Social Media @ Work – the film in full

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, Melcrum

Able & How’s offices on New Cavendish Street, central London, played host to the premiere of the RedSkyVision-produced short film “Social Media @ Work” on 15 June.

The film featured a host of big names from both the worlds of social media and internal communication. These included Richard Dennison, BT; Madeleine Kavanagh, Deutsche Bank; David Ferrabee, Able and How; Stefan Stern, Edelman London; and Melcrum's very own Rebecca Richmond.

Robin Block, director of RedSkyVision, and the film itself, said: "My aim was to create some thought leadership that would aid the business case when considering utilizing social media channels internally within a business. I'd like internal communicators to use this film as an educational tool to help inform their teams and leadership."

Social Media @ Work provided an overview of social media's place within internal communications and raised some interesting points regarding its future. How will the function develop? What are the challenges? Where will it lead?

For expert opinions on these questions and more, watch the film in full below and tell us what you think....Enjoy!

Luke

Social Media @ Work from Red Sky Vision on Vimeo.

 

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.

Channel 4's Undercover Boss signs up to SCM Summit

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

As internal communicators we are constantly trying to find the best ways to engage with our stakeholders, whether they are remote workers, on site employees or senior board level executives, because as practitioners we know full well that employees who are keen to go the extra mile can have a positive effect on the success and bottom line of a business.

Until now, however, the communication goose has failed to lay a single golden egg, but this doesn’t really matter. If, for example, we were to all simultaneously make an omelette within our respective organisations they would all be odd shapes and sizes, vary in consistency and differ wildly in taste. We are all different, operate in different industries and work to different goals. But what if I told you the internal communicators working at the heart of the business, the internal communicators delivering the organisation's core messages, and the internal communicators responsible for communicating change and creating career-spanning company ambassadors, there was one very direct solution that leaders could employ to forever guarantee a highly engaged workforce, and that it would only take 14 days, I'm fairly sure I wouldn't have any arms left within a nanosecond.

However, following a groundbreaking Channel 4 television series earlier this year entitled the ‘Undercover Boss’ one man may well have discovered the magic potion we've all been looking for during the downturn - a way of getting under the skin of your business, re-engaging your staff and transforming it into a powerful people run force with second-to-none, 360 degree communication at its core.

And, luckily for you he’s agreed to talk about it for the first time in public at this year’s Melcrum SCM Summit in London on 13th to 15th October this year. Trust me, hearing this man speak will change the way you look at internal communications forever.

Stephen Martin, 42, became the chief executive of the Clugston Group, a large Scunthorpe-based construction company with a £155 million turnover well known in the business for building roads, schools and supermarkets. But even before he started he faced two enormous hurdles - he was taking over the company from his successor of 18 years, and all this during the worst recession for since the Second World War. The construction sector had also been hit harder than most and thousands of jobs had already been lost.

Many executives would have folded and given up there and then, but he had other plans – to trade in his suit and expense account for a hard hat and a canteen lunch and go undercover for two weeks to find out for himself who and what made the business tick and what was going wrong and needed urgent attention. Armed with a cover story, he visited his construction sites to work alongside his frontline employees. He poured concrete, worked in blast furnaces, tried his hand at carpentry and worked freezing night-shifts repairing roads, while searching for the best way to run the business.

He confronted the consequences of his executive decisions and heard exactly what the workforce thought of the management. And after two weeks on the frontline, he revealed his true identity to his staff - and introduced some major changes as a result. Why? Because in his own words, "Communication is one of the most important factors behind business success."

As Melcrum discovered in its latest Practitioner’s guide to essential techniques for employee engagement it is the role of leadership to meaningfully engage the workforce. And Martin truly believes in this methodology.

As the guide suggests: “The employees are the people who will move an organization from good to great and beyond. This is a fact of modern business life. Leaders at all levels must do more than just tell employees what to do. Instead, they must engage employees in a way that connects them to business goals. In other words, leaders must show employees how their actions will help the business succeed and how they will benefit from that success.

Sign up now to see Stephen Martin’s first public appearance. A lengthy question and answer session will take place immediately afterwards.

P.S: If you're in Australia or the United States don't forget there is an SCM Summit coming to you very soon so sign up now and don't miss out! Also, don't forget to follow Melcrum and the three SCM summits on Twitter using the hashtags #SCMaus, #SCMus and #SCMuk.

Best job in the world campaign signs up for Oz SCM

By James Bennett, Managing Online Editor, Melcrum

It’s what many of us strive for all our working lives, need to fulfill our ambitions, and hope to secure so that one day we can tell our children that we were there. No, not a change to dress up as a clown and compete on Deal or No Deal, I’m talking about getting the job of your dreams.

It happened to one British man last month, who from a pool of 34,000 hopeful global applicants, won the opportunity of a lifetime. Branded and marketed as ‘the best job in the world’, Ben Southall, a 34 year-old charity fundraiser from Petersfield in Hampshire, became the new caretaker of an Australian tropical island. Sound idyllic? Well it gets even better. His six-month £73,500 (AUS$110,000) contract includes a three-bedroom beach home, a swimming pool and golf cart, while his job description is to simply explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, swim, snorkel, make friends with the locals and generally enjoy the tropical Queensland climate and lifestyle. He will, however be expected to do some work, and in the true spirit of the Web 2.0 age we live in, will report back to Tourism Queensland (TQ) and the world via blogs, a photo diary, video updates and interviews. And this is where the business brains at TQ have come into their own.

Amid the worldwide recession tourism in Oz has fallen downhill faster than a jet propelled Koala on roller skates but this campaign has already generated massive amounts of publicity, PR and interest all around the world, and all for very little expenditure. And from an internal communications point of view it has served as a vital tool to boost employee engagement within the organisation.

More importantly, Tourism Queensland has agreed to speak about its great success story at our SCM Summit Australia on 15th to 17th September 2009 in Sydney.

In the session later in the year you’ll hear about:

• How the campaign spawned around 200,000 blogs, 43,000 news stories and over AUS$120 million worth of publicity.
• How the campaign was developed.
• How social media channels were used to spark global interest.
• How external interest was used to create engagement and enthusiasm inside the organisation.
• How Tourism Queensland has re-energised its culture and brand.
• How to harness successful brand initiatives to drive employee engagement.
• How to make the most of social media tools and channels.
• How to equip senior leaders to manage intense media interest and act as brand ambassadors.

Are you working on a groundbreaking campaign, if so we want to know? And what, in your opinion have been the best employee engagement campaigns of recent years? Let me know by either replying to this post, by emailing me at james.bennett@melcrum.com or by Twittering to @Melcrum