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INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

A HANDBOOK FOR PROFESSIONAL MARKETERS

CAMBRIDGE MARKETING PRESS

NICK WAKE

Cambridge Marketing

Handbook

Internal Communications

Nick Wake

Cambridge Marketing Handbook: Internal Communications

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About the author

Nick Wake BA Joint Hons, MCIM, Chartered Marketer

Nick studied Economics and Social Studies with German language at the

University of East Anglia. When he tumbled out of university in the late 80s he

cut his teeth in the world of advertising sales with Haymarket publishing,

before moving into the discipline of sales promotion with an Omnicom

agency based in Thame, working with clients such as Comet, Mercury

Telecommunications and the Multiple Sclerosis Society. With two of the big 5

marketing communication disciplines behind him, he studied for his Diploma

in Marketing at evening school in High Wycombe before getting his ‘big

break’ with Whitbread. During an eight-year period Nick worked in

marketing roles with the retail brands Thresher, Marriott Hotels and David

Lloyd Leisure, before making his first and only foray in the public sector as

Head of Marketing for Sport England. During his time at Sport England, Nick

helped to establish a pathway for those wishing to achieve a CIM approved

sports based professional diploma in marketing.

After three years Nick felt his future lay back in the private sector and joined

performance improvement agency Grass Roots in his home town of Tring,

where he remained for eight years heading up the marketing and in house

creative teams. His role at Grass Roots also included responsibility for

internal communications and the project management of Grass Roots’

participation in the Best Companies process over a period of seven years,

during which Grass Roots achieved a highpoint ranking of 34 in the list of top

100 medium sized companies to work for in the UK.

In October 2013 Nick left Grass Roots to set up his own business, Awaken

Communications, which provides marketing and internal communications

services to a variety of clients, predominantly in the sport and leisure sector.

Within Awaken Communications Nick serves as a part time Marketing

Director to iFLY (formerly Airkix) Indoor Skydiving.

Nick teaches Integrated Communications and Marketing and Consumer

Behaviour for Cambridge Marketing College and is Director of the specialist

sports pathway for those wishing to achieve the Professional Diploma in

Marketing. He is married to Jules with whom he shares two teenage

children, Ellie and Matt.

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Contents

About the Author i

Chapter 1: Internal Communications v Internal

Marketing 1

1.1 The internal marketing mix 1

Chapter 2: The Purpose of Internal Communication 5

2.1 Awareness of vision, mission and values 6

2.2 Employee engagement 7

2.3 Disseminating knowledge 9

2.4 Employee retention 10

2.5 Supporting product and service development 10

2.6 Change management 12

2.7 Managing a crisis 17

2.8 Reward and recognition 20

2.9 Reducing inter-departmental friction 22

2.10 Fulfilment of legal obligations 23

Chapter 3: The role of the internal communications

practitioner 25

Chapter 4: Internal Communications Planning 29

4.1 Roles and responsibilities – The leader, HR and marketing triangle 32

4.2 Situation analysis or audit 34

4.3 The importance of context 36

4.4 Internal communication challenges within the multi-national 37

4.5 Surveys 38

4.6 Objectives 40


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4.7 Strategy setting 41

4.8 Tactics and implementation 46

4.9 Cascading information 47

4.10 Communication champions 48

4.11 In house v agency support 50

4.12 Budgeting 52

Chapter 5: Communication Tools and Media 55

5.1 Passive channels 55

5.2 Interactive channels 55

5.3 The power of face to face 57

5.4 Body language 58

5.5 The rise of video 60

5.6 The rise of the Infographic 62

5.7 The impact of social media and the emergence of the Enterprise

Social Netwok (ESN) 64

5.8 Yammer 67

5.9 Slack 68

Case study from Slack website 69

5.10 Workplace by Facebook 70

5.11 Other social media 71

5.12 Internal communication applications 72

Chapter 6: Evaluation 73

6.1 Surveys 73

6.2 Start with activity classification 76

6.3 Measuring message impact 76

6.4 Simply sensing the mood 78

6.5 Case studies in evaluation 80

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Chapter 7: Employee Behaviour 87

7.1 Motivation 87

7.2 Attitudes and beliefs 88

7.3 Personality 90

7.4 Thinking and behaviour 92

7.5 Groups 94

Chapter 8: Organisational Culture 101

8.1 What is organisational culture? 101

8.2 Characteristics of organisational culture 103

8.3 Culture, clutter and the rise of telecommuting 105

8.4 Buzzwords 107

8.5 The quality of conversation 109

8.6 Leaders and leadership style 110

Chapter 9: Reward and Recognition 115

9.1 Voluntary benefits 116

9.2 Employee lifecycle communications 116

9.3 A culture of recognition 118

Chapter 10: The Characteristics of a Great

Communicator 121

References 125

Index 131


1

Chapter 1: Internal Communications v Internal

Marketing

I have a long held view that Marketing at its simplest is about two things:

acquiring new customers and keeping existing customers loyal. If we accept

this then a definition of internal marketing is pretty straightforward: the

process of acquiring suitable, talented employees, engaging and retaining

them.

The target audience for internal marketing may be widened to include

other stakeholders such as owners and shareholders, who have a direct

stake in the performance of the organisation, and connected stakeholders

such as suppliers and distributers. In this latter area however, it could be

argued that channel marketing is a more appropriate label than internal

marketing.

We should also acknowledge that internal marketing is often substituted for

concepts, with strong and often overlapping links, such as culture

development and employee engagement. And when internal marketing is

being discussed, are we really talking about the true meaning of marketing

or in fact, is the focus largely on the communication part of marketing? This

is not dissimilar to the widely held view of those outside the profession, that

those who work in marketing have a job that starts and ends with Promotion.

That may well be the case for many of those with the word ‘marketing’ in

their job title, but the more enlightened of us know that the true practice of

marketing involves at least another 6 words beginning with P.

We also know that marketing is more about a philosophy and a set of skills,

than a department. The same is true of internal marketing. No single

department controls the process of internal marketing. Marketing and HR

tend to lead, but just like external marketing, everyone in the organisation

will be contributing to internal marketing; even if they do not consciously

realise it.

1.1 The Internal Marketing Mix

So does internal marketing therefore also involve a mix that involves more

than just Promotion? The answer to this must be yes and can be illustrated as

follows:

Chapter 1: Internal Communication

2

Figure 1.1 External and Internal Marketing Mix

Role is about the parameters of our job; what our responsibilities are, where

we fit into the organisational structure and how we are assessed. Roles are

subject to a variety of influences such as the sector we operate in, the

business strategy, the organisational culture and how ambitious we are as

individuals.

Reward is about our salary, bonuses, commissions and other benefits, some

of which may be voluntary. These might include holiday, healthcare, car

and phone allowances, long service awards and schemes such as bikes for

work.

Location is about where we work and all the associated features of a

particular location. Dimensions might include rural v urban, north v south,

served by public transport and proximity to where we live.

People is about the range of skills within the organisation and how these are

deployed in the interests of serving customers. Again these will be

dependent on sector, business strategy and culture.

Process is strongly linked to culture and policy and can be influenced by the

nature and types of channels of communication that are available, and

who has the access and authority to use them.

Marketing

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

People

Process

Physical Evidence

Internal Marketing

Role

Reward

Location

Communication

People

Process

Physical Evidence


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Physical evidence can relate to everything from the fabric of the

workplace, the style, the layout, the colours and the dress code.

In the service dominated markets of the western world, these later three Ps

represent legitimate territory for today’s marketing professional; areas we

would wish to influence in the interests of serving customers and were we

find ourselves needing to work in close collaboration with our HR and

Operational colleagues.

However, as Stella Low, Head of Brand and Communications at EMC says:

“Most executives, when they use the phrase internal marketing are not

referring to activities relating to role, reward, location, people, process and

physical evidence. They are referring to internal communications” (Low,

Interview 08.01.16).

Hence the choice of Internal Communications as a title for this Handbook

which, whilst produced primarily as a support resource for students working

towards their professional marketing qualifications, will also (hopefully) be of

interest and practical use for those already working and developing their

careers in internal communications.

Chapter 1: Internal Communication

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5

Chapter 2: The Purpose of Internal

Communication

Welch and Jackson defined internal communication as the “strategic

management of interactions and relationships between stakeholders at all

levels within organisations across a number of interrelated dimensions,

including internal line management communication, internal team peer

communication, internal project peer communication and internal

corporate communication” (Welch & Jackson, 2007).

Another way to look at internal communication is as the glue that holds an

organisation together. Without it, a company is just a collection of

disconnected individuals, working in isolation and in pursuit of their own

agendas.

Research for this handbook suggests that the primary purpose of internal

communication is to engage employees with the company vision, mission

and values, so that there is a strong connection running from the top to the

bottom of the organisation and employees generally feel positive about

being in the workplace. For Stella Low, Communications Director with global

IT company EMC, it is about ensuring everyone is “informed, motivated and

inspired to achieve the purpose of the company”. This in turn drives high

levels of employee retention and greater productivity.

For internal communications consultant and author Tim Wooten, it is about

“joining the dots” for employees so that they get the big picture and can

see their part in it (Wooten, Interview 22.01.16). It’s also about two-way

dialogue, an ongoing conversation among employees at all levels.

Bill Quirke argues that the job of internal communications in today’s modern,

global corporate is to strike a balance between four elements (Quirke,

2000):

• Purpose and Direction – what level of understanding of corporate

direction is needed at different levels in the organisation?

• Information – who needs what information and how can the best

receive it, how often, in what style and via which media?

Chapter 2: The Purpose of Internal Communication

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• Identification – what is the right balance of identification between

corporate and the individual business units, and how can corporate

best support that; to what extent should people feel part of the

wider company and how communication should best act as a

‘corporate glue’?

• Collaboration – how communication should encourage the

exchange of best practice and foster sharing, learning and

networking.

The rest of this chapter explores ten possible aims for internal

communications, several of which overlap with each other: raising

awareness of organisations’ vision, mission and values, supporting employee

engagement, defining the employer brand, supporting product and service

development, oiling the wheels of organisational change, managing a crisis,

promoting reward and recognition, reducing inter-departmental conflict,

and finally, the fulfilment of legal obligations.

2.1 Awareness of Vision, Mission and Values

The concepts of Vision, Mission and Values are not new. Most organisations

employing 50 or more people will have these concepts in place, though

increasingly it seems that a Mission statement is favoured over a Vision

statement. Let’s explore the difference.

Vision: this is about what the organisation wants to achieve at some point in

the future. Some organisations will have a set time frame for this, others will

leave it open. Amazon articulates its vision as follows: “Our vision is to be

earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can

come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”.

Mission: this is the fundamental purpose of the organisation. It should answer

this question for each employee of that business: Why do I get out of bed in

the morning? For example, the Mission of Innocent Drinks it is to “make

natural, delicious and healthy drinks that help people live well and die old”.

At Nike it is to ‘bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world’.

For Google it is “to organize the world's information and make it universally

accessible and useful”.

Values drive the behaviours that organisations believe characterise their

business and drive the behaviours that lie behind that businesses success.

For example, Passion is a key driver (no pun intended) for BMW:


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“The passion for forging new paths, thinking ahead and breaking new

ground, is our common drive in the BMW Group. That is why we look for

employees who want to do and experience something extraordinary.

People who bring team spirit and initiative with them - and the will to

continuously learn. For with joy and dedication a job becomes a personal

passion. Something to be proud of, each and every day.”

While Barclays Bank, which has had its fair share of scandals recently,

somewhat ironically suggests that its core values are: respect, integrity,

service, excellence and stewardship.

This latter example highlights one of the challenges facing internal

communicators and that is to generate credibility in the concepts of Vision,

Mission and Values. It is all too easy to put up a few posters in reception or

the office canteen and think the job is done. Not surprisingly, the ‘this is how

it is and this is what we want you to do’ approach will only serve to breed

cynicism – the complete opposite of what these concepts are designed to

foster.

At their best however, Vision, Mission and Values do provide a useful

reference point for employees and help create a sense of organisational

togetherness and team spirit. At a practical level, the HR department will

use the Values to help screen candidates who are seeking to join the

business and to reward, recognise and promote internally.

2.2 Employee Engagement

Countless studies over the years have articulated the business case for

employee engagement – a topic on which vast tomes have been written,

particularly since the turn of the century. Some of the studies have gone to

great lengths to uncover empirical evidence that proves what the rest of us

just regards as common sense: if employees are happy in their work, they

will be more productive, work harder, provide better service and this in turn,

will lead to happier customers who keep coming back. Everything else

being equal, profits rise faster than they do in companies where there is an

absence of engagement.

The global PR and marketing services agency, Edelman, identified some

forty drivers of employee engagement which they grouped into six areas,

one of which was communication and information flow. In their model,

internal communications supported employee engagement when:


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• Employees get the information they need to do their job

• Employees hear news from the company first, before hearing it

externally

• Employees understand what drive customer satisfaction

• Customer facing employees are providing a consistent customer

experience

• Messaging is consistent and appeals to logic and emotion

• Communication channels are established, expedient and reliable

• Communication portfolio contains a proper mix of written, face-to-

face and experiential methods

• Communication effectiveness is measured at least yearly

Engage for Success, the voluntary movement that grew out of the

government task force set up in 2011 to assess the value of employee

engagement, describes the four drivers of employee engagement as

follows:

• Strategic Narrative – visible, empowering leadership providing a

strong strategic narrative about the organisation, where it’s come

from and where it’s going

• Engaging Managers – engaging managers who focus their people

and give them scope, treat their people as individuals and coach

and stretch their people

• Employee Voice – employee voice throughout the organisations, for

reinforcing and challenging views, between functions and externally.

Employees are seen not as the problem, rather as central to the

solution, to be involved, listened to, and invited to contribute their

experience, expertise and ideas

• Integrity – organisational integrity – the values on the wall are

reflected in day to day behaviours. There is no ‘say –do’ gap.

Promises made and promises kept, or an explanation given as to

why not

More recently, Jacob Morgan (The Employee Experience Advantage, 2017)

has discussed the importance of focussing on Experience rather than

Engagement. He argues that organisations around the world have been

investing in employee engagement for decades, yet nothing much appears


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to have changed. Employee engagement is defined by Morgan as

investing in short term perks without changing the core business practices of

the organisation. In other words, it has been largely a case of trying to

distract employees from the sad realities of their work lives, rather than

making a meaningful and lasting change for the better. In contrast,

employee experience is all about changing the actual system, the core

workplace practices of the organisation, and redesigning work around the

people who work there. You cannot create employee engagement without

designing employee experiences first, he argues.

