Focus on measurement at Melcrum's Member Event

by Luke Dodd, Features Editor, Melcrum

Hi everyone,

Our latest UK Member Event was held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel & Conference Centre in London on 23rd November and focused on the ever-relevant topic of measurement.

The event, exclusive to members as part of their annual membership, featured delegates from various top companies such as Aviva, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Diageo and Unilever.

Melcrum's head of content, Mike Berry, opened proceedings with an introduction to the day and overview of the agenda. Ann McDonagh, head of employee communications and Robert Fox, HR comms manager, Heineken UK (SCM Awards winner – Business Impact) then took to the stage. The presentation: "How the IC team at Heineken UK used engaging, proactive and measurable communication to radically transform a much valued employee benefit", looked at the stages the beer business took to ensure that a planned change to its pension scheme went smoothly. Before they began a program to communicate the proposed plans to the workforce, McDonagh said that internal communication had to analyze and consider several different points such as audience groupings (segmentation), likely audience impacts, key pension concepts to be communicated, likely understanding issues, likely decision paths and viable delivery channels. The duo then presented a plot graph to the assembled delegates that showed how they performed their channel selection analysis. After detailing how they communicated the new pensions, they presented some strong metrics. They had targeted 60% of employees to join the new pension scheme, in reality they hit 94% - a resounding hit!

Following Heineken UK, Melcrum hosted an interactive session facilitated by Sona Hathi, research analyst. During the slot, each table of delegates had to come up with two questions to be included in their "perfect" employee engagement survey. All these questions were collated and delegates could vote on their favourites during the breaks.

After a short coffee break, we all gathered back in the conference for Top Banana's presentation: "Using measurement to focus the attention of business leaders". Nick Terry, managing director - commercial and Richard Bridge, managing director - operations, jointly discussed how to to become your company's trusted advisor, referencing our very own Nishwa Ashraf's article: "The Trusted Advisor: How to become your company's hero". During an interactive session with the delegates, they rated the qualities that were needed to be a trusted advisor. These included being knowledgeable, leading by example and being impartial. Terry and Bridge also provided tips on how to use metrics to focus event design and how to use research as a tool to help improve ROI.

Following lunch, Andrew Hillary, communication consultant, Speakeasy, provided a colourful address referencing his own past as an aspiring rock star (with photographic evidence supplied!) to highlight how beliefs contribute to employee behavior and that it should also be measured alongside opinion and attitude. "Going beyond the standard measure of staff performance" also emphasized the point that we interpret reality through the lens of our beliefs, so understanding employees belief systems is key to getting deeper insight.

Sophie Sheppard, European research and training delivery manager, Melcrum outlined the importance of measurement stating that it was a basis for improvement, a driver of engagement and helped to educate the business. Focusing on change communication, she said that, to measure it, you need to analyze each stage of implementation thoroughly. She added that communicators need to keep their measurement focused on desired outcomes and also to be consistent in their measures. The need to balance hard metrics with soft metrics was also mentioned.

The final presentation of the day was a joint case study provided by Charlotte Kensett, senior channel manager for internal and change communications, Nationwide Building Society and Gareth Dearden, director of customer success EMEA, Kontiki. "Measuring video success at Nationwide Building Society" looked at how they worked with Kontiki to deploy a new video platform. Kensett said that the hurdles to the desktop streaming project included cost, technology reservations, bandwidth and getting the subject on the agenda. However it proved a success, with the internal communication team uploading three to four videos a week with 15,000 unique viewers for each video. In conclusion, she believed that in the future Nationwide needs to look at mobile usage when it comes to its videos.

Melcrum plans to hold more exclusive events in 2012, which are free to attend for practitioners that are members. For more details on the benefits of membership, visit www.melcrum.com/membership_levels/membership-uk.html

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?

Confronting negativity in the workplace

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

Moaners, groaners and whiners.

