designing AMP’s intranet to be a key business tool

If there are topics you think we should be covering, contact me on luke.dodd@melcrum.com.

Until next time,

Luke

Facing the future of internal communication at SCM's UK Summit 2011

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, and
Nishwa Ashraf, Assistant Editor, Melcrum

"The Future for Internal Communication" was the theme of the SCM UK Summit 2011, held this week on 12-13 October at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower, London, and featured some truly forward-thinking best practice presentations, lively discussion and encouraged knowledge-sharing.

Rebecca Richmond, group director of research & content, Melcrum, chaired the two-day event that also saw delegates enjoy strong case studies and high quality networking opportunities with other senior-level communicators.

DAY 1

On the first day of the Summit, David MacLeod, chair of the Government sponsored employer-led taskforce on employee engagement, and Nita Clarke, director, Involvement and Participation Association (IPA) and vice chair of the MacLeod Review, highlighted the importance of making employee engagement a priority in the workplace while also making sure the commercial needs of businesses are met. They also encouraged communicators to engage their employees in company strategy through innovative methods as, when presented with company strategy, people don't always associate it, or relate it, to what they actually do in their every-day work routine.

A strong theme over the two days was around the use of emotive video, which was a major focus of Siemens' joint presentation with The Edge Picture Company. Claire Jarvis, director of communications, Siemens and Pete Stevenson, owner & executive producer, The Edge Picture Company, spoke about how, by collaborating together, they wanted to ensure employees were at the forefront of innovation through the use of video. They cemented the point that video was the distillation of the company brand and that film can close the gap between brand promise and employee actions. They both agreed that visual storytelling was the chance to grab your audience and an opportunity to make your message stick. When questioned on the issue of a multi-language audience and how to combat this issue when producing a video, the duo believed that less is more and advised to make the visual as simple as possible - sometimes no spoken word is needed.

Closing the first day, the panel discussion was centered around whether internal communication can transform an organization and was moderated by Richard Veal, head of communication & change management, EMEA, Towers Watson. The panel consisted of Rebecca Hilliard, manager, group internal communications, Shell; Niall Ryan, head of internal communication & employer brand, Harrods; Simon Garcia, head of global communications, Gazprom; Will Foy, head of internal communication, NHS Blood and Transplant; and Victoria Mellor, founder and CEO, Melcrum. One question discussed was: "Is there a risk of IC being drawn in and being the 'voice of the people'?"

Mellor said that she believed this was, actually, a great advantage and that the function of internal communication was to ensure the employee voice was heard. Hilliard agreed that, ultimately, communicators were the representatives of the people and Ryan stated that this action was hugely important in shaping company culture at Harrods. Meanwhile, Foy revealed that his organization was currently reviewing its Employee Value Proposition. Another question posed was: "Does internal communication need a rebrand?" Foy believed that internal communication did not need a rebrand but needed to go back to basics, while Hilliard believed that change communication needed to be defined and seen as part of internal communication, not as a separate entity.

DAY 2

The second day maintained the high energy and momentum of day one. The morning heard speakers Nalin Miglani, chief HR and communication officer, and Phillippa Brown, employee communication manager, Tata Global Beverages, describe how they used a period of change at the organization as a catalyst to create a corporate culture that is now owned and evolved by employees at every level. Launched in 2010 in a bid to engage employees and increase innovation and collaboration, the Think BIG initiative was a "Dragon's Den" style competition, which encouraged employees to put forward new ideas and products to ensure the future success of the business. The campaign proved successful; making a significant contribution to the team's strategic innovation agenda and goals; generating more than 1,300 new ideas; as well as helping people feel part of one global organization and engaged in their company's future.