Morgan’s model consists of three environments: culture (the side effects of

working for your organisation), technology (the tools employees use to get

their jobs done), and physical space (the actual spaces in which employees

work). Based on the results of his in-depth study, carried out over the past

couple of years, he has created an Experience Index where those that are

getting it right are classified as ‘Experienced’ and those that are not are

labelled ‘Inexperienced’.

Whether we talk about Engagement or Experience, one thing does not

seem to change: whilst it might be argued that internal communications is a

discipline rather than a driver, it most certainly is the thread that joins all the

driving forces together. In other words, it underpins the employee

experience.

2.3 Disseminating Knowledge

Lew Platt, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard once observed: “If Hewlett

Packard knew what it knows, we’d be three times more productive”. In

other words, if only knowledge sharing was so powerful that everyone in the

company understood the company’s full capabilities, then the company

wold be truly unstoppable.

In the western world we very much live in a knowledge based economy,

where there are more people employed in service provision than in

manufacturing and where we talk increasingly about the provision of

solutions rather than products. In this climate, those involved with business

development need to have a complete understanding of its company’s

capabilities so that these can be brought to be bear to solve client issues.

The role of internal communications is to provide the channels to

disseminate that experience from top to bottom and to accelerate the

pace at which the organisation’s capabilities are matched to the client’s

needs (Quirke, op. cit.).


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2.4 Employee Retention

There is a host of studies that suggest a powerful link between employee

engagement and employee retention. This is not rocket science. Why would

anyone want to leave a company if they are happy there?

As well as benefitting from the greater productivity of engaged employees,

corporations appreciate the cost involved in finding new talent. According

to David Macleod and Nita Clarke, UK talent acquisition costs stand at

£5,311 per hire (Macleod & Clarke, 2009). According to calculations from

SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost of

replacing an employee earning $8 per hour is roughly $3,500. For middle

level employees the cost can be as high as 150% of their annual salary and

high level employees upwards of 400% of annual salary.

Maren Hogan writing for the People Fluent blog argues that employees do

not leave companies, they leave their boss (Hogan, Blog 2014). And the

number 1 reason they do this is because of a lack of communication. The

cascade of information from the top of an organisation often gets stuck in

middle management layers, leaving the majority of workers in the dark. As

Hogan points out: “Work without context or reason is not only frustrating, but

it also lacks an end goal and is bad for cohesion”. But it need not be like

this. She goes on to cite research that suggests that 43% of highly engaged

employees receive feedback on a weekly basis.

2.5 Supporting Product and Service Development

In order to remain competitive, most commercial organisations will have a

continuous process of product and service development. When it comes to

encouraging a culture of innovation, internal communication has a key part

to play. In 2011 Anne Linke and Ansgar Zerfass published their change

management framework for implementing an innovation culture by means

of internal communication, based on the results of a study of a global

pharmaceutical company based in Europe (Linke & Zerfass, 2011).

Their main hypothesis stated that an innovative culture can be established

when the corresponding internal communication adapts to each of the

change phases: awareness, understanding, acceptance, and action.

Intellectual support found in an innovation culture fosters and consequently

leads to further innovation. This is encouraged through communication

activities. They concluded, that in order to create an innovation culture,

internal communication should aim to lead employees through different

phases of identification. Identification was defined as the extent to which


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they generated ideas themselves along with their willingness to participate

with ideas generated by others, as represented in Figure 2.1. They argued

that targeting different employees specifically based on their identification

level makes internal communication more effective.

Figure 2.1 Identification with Innovation, Linke and Zerfass 2011

Whilst the benefits of cross functional teams for solution development has

long been recognised, the modern corporation uses technology to foster

greater collaboration across departmental, managerial and geographical

boundaries, in an ever more informal and agile way. A quick skype call or

Google chat is fast becoming the popular replacement for the lengthy face

to face meeting.

As well as encouraging idea generation, once a product or service has

been developed, internal communication is vital for launch preparation.

Before new or adapted products and services can be presented to

customers, they first need to be explained to employees. The most

successful developments will invariably use a period of internal consultation

to iron out any glitches in the proposition so that when it is finally brought to


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the external marketplace, the period of consumer testing is both minimised

in length and maximised in terms of success.

As well as being versed in the technical features of a new development,

employees need to understand why it is important to the company and

what their individual role is in making it successful. In the automotive industry,

for example, car manufacturers will invest heavily in the internal

communication of a new model before it is launched to the public. It is vital

that the entire dealer network shares the excitement of the manufacturer

and that they are fully conversant with the unique selling points of the car

over its competition.

2.6 Change Management

Intensity of the internal communications effort is never stronger than at times

of significant change.

“When are we not changing?” is a popular question among employees in

large corporations today. Bill Quirke quotes a report from the Institute of

Management which suggests that many employees in larger companies

feel trapped in a relentless cycle of change, with a majority feeling that the

primary outcome of this is insecurity, lower morale and less loyalty. Internal

communications, depending on one’s perspective, can be a contributor to

these feelings, or a process that aims to reverse them.

In 1996 Kotter introduced his model on how management teams should go

about managing change (Kotter, 1996):

Figure 2.2 Kotter's Steps for Managing Change


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His key point was that for successful change, management teams needed

to win the hearts and minds of their employees.

Other commentators have argued that successful change is not rigorously

controlled and managed, but is more a bottom up process that happens in

an informal, viral way, through social networks rather than formal structures.

The skill of leadership is to know how and when to give this more informal

approach, room to breathe and flourish.

Adrian Cropley argues in his LinkedIn post that today's communication

professional simply needs to be skilled in change management. The

background to this he explains thus (Cropley, Blog 2016):

“Over the past 25 years, business has evolved from a top down, hierarchical

structure when the business changed because the boss said so to a more

empowered workforce. Times are different. Employees take ownership for

their work, are proud of their accomplishments and have a stake in

successful business outcomes. In short, instead of saying “Yes, sir,”

employees ask “Why are we doing that?””

In this post, Cropley goes on to explain the business imperative behind

change management communication by quoting from a 2003-04 Towers

Perrin benchmarking report:

“Communication is no longer a ‘soft’ function. It drives business

performance and organisational success. Companies with the highest levels

of effective communication experience a 26% total return to shareholders

from 1998 – 2002, compared to a -15% return experienced by firms that

communicate least effectively. A significant improvement in

communication effectiveness is associated with a 29.5% increase in market

value.”

Bill Quirke devotes a whole chapter to restructuring and rewiring, where he

explains how internal communications can help smooth the restructuring

process and ease the pain of transition (Quirke, op. cit.). He shows how

internal confusion over brands can be reduced and how competition for

share of internal voice can be mitigated through agreeing rules of

engagement and mutual responsibilities.

Quirke goes on to advocate 8 principles of communicating change

effectively:

1. Use face to face – other tools have their value but when it comes to

talking about how colleagues go about their work, face-to-face is

mandatory


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2. Focus on facts – employees need hard facts regarding what the

change means for them as individuals and will not respond well to

cajoling or exhortation. Briefing packs must be guided by honesty

3. Create advocates by adding context – people are influenced by

those that they trust and respect. Get the influencers on board by

sharing with them valuable context, arguments and

counterarguments

4. Prepare those leading the briefings – let managers get completely

comfortable with their message by giving them room to discuss the

issues with their immediate subordinates first, so that the can lead

discussion with the front line confidently and at the right level

5. Listen and retune – do not assume that messages will always be

heard as you intended. Be prepared to take on board feedback

and adjust for the next round

6. Provide communicators with more information than is needed – the

better informed, the more confident the presenter will be and the

more credibility they will carry through their knowledge and

understanding of all the issues

7. Encourage healthy, straightforward conversation – encourage

people to speak up in a safe environment. Get the issues out on the

table, not nervously tucked away for fear of retribution. Give straight

answers which can include “I promise to come back to you on that

when I have more detail”

8. Focus on the benefits for the employee not the company – if the

internal team’s slides to senior management have focused on the

benefits of the change for the company, don’t make the mistake of

using these same slides with the employees! It is vital that the

messages are mindful of the audience

Quirke also makes a very simple, yet important point: employees are only

able to cope with a limited number of initiatives at any one time. He quotes

the Jensen Group’s 1998 research into complexity in the workplace which

found that an 85% increase in work complexity was driven by an average of

over 35 separate change initiatives. Ouch!


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Where communications is concerned, complexity can be reduced by

working to a simple framework. This was the strategy at the end of the 1990s

when car giants Daimler Benz and the Chrysler corporation merged. Terri

Houtman, the then director of internal communications at Chrysler believed

that a successful merger depended on internal communications moving

employees through a pyramid of engagement:

• Awareness of the new messages, goals, values and targets

• Understanding of the strategy to achieve those targets and the role

that each employee needed to play in making the new business

successful

• Belief in the new business

• Commitment to giving of one’s best to help the new business be

successful

At the first two levels, awareness and understanding, the internal

communication team, according to Houtman were focused on direct

interventions and activities. For the upper two levels the role was much more

one of facilitation and counselling, helping leaders and managers to drive

the behaviours necessary to support an effective change programme.

Figure 2.3 The Chrysler Group Engagement Pyramid

I am COMMITTED

to act

I BELIEVE

I UNDERSTAND the message

I am AWARE of the message

Converting understanding into

commitment requires active

communications by managers


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More recently, global IT giants EMC and Dell also seem to have done a

pretty good job of managing a union after announcing in October 2015,

that they were to merge. Stella Low explains how the two companies

immediately formed an integration team with internal communications at

the top of the agenda (Low, op. cit.). One of the first tasks was the

production of a Frequently Asked Questions document, which was tailored

for each organisation. This was the most pragmatic way of dealing in detail,

with the burning questions that each company’s employees had, post the

merger announcement. However, whilst the printed word was important,

nothing was more effective in reassuring and engaging all employees,

according to Low, than the commitment made by the respective CEOs, to

being as visible as the could be, in the immediate aftermath of the

announcement. At times of change, employees need to be able to look

into their leaders’ eyes and to pick up on the physiological and tonal

messages to add real meaning to the words that they might read in an

email or an intranet post. The power of face to face communication is

further explored in chapter 5.

Mark Webb, Social Media Manager at Dixons Carphone has experienced

two significant periods of change in the business; the first as Dixon’s sought

to reposition itself in the digital world in 2008 and the second, more recently,

following the merger with leading UK telecommunications company,

Carphone Warehouse. He echoes the importance of leader visibility during

these periods and consistency of language. For example, “a merger of

equals” was a phrase that both sets of employees were encouraged to

cling to as the joining of the two companies unfolded. The idea that neither

company nor staff was more important than the other was central to

maintaining employee confidence and commitment.

Mergers and acquisitions inevitably feature upheaval and often

redundancies. The merger with Carphone included the closure of the old

Dixons office in Hemel Hempstead and the movement of some one

thousand employees to new offices in Acton. According to Webb,

transparency and support were the dominant features of the

communications programme at the time, enabling employees to come to

terms with the change, however it affected them on a personal level.

At the Retail Week awards in 2016 it could be argued that the success of the

overall merger and the contribution in this played by internal

communications, was suitably recognised when the newly formed Dixons

Carphone was named Retailer of the Year.


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Figure 2.4 Dixons Carphone Warehouse CEO, Sebastian James

2.7 Managing a Crisis

When the corporate ship hits choppy waters, internal communications can

be the difference between steering a safe passage to calmer seas, or all

round panic as the ship starts to sink!

A ‘crisis’ can take a number of forms across a wide spectrum from mildly

embarrassing to acts of negligence and criminality. Examples include: a

product or service failure, a natural disaster, a public scandal involving a

senior executive, revelations of corporate impropriety, a collapse in the

supply chain, an injury or fatality at a company event and failure to comply

with data.

The CIM listed a number of examples of recent, well publicised crises in The

Catalyst:

• Volkswagen’s dishonesty over automotive emissions

• BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill

• The LIBOR rigging scandal which is estimated to have wiped 60% of

profits from Britain’s five biggest banks since 2011

• The horsemeat scandal of 2013 which has had disastrous

consequences for brands such as Findus


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• Corporate tax avoidance from the likes of Amazon and Starbucks

• Data privacy breaches for over 150,000 Talk Talk customers

• News of the World phone hacking

• Energy companies engaging in collaborative price fixing

• Numerous political scandals, such as parliamentary expenses

involving MPs of all parties

Volkswagen – A Collective Management Failure? Extract from the Guardian Newspaper December 10 2015

Volkswagen has admitted that the diesel emissions scandal was the result of

a collection of failures within the company, rather than just the actions of

rogue engineers.

Hans Dieter Pötsch, the VW chairman, said there had been a “whole chain”

of errors at the German carmaker and there was a mindset within the

company that tolerated rule-breaking.

Pötsch said engineers had installed defeat devices in engines after realising

they could not hit emissions targets for diesel cars in the US by “permissible

means”. Nine managers have been suspended over possible involvement in

the scandal.

Although Pötsch said no senior executives were believed to have been

actively involved in cheating emissions tests, he warned: “This is not only

about direct but overall responsibility.”

The VW chairman said the scandal was the result of a combination of

individual misconduct and mistakes in one part of the business but also flaws

in company processes and a tolerance of rule-breaking. Work began on the

defeat device as early as 2005 when VW decided to promote its diesel

engines in the US.

As well as requiring expert external communications management, it is

arguably more important to keep employees in the picture at a time when

they are not only grappling with uncertainty, but will feel personally involved

by virtue of their employment with the organisation that is hitting the

headlines.


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Gill Corkindale writing in the Harvard Business Review claimed that the oil

spill crisis faced by BP in 2010 exposed a dysfunctional organisational culture

that resulted in a failure to respond quickly enough and with appropriate

intensity to the events as they unfolded (Corkindale, 2010).

Georgina Bromwich writing in the Training Journal noted that “two very long

days passed between the news breaking of the emissions scandal and

Volkswagen’s first press release on the subject. It took them another two

days to write their first tweet on the topic. That silence is a powerful message

all on its own” (Bromwich, 2016).