We’ve all had the misfortune of working with them. The cynic who shoots down an idea before it’s even thought, the complainer who scoffs at the mention of the word “team” – team meetings, team lunches, team efforts - the critic who, despite the best intentions of the company remains permanently unsatisfied.

Moaning employees might seem like a minor inconvenience, but nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace negativity. Not only does it sap energy out of your organization, but it also diverts critical attention from work, performance and productivity.

We all face problems and frustrations at work from time to time, but complaining endlessly doesn't lead to solutions, but rather perpetuates and magnifies the problem, creating a contagion of bad feeling, and ultimately a disengaged workforce.

As an internal communications professional, keeping your finger on the pulse of the organization enables you to establish and heed early warning signals that all is not well in the workplace.

In some cases it could simply be that the person doesn’t enjoy their job, and doesn’t want to be there.

But perhaps it’s more than that.

Perhaps the organization made a decision that adversely affected staff. It could be that rumors are circulating of an impending layoff. Perhaps an influential leader held a meeting and was perceived to ignore staff asking legitimate questions. Maybe some feel that they give more than they receive in the organization.

Whatever the cause of workplace negativity, the issue must be dealt with head on.

Start by identifying the exact employee groups experiencing this negativity and the nature of the issues that sparked the gloominess. Monitor discussions on employee intranets, coach managers in appropriate employee treatment and manage the appraisal and 360 feedback process. This knowledge will aid you in identifying symptoms of negativity before its morale busting consequences further damage your workplace environment.

How does your organization battle negativity within the workplace? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Storytelling that sticks

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

Looking at a steep uphill climb, Justine pedals on, despite the 40-degree heat burning into her neck. She knows it’ll be worth it in the end. That feeling of pride, the knowledge that she’s making a difference to one person through a sincere gesture. She’s on her way from Melcrum’s Sydney office to hand deliver one of our reports to a customer to save them waiting two days in delivery time and $30 in courier charges.

Or, how about…

Melcrum employees make it their personal responsibility to deliver on what they promise.

Now which version did you prefer?

The first is an anecdote familiar to Melcrum staff both old and new. Encapsulating our organization’s value for going “above and beyond”, it reminds us as employees what we should be doing and why; what’s important to our company and our clients.

The second is a standard description of what it means to go that extra mile. Both examples are valid, but only one is likely to stick out in an employee’s mind.

When change is happening, storytelling can form a critical component of organizational transformation. And although many understand this, it’s curious why change communication is, in most part, delivered closer to the second example.

Next time you’re considering using storytelling as part of your communication strategy, ask yourself three questions:

1. Would you remember it tomorrow?
2. Could you repeat it in six months’ time?

And more importantly…

    3.  Did you understand the core message?

If your planning on using storytelling as part of your internal communication strategy, check out these expert tips on introducing storytelling, on the Internal Comms Hub.

Would storytelling work in your organization? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Make mine a double standard

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

It’s 6.45am. The alarm is beeping, and your head is pounding. As you steady yourself to your feet, the symptoms bombard you. Nausea. Fatigue. Body ache. And if you’ve had a particularly eventful night, a host of cringe-inducing memories.

But despite that one drink too many, it’s a Friday, and you have a whole working day ahead of you. Calling in sick? It’s not even an option. But since your drinking companions happened to be your colleagues, at least you won’t be suffering alone.

Excessive drinking on a school night by employees has become all too de rigueur, costing businesses and industries worldwide billions of dollars each year in absenteeism and lost productivity. But how many of these hangovers are induced by team “bonding” sessions, organized by employers themselves?

According to Aviva’s fourth annual, Health of the Workplace report, the answer is 51 percent. That’s right. Over half of employee social events involve trips to the pub.

And while 45 percent of business leaders say there’s no obligation to drink at their social events, just seven percent would actively discourage their employees from doing so.

The research also reveals that, out of the companies surveyed, only 23 percent of business leaders run team-building days and just one in ten (13%) participate in sporting pursuits.