SSP UK's Paolo Peretti, national operations director - rail, and Jenni Wheller, internal communications manager, continued on the theme of employee engagement, connectivity and collaboration. Having over 60 brands and 10,000 people, of which 80 percent are non-wired, the challenge for IC was trying to reach a workforce they had no direct access to. The solution, revealed Wheller, was a news intranet platform that generates communication for offline employees. "The Hub" allows end users to tag content that is relevant to their brand or a division, for example; a unit manager for Upper Crust is able to tick boxes of content they want to see on the home page, such as news about their own brand and global news. This creates a weekly e-zine, which is generated into a PDF that is then distributed to frontline employees, giving employees from all levels an understanding into what's happening in the business.

Finally, Fiona MacAllan, head of internal & change communication, Nationwide Building Society, and winner of Melcrum's Leader of the Year 2011 award, delivered an engaging session on how the internal communication team at Nationwide increased their KPI scores for leadership communication effectiveness, project communication effectiveness, client satisfaction and employee satisfaction, by creating line of sight from the business strategy to the IC strategy and building a measurement framework.

Why bother with measurement? MacAllan stresses three reasons:

• It builds great credibility for you and your team;
• It justifies your team, your budget;

And most importantly…

• ...No one can argue with hard facts.

 

Hope to see you all next year!

Luke and Nishwa

Re-ignite your comms passion

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

Coaching managers and senior leaders, engagement campaigns, delivering top down messages, producing and managing intranet content, the to-do list for communicators just goes on and on…

As internal communicators, we're constantly reacting to organisational change, investing much of our time, energy and effort into other members and areas of the business, that it can be easy to forget what drew you into the function in the first place.

Take engagement campaigns for example. Communicators are forever thinking up and executing ways to keep employees happy and motivated, but who's ensuring communicators themselves are appreciated? After all, we're also employees.

As with any other role that requires keeping in mind others, internal communication can be a thankless job. And if you're finding yourself increasingly losing the love for your chosen career, here are 8 tips to help reignite your passion for comms.

1. Celebrate your successes.
Communicating organisational messages means there's always a challenge lying ahead of you, but constantly reacting to these means we can forget what we achieve. Find a way to reward yourself after you complete any project. Celebrating all those successes can help you recognise what's going right. Also, make sure you note it all down. It'll come in handy next time you're extolling your value to the boss.

2. Don't forget: You're making a difference to peoples lives.
There are so many employees who start their Mondays looking forward to Friday and start their Sundays cursing Monday, but your comms campaigns can change that. Even if it's just the one,  it can turn a bored and demotivated employee into someone that's committed to delivering their best at work.

3. Your skills are invaluable to the company
But informing employees is just as important. Without IC, the flow of information throughout your organization would come to a screeching halt. As a communicator, you're highly skilled in presenting important facts in a clear and concise manner, and you'll find that employees will probably value that much more than a overly-colourful, funky campaign. Or, on the contrary, a dull 18-page document which gets tossed in the trash can.

4. You CAN be creative
Even those who work in the most conservative companies are in a position to tap into their creative sides and use an array of tools and techniques to execute their strategy.

5. Relish the challenges
Let's face it, when it comes to comms there's always a challenge around the corner, you're kept on your feet with little or no time to get bored. Be they good or bad, it's a challenge nonetheless, and it's far better than feeling like every day is another groundhog day. 

6. Insight into the business
Unlike many other functions, you get the opportunity to get to know everyone - from employees to managers to IT to HR. Not only does this mean you have a broad knowledge of the business and how it works, but you also have access to the way everyone thinks. This can mean increasing your value to the CEO by sharing your company insight to leverage as trusted advisor.

7. Communications means you can communicate.
Often people in this role have a vibrant chatty and personable nature. And best of all you have a job that allows you use these characteristics to their fullest potential.

And finally...

8. A thriving support network
You work in a profession where support comes in abundance. IC is a relatively young function, and internal communicators are passionate about helping each other to become more valued in their own organisations. So when you feel like a moan, or you need some quick comms advice, reach out to your peers by joining a global network such as Melcrum's Communicators' Network on Linked In, and keep your passion for comms alive.