As well as speed and intensity, other factors highlighted as critical for both

internal and external communicators by the BP oil spill crisis include:

• Leadership visibility – Tony Hayward the CEO at the time, did a good

job by arriving reasonably promptly on the scene and assuming the

role of spokesperson. Sadly, some of his verbal communication did

not serve him quite so well. He was particularly criticised, as the crisis

unfolded, for saying he was looking forward to returning to normal

life and in doing so, implying that he was more concerned about his

personal welfare than that of the many people whose lives had

been turned upside down by the disaster

• Truthfulness – customers do not like being spun to and employees will

not tolerate it. If the news is bad, do not try to dress it up

• Collaboration – communicators must keep the focus on information

rather than departmental blame

• Consideration for ALL the relevant stakeholders – in this instance BP

needed to manage the fears of a local community and a host of

environmental and political stakeholders, as well as customers and

employees

• Actions speak louder than words – it is very important that if you tell

employees something is going to happen….it happens

Rachel Miller argues that the best way to handle crisis communications is to

be adequately prepared (Miller, Blog 2014). She suggests a business ask itself

the following questions: Can your comms team access their email, shared

drives and send messages remotely to the whole organisation when not

physically in the office? Do they have all the mobile numbers they need pre-

programmed into their phones and the relevant chargers, etc. at home?

Does everyone know how to update information lines remotely? Can you


20

prepare anything in advance e.g. set up a conference call number for a

cross-functional business continuity team or write holding statements as a

starting point which you can tailor as required.

She suggests that most businesses should have a crisis management

document with information that will give them a head start in a crisis

situation. This might include, press contact numbers, maps, phone numbers,

details of emergency services and email addresses for employees. Content

should be reviewed a couple of times a year to ensure it remains current

and incorporates any learnings from incidents that have occurred during

the course of the year.

2.8 Reward and Recognition

One of the most important purposes of internal communications is to reward

and recognise employees. There is plenty of research to suggest that those

organisations that do this well enjoy greater success over time than those

that do not. Saying ‘thank you’ is immensely powerful. The Great Place to

Work Institute, which maintains the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For

list, highlights ‘Thanking’ as one of 9 key Practice Areas in their culture

framework. According to the Institute, Best Companies thank employees

personally and in unexpected ways; they thank people frequently and

cultivate a ‘climate of appreciation’.

Structured reward and recognition schemes are commonplace in today’s

corporation. Typically, these programmes, such as the Champion’s Awards

introduced in 2015 by US indoor skydiving company iFLY, will enable

colleagues to nominate each other for demonstrating behaviours consistent

with the company’s values. In the case of iFLY, the winner of the monthly

award at each of the company’s locations, receives a gift card to the value

of $50. In the company’s annual employee survey in January 2016, the

introduction of Champions Awards was cited by many employees as a

major step forward for the business and a key factor behind the

improvement in overall engagement scores.


21

Figure 2.5 iFLY Indoor Skydiving has a Champions Programme for

recognising behaviours consistent with the company values

Studies also show that it is the recognition rather than the material reward,

that is the real kicker for prolonged engagement. There is a world of

difference between leaving a gift card on someone’s desk for example,


22

versus presenting it to the recipient, in front of their peers and thanking them

personally and specifically for what they have done to earn their reward.

Public endorsement is where it counts.

2.9 Reducing Inter-departmental Friction

According to Helen Huhman, writing in the Entrepeneur, whenever people

are required to work together, conflict is likely to arise (Huhman, Blog 2014).

Regardless of how compatible members of a team might be, each

individual brings along distinct priorities and a unique personality.

She refers to a report, “The State of Enterprise Work” produced by an

organisation called AtTask, released in October 2013 which discovered 81

percent of more than 2,000 American adults surveyed experienced

workplace conflict with other departments, groups, teams, or co-workers. As

a result, 4 out of 10 respondents reported a loss in productivity. Interestingly,

poor communication appears to be the root cause of much of this conflict.

Twenty-nine percent of the respondents from the AtTask study said they

believed conflicting priorities are the # 1 source of workplace conflict.

Additionally, 64 percent of the respondents also cited an abundance of

confusion about who was supposed to be doing which specific tasks or

duties. Rather like the players on a sports team, employees need to know

what position they are playing in, what is expected of them and how this fits

with the other players on the team. Internal communication should certainly

be able to address these issues.

In an August 2013 study by Workplace Options, 84 percent of 427 working

Americans polled said they talk with their co-workers about job-related

problems. Workplace Options also discovered personality clashes and poor

communication are top causes of workplace conflict. Thirty-five percent of

the poll respondents said their employer does not have a formal complaint

process. One-third of the respondents said they go to their supervisor if a

conflict arises and another third immediately directly address the person

causing the friction.

Forty-seven percent of the 740 respondents surveyed for FairWay

Resolution’s "Conflict in New Zealand Workplaces Study" released in August

2013 said they went to their managers to resolve a conflict. Only half of

those respondents, however, were satisfied with their manager’s reaction.


23

Based on my own personal experience of working in a variety of

organisations, large and small, inter-departmental conflict is inextricably

linked to organisational culture. Those who advocate the creation of

conflict resolution procedures – another manual that sits on the shelf (or the

PDF that never gets downloaded) – are missing the point. If the culture was

right in the organisation; if all those companies who list ‘teamwork’ or

‘collaboration’ as one of their values, truly practised these values, then there

would be little need for formal documents on conflict resolution.

2.10 Fulfilment of Legal Obligations

There are a number of circumstances under which employers are obliged

by law to communicate with their employees. These include:

• Outlining in writing the main terms and conditions of employment

and subsequently any changes that might be made as a result of

changes in role

• Dismissal (usually on request).

• A change of business ownership

• To provide recognised trade unions the information they require for

collective bargaining.

Employers are also required by law to:

• Provide employees with an itemised pay slip

• Consult employees or their representatives when considering

collective redundancies, business transfer or changes to pensions

• Inform and consult on issues affecting them and the business they

work for (where a company employs 50 or more people). These

include:

o Take health and safety issues seriously

o Consult over changes to the contract of employment

o Consult over redundancies


24

o Consult over undertakings or transfers, i.e. the business is to

be sold or part of it is to be contracted out, or the contractor

is to be replaced by another

o Consult over changes to pension schemes

o Provide training policies, progress and plans


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Chapter 3: The Role of the Internal

Communications Practitioner

As well as being a discipline or a process, in larger organisations, both

private, public and third sector e.g. charities, an individual and a team may

have job roles that are specifically focused on internal communications.

According to PR Week, the day to day tasks of an internal communications

manager are likely to involve some or all of the following:

• Establish an internal communications strategy in conjunction with

senior managers

• Ensure organisational initiatives and projects are successfully

communicated to employees and stakeholders

• Plan, edit and write content for a variety of internal communications

media, such as a staff intranet, monthly magazine or regular email

bulletin. You may also be required to work on the layout of content

• Keep clients abreast of progress and answer their questions

• Storyboard or translate ideas to the creative team of art directors

and designers

• Use social media to communicate with staff internally

• Manage an internal communications officer or whole team

• Deliver presentations at organisational events, such as your

company’s AGM

• Draft messages or scripts from senior executives for presentation to

employees in written or spoken form

• Ensure internal communications messages are consistent across all

media and for different departments of the organisation

• Ensure internal communication messages are consistent with

external communication messages

• Respond to feedback from staff and adjust communications content

accordingly

• Handle the internal communication response to crisis situations which

affect organisational perception and reputation

• Advise senior executives of developments throughout the

organisation, either face to face or through regular written

communication

Chapter Three - The role of the internal communications practitioner

26

And the skills required to do these tasks are as follows:

• Writing skills – you need excellent writing, editing and proofreading

skills as well as the journalistic ability to source stories from employees

• Speaking skills – you also need strong speaking skills as you are likely

to be called on to give presentations to staff. Internal

communications managers need sensitivity to an organisation’s

goals and values and the ability to relay them to employees

• Interpersonal skills – you need good interpersonal and relationship-

building skills in order to work with communications and HR

departments. You also need to possess the confidence to deal with

senior executives and explain communication techniques to them

• Creative skills – you need the creative ability to devise

communication strategies Digital skills: Familiarity with information

technology, especially digital and video means of communication, is

essential

More recently the Institute of Internal Communications has published its

framework for internal communicators’ professional development, consisting

of 6 core skill areas and 9 behaviours:

Figure 3.1 IOIC Professional Development Roadmap


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At the heart of the framework is what the IOIC deems the core purpose of

the internal comms practitioner: to create an informed, engaged &

connected workforce to drive organisational performance.

Having ‘internal communications’ within your job title does not, of course,

mean that you are responsible for all internal communications that go on

within an organisation. It does however require you to be both a facilitator

of best practice and a traffic manager, helping an organisation to avoid

communication overload and keeping messages appropriate focused in

content, delivered via appropriate channels with a frequency and

language that employees can absorb and where necessary, act upon.

Bill Quirke talks about the modern day internal communications professional

needing to learn the lessons of effective supply chain management (Quirke,

op. cit.). It is not enough to assume that just because a message has been

sent, it has been received. He points out the potential disconnects between

links in the communication chain where “messages are mistaken for

communication and success is defined as the media’s ability to deliver

messages with no regard for the final outcome. Competing communicators

jealously guard the part of the communication chain they own and

managers are accused of filtering and blocking information, and

disagreeing with its value”.

The answer is that the internal communicator must always be aligned with

the corporate priorities (not their own agendas) and must be able to add

the vital ingredients of meaning and relevance to every communication

they touch.

Internal communication specialists need to understand they have two

primary audiences. Upstream senior managers who often want the specialist

to get out of the way and just give them access to the channels; and

downstream the general workforce that is usually desperate for less volume

and more clarity. Achieving value for both broad audiences, according to

Quirke can be accomplished by sticking to these principles:

• Focus on processes, not products – for example, why create another

channel e.g. a newsletter when the message could be conveyed

just as easily via existing channels?

• Quality manage communication – use language that is accessible to

the audience

Chapter Three - The role of the internal communications practitioner

28

• Reduce the number of messages and make them more memorable

– less is more. One painting on the wall is always more impactful than

several

• Design information with the recipient in mind – always think about

what it is you want the recipient to do with the information you are

sending them

• Budget time not paper – time is our most precious commodity. Make

sure topics take up no more communication bandwidth than they

merit

• Measure the outcome – without this, how can we know if the

investment in internal comms is worthwhile (see Chapter 6).


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Chapter 4: Internal Communications Planning

In the same way that an organisation creates a marketing communications

plan that will facilitate the sale of products and services to customers, an

internal communications plan will give an organisation a much better

chance of engaging, motivating, generating buy-in, aiding understanding

and retaining its employees. Internal comms planning can take place at

both a strategic level (usually in large multinational organisations) and a

tactical level (more common) around specific initiatives such as the launch

of a new product or service, a restructure or the outcomes of an employee

survey.

Rachel Miller says that writing an internal communications strategy should

answer the following questions (Miller, op. cit.):

• Where you are now?

• Where are you heading/want to be (objectives)?

• How you are going to get there?

• How long will it take and why?

• What is involved along the way?

• Why this approach is the best one?

• How will you know when you have got there (measurement)?

Where new initiatives are concerned Teresa Carnt, a communications

specialist at BP, explains the six stage, templated process that her team

insists upon to maximise the potential for success (Carnt, Interview 03.02.16):

1. Clarity around ‘The story’ – a project leader will often fall into the trap

of seeing the story from only his or her perspective and this first step

helps to unearth any potential misalignment. It is not uncommon for

the story to evolve and so this document is one that is constantly

referred back to and updated

2. Stakeholder analysis – this step may be very detailed or quite light,

dependent on the size and scale of the project. This step will ideally

be led by the Project team owning the initiative

3. Key messages

Chapter Four - Internal Communications Planning

30

4. Activity identification – who, what, when, set out in a timeline. This is

the step that the project leaders tend to want to dive straight into,

but according to Tersea Carnt, it is the previous three steps that

determine the robustness of Step 4

5. Measurement and Control – this is the part that is easily missed

6. Review

The following 12 point checklist which can be applied to both internal and

external communications planning:

• Measurable goals and strategies – which follow the familiar SMART

acronym

• Target audiences – both internal and external audiences, consider

what the key messages are for each audience, and what you want

each audience to do as a result of hearing those messages.

Audiences might be considered in two groups: those who will

support your effort, and those who will be against it. It is helpful to

have strategies that address those who will be barriers to success, for

example, to see if you can turn some of them into supporters, or

‘frame the debate’ to prevent their negative messages from

dominating

• Identification of the overarching core message – what do we want

our audiences to hear and how might this differ from what they are

currently hearing

• Supporting messages and persuasive strategies – each audience will

need different key messages and will have varying degrees of

readiness to hear and act upon these messages. Additionally, there

are different types of persuasion, and the plan should address how

each persuasive strategy will be used to gain support. For example,

rational persuasion uses technical data and logical arguments, while

emotional persuasion uses values and emotion, such as photographs

of happy children, to convey messages

• Opportunities and barriers – the plan should identify different

strategies for and opportunities to reach key audiences with your

messages. It should also identify barriers and how those barriers can

be overcome


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• Communications activities – for each goal and strategy, there will be

a series of communications activities, or tactics, identified. Each

activity/tactic should have a clear timeline, communications

vehicles, people assigned to them, and a budget

• Media channels – within each goal, strategy and tactic there will be

different communications vehicles to use to carry your message to

your audience

• Crisis contingency – the communications plan should include how to

manage and communicate about any crises that might arise

• Implementation plan – this should be a very clear road map that lays

out specific timelines, deadlines, activities and who is responsible

• Monitoring and evaluation – you will want to track and measure

success so you can also make adjustments if certain strategies and

tactics aren’t working

• Staffing – who is leading on the implementation? Who else is

involved? Will they need any external help?

• Budget – this should take into account staffing costs, both internal

and external, and any expenditure on supporting materials such as

subscriptions, creative, production and event costs.

Bill Quirke talks about organisational communications being “a team sport,

in which coordinating the players is the only way to score a goal”(Quirke,

op. cit.). He repeatedly observes that one of the big challenges facing

many large organisations is communication overload or information overkill

that consumes precious time with clutter and mixed messages. Planning is

the key to solving many of these issues.

However, before planning for internal communications begins, organisations

need to answer a fairly fundamental question: who is responsible for

coordinating the players?


32

4.1 Roles and Responsibilities – The Leader, HR and

Marketing Triangle

Even in large organisations where the role of Internal Communications

Manager might exist, the process of internal communications will be at its

most effective where there is a strong partnership between the business

leader(s), marketing and HR. The business leader typically owns the Vision

and Mission of the organisation and needs to inspire the employees to sign

up to these concepts. HR typically owns many of the crucial touchpoints

around employee communication such as recruitment (and termination),

employee benefits, terms, reward and recognition; while marketing has the

creative, technical and messaging skills to help cascade communication

effectively and efficiently through the organisation.

According the Centre for Management and Organisation Effectiveness,

leaders spend 80% of their time communicating and most of this is with

employees of the company.