It’s baffling then, that despite more than half leading their workforce into the pub, 26 percent are more concerned about the impact of alcohol on their business than their employees’ health. And over a quarter (27%) have no sympathy for those trying to pull “sickies” the next day.

That’s not to say employers should double up as parents, but perhaps there should be some ownership and responsibility in choosing the right setting for team bonding? Especially when considering that no one seems to want to be there in the first place!

A third of employers admitted that attending socials can be “a bit of a drag”, with one in 10 feeling obliged to attend socials to keep staff happy. In the same vein, 52 percent of employees aren’t particularly enthusiastic about going out with their wider team either, and one in five (21 percent) openly admitted that they don’t like socializing with work colleagues.

I can see that employers are trying to make the lives of their employees more “fun”, but perhaps their over reliance on alcohol is a little misguided. In the short term, this strategy can be a great way to relax and help colleagues let off steam. However, in the longer term, employers need to look for other ways to build team spirit to ensure everyone is involved and that unhealthy habits are not sanctioned in the workplace.

How does your organization build team morale? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Money doesn't equal motivation

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

What are the most effective ways to convince employees to work harder?

According to Dan Pink, author of “The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us,” monetary rewards isn’t one of them.

I came across this, visually delightful, 11-minute lecture, posted on the Decision Wise Leadership Intelligence Blog, where Pink makes the case for this seemingly counter-intuitive argument, which uses the RSA Animate format to illustrate his point.

While jobs that require straightforward, algorithmic tasks respond well to the carrot and stick, the same method fails with those requiring cognitive skills. Autonomy and purpose are actually much better motivators, he says.

Do you agree? Are financial rewards to the detriment of engagement?

No social media, no job says “generation standby”

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

You’re young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Fresh out of college you’re about to embark into the world of work. Following a successful interview, you’ve been offered a position with a company you could see yourself part of for some time to come.

Fair wage? Tick. Personable staff? Tick. A challenging work load? Tick. Access to Facebook? Denied.

Is this enough to make you reconsider taking the job?

For 20 percent of Millennials, or Generation Y-ers (those born from 1980 onwards) a ban on social media in the workplace is often a deal breaker.

My initial thought was that this is preposterous. But when you consider that 48 percent of office workers and 71 percent of managers undertake work-related tasks from home, with 57 percent using a home laptop and 37 percent using smart phones to keep them constantly updated on what’s happening in the office, suddenly a little social networking during office hours sounds like a fair compromise.

Hillary Blackwell, global HR director at Clearswift, the security software provider that carried out the research, said: “Call it multi-tasking or life-splicing but increasingly fuelled by advances in technology, employees are blurring the boundaries between home and work.”

And as social media is ubiquitous in society today, for a company to ban these tools does so at the risk of appearing draconian.

But social media doesn’t have to mean teens gossiping about whose Twilight team they’re on – Jake or Edward? When removing the hype, these tools can actually be useful to an organization. From internal microblogging tools such as Yammer and CEO blogs, to work-related discussions and communities on Linked In, social networking doesn’t always have to mean social not-working.

It’s is a great way to look inwardly into your company and find out how employees really feel, what they’re thinking and what they’re saying. As part of a communications mix, it can assist in achieving strategic communication objectives such as creating transparency in the workplace, including employees in future decisions, finding out who’s working on what, linking remote and disparate global employees, creating engagement, spreading corporate news. The list is endless.

Whether you’re wondering how social media can benefit you’re business, convincing senior executives of a buy-in or wondering how other organizations have used the tools, you might want to check out Melcrum’s new Social Media report which will be on sale soon.

How is your organization using social media? We’re always keen to hear so let us know.Email me at nishwa.ashraf@melcrum.com

Turning SharePoint stress into SharePoint success

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

When the word “SharePoint” is uttered, what’s the first thing that pops into your head?

Is it: Collaboration? Microsoft? Content management?

Or how about: Confusing? Clunky? Lacks intuition?