P.S Check out this video on the Internal Comms Hub: Three communicators share what they love about being in comms, why not share your thoughts too?

Happy 40th IABC! 40 things I learned at World Congress 2010

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

1. The breakdown of trust in leaders is at its lowest ever point and will deteriorate further. But now’s the time to swap dancing partners. Research has shown that middle and line managers are the most trusted people within organizations and it up to us to get on their side and work with them as effectively as possible to leverage that trust.
2. Social media was discussed in almost every conversation and session I had and attended. But talking simply isn’t enough. The feeling from the profession is that communicators are using the tools, but they don’t seem to be using them to reach a constructive end goal and with the overall company strategy in mind.
3. Employee volunteering works. Fact. It improves communication, morale and motivation, personal fulfillment and those companies that actively engage in volunteering are more profitable, experience reduced absenteeism and are winning the war for talent. Two-thirds of Gen Y employees at Deloitte, for example, said they would rather work for a company that encourages volunteering.
4. In the post-recession age we live and work in, always plan for the unthinkable.
5. Communication is a company’s most powerful ally in a crisis… just ask BP.
6. Empower your employees by allowing them to become product ambassadors. Let them get their hands dirty.
7. Accept the risks of allowing employees to express themselves freely and instead focus on the end goal and the rewards.
8. Have courage part one – don’t be afraid to get fired.
9. Have courage part two – don’t be afraid to tell the CEO he’s a terrible presenter and he “lip smacks” when on video.
10. Leaders are like tofu: clearly part of the meal, perhaps even the main source of nutrition, but the spice is provided by everyone around them.
11. Make it a habit – make engagement part of employees' everyday routines for it to pay dividends.
12. Follow the example of the Me to We philosophy and movement and create a culture of empathy, community, meaning and legacy.
13. Memorise and use this quote: “We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
    Mother Theresa
14. Content in context is king and data is his queen.
15. Successful leaders should always lead with their ace and play the communication card.
16. Every leader has his blind spot – and it’s up to you to spot them.
17. All communicators are sales people.
18. Information is useless – your audience wants knowledge.
19. Get stuck in traffic – find opportunities to do nothing and when you do, do nothing but think.
20. Read your writing aloud – strive to thrill yourself with what you write.
21. Writing is like a window – it should allow your readers to see what would otherwise be invisible.
22. Make your writing transparent – help your readers see your ideas, not your words.
23. Outsource the gaps in your skill set.
24. Communication can release the best potent asset, the human asset.
25. Communication is the path to survival, recovery and growth and a company’s constant companion.
26. Communication is a leader’s lifeline to results.
27. Communicate the future – write a fake news article showing your employees what the future looks like and how you can all work together to achieve greatness.
28. Only 19% of global employees are looking to leave their current roles, but the engagement gap is widening – Towers Watson 2010 Workforce Study.
29. Employees don’t know where to turn in 2010. In a global study when Towers Watson asked people whether they would like a job for life with one company, follow their opportunities as they come along or only work for two or three employers during their careers, the data was split exactly three ways.
30. Employees are reliant on their managers and leaders but not confident in what they are doing for them.
31. Embrace uncertainty.
32. The recession has ended the “deal” between employer and employee.
33. The “new deal” is about knowing and enabling your workforce, customising their experience and planning for the future.
34. The “new deal” will take courage, innovation and discipline – leaders will play a vital role.
35. The Art of Innovation – Polarize people over issues they care about.
36. Never stop learning and continuously seek knowledge.
37. Act like an agency – make your "clients", a.k.a your employees, the stars.
38. Always seek to add value.
39. As a conference organizer always provide a reliable Wi-Fi connection… although IABC never fear, even Steve Jobs had issues at the launch of the iPhone 4.
40. Canadians say “eh”. Rather a lot.