In the Handbook of Business Strategy, Deborah J Barrett describes the

‘spiral’ of leadership communication where leaders in any organisation must

master the skills at the core (strategy, writing, and speaking), but they also

need to expand their skills to include those needed to lead and manage

groups (emotional intelligence, cultural literacy, listening), managing teams

and meetings, and coaching and mentoring (Barrett, 2006). Eventually,

particularly when they move into the higher-levels of organisational

leadership, they will need to develop the capabilities in the outer circle, the

corporate communication skills – employee relations, change

communication, media relations, crisis communication, and image and

reputation management.


33

Figure 4.1 The Spiral of Leadership Communication

Bill Quirke argues that the rules of the internal communications game have

to be set by the leaders and they need to follow 6 steps for success:

1. Plan communication with senior management

2. Agree a communications policy with the board

3. Involve senior management with forward planning

4. Ensure that change initiatives have communication plans

5. Create greater coordination between internal communicators

6. Practice ‘air traffic control’ i.e. help to avoid communicators fighting

each other for bandwidth


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For internal communications consultant Rich Baker the departmental

location of internal communication specialists, or those who have the

primary responsibility in any business, is not what is important (Baker,

Interview 22.01.16). What matters is that the leader of that department

understands the critical importance of the role and empowers those

involved to do what needs to be done.

In contrast, Emma Thompson, Change Communications leader at Her

Majesty Courts and Tribunal Service, expresses a strong preference for

internal communications having a direct line to the CEO outside of any

traditional departmental boundaries (Thompson, Interview 20.01.16). In her

view, internal comms needs to be functionally agnostic in order to make the

strongest contribution to business performance. Annette Gann, a

communications consultant with National Grid, feels similarly (Interview

15.02.16) and observes that in times of crisis management, when decision

making and action need to happen swiftly, a direct line to the CEO is

essential.

4.2 Situation Analysis or Audit

In the same way that a marketing or marketing plan might start with a

situational analysis, so too might an internal communications plan. Such an

audit might include:

• Organisational structure

• Geographical scope

• Cultural issues

• Technical infrastructure

• Stakeholder analysis

• Feedback mechanisms

• Communication media

• Existing impact measures

The audit process may attempt to establish stakeholders’ perspectives on

certain issues. How might they react to news of plant closures, relocations,

competitor acquisitions and the introduction of new technologies? These

perspectives will vary according to their role.


35

Strategy Marketing

Management

Shop Floor Suppliers

Close plant and make

product overseas

Acquire competitor ☺

Invest in new

production technology ☺ ☺

Table 4.1 Understanding Perspectives on Different Issues

The audit stage might also involve classifying or segmenting stakeholders

according to their perceived attitudes on a specific issue. These labels

might include:

• Partners – share your goals and objectives

• Allies – can be relied to work alongside you to achieve your aims

• Passive supporters – support your goals and objectives but will not

take actions to help you achieve them

• Fence sitters – not prepared to commit either way

• Loose cannon – unpredictable. Need to be kept under control or

could derail you

• Opponents – actively working against you

• Voiceless – will receive your communications but there are no

channels for them to provide feedback

Familiar frameworks such as SWOT and priority ranking tables can be used to

summarise the findings of an internal communications audit.


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4.3 The importance of Context

The need for, nature and scope of internal communications will vary

enormously according to context. Influential factors will include:

• The size of the organisation and its geographical distribution – is the

organisation national, single site v multi-national, multi-office? The

more multi-national the organisation, the more it must deal with the

challenges of different culture, religion, infrastructure, language and

the practical aspect of different time zones (see next section)

• The sector – there will be nuances between the public and private

sectors, between highly regulated industries and deregulated

environments and between new style tech led businesses to old style

manufacturing businesses. Consider the difference between the

communications within a company like Apple or Google where rules

are regarded as limiting and empowerment is encouraged v tightly

regulated industries such as rail, water or nuclear. Bill Quirk observes:

“empowering employees to devise new approaches (in these

industries) could be catastrophic”. Tim Wooten, who has spent a

number of years working for Shell notes that all communication in the

oil industry takes place in the context of a permanent emphasis on

health and safety (Wooten, Interview 22.01.16)

• Rate of growth – the frequency and intensity of communication will

be greater in sectors that are growing fast, with lots of competition v

static sectors with few players

• Day to day v special situation – as we have noted elsewhere, the

advent of a major change programme, product launch or a

business disaster will intensify the need for a specific internal

communications campaign beyond the normal day to day

communications.


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4.4 Internal Communication Challenges within the

Multi-national

If internal communication is challenging in a domestic context, the issue

multiplies at multinational firms that also face having to overcome

differences in time zones, languages and cultures. Time zone differences

create limited windows of opportunity for real time conversation as well as

practical challenges for face to face time with the senior team within any

organisation.

Differing cultures can make the application of values based internal comms

challenging, with a risk that everything gets watered down and the flair and

power within a piece of communication either get lost in this process or

simply lost in translation.

The challenges of communicating in a multi-national environment are

neatly summed up in the prelude to a paper produced by two students of

the Halmstead School of Engineering Rufei He & Jianchao Liu (He & Liu,

2010). It is 9:00 a.m. on Monday in Sweden. The Technical Product Manager

of company X sent an email about the new design of the product to its

subsidiary company in China. He would like to have a production ready

model of the new design by Friday when he flies to China. An email came

on Thursday saying that there was a 1mm error in the product they made

and asked the manager what they should do. The product manager finds

himself confused: “Do they need to ask such a question? They could simply

adjust the error and give me the model on Friday, why are they waiting for

orders instead of taking initiatives?”

It is 15:01 Monday in Shanghai. The Chinese R&D Manager in Shanghai

received an email from the parent company in Sweden. The parent

company asked for a production ready model of the latest design in five

days. He called the Production Manager immediately. Three days later he

got the new model but with a 1mm error. He knew it would be better to

provide a standard model. However, he decided to notify this problem to

the Swedish manager first and let him to decide what to do. It is the Chinese

way of showing their respects to superiors by asking their opinions on

everything.

He and Liu go on to observe that many researchers have found that in Asian

countries people tend to express themselves inexplicitly, while in the Western

world people are more direct when communicating (Ybema & Byun, 2009;

Newman & Nollen, 1996; Jolly, 2008; Welth & Welth, 2008). A further point

they make is that the variances in typical societal pressure across different

countries will also impact on how messages are received. In low pressure


38

countries, employees are at greater to liberty to explore self-worth and

personal fulfilment. While in high pressure countries people have no room for

such luxuries and believe that following a superior’s instructions is the best

way to keep their job.

Time zones, national cultural nuances and language differences will always

exist in the world. They simply need to be accepted, considered and

managed.

According to Anders Lundblad, Chief of Internal Communications at IKEA, a

company with 135,000 employees across 349 stores in more than 40

countries, part of the solution key to meeting these challenges head on is to

focus on the company culture, rather than the national culture, and take full

advantage of new technologies and channels (Lundblad, Blog, 2014). The

firm uses Microsoft Sharepoint to share documents and has introduced

Yammer. Lundblad points out that Yammer is accessible from any device;

whether it is an employee’s private phone or their IKEA one and can be

accessed from desktops at home or from work.

Interestingly however, he also notes that in Germany the operating

company has so far declined to participate in Yammer, citing concerns

over privacy.

4.5 Surveys

One of the most useful reference points for internal communications

planning is the annual employee survey. With the explosion of free to use

online tools such as Survey Monkey, Typeform, Google Forms, Zoho, Survey

Gizmo, Zoomerang and Survey Planet, collecting employee feedback on

‘life at the workplace’ has never been so easy.

The past decade as also seen the rise of a number of national surveys that

rate and rank participating organisations for their levels of employee

engagement based on their employees’ confidential answers to questions

that remain consistent over time. One of the best known of these is the UK’s

Best Companies’ survey where questions are grouped under 8 areas:


39

Figure 4.2 Questions in the Best Companies’ Survey are grouped into

8 areas

The great advantages that these surveys have over the ‘in-house’

approach are:

a) the credibility of the methodology and approach, developed by

experts and grounded over time;

b) the benchmarking which enables organisations to see how they

compare to others across each of the drivers of employee

engagement; and

c) the detail of the reporting that enables business leaders to pinpoint

exactly where the weaknesses in their engagement processes might

lie and subsequently target improvement.

The real challenge however, that organisations face when implementing a

survey is acting on the results. If employees are asked for feedback, they

expect to see some change as a result of that feedback. The best internal

communicators will not only drive the survey process, but they will break

down results in a way that makes it as easy as possible for line managers to

see where they can make improvements.


40

Furthermore, they will act as the conscience of the business and challenge

business leaders and managers to follow through on action plans that are

formulated in the aftermath of the employee survey. As one of my

interviewees said: “It’s about lifting the words off the powerpoint and

actually putting them into play that counts”.

4.6 Objectives

Like all marketing objectives, good internal communications objectives

should be SMART:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Realistic

• Time Bound

Objectives are set in context. Some examples are:

• Participation and engagement with internal digital media such as

the internet and Yammer. Likes, Shares, Downloads and Comments

are all measureable engagement activities

• Participation rates in the annual employee survey

• Objectives for specific questions in the annual employee survey e.g.

moving the % of people who strongly agree that company Z is great

to work for, from X to Y

• Attendance rates at conferences, town hall meetings, ‘all hands’

type gatherings and live leadership team webinars or video

broadcasts

• Feedback scores for simple questions posed after events outlined

above e.g. “To what extent to you agree with the following

statement: I have a clear understanding of the organisation’s

priorities for the coming year?”

• Attendance rates at more social style events such as summer or

Christmas parties

• Sign up rates for employee benefits


41

• Participation rates in peer to peer recognition schemes

• Utilisation rates of campaign toolkits

• Consistency of external messaging across the business following

internal briefings

• Timely completion of annual employee reviews

These objectives ultimately feed back into the broader aim of aligning

employees with the business goals and encouraging the notion that this

organisation is good to work for.

When setting objectives, it is also important to remember that internal

communication is a means to an end, not an end in itself. For employees to

be fully engaged in their work and the organisation, business leaders need

to show the link between business problems and internal communication as

a possible solution.

4.7 Strategy Setting

Setting strategy is concerned with broadly how objectives are to be

achieved. Bill Quirke talks about organisations doing the right thing and

connecting their internal communications to achieving their business

strategy; and of doing things right by having efficient and effective

processes (Quirke, op. cit.).

Rather like an external plan, strategy setting should involve segmentation,

targeting and positioning.

4.7.1 Audience segmentation

Audience segmentation or stakeholder mapping is about who

communications are to be aimed at. This involves segmenting internal

audiences by criteria such as location, job role, seniority and attitude.


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Segmentation approach Examples

Demographics Age, gender, income, skill

Psychographics Personality, attitude, behaviour, values

Staff Groups Board, senior management, middle

management, shop floor

Contract Full time, part time, seasonal, temp

Location Head office, regional office, customer

facing unit, overseas

Table 4.2 Internal Audience Segmentation Approaches courtesy of

Alan Anstead

Mendelow suggests that classifying stakeholders according to their interest

in a particular issue and their power to influence it, is helpful in terms of

mapping out a communications strategy (Mendelow, 1991). Those with high

interest and high power are referred to as Key Players. They are the focus of

much of the energy and effort, should be consulted regularly and involved

in key decisions. Those in the opposite quadrant, with little interest or power,

simply need to be kept informed. Those who may not be that interested in a

particular issue, but who wield a lot of power, need to be engaged with a

view to growing their interest. Those whose interest is high, but who have

little power to influence should be treated like goodwill ambassadors and

involved in lower risk and less important areas of the campaign or process.


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Figure 4.3 Mendelow’s Power Interest Matrix

However, the same rules remain – the more directly you can tailor the

content and appeal to each group, the better chance of success you have

in achieving what you’re setting out to do.

Quirke’s model of employee clarity and willingness is another useful model

which the internal communicator can deploy for segmenting an audience:


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Figure 4.4 Willingness to Help and Clarity of Direction (Quirke, 2000)

• Unguided – willing but not clear on how they fit and what they can

do to help

• Hot Shots – very engaged, totally get it

• Slow Burners – not knowing, not caring, unmotivated

• Refuseniks – get it, but are very resistant to change. Actively

disagree to proposed change

The key point for the internal communicator is that recognition of where

individual or groups of individuals might sit in the above matrix, will heavily

influence the method, style and content of the messaging.

The strategy setting stage might also involve the creation of a campaign

brand or theme that has the flexibility for component initiatives to be sub

branded as members of the same family. This helps consistency and

continuity as new elements are introduced and badged as belonging to a

single overarching programme. When Thomas Cook relaunched with its new

‘Sunny Heart’ brand in 2013, the internal comms programme wall pulled

together under the theme of ‘Our Heart’.


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4.7.2 Messaging

Regardless of whether they are for the whole organisation or just a part of

the company, key messages should be short, memorable and consistent.

Signing up to these messages and sticking to them is a key part of the

strategy development process.

Message development can be viewed in terms of a hierarchy. The

company brand statement captures the essence of the brand, project or

campaign. The next step might be some principles aligned with global

messages, followed by messages targeted for specific audiences.

Figure 4.5 Diagnosing and solving content problems – Theresa

Putkey, 2014, Slideshare


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Burton Biscuits HR Director, Jim Beatty, and the company’s Head of Brand,

Mandy Bobrowski, point to the need for consistency of message and a

constant update on context as a key part of the employee engagement

strategy going forward (Beatty & Bobrowski, Interview 21.01.16). In the event

of any ‘gap’ employees will fill it for themselves, often in a pessimistic

fashion.

4.8 Tactics and Implementation

Action planning is about creating a schedule of activity and allocating

responsibilities: when and who.

Regular, ongoing communications could be planned out using as simple

framework such as:

• Media

• Purpose

• Responsibility

• Frequency

Specific campaign or project based communications might be broken

down into:

• Activity

• Responsibility

• Deadline

• Progress

• Resources needed

• Success measure


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Implementation should also be mindful of the principles of good internal

communication, which include making sure that communications are:

• Timely

• Relevant

• Contextualised

o For the situation

o For the audience

• Consistent

• Honest

• Two-way

• As much about the why as the what. If employees do not

understand the problem that an organisation is attempting to solve,

they will not feel any ownership of the solution the organisation is

proposing, and as a result will not be proactive in the solution,

undermining attempts at progress.

• Face to face and from the line manager wherever possible.

Generally speaking, employees will have much more trust in a

message if it comes directly from their line manager.