Despite the fact that 40% of corporate intranets are now SharePoint based, and an increasing number of IT departments are keen to migrate to it as a communication platform for their company, it seems the same enthusiasm for the technology isn’t felt by many communicators.

For those who are new to SharePoint, simply wrapping your head around the prospect of how a new platform works, how it will be used, and the role you will play will certainly be amongst some of the questions on your mind. Then there’s the issue of what version to use, license fee bands and add-ons.

And for those already familiar with the platform, ending up with a multitude of team sites may be just one of the many challenges you have faced.

But if SharePoint does fail, it could be due to a governance issue, according to Sam Marshall, director of ClearBox Consulting and Melcrum’s trainer for the SharePoint for Internal Communicator’s course.

To ensure maximum value is derived, clarifying the business requirements, as well as the technical and functional needs is the first step towards successful execution of SharePoint.

Here are 10 questions you may want to address before diving headfirst into the implementation process:

1. What are the specific roles of the communication and IT departments?
2. Who “owns” the site?
3. Who will be administrator?
4. Who will manage content and how?
5. Has the balance between user-generated and corporate content been defined?
6. What are the metrics for content creation?
7. How will cross-functional content be managed and monitored?
8. Have policies on when to use and when not to use SharePoint been created?
9. What are the levels of moderation for different areas of the site?
10. Has a strategy been created to help employees adopt SharePoint?

These were just some of the many questions, Marshall covered at yesterday's SharePoint for Internal Communicator's course. If you’re cursing at the thought that you’ve missed out on an opportunity to know the ins and outs of the platform, worry not – we’ve still got a few places left for the next course on 9th September, so if you’re interested get booking!

So, is your company looking towards or using Sharepoint? I’d love to hear your stories.

Time we got back to basics?

By Nishwa Ashraf, Editorial Assistant, Melcrum

Facebook, instant messenger, intranets, mobile alerts, Twitter, MySpace and FaceSpace - these are just some of the channels businesses are using to reach employees. Okay, the last one  doesn’t exist.

With such a wide array of technology at our fingertips, you’d think communicating with employees and delivering key messages couldn’t be easier. But is it any surprise it can actually make things more complicated?

Don’t get me wrong, technology has many fantastic benefits: For disparate colleagues web meetings can bridge the geographical gap, internal microblog applications such as Yammer are useful for announcing low priority messages and keeping colleagues informed on day-to-day work-related issues, training videos and campaigns can reach a global workforce through the intranet, and let’s not forget that for Gen Y entering the workforce technology is second nature. 

But let’s be honest, is it really improving communications in your company or are you just jumping onto the latest bandwagon? 

You may be a social media maestro, but how skilled are you at delivering face-to face messages to frontline employees, without the safety of your computer screen shielding you?  In the same vein, you may be a seasoned face-to-face communicator but are you savvy enough to deal with the technology demands of a new generation of employees?

To be an effective communicator, lies in the title itself. Finding the right way to communicate is the most important thing, whether it’s through social media channels or town hall meetings, because you can roll out a marching band to drum through your message, but if it doesn’t produce results, then it doesn’t mean a thing. 

In some instances, using the best channels to achieve your aim and to suit the message does not always require a song and dance. For example, if your company wants to reduce waste by encouraging employees to switch off power points before they leave the office, then a roadshow is not required. Why not take a leaf out of Aggregate Industries “Green Dot project” and apply a green sticker on light switches as a reminder. Simple, cheap, and more importantly, more effective.

If any of this sounds familiar, then perhaps it’s time to equip yourself with the skills and core competencies needed to produce and deliver exceptional communications. With more than 1,000 graduates in its alumni, the Black Belt Programme builds on extensive research to equip communicators with the key skills and knowledge they need to excel in their roles and impact organizational performance. 

So, are you a technophobe or tech-junkie? And do you need to be a master of one or a jack of all trades to survive and succeed in today's cut throat business world? Let me know your thoughts.