IABC 2010: Meet the Anti Social Media Guy

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

It’s Sunday afternoon in Toronto and the unseasonal rain has given way to bright sunshine. The brightest spot of my day at the IABC’s World Congress so far, however has been meeting a beaming David Grossman of the Grossman Group, friend of Melcrum, leading consultant, and speaker and author and one of America’s foremost authorities on communication inside organizations. Not only is he celebrating the birth of his first child (David – many congrats from everyone at Melcrum) but he’s also here to deliver one of the main presentations at the annual Congress and sign copies of his book, You Can’t Not Communicate, now, according to his website, in its second printing due to popular demand.

David, and his dozen strong team, consult and coach some of the world’s largest organizations and their leaders including Heinz, Lockheed Martin and McDonald’s so his session is arguably one of the highlights of an action-packed program. He gave me an exclusive insight into tomorrow’s session entitled “The communication leader as a coach”.

“I’ll be sharing with delegates what we need to be thinking about as leaders because many of us forget we’re in fact leaders ourselves. Many of us are not trained in leadership or even as communicators [because of our varied backgrounds and training] so this is crucial. I’ll also be sharing best practice on strategy and influence,” he said.

“There is an increase in the number of cross functional teams so having influence and great influencing skills is possible the most important skill a communicator can have today,” he added.

David will also explore how we as communicators can be more purposeful in how we communicate and therefore be more effective as well as the issue of self-awareness and that to be more influential we need to know ourselves more.

Rather interestingly, however, when I mention the fact we’ve both been tweeting in the last 24 hours using the hashtag #IABC, he tells me he likes to call himself the “Anti social media guy”.

“I believe face-to-face communication is on life support and that so many companies are simply attracted to social media because it’s new and shiny,” he said as I lowered my iPhone, put my Flip camera back into my bag and shut down my MacBook. “Too many companies are using social media as an ‘it’ and not as an ‘and’. It’s not the be-all and end-all shiny solution we all think it is, it’s an added extra that companies can use.”

He believes the majority of the world’s largest businesses are using social media with little thought as to how it can contribute to the organization’s overall strategy and that its use is destroying the integrity of face-to-face conversations and replacing it with “hidden conversations”. This is arguably true to some extent with many companies confused as to the role it should play inside the corporate framework. There are, however some successes. He cites IBM and Cisco Systems as two obvious examples. If you’re struggling with social media why not read Melcrum’s new 150-page report that will be on sale next week. Email me your details and I’ll be sure to send you more information.

In the meantime I think I’ll tweet this blog.

Thanks to the CIPR

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

Just a quick note to thank the CIPR for inviting me as Melcrum's head of content, to be the external judge for its internal communication category which took place this morning.

Six very strong shortlisted companies presented their case to myself and two senior internal communication judges and we deliberated for a long time before making a very tough call on which one should be the worthy winner.

Watch this space when I'll be blogging live from the London awards ceremony when the CIPR announces the winning entry on June 16.

When will internal comms finally make a TV appearance?

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

Just like the viewing patterns of the majority of people who watched BBC 2's 'Inside John Lewis' documentary last night I'll keep it brief.

Now that internal communicators and the value of the function is finally being recognised by global executive boards, surely now is the time for us all to step up and step out of our shells and into the public eye? Rather than the head of PR or a shaky-handed cameraman (it may work for Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker but not when you're touring the homeware section discussing how many bathmats have been sold in the last hour) and his documentary team guiding us round Lewis's British stores, it should have been the retailer's head of internal comms. They could have highlighted how well the comms team coaches the CEO, explain the work they've done to engage employees during the toughest year in the company's history or perhaps guided viewers through the ins and outs of the its change comms strategy?

The BBC described it as a "television first" going behind the scenes of "one Britain's biggest and best known department stores - as it tackles changing tastes, tougher competition and the worst recession for 80 years". And that's exactly why I watched it. But no. Opportunity missed. Instead it was simply an exercise in self-promotion.