• Mindful of ‘What’s In It For Me’ (WIFFM). If employees can see how

they will personally gain from an initiative or programme, then they

are much more likely to actively support it.

4.9 Cascading Information

There are two schools of thought on the value of cascading messages

through an organisation:

1. The process of cascading is vital as messages carry the greatest

credibility when they come from an immediate line manager.

…or in complete contrast:

2. Cascading is a waste of time. Employees need to hear the message

from the top of the organisation, where there is less risk of message

dilution.


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The problem with the second approach however, is that as well as the

credibility issue, there is the absence of a manager’s ability to contextualise

the message for the audience, and often for purely practical reasons, the

absence of an immediate opportunity to engage in conversation and seek

clarification.

Patrick Lencioni describes the art and science of cascading messages, in a

number of his books, as an important tool that enhances internal

communications (Lencioni, 2006). He suggests three practical ways in which

senior leaders might improve the cascade process:

1. Before a meeting is over, allocate the last 15 minutes to determine,

as a group, what messages need to be conveyed and to whom.

2. Write the key message on the white board or virtual meeting screen

for everyone in the room to sign up against. This deals immediately

with the issue of people leaving a room after a long meeting and

taking different messages back to their respective departments.

3. Insist that managers cascade the message in person or on the

phone. The value in cascading messages is in the ensuing dialogue

where employees have a chance to raise questions and managers

can respond.

4.10 Communication Champions

In larger organisations a useful tactic is to identify communication leaders or

champions who can be relied upon to facilitate the cascade of key

messages from the senior team in a way that makes sense for their

respective parts of the business. In addition to being competent

communicators, these individuals are ideally also capable of asking the right

questions of senior management, so that they can contextualise messages

for their audiences, and suitably engaged with the business aims such that

they carry out this role speedily and with enthusiasm.

At iFLY Indoor Skydiving on the eve of a major expansion, the company

recruited Values Champions at each of its tunnels. These individuals were

selected as role models of the behaviours that were consistent with the

company’s values, and to champion these behaviours not only in their own

tunnels, but at the new tunnels that might be going up in their region. A

secondary role was to support their General Managers on the

communications side, particularly with respect to the Champions Award


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programme. Specific activities included keeping the programme high on

the tunnel agenda, helping to drive monthly nominations and then feeding

the names of winners back to HQ so that they could be celebrated in

monthly bulletins put out by the VP of Operations.

The process of selecting and deploying communication champions is not

without risk:

• Under pressure to deliver they can lapse into running their

programme as a standalone effort rather than joining it up with the

wider initiative

• Their natural passion may make them lose sight of the audience that

they are addressing and focus too much on the what rather than the

why

• They see the role of a champion as their chance to grab the

spotlight and further their own career. One consequence of this is

that go into communication overload, competing rather than

cooperating with their colleagues, and ending up cluttering their

audiences. Another is that they attempt to create their own logos

and identities for their element of the programme, which only results

in further confusion whilst simultaneously incurring the wrath of the

marketing department.

A large part of the answer to the above is to create rules of engagement so

that that communication leaders understand their place in the cascade

and their primary role, which is to create meaning in the message for their

audience. In times of change their job is not necessarily to sell the change

to the employees but to equip the respective business unit leaders with the

information and tools they need, in order for them to use their greater

credibility to get buy in from their teams. Smart collaboration for success

rather than foolhardy glory seeking for confusion.

Bill Quirk makes a useful distinction between Content Providers and Channel

Owners (Quirke, op. cit.). Content providers are those with information they

want to communicate. They act primarily as authors, creating messages

and information and passing them on to the channel owners for distribution.

Channel owners are responsible for providing robust communication

channels and that reach employees and are accountable to content

providers for ensuring they get the airtime for their initiative and project

messages.


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4.11 In House v Agency Support

There are a number of reasons why organisations might want to engage

external resource to support the internal communications process. These

include:

• The support required is around a project with a limited time frame,

rather than an ongoing support

• Specialist skills e.g. design, audio visual and event management

• Specialist technology e.g. reward and recognition or employee

benefits portals

• Relevant experience e.g. in change management, corporate

responsibility, employee surveys

• Creative thinking

• A fresh pair of eyes

On this latter point, experienced communications expert Mike Klein talks

about how internal communicators, like any employee can get a little stale

and fall into the trap of following the culturally acceptable communication

routines and channels, rather than really addressing the needs of the

employees (Klein, Interview 29.01.16). He describes this as the danger of

“drinking your own bathwater”. After a while it is important to get some fresh

water in i.e. seek an external perspective.

Klein also observes that the level and nature of external support depends on

internal capability and where the gaps are. The key questions to ask are:

What can external support do better for you and what will be the impact?

Andy Bounds, who himself spends much of his time going into organisations

to help them improve communication skills, points out that someone from

the outside can get away with saying what might feel a bit daft, brave or

out of place, coming from someone on the inside (Bounds, Interview

28.01.16). Unencumbered by political pressures, the external consultant can

challenge the patterns or practices that might be getting in the way of

effective communication.

Charlotte West, communications manager with Lenovo concurs with this

point, observing that leaders are sometimes more inclined to listen to the

message when it is conveyed by an external consultant, rather than the

internal team (West, Interview 26.02.16). The external consultant has the

benefit of no history, baggage or agenda.


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The following Case Study from internal communications agency, Blue

Goose, was based on Barclays need for short term input from a team with

relevant experience in linking employee engagement to corporate

responsibility:

Case Study: This is Sustainability at Barclays

When Barclays’ corporate social responsibility programme changed gear to

become a Group-wide sustainability strategy, Blue Goose worked closely

with the Group internal communications team to develop an employee

engagement programme to help 130,000 employees worldwide understand

why and how sustainability should be the ‘invisible hand’ directing every

action of the business.

Engaging stakeholders

The sustainability strategy was driven by senior owners of the five

sustainability themes – diversity, financial inclusion, global citizenship,

customer focus and environmental impact – each with competing as well

as complementary interests to promote. We brought them together to co-

create a sustainability vision, messages and engagement plan based

around different interests with a shared purpose. What resulted was unified

thinking on how components of the sustainability strategy could be joined

together for employees.

Reducing complexity, not dumbing-down

Given that employee understanding of ‘CSR ‘had gained traction in recent

years the move to the broader, deeper and more complex platform of

‘sustainability’ presented a significant challenge. Our approach was to

develop a simple and direct platform – This is sustainability – and a striking

‘message in context’ execution. We picked out messages around the key

themes and amplified them in creative executions that showed how, as a

sustainable bank, Barclays must marry its own interests with the needs of its

customers.

An integrated campaign approach

Multi-channel communication activities and collateral were developed

including a ‘sustainability’ microsite, 4,000 high impact poster slots, large

scale poster installations, animated intranet banners and a sustainability

‘gallery’ installation.


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Making believe happen

Over 560 employees were surveyed after the first tranche campaign with

almost 90% believing Barclays to be ‘committed’ or ‘very committed’ to

sustainability. In qualitative feedback, employees cited issues relevant to all

five themes of the sustainability strategy. They also understood this required

long-term commitment.

One of the indirect benefits of the approach was the emergence of a

sustainability ‘community’ with shared purpose, helping create the right

culture and climate for a ‘joined-up’ approach.

4.12 Budgeting

Because internal communications activities can be championed from

different parts of the business, it is not uncommon for the budget to be

spread around a number of departments. For example:

• HR – annual survey, reward and recognition, employee on boarding,

manager toolkits

• Marketing – internal newsletter, intranet, internal communications

videos

• Sales – annual conference

• CEO – change programme

Approaches to budgeting for internal communications include:

• Arbitrary – pluck a figure from the air!

• Historical basis – what did we do last year?

• Percentage of sales

• Competitive parity – similar to the amount competitors spend on

internal communications. In practice this will be hard to determine

• Experiment and testing – pilot and review before roll out


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• Objective and task – what do we believe we need to invest in order

to achieve our objective?

• Share of voice vs share of market – adjusting our internal investment

according to our external share of voice and share of market, as

illustrated in Figure 4.6:

Figure 4.6 Budget Setting in Relation to Share of Voice and Share of

Market


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Chapter 5: Communication Tools and Media

Ruth Weal suggests that internal media channels can be categorised as

passive or interactive (Weal, Blog 2014). Examples are:

5.1 Passive Channels

These include:

• Intranet news

• TV

• Wiki

• Notice boards

• Posters

• Email

• Print including newsletters, briefing packs and toolkits, desk drops

• Digital including some of the above plus infographics

5.2 Interactive Channels

These include:

Face to Face

• Director road shows

• Company conference

• Business unit briefing

• New starter lunches

• Monthly director of communications day

• First line breakfast brief

• Site team brief

• Director back to the shop floor

• Director hosted employee birthday lunches

• Director Q&A Drop in

• Hot topics panel Q&A sessions

• Lunch time learning/panel Q&A sessions

Chapter Five - Communication Tools and Media

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• Annual appraisals

• Ad hoc discussions/face to face meetings

Digital

• Blogs

• Company collaboration tools e.g. Facebook for Business and

Yammer

• Discussion forums

• Instant messaging

• Webinars

• Conference calls

As always, context will drive media choice where each channel can be

assessed for effectiveness in conveying the message, the potential to

facilitate dialogue and suitability for the communications task.

Communications Task Examples of Communication Media

Push out messages Staff magazines, e-newsletters,

emails, video broadcasts,

conferences

Enable employees to pull information Intranet, handbooks, guides

Collect feedback Surveys, workshops, focus groups,

team meetings, 1:1 meetings,

conferences

Build community Team meetings, employee

recognition programmes, team

building days, Yammer, Facebook

for business

Campaign Posters, desk drops, branded

merchandise, training courses, town

hall meetings, videos, blogs

Table 5.1 Matching task to channel courtesy of Alan Anstead


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5.3 The Power of Face to Face

Despite a multitude of technical innovations, the power and impact of face

to face conversation between people in the same room, remains

unassailable. Physical proximity facilitates two of the key drivers of impactful

communication: physiology and bi-directional flow.

In 1967 a study by Dr. Albert Mehrabian, a Professor of Psychology at UCLA,

was interpreted by many as suggesting that the power of communication

could be apportioned thus:

58% - physiology

35% - tone

7% - words

Other commentators have taken issue with this and point out the following

flaws in the theory. If it were true, shouldn’t you be able to:

• Understand 93% of a foreign language just by seeing the person

talk?

• Understand 55% of a speech on television with the sound turned off?

In other words, words must account for more than just 7% of impact.

Nevertheless, Mehrabian’s study has done a good job in making us think

about body language and tone, topics that have been picked up and

explored by others, notably Amy Cuddy, an American social psychologist,

author and lecturer known for her research on stereotyping and

discrimination, emotions, power and nonverbal behaviour. Her Ted Talk on

body language in 2012 has garnered over 30 million views.

During the interviews I carried out as part of the planning process for this

Handbook, I asked the following question: “What single thing would you do

to improve the quality of communication in your organisation?” The most

common answer was not about the introduction of new channels or the

formulation of new messages, but concerned improving the skills of

managers and team leaders. Rachel Retford put it this way (Retford,

Interview 18.01.16):


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“Research shows that teams respond best to information provided directly

by their direct line manager. We would improve the cascade process by

improving the capability of team leaders – making managers great internal

communicators”.

Jim Beatty, HR Director at Burton’s Biscuits feels similarly (Beatty, Interview

21.01.16). He notes among the most valuable communication exercises

undertaken by CEO, Ben Clarke, are his twice yearly visits to the factories in

Blackpool and Edinburgh where he can literally ‘walk the floor’ and engage

with staff at all levels. When asked what was the single thing he would do to

improve communication at Burton’s, Beatty was unequivocal in this

response: to invest in the communication skills and behaviours of middle

management.

5.4 Body Language

Dr Travis Bradbury - LinkedIn Blog March 2016

When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains

are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust, but social

psychologist Amy Cuddy knows first-hand how attitude can outweigh IQ.

Cuddy suffered a car accident at the age of 19 which resulted in brain

damage that took 30 points from her IQ. Before the crash Cuddy had an IQ

near genius levels; her post-crash IQ was just average.

As someone who had always built her identity around her intelligence, the

significant dip in Cuddy’s IQ left her feeling powerless and unconfident.

Despite her brain damage, she slowly made her way through college and

even got accepted into the graduate program at Princeton.

Once at Princeton, Cuddy struggled until she discovered that it was her lack

of confidence that was holding her back, not her lack of brainpower. This

was especially true during difficult conversations, presentations, and other

high-pressure, highly important moments.

This discovery led Cuddy, now a Harvard psychologist, to devote her studies

to the impact body language has on your confidence, influence, and,

ultimately, success. Her biggest findings center on the powerful effects of

positive body language.


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Positive body language includes things like appropriate eye contact, active

engagement/listening, and targeted gestures that accentuate the

message you’re trying to convey. Studies show that people who use positive

body language are more likable, competent, persuasive, and emotionally

intelligent.

Here’s how it works:

Positive body language changes your attitude. Cuddy found that

consciously adjusting your body language to make it more positive improves

your attitude because it has a powerful impact on your hormones.

It increases testosterone. When you think of testosterone, it’s easy to focus

on sports and competition, but testosterone’s importance covers much

more than athletics. Whether you are a man or a woman, testosterone

improves your confidence and causes other people to see you as more

trustworthy and positive. Research shows that positive body language

increases your testosterone levels by 20%.

It decreases cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that impedes performance

and creates negative health effects over the long term. Decreasing cortisol

levels minimizes stress and enables you to think more clearly, particularly in

difficult and challenging situations. Research shows that positive body

language decreases cortisol levels by 25%.

It creates a powerful combination. While a decrease in cortisol or an

increase in testosterone is great on its own, the two together are a powerful

combination that is typically seen among people in positions of power. This

combination creates the confidence and clarity of mind that are ideal for

dealing with tight deadlines, tough decisions, and massive volumes of work.

People who are naturally high in testosterone and low in cortisol are known

to thrive under pressure. Of course, you can use positive body language to

make yourself this way even if it doesn’t happen naturally.

It makes you more likeable. In a Tufts University study, subjects watched

soundless clips of physicians interacting with their patients. Just by observing

the physicians’ body language, subjects were able to guess which

physicians ended up getting sued by their patients. Body language is a

huge factor in how you’re perceived and can be more important than your

tone of voice or even what you say. Learning to use positive body language

will make people like you and trust you more.


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It conveys competence. In a study conducted at Princeton, researchers

found that a one-second clip of candidates for senator or governor was

enough for people to accurately predict which candidate was elected.

While this may not increase your faith in the voting process, it does show that

perception of competence has a strong foundation in body language.

It’s a powerful tool in negotiation (even virtually). There’s no question that

body language plays a huge role in your ability to persuade others to your

way of thinking. Researchers studying the phenomenon in virtual

communication found that body language in video conferencing played

an important role in the outcome of negotiations.

It improves your emotional intelligence. Your ability to effectively

communicate your emotions and ideas is central to your emotional

intelligence. People whose body language is negative have a destructive,

contagious effect on those around them. Working to improve your body

language has a profound effect on your emotional intelligence.

Bringing It All Together

We often think of body language as the result of our attitude or how we

feel. This is true, but psychologists have also shown that the reverse is true:

changing your body language changes your attitude.

5.5 The Rise of Video

Because it enables the power of tone and physiology, as well as words,

video is always going to be an essential tool in the armoury of the internal

communicator. It is also a tool, thanks to higher quality smartphone

technology and free, user friendly editing software, that has become much

more accessible and considerably lower in cost, than it once was.

Cisco (Visual Networking Index, June 2017) predicts that video traffic will be

82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021, up from 73 percent in

2016. That acceleration is likely to be matched by internal communicators’

use of the medium.


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Figure 5.1 Digital Channel Effectiveness, Gatehouse State of the

Sector Report 2017

The benefits of video include:

• Recipients of video internal communications are more likely to fully

absorb the intended message

• It saves time by communicating in minutes what might have taken

hours to write….and read

• It can eliminate the need for in-person meetings, handouts, e-mails

and documents

• Research has suggested that people react to video positively as it

feels more personal

• It can spread training messages without costly sessions and seminars


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• It is always available in the future for people to refer back to –

compared to email which is often deleted

• It is accessible in a variety of devices from desktop to mobile

• For many, it can convey more emotion than static words and

images

5.6 The Rise of the Infographic

Recent years have seen an explosion in the use of infographics. These tend

to lend themselves to digital media with the ability to scroll through lots of

detail, hence the absence of a visual reference below. Infographic

specialists, Neomam, have identified 13 reasons why infographics work, in

an infographic of course. You can view it here:

http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons.

In a recent blog, the company claimed their investment in such a

thoroughly researched, high quality marketing tool had paid off over 25,000

interactions since it went live in 2012 and over 900 valuable linking root

domains (Neomam, 2016).

Here is just one of the reasons why they work:

http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons


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Figure 5.2 Visuals v Text, Neomam Studios


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5.7 The Impact of Social Media and the Emergence of

the Enterprise Social Network (ESN)

There is no doubt that the rise of social media, Facebook in particular, has

had an effect on the nature and style of internal communication. Mark

Webb, Social Media Manager at Dixons Carphone notes how organisations

were initially suspicious of social media – some even took the ostrich position

(head in the sand) and banned it. However, once it was clear that these

new channels were here to stay, they have sought to embrace and learn

from them initially, and then gradually harness them to their advantage.

(Webb, Interview 14.03.16). Like most big companies Dixons Carphone has

social media usage guidelines in place for employees, but Webb claims

that by and large employees get it and self-regulate anyway.

The impact of social media on the workplace has been felt in at least three

ways: First and foremost, it has meant that internal communicators need to

act faster. It is a pretty damning reflection on the quality of internal

communication when employees report that they first heard about, for

example, a new company initiative or a new key appointment, via social

media.

Secondly internal communicators need to accept that employees will be

both consumer and contribute to the message simultaneously. The message

will not necessarily be accepted at face value. Any attempt to ‘spin’ will be

quickly identified, exposed and replaced by the commentator’s view of the

real story. Bloggers will also explore the detail of the message and are very

willing to give an answer to their reader’s specific questions, or a

perspective to their concerns.

Thirdly employees are blogging in ever greater numbers and their

workplace experience provides them with a rich source of content. Steve

Hirschfeld, CEO of the Employment Law Alliance, claims millions of

employees in America regularly engage in blogging – as much as five

percent of the work force (Fletcher, 2007).

Communication and Engagement Consultancy i2a identify the impact of

social media on internal communications as:

• Increased visibility – staff conversations which may in the past have

taken place privately are now visible to the whole organisation

• Reduced control – messages from any source have the potential to

spread very quickly


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• Greater feedback – social media facilitates two-way dialogue.

Companies are able to have real-time, authentic conversations with

employees

• Lack of hierarchy – the platform is a democratic one, allowing all

participants the same opportunities to express their views.

Communication can flow from the top down, bottom up, and even

from side to side. Above all social media give employees a voice.

Andrew Shipilov writing in his blog for Insead Knowledge claims that

research that he had recently overseen suggested that internal social

media use had a dramatic positive impact on the vertical and horizontal

communication in organisations (Shipilov, Blog 2012). In other words,

different functional departments inside companies talk better to each other

as a result of using social media. He also found that CEOs in companies that

use social media appear to have an easier time communicating with lower

level employees (and vice versa) than in companies where social media is

absent.

Francesca Castagnetti talks of how internal communications used to be all

about writing content and pushing out communications (Castagnetti, 2014).

You would fire and call whatever you hit, ‘the target’. Today, it is a far more

democratic process. The target fires back.

Whilst some companies have witnessed this development with trepidation,

others are very relaxed about it and see the benefits. Wright & Hinson cite a

BusinessWeek article in 2004 that highlights these benefits as seen by

companies such as Microsoft, Dell and Sun (Wright & Hinson, 2008):

• “In a world of fragmented media, employees’ online diaries can be

a seductive way to lure customers into conversations.”

• “They’re sticky – readers check back several times a day. And posts

get linked to other sites amplifying their impact.”

• “They’re efficient. Employees can post questions about their work

and get instant, mass feedback.”

• “They’re free. Blogs can serve as a global focus group, letting

employees know exactly what customers want.”

• “Done well, they can humanize faceless behemoths. The Evil Empire

of Redmond can instead become the home of ‘The Scobleizer,’

Microsoft’s most famous blogger.”


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However, whilst organisations might be increasingly more relaxed about

their employees’ use of social media, most larger organisations will have a

policy and/or a set of guidelines on this usage. According to i2a, these

should include governance around group creation and hashtags, to aid the

location of information and expertise.

Wright and Hinson carried out a three-year study on employees’ use of

blogs and identified some interesting trends (Wright & Hinson, op. cit.):

• Approval continues to decrease each year when our subjects are

asked if it is ethical for employees to write and post on blogs

negative statements about the organisations they work for. While 49

percent said this was ethical in 2006, only 29 percent agreed in 2007

and only 25 percent agreed in 2008

• There is significantly more agreement in 2008 over 2007 on the

question of whether organisations should permit their employees to

communicate on blogs and other social media during regular

working hours. Agreement on this measure was 38 percent in 2007

and 44 percent in 2008.

• Survey respondents continue to disapprove more each year when

asked if it is ethical for organisations to conduct research about or

monitor information that their employees are communicating via

blogs and other social media. In 2006 89 percent of the respondents

agreed conducting such research was ethical. This approval figure

was 73 percent in 2007 and 63 percent in 2008.

• The number of companies actually conducting this kind of research

appears to be increasing. Only three percent of our respondents

said their organisations (or their client organisations) were

conducting this research in 2006. That figure increased to 11 percent

in 2007 and to 15 percent in 2008.

The rise in the influence of social media is changing the role of the internal

communicator. According to Richard Dennison, the new breed of

communicators are highly visible leaders, acting as spokespeople for the

organisation, driving change and coaching senior management in how to

use new tools and platforms (Dennison, 2012). He also suggests they are

becoming more accountable, pointing out that the online social world is

easily measurable, with plenty of analytical tools at the user’s disposal.


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5.8 Yammer

Yammer is a social network for business launched in 2008, whose potential

was recognised by Microsoft in June 2012 when they paid $1.2 billion to

acquire it. Only employees with a working email address linked to their

company’s domain are able to join their company’s Yammer network.

External networks can be created and linked to allow non-employees, such

as suppliers and customers, to communicate with your company.

Just like Facebook, new posts – complete with Likes, Replies and Shares –

appear in Yammer’s primary screen, which is known as the Newsfeed. Icons

indicating private messages and other notifications appear in the upper left-

hand corner. Groups can be created to enable conversations which are

relevant to specific teams only. If a group conversation takes a turn that

requires assistance from other employees, it can be shared with a specific

person via instant message or with another group entirely. Sharing a post

with specific groups is a breeze thanks to handy drop-down menus below

the Update box which bear an uncanny resemblance to Facebook’s Status

box.

1n 2014 Yammer was moved into Office365, meaning many companies

now have it as standard, rather than the old ‘freemium’ model they used to

operate. Simply having it there, means companies are now far more likely to

take a look at it than they might have done in the past.

iFLY Indoor Skydiving introduced Yammer in the summer of 2015 prior to

embarking on a period of major growth. President and COO Matt Ryan saw

it as a perfect vehicle for allowing it’s young and fast growing employee

base to share in the excitement of new tunnel builds and to allow them to

connect with their colleagues in different parts of the world in a non-

corporate style (Ryan, Interviews 2015).

He comments: “Yammer makes sense for us with a young, mobile enabled

workforce that are naturally adventurous. It’s early days, but there’s no

doubt that Yammer feels culturally right for iFLY and is enabling employees

to share in the excitement of our rapid expansion”.


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Figure 5.3 iFLY Indoor Skydiving uses Yammer to announce new

tunnel openings

As John Ptacek points out the two big advantages of Yammer over other

internal comms tools are timeliness – latest news is always at the top – and

the building of social capital (Ptacek, Blog 2014). As organisations grow,

they need a metaphorical water cooler to gather at. People work better

together when they share a little of their inner selves, and social tools like

Yammer can help with this process. He observes that you are much more

likely to give the benefit of the doubt to a peer when they have a bad day

if you know them personally, and social tools like Yammer help build that for

organisations, especially geographically disperse organisations where you

do not have day to day interactions. Digital tools will never be a substitute

for face to face contact in this regard, but they can help socialise a positive

working culture.

5.9 Slack

In recent years a host of other new applications aimed at enhancing

collaboration and communication among teams has emerged including

HipChat, Redbooth, Chatgrape, and Flowdock. But the one that seems to

be gaining the most traction is Slack. “More productive, more transparent


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and no more email….that’s Slack”, claims the introductory video. Others

describe Slack as a messaging app on steroids. Aimed at anyone working in

teams, Slack can be used across multiple devices and platforms, and is

equipped with robust features that allow you to not only chat one-on-one

with associates but also in groups. You are able to upload and share files, as

well as integrate with other apps and services, such as Skype for video calls,

and you can granularly control almost every setting. You even have the

ability to create custom emoji. Desktop and mobile applications are

available, as well as using Slack via a browser.

Slack integrates well with dozens of other popular applications such as

Dropbox. Doing so allows you to pull in information from other sources,

search documents stored in other services, send things like calendar events

and reminders to Slack, or add useful features to your team, including voice

and video calling. You can now access Skype, for instance, right from within

Slack. And when you are working in other applications, Slack can notify you

when you have a new message.

In common with other new wave business applications, Slack offers a free

version to draw the prospect in and then tempts you to upgrade to

enhanced features and storage capability.

Case Study from Slack Website

LUSH is the cosmetics company known for soaps and bath bombs made

from fresh ingredients. As a rapidly growing, global company operating

stores on six continents, Lush strives towards transparency.

While many of the groups at the UK headquarters were unified in terms of

objectives, some groups suffered a bit of disconnect, not being in the same

building and doing widely varying jobs. Bringing Slack into the mix, they

gleefully report, helped solve their internal communication and got

everyone talking, with projects from the major groups within the company

truly becoming transparent to one another.

Since adopting Slack, internal email use has reduced by 75%, with the

remaining messages left for big important announcements (which they’re

planning to move into Slack as well).

Post-email, people have gotten smarter about messaging and no longer

worry about who should or shouldn’t be CC’d on messages. Questions are

no longer lost in archived emails, and instead found in channels. Everything

just works better.


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"Because of how quickly we've grown and the type of company Lush is,

there's no org-chart, so it's tough to figure out what people do. But if you see

what a group is doing in Slack, you'll learn what each member is an expert

in. It has improved communication between groups greatly."

Maddie Saunders – Global Planner, Lush

5.10 Workplace by Facebook

In 2015 Facebook began testing Facebook at Work and a year later over

1,000 organisations were already using the renamed Workplaces by

Facebook. Rachel Miller outlines the essential differences for the user

between Facebook and its new sibling (Miller, Blog 2016):

How is my work account different from my personal Facebook account?

Your work account is a place for you to connect and collaborate with your

co-workers, join groups related to your team or projects, and get company

news and updates. Your personal account is for connecting with friends and

family, and sharing moments from your life.

Your work account is only visible to people at your company and is separate

from your personal account. What you share to your work account can only

be seen by people in your company, and what you share to your personal

account can only be seen based on your privacy settings.

When I post something from my work account, who can see it?

When you share something from your work account, you can share it to a

group or to your Timeline. When you share something to a group your post

may show up on your Timeline, depending on the privacy settings of the

group.

The people who manage Facebook at Work at your company can access

anything you share from your work account, just as they might access your

work emails and other work files.


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In an interview with Miller (Miller, Blog 2017), Daniel Chasemore, the

communications manager of New Zealand’s Countdown Supermarkets

explained how familiarity with the tool and the need to connect with 18,000

employees, across 185 stores, 24/7, was what drove the company to

implement it. The fact that it had proved successful was largely down to a

clear understanding of where it sat alongside other internal channels:

Email bulletin: If you want to find out what you need to do today

Intranet: If you want to find out how to do something

Workplace: if you want to talk about what you’re doing, share what’s

working, ask questions and to celebrate success.

Interestingly Chasemore observes a lot of similarity between how users

behave on Facebook and how they do on Workplace: “Videos do better

than images, which do better than links which do better than straight text.

Teams appreciate personal, genuine copy, rather than corporate speak.”

He goes on to point out that a great benefit of the tool is that it can bring to

the fore issues that management teams did not know existed. On the other

hand, the feedback can be ‘raw and real’ and managers need to be

prepared for that.

Is Workplaces by Facebook on the way to achieving the dominance of its

bigger sister? With Walmart and Starbucks now on board, you would not bet

against it.

5.11 Other Social Media

Because of their ability to switch to private mode a number of other social

media lend themselves nicely to employee communication.

Twitter

Employers can share short bursts of information with employee networks or a

wider audience. Big brands, like Google and Starbucks, use Twitter to

engage and inspire employees, and provide a glimpse of what it is like to

work at these companies.