John Spedan Lewis, the Partnership's founder, pioneered the commercial co-operative making every staff member a partner and handing out a share of the profits - a unique selling point to any employee current or prospective. We saw none of that in yesterday's episode. Sure, the majority of employees seemed happy to be there. No wonder, each one received a 13% bonus last year. Even the robotic wedding list sellers, who walk innocent newly-engaged couples through which brand of bread bin they should allocate to their guests (on average £60 per head and £1,000 per wedding) seemed engaged enough but it always felt as if the real story lay elsewhere.

A preview for next week's instalment showed a group of disengaged employees complaining that being part of John Lewis wasn't what it once was. Good enough TV fodder perhaps, but again, why didn't the internal comms team step up to the plate and explain what they're doing to turn this situation around?

Judging from Penny Lawson's comments, head of internal communications at British Airways, at this week's Melcrum third annual Change Communication conference - who took time away from an incredibly stressful situation dealing with a severely disrupted workforce - (search #changecomms on Twitter for some of the highlights) I'd much rather be a fly on the wall inside BA. Now there's a story.

Vodafone Twitter account suffers internal breach

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

If internal communicators hadn’t realised the power, speed and significance of social media then all you need to do is look at the following photo a Twitter user posted only minutes ago responding to a rather nasty message on Vodafone’s official UK feed. I won’t repeat it within this blog as it’s offensive.

According to @VodafoneUK, that is now having to field thousands of customer tweets complaining about the offensive message, the telecoms company’s Twitter feed was not hacked but the offending message was instead down to, in its own words, “a severe breach of rules by staff”. The message then went on to say: “We're really sorry. Dealing with that internally. Please keep your faith in us.”

The tweet out to customers was at least swift and will have salvaged some pride. In fact many customers have thanked the company for its rapid response, but sadly the damage has been done, spread worldwide and all at the click of a mouse button within a matter of nanoseconds. The tweet may have been hurriedly deleted but hundreds of users chose to retweet the original message.

It is still unclear what exactly happened but this must serve as a warning to all internal communicators whose responsibility it is to carefully manage these channels whatever business they're in.

If you haven't already, sign up NOW to Melcrum's must-attend Social Media Conference for internal communications.

Are caring CEOs a thing of the past?

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

“Though I've never worked at Sun, this is the kind of CEO I'd like to work for.” This is just one of many hundreds of similar tweets posted by people around the world following an all-staff memo sent by Scott McNealy, the co-founder and long time chairman of California-based tech giant Sun Microsystems as he prepares to hand over the reigns to Oracle – a $7.4 billion deal that was initially done in April last year but that has only just been approved by the European Commission this week.

The memo, sent this Tuesday under the subject line “Thanks for a great 28 years”, was described by one US blogger, as having “more genuine emotion than you’ll see in a year's worth of official communications from most corporate leaders”. I’d be very interested to hear from you to see if, as internal communicators, you agree. Is your organisation’s CEO or managing director like McNealy or is he/she someone who hides away from staff in his/her ivory tower who communicating and engaging with employees about as often as Halley’s Comet orbits the earth? Email me at james.bennett@melcrum.com and let me know. I'd love to hear your stories.

McNealy, however, was clearly a man manager, a people person and a boss who understood that without great employees he wouldn’t have got as far up the corporate ladder as he had and, more importantly, the business wouldn’t have been so well respected. Just take the language in the memo. It’s full of ‘we’s’ and rarely about ‘I’s’, it's full of gratitude for “the Sun community” and how they made working at the company, as McNealy says, “really cool”, and above all, it's honest, something every employee yearns for in an organisation. Here’s are some of the highlilghts form his memo:

On innovation

“First and foremost, Sun innovated like crazy. We took it to the limit. And though we did not monetize our inventions as well as we could have, few companies have the track record in R&D that we had over the last 28 years. This made working at Sun really cool. Thanks to all of you inventors and risk takers who changed how we live."

On customer care

“Sun cared about its customers. Even more than we cared about our own company at times. We looked at our customer's mission as more important than ours. Maybe we should have asked for more revenue in return, but our employees were always ready to help first. I love this about Sun, which I guess makes me a good capitalist, if not a great capitalist."