LinkedIn

With LinkedIn Groups, business owners can create their own company

intranet on the LinkedIn platform, allowing them to manage the group for

employees, where they can share internal event information and

announcements, as well as building employee pride and managing

employee issues.


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Company Blogs

Company blogs are becoming an increasingly popular way of getting a

view from the top of the organisation out to employees and many

organisations are happy to allow comments and questions to come back.

Live Streaming

Platforms like Periscope and Meerkat are changing the way companies can

train employees remotely in real time. With both platforms, employees can

watch video live as it is happening via a private link.

YouTube and Vimeo

While Periscope and Meerkat are great for live, interactive training, private

channels with YouTube and Vimeo are the perfect platforms for pre-

recorded and perhaps more polished material with the added benefit of

being able to pause and move on at your own pace and go back again if

you want more than one viewing.

Some companies are also using Facebook to communicate with

employees, though it is hard to see Facebook becoming a major channel

for corporate dialogue precisely because so many users see it as their

vehicle for sharing what goes on in their life away from the workplace.

Communication channel proliferation, largely driven by social media, has

presented one very real challenge for organisations, as noted by Emma

Thompson (Thompson, Interview 21.01.16). Many business leaders are simply

not familiar with the channels that their much younger employees are now

using. It is a gap that needs to be bridged.

5.12 Internal Communication Applications

In recent years, we have also seen the further development of dedicated

internal communications applications that offer superior functionality over

basic internal email systems. Prominent among these applications are

Poppulo (formerly known as Newsweaver) and Desk Alert. Typical features

include high levels of personalisation and segmentation, creative theming,

analysis of open and click through rates and integration with an

organisation’s prevailing social networks.


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Chapter 6: Evaluation

6.1 Surveys

Just like everyone else in the business who is competing for scarce

resources, internal communicators have to be able to demonstrate the

impact of their activity.

The most common starting point for an assessment of the overall employee

engagement levels, into which the internal communications efforts play, is

the annual employee survey. All those interviewed for this Handbook

worked in an environment where employees were asked to share their

opinions, at least once a year, on how life felt for them in the workplace.

What was also common was that, where there was a specific question in

the annual survey regarding the effectiveness of internal communications, it

was rarely one of the higher scoring areas! Some would argue that this is

only to be expected i.e. communication is always a soft option; an easy

target for those that are not feeling the love within an organisation.

Others would argue that the real measure of communications effectiveness

is to be found in other areas of the survey; those that probe culture,

leadership, purpose and development, for example. This links back to the

question identified earlier – is communication a driver of engagement, or

more of a thread that runs through the drivers?

When it comes to the design of employee engagement the trend in recent

years has been towards simplification. Gallup’s version consists of just twelve

questions, five of which relate to communication (Courtesy of Alan

Anstead):

• Knowing what is expected of me

• Receiving recognition or praise regularly

• Having your opinions taken seriously

• Understanding the overall mission well enough to see your own job

as important

• Having regular opportunities to discuss progress

Chapter Six – Evaluation

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At Direct Line, internal communications and brand engagement director

Paul Diggins explains that his company uses an engagement index based

on 6 questions from their bespoke annual employee survey (Diggins,

Interview 26.01.16). The final ‘master indicator’ is based on positive responses

to 6 questions, which probe the following areas:

• Pride in the organisation

• A great place to work

• Motivated to go the extra mile

• Putting themselves in the customer’s shoes

• Positive to change

• Playing a part in the future of the organisation

The result, according to Diggins is much more robust than reliance on a

single killer question that asks, for example, if an employee would

recommend his or her company as a good one to work for.

At a tactical level, it is getting easier for communicators to measure the

levels of engagement with their activities. The digital e-bulletin, for example,

will reveal its readership, through open rate and click through reporting, in a

way that the printed newsletter never did, and as Tersea Cart, points out,

the results can be quite enlightening. No wonder the middle tier of

management is not contextualising the message, when so few of them are

picking it up in the first place!

Engagement rates tend to be heightened to comms that invite employees

to give their feedback immediately after an event such as a training video

or a CEO town hall briefing. Short, sharp online questionnaires – no more

than half a dozen questions – will be happily completed by most employees

and provide valuable feedback on the retention of key messages and how

they landed.

To complement this type of quantitative feedback, many organisations will

also provide fora for qualitative feedback, where employees are given the

opportunity to express their feelings on particular aspects of life in the

workplace. These can be particularly helpful during times of change.

The Institute of Internal Communication describes the pros and cons of

qualitative and quantitative research as follows:


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Qualitative research is likely to be on a smaller scale and therefore less

intrusive for the organisation. It will:

• Give faster feedback, provide understanding and insight

• Be able to probe, question and challenge

• Is adaptable for different functions/levels of employees

• Be well suited to more sensitive topics

But it will not:

• Give hard numbers

• Provide data for future tracking of trends

• Provide information by employee roles or functions

• Enable analysis to reveal key drivers of good communication

Quantitative research on the other hand will provide:

• Firm figures and reliable data

• A base for tracking any changes in the future

• Comparisons with normative data

• Detailed results by demographics, functions, locations and so on

But it may not answer all the questions in depth, or explain the reasons

behind employee views and opinions.

The two approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive – both are

needed for the full picture. Focus groups sometimes precede the

questionnaire design stage to help develop the questionnaire. They can

also be used effectively after the quantitative stage to explore the issues

raised and gain a fuller understanding of the research outcomes.

Qualitative research may be all that is required, for example, where the

topic is sensitive, new initiatives are being tested or input sought to develop

solutions.


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6.2 Start with Activity Classification

Evaluation of internal communication effectiveness is not only about how

employees feel. Internal communicators have a variety of other objectives

and Mike Klein argues that classifying activities against the most popular

desired outcomes is a good place to start (Klein, Blog 2016):

• Financial impact – does a particular communication activity target

financial performance, and to what extent does it succeed in

increasing the bottom line?

• Organisational alignment – does the activity help the organisation

focus on common objectives and desired outcomes, and increase

its speed in doing so?

• Visibility – does the activity measurably raise the profile of intended

beneficiaries? (Ideally, does that higher profile deliver tangible

benefits beyond the visibility itself?)

• Positivity – does it increase employee confidence in the organisation

and enthusiasm for participating in its direction of travel?

• Infrastructure development – does it increase the resilience, the utility

or the return on investment of communication infrastructure?

• Network effectiveness – does the activity make the informal

communication network stronger, faster, better informed or more

consistent?

6.3 Measuring Message Impact

Is it possible to carry out a quantitative assessment of message impact? A

case study from Shell (courtesy of Melcrum.com), suggests it is. Keeping

channels ‘fixed’, the organisation created a simple algorithm to capture

audience interactions with digital content and assess the relative power of

distinct messages. Focusing on digital channels only, Shell created a

Content Engagement Index.


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Figure 6.1 Shell's Content Engagement Algorithm

Shell’s formula allowed it to answer the following questions:

• Were people receiving messages?

• Were these messages emotionally engaging?

• Were messages driving desired outcomes?

Assigning ‘scores’ to messages to show which hit the mark, then indexing

these into quartiles helped the company identify what was more effective

when it came to tone, author, style and other components of content

development. The upshot? Clear direction for future success.

Melcrum suggests that is possible for any business to create its own Content

Engagement Index:

• Total the number of hits / visits to your content asset. (A content asset

is an individual piece of content used for the purpose of

communication – usually a story)

• Multiply the number of times your audience ‘likes’ this asset by 20

• Multiply the number of times your audience comments on this asset

by 50

• Add the totals of steps 1, 2 and 3 together

• Divide the grand total by your intended audience population

The result is your ‘index score’ for this content asset.


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Each content asset can then be ranked in order of final index score, from

highest to lowest. By grouping assets into quartiles – top 25 percent, bottom

25 percent and so on – companies can then compare the characteristics of

killer content in the top quartile with missing the mark messages in the

bottom one.

What is important is not the content ‘weightings’ chosen, but the

identification of those that capture what is required — audience

engagement with a content asset – and keeping them consistent. Whether

they are 20 and 50; 2 and 5 or something altogether different, these reflect

the power of a message when it inspires action so you want them to remain

comparable over time.

6.4 Simply Sensing the Mood

Whilst metrics are helpful, it is also fair to say that communicators will always

have a ‘sense’ of whether an activity, programme or campaign has been

well executed. Rich Baker argues that incessant measurement should never

replace common sense (Baker, Interview 22.01.16). Communicators

instinctively know when something has worked and when it hasn’t. Charlotte

West agrees, suggesting that rather than trying to put a number against how

people feel, internal communicators would be better off listening in to and

drawing conclusions from the watercooler conversation (West, Interview

26.02.16).

Rachel Retford has a similar view and illustrated the point by describing

what happened when BP divested its Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

business in 2012 (Retford, Interview 18.01.16).

This project was complex, involving 9 sales across 9 countries in 18 months,

with many hundreds of employees’ futures at stake. At the heart of the

internal communications programme was an authentic, active listening

process where all those affected had the opportunity to air their concerns,

have their questions answered and see what action was taken as a result.

A key element of this process was the proactive announcement of the

intention to sell the LPG business. From the outset employees were made to

feel that the leadership team were being open and honest with them. The

announcement was immediately followed by a leadership roadshow to

each of the impacted countries.


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To keep the channels of communication, open following this, volunteers

from each country were asked to join a ‘listening group’ that had a monthly

call with the head of the business and HR to raise any concerns and give

feedback on how people were feeling. Action was then taken by the

leadership team on this feedback and reviewed in the following month’s

call.

What was remarkable and gratifying for all involved in the project, and a

sure sign that it had been handled well, was the number of people within

the businesses being sold, who expressed their appreciation for the manner

in which they had been treated. The head of the business attended all the

announcements to confirm who the businesses were being sold to in person

and was often thanked by employees for having listened to them and

treated them with honesty and respect – not the response you might expect

from the divestment of a business!

Example Metrics

Micro

• Open rates

• Click through rates

• Likes, shares and comments

• Attendance rates

• Take up rates

• Survey feedback scores – specific events/interventions

Macro

• Turnover and/or retention rates

• Survey scores – annual satisfaction and advocacy

Perhaps the final word in this chapter should go to Bill Quirke: “The acid test

for the effectiveness of communication is how people rate, prioritize and

consume information”. Just think about it. We all filter out communications

based on who it comes from and what channel is used based on historical

experience and current usage. Each individual has ever evolving antennae

for what is good and what is not so good communication and once the

door is closed it is not easy to get it open again.


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6.5 Case Studies in Evaluation

Nationwide and the Creation of a Strategic Measurement Framework

In 2009 at the start of the credit crisis, Nationwide Building Society

recognised that internal communication would be a key enabler in

supporting employees through this period of significant change.

Implementing a business partnering structure and internal communication

(IC) strategy closely aligned to the strategy of the business were key to

success, but Fiona MacAllan, head of internal and change communication,

knew that this had to be underpinned by a systematic approach to

measurement.

As a Building Society, Nationwide’s CEO and many senior leaders have

accountancy backgrounds, so it was important that the way in which

evidence of IC achievements was presented resonated with and had

meaning for them, and that meant providing hard metrics. Fiona

commented: “This data has a very important role to play in building and

maintaining professional relationships with our internal clients, as well as

highlighting areas that need attention and additional resourcing.”

The system that was developed to measure the effectiveness of

communication activities was based around four key performance

indicators (KPIs):

Is the watercooler the best place

to evaluate the impact of internal

communications?


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• Leadership communication effectiveness (KPI 1)

• Project communication effectiveness (KPI 2)

• Client satisfaction (KPI 3)

• Employee satisfaction (KPI 4)

All KPIs have a target of 75%.

Leadership communication: This KPI relates to major annual events such as

half year results, full year results, corporate plan cascade and annual

awards which are led by the CEO or other members of the Executive

Committee. In other words, the major drumbeat activity (or annual set

pieces) of communication activity that can be measured year on year.

The starting point is with a project brief or ‘contract’ that is drawn up with

the internal client, incorporating aspects of the activity to be delivered such

as key objectives and messages, timelines, issues and risks, approval process

and budget. This ‘contract’ should also allow for amendments to be

incorporated as the brief changes.

The following two elements contribute to the total score against the 75%

target: peer review and project/client review. Once the project has been

completed, a peer review takes place within the IC team. The

communication lead for the activity works with a colleague (‘the IC

assessor’) to review its success in terms of the original ‘contract’, client

feedback and the challenges encountered. A score is agreed out of 100%.

Involving a colleague in this way enhances the objectivity of the exercise,

ensures the sharing of best practice across the IC team and builds a spirit of

collaboration. The IC assessor then undertakes a project review with the

client, which includes establishing how strongly they agree or disagree with

a series of statements (for example: The internal communication

contact/team understood what was required; The internal communication

contact proposed strong ideas).

This occasion also provides an opportunity to discuss changes to the

‘contract’ while the project was under way and the impact that these had.

The systems in place mean that such occurrences and their precise effect

are not forgotten. Fiona commented: “This enables us to have more

meaningful discussions about why things did not go entirely to plan and

whether what was asked for was actually reasonable within the timescales

and budgets allowed.”


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Project communication: Project communication relates to specific one-off

projects identified as critical to the delivery of Nationwide’s corporate plan

for that financial year, for example a branch opening programme,

acquisition, new advertising campaign or re-structuring.

Around 20 such projects are selected for measurement each year, and this

is undertaken in the same way as the leadership KPI.

Client satisfaction: This KPI is set up to specifically evaluate the ‘quality’ of

the business partnering relationship. Fiona conducts around 20 senior client

review meetings every six months, when they are asked to rate the

relationship through a number of questions, for example: Does your business

partner understand your challenges; Do they understand your objectives?;

Can you trust them with confidences? Feedback from these meetings feeds

directly into the half year and full year performance reviews of senior

members of the IC team.

Employee satisfaction: This KPI is represented by three elements:

• Pulsecheck – this annual IC survey of 5% of employees measures

trust, belief and understanding of the IC messages and effectiveness

of Nationwide’s internal channels

• Annual All Employee Survey – this includes eight questions owned by

IC and these questions are benchmarked against other Financial

Services and High Performance organisations

• Communication Index – employee survey analysis enables the

determination of a communication index by division, helping identify

any hotspots so that effort can be focused where there is greatest

need

KPI reporting and outcomes: All the data from the KPIs is translated into

visual metrics to produce a report, which is updated on a monthly basis.

Commenting on the outcomes of this approach, Fiona said: “The system has

been challenging to introduce but, three years on, is now firmly embedded.

Senior leaders in the business are used to the feedback approach we have

implemented and we are seeing other departments that support a business

partnering model adopt our approach.


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“Certainly by being able to show how IC adds value across the business on

specific projects we have changed the quality of conversation we have

with senior leaders. And in turn this has given us the licence to be able to

push the agenda.”

Case study contributed by Fiona MacAllan MIIC

How the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Evaluates the

Effectiveness of its Internal Communications

Ensuring we achieve what we set out to and that our work contributes to

Department objectives makes evaluation of what we do and the

effectiveness of our work indispensable to us as the Internal

Communications team in BIS.

The main objectives of our Internal Communications strategy sit under four

communications themes: communicating the Department’s vision and

objectives; supporting engagement between leaders and their teams;

showcasing and celebrating achievements and encouraging employees to

exercise their voice.

We evaluate progress against achieving these communications goals and

objectives by tracking: the Inputs – channels used and messages

communicated; Outputs – take-up of the communications channels and

messages; Outtakes – how staff responded or changed their behaviours

based on our communications.

Inputs, outputs and outtakes

We produce a monthly internal communications dashboard which monitors

quantitative take-up of all our communications channels.

This includes quantitative data on the number of readers for intranet articles,

attendees at events, deliveries of monthly cascade sessions and openings

of all-staff emails, as well as information on most popular intranet search

terms.

We also analyse the messages communicated by theme to ensure we are

giving equal weight to the key messages we prioritise in our strategy. This

quantitative data is complemented by qualitative feedback from staff


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forums, such as our Critical Friends Network, feedback gathered from post-

event surveys and through the monthly staff cascade process.

Over the past 15 months, our dashboard data have been aggregated

against our four communication objectives so they build into a detailed

picture of what has been done to communicate each theme, what level of

take-up there has been and what people thought, felt and did as a result.

This evidence is complemented by the quantitative and qualitative data

obtained through our independently conducted, annual communications

audit, based this year on telephone interviews with a representative sample

of 400 staff (13% of the workforce).

Outcomes

Our main drivers are to impact the BIS People Survey scores around visible

leadership, leaders setting a clear vision and direction and communicating

change in the Department.

The People Survey report in October 2013 demonstrated that the Internal

Communications strategy was making a difference in BIS with increases of

7% around vision and direction, 4% around leaders being visible and 6%

where staff said they felt informed about changes that affect them.

Some of the additional outcomes we are trying to achieve include working

with BIS managers to ensure they feel supported in improving their face-to-

face team engagement through the use of quality communication tools

and clear messages. We are also focussed on ensuring our communications

activities give employees regular opportunities to have their say in changes

planned for the Department.

The most significant outcome we are trying to impact through our

communications strategy is to contribute to an uplift in staff motivation and

pride – and a consequent improvement in the overall BIS People Survey

engagement index.

Again, the trend from the People Survey report 2013, tracked against our

own evaluation and dashboard shows an upward trajectory with a 2%

increase in overall engagement and a 4% increase in staff saying they are

proud to tell others they are a part of BIS.

Our internal communications dashboard and evaluation ensure we

continue to focus on achieving these objectives and enable us to track our

progress month on month.


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They are a vital part of every internal communicator’s toolkit and we have

found great value in building use of them into our strategy from the outset so

we can demonstrate to the Department the contribution we make to

achieving the BIS objectives, and the progress we continue to make.

Contributed by Susie Hill, Internal Communications Production Planner,

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills


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Chapter 7: Employee Behaviour

Employees’ receptiveness to internal communications, the way they

interpret them and their willingness to act on them, can be linked to

concepts of motivation, attitudes and beliefs and personality. A deeper

understanding of these concepts within the workplace will help

communicators develop strategies and activities that have greater impact.

7.1 Motivation

Why is it that some employees bounce into work early on a Monday

morning, gung ho and ready to go, while some eventually turn up, several

minutes late and give the impression that they would rather be anywhere

else on earth, than this particular office right here, right now? The answer

has much to do with personal motivation.

The two great theorists of motivation theory are Abraham Maslow and

Frederick Herzberg. Maslow (1908 –1970) was an American psychologist,

best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of

psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority,

culminating in self-actualisation. Frederick Irving Herzberg (1923 – 2000) was

an American psychologist most famous for introducing job enrichment and

the Motivator-Hygiene theory based on satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Satisfiers,

he claimed, are motivators associated with job satisfaction while dissatisfiers

are motivators associated with hygiene or maintenance.

Satisfiers include achievement, responsibility, advancement, and

recognition. These are all intrinsic motivators that are directly related to

rewards attainable from work performance and even the nature of the work

itself. Dissatisfiers are extrinsic motivators based on the work environment,

and include a company’s policies and administration such as supervision,

peers, working conditions, and pay. Herzberg argued that getting hygiene

and maintenance in order could prevent dissatisfaction, but, on their own,

would not contribute to satisfaction.

Both Maslow and Herzberg accepted that motivation, whilst a personal

thing, was something that policy and process in the workplace could

impact upon. Job enrichment, structured reward and recognition

programmes, employee welfare policies, flexible working hours, training and

development….and more enlightened, transparent two-way

communication throughout the organisation, will have a bearing on

motivation.

Chapter Seven: Employee Behaviour

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7.2 Attitudes and Beliefs

A belief is an internal feeling that something is true, even though that belief

may be unproven or irrational. For example, I believe that walking under a

ladder brings bad luck, or I believe that there is life after death. An attitude

is the way a person expresses or applies their beliefs and values, and is

expressed through words and behaviour. For example: Management

doesn’t care about the welfare of employees. They are only interested in

profit. Should such an attitude exist in a workforce, then it is highly unlikely

that they will bust a gut for their employer.

Attitude is one of the hidden, hard-to-measure factors that ends up being

crucial to the success of a company. As human beings, we all have our own

values, beliefs and attitudes that we have developed throughout the

course of our lives. Our family, friends, community and the experiences we

have had all contribute to our sense of who we are and how we view the

world.

Workplace.com (carried an article about a piece of research undertaken

by Shell that had classified people into 6 types based on attitude (Oechsle,

Blog 1998):

Fulfilment Seekers

Fulfilment Seekers want to make the world a better place. They seek work

that allows them to use their talents and to make a difference, ahead of

receiving a good income and benefits. Most say they have a career as

opposed to a job, and a substantial majority say they are team players

rather than leaders.

High Achievers

High achievers are aiming for the top. A large majority will say they have

followed a career plan since a young age. Most are leaders who take

initiative, and a majority hold managerial positions. They also tend to be

male. Lawyers, surgeons and architects are typical jobs dominated by high

achievers.

Clock Punchers

Clock Punchers are the least satisfied of any group surveyed, with nearly all

of them saying they have a job rather than a career. An overwhelming

majority say they ended up in their jobs largely by chance, and nearly

three-quarters say they would make different career choices if they could

do it all over again.


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Clock Punchers are predominately female, have the lowest household

income (35 percent below $30,000) and are the least educated – half have

a high school diploma or less, and fewer than 1 in 5 has earned a four-year

college degree.

Risk Takers

Risk Takers go where the money is. Members of this group are far more

willing than others to take risks for the opportunity of great financial success.

They are also the only group that likes to move from employer to employer

in search of the best job. This group is young (45 percent are under the age

of 35) and largely male. Risk Takers are fairly well-educated and have good

incomes (more than 4 in 10 have household incomes above $50,000).

Ladder Climbers

Perhaps a dying breed, these are ‘company people’ who prefer the stability

of staying with one employer for a long time. A substantial majority prefer a

stable income over the chance of great financial success and consider

themselves to be leaders rather than team players. Company loyalty

matters – 4 in 9 say they would change cities to stay with their current

employer. They are the opposite of Fulfilment Seekers.

Pay Check Cashers

Most Pay Check Cashers prefer jobs that provide good income and benefits

over ones that allow them to use their talents and make a difference.

Members of the Pay Check Cashers group are young (46 percent are under

35), male and confused: Although a majority say they will take risks for a

chance at achieving great financial success, an even larger number want

the security of staying with one employer for a long time. Most work in blue-

collar or non-professional white-collar jobs, do not have a college degree,

and prefer working in a large company or agency. This group also has the

largest representation of minorities: 18 percent African-American, 10

percent Hispanic and 3 percent Asian.

Rich Baker believes that organisations are experiencing a general change in

attitude among their latest recruits (Baker, Interview 22.01.16). The

psychological contract is changing between these new arrivals and their

employer. Whereas it used to be a case of keeping your nose clean and

your head down and you had a job for life, this is now no longer the case.

There has been a general decline in trust in the workplace and colleagues

now tend to trust their peers more than their boss. Millennials also have a

very different view of the world than their parents. They are more

transactional and less inclined to be loyal. They fully expect their tenure with

any organisation to be temporary and therefore will go elsewhere when

their aspirations or requirements are no longer being met.


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7.3 Personality

According to Wikipedia, personality type refers to the psychological

classification of different types of individuals and, as a concept, is closely

connected with the work of Karl Jung. Personality type classification such as

the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are sometimes distinguished from

personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of

behavioural tendencies. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative

differences between people, whereas traits deal with quantitative

differences. According to type theories, for example, introverts and

extraverts are two fundamentally different categories of people. According

to trait theories, introversion and extraversion are part of a continuous

dimension, with many people in the middle.

Many organisations still deploy personality tests as part of their recruitment

process. However, critics point out that because personality test scores

usually fall on a bell curve rather than in distinct categories, they are

fundamentally flawed. Most researchers now believe that it is impossible to

explain the diversity of human personality with a small number of discrete

types. They recommend trait models instead, such as the five-factor model

(FFM).

The five factors have been defined as openness to experience,

conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)

and have been developed independently for decades by a number of

different researchers. Tupes and Cristal were first, followed by Goldberg at

the Oregon Research Institute, Cattell at the University of Illinois and Costa

and McCrae at the National Institutes of Health. These four sets of

researchers used somewhat different methods in finding the five traits, and

thus each set of five factors has somewhat different names and definitions.

However, all have been found to be highly inter-correlated and analytically

aligned.

The FFM has received many plaudits for its accuracy in determining the co-

relations between personality and marriage, relationships, job performance,

education, business, leadership skills and even health, helping validate its

position as the leading framework on personality. However, although the

model is a useful tool for predicting behaviour and explaining why certain

individuals act the way they do, it is quite another challenge for

communicators to apply this understanding in the workplace.


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Boundless.com offers some clues to the application of the model

(Boundless.com, 2016):

• Those who score high in openness to experience prefer novelty,

while those who score low prefer routine.

• Individuals high in conscientiousness prefer planned rather than

spontaneous behavior and are often organised, hardworking, and

dependable. Individuals who score low in conscientiousness take a

more relaxed approach, are spontaneous, and may be

disorganised.

• Those who score low on extraversion prefer solitude and/or smaller

groups, enjoy quiet, prefer activities alone, and avoid large social

situations. Not surprisingly, people who score high on both

extroversion and openness are more likely to participate in

adventure and risky sports due to their curious and excitement-

seeking nature.

• Agreeableness measures one's tendency to be compassionate and

cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.

It is also a measure of a person's trusting and helpful nature and

whether that person is generally well-tempered or not. People who

score low on agreeableness tend to be described as rude and

uncooperative.

• People high in neuroticism tend to experience emotional instability

and are characterised as angry, impulsive, and hostile. Watson and

Clark found that people reporting high levels of neuroticism also

tend to report feeling anxious and unhappy (Watson & Clark, 1984).

In contrast, people who score low in neuroticism tend to be calm

and even-tempered.


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Figure 7.1 The Big Five Personality Traits (Boundless.com, 2016)

7.4 Thinking and Behaviour

The latest profiling tool that seeks to explain individuals’ thinking and

behavioural patterns is Emergenetics. According to the website, “The

Emergenetics Profile reveals your brilliance – the way you prefer to think and

behave. We help people and organizations thrive by giving them a simpler,

easier way to understand themselves and others, and build interpersonal

strategies that drive performance.”


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The Emergenetics framework consists of seven factors that apply to work,

communication, and interpersonal relationships.

Figure 7.2 The Emergenetics Framework


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While the authors concede that no psychometric tool can truly capture the

complexity and richness of the human mind-brain-body, the Emergenetics

model provides a practical and effective tool for successful individual and

team communication, providing of course, that each team member

completes the profile and commits to using the results intelligently.

7.5 Groups

Groups consist of Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent,

who have come together to achieve particular objectives. Their ability to

achieve these objectives is linked to the group’s structure, leadership,

hierarchy, role definition, processes and cohesiveness. These elements

evolve as groups interact either cooperatively or in competition with other

groups.

Patterns of cohesiveness and performance norms will impact on a group’s

productivity as illustrated below:

Figure 7.3 Relationship between Cohesiveness Performance Norms

and Productivity

Improving the group’s effectiveness can be achieved by assigning

appropriate tasks to individual members, providing organisational support so

that the group is able to carry out its tasks with the full cooperation of the

business, and building group cohesion.


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There are a number of reasons why employees might be formed or form

themselves into groups:

• Security – by joining a group, individuals can reduce the insecurity of

‘standing alone’. People feel stronger, have fewer self-doubts, and

are more resistant to threats when they are part of a group

• Status – inclusion in a group that is viewed as important by others

provides recognition and status for its members

• Self-Esteem – groups can provide people with feelings of self-worth.

That is, in addition to conveying status to those outside the group,

membership can also give increased feelings of worth to the group

members themselves

• Power – what cannot be achieved individually often becomes

possible through group action. There is power in numbers

• Goal Achievement – there are times when it takes more than one

person to accomplish a particular task; there is a need to pool

talents, knowledge, or power in order to complete a job.

Bruce Tuckman identified five stages of group or team development

(Tuckman, 1965):

1. Forming – the first stage in group development, characterised by

much uncertainty

2. Storming – the second stage in group development, characterised

by intragroup conflict

3. Norming – the third stage in group development, characterised by

close relationships and cohesiveness

4. Performing – the fourth stage in group development, when the

group is fully functional

5. Adjourning – the final stage in group development for temporary

groups, characterised by concern with wrapping up activities rather

than task performance


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Figure 7.4 Tuckman's 5 stages of Team Development

As mentioned above, a key element in group effectiveness is role definition.

A role is a set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone

occupying a given position in a social unit. Roles can be analysed in terms

of identity, perception, expectations and conflict:

• Role Identity – certain attitudes and behaviours consistent with a role

• Role Perception – an individual’s view of how he or she is supposed

to act in a given situation

• Role Expectations – how others believe a