On having fun at Sun

“Sun employees had way more fun than any other company. By far. From our dress code (“You must!”) to beer busts to our April Fools’ pranks to SunRise to our quiet enjoyment at night of a long, hard, well-done day of work, no company enjoyed “work” more than Sun. Thanks to all of our employees past and present for making Sun such a blast.”

Rather ironically and like the majority of CEOs, however, McNealy is also an admirer of the market economy and couldn’t resist Oracle’s multi-billion dollar offer. “To be honest, this is not a note this founder wants to write,” he said. “Sun, in my mind, should have been the great and surviving consolidator. But I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company.”

He may have been a great boss, but what we as communicators should also bear in mind when dealing with a chief exec, is that leaders may often say and act as though they care about their staff but they are ultimately there to make money. It’s only then that genuine emotion is rapidly and often rightly, as in McNealy's case, replaced by hard economic reality.

* It’s also interesting to also see that a couple of key new chief executives have been announced in the UK in the last 48 hours. Adam Crozier has moved from one troubled business to another leaving the Royal Mail to go to terrestrial television channel ITV. His appointment brings to an end a saga lasting almost eight months since shareholder unhappiness persuaded Michael Grade to quit as executive chairman. He was replaced on January 1st by Archie Norman, the former chairman of Asda. Even more interestingly, accordingf to the Financial Times, he also beat internal candidates including John Cresswell, the acting chief executive, who will now leave the company.

Meanwhile, UK supermarket Morrisons, that has recently undergone a successful re-brand, has hired Dalton Philips, a relative unknown CEO from Canadian retailer Loblaw. At 41 years of age, he’s also one of the youngest chief executives to lead a FTSE 100 company.

Let’s see how they get on, and if they last as long as Mr McNealy.

Research reveals widespread adoption of social media inside the firewall

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

Melcrum has embarked on a global study on large organizations’ use of social media to engage employees, deliver strategy and drive business results.

Preliminary findings from the Use of Social Media in Internal Communications 2010 survey sent to 50,000 global communicators, has revealed widespread adoption, a clear business case and visible return on investment for communicators.

Highlights of the survey findings will be presented at Melcrum’s Social Media for Internal Communication  conference in London on February 9th to 10th, 2010, while the full results of the survey will be published in a comprehensive Melcrum report on sale in March this year.

Internal communicators are increasingly turning to Web 2.0 tools, such as employee and executive blogs, online video, and internal Twitter-style forums, to deliver key strategic messages, stimulate collaboration and knowledge sharing and boost productivity.

A recent Melcrum member survey at the end of last year found that 40% of respondents said the business case for social media within internal communication was clear and that there is visible return on investment, while 53% of the 2,212 senior communicators who responded said they were planning to increase investment in their organization’s intranet in 2010.

When asked about channels used for internal communication, online video and webcasts were cited as of increasing importance, with the intranet ranked as the most effective channel by 73% of senior communicators worldwide.

The business benefits of investment in social media highlighted included improved levels of employee engagement (21%), better communication with remote workers (16%), knowledge management and collaboration (25%), improving employee feedback (20%) and making business leaders more visible and accessible (14%).

Melcrum’s forthcoming report will concentrate on the role communicators perform in getting the most from social media, how they monitor and measure results, how they make the business case for additional investment, how they protect their organizations against misuse by employees, and social media’s impact on other channels such as email.

If you are interested in contributing to or finding out more information about the forthcoming Social Media Report 2010 please contact me, James Bennett, Head of Content at Melcrum at james.bennett@melcrum.com or Alex Manchester, senior consultant, Step Two Designs at alex@steptwo.com.au.

For the full press release click here.

Melcrum is also carrying out a series of interviews ahead of next month's social media in internal communications conference in conjunction with ipadio. Check out Abi Signorelli, social media consultant's great blog post and ipadio intrerviews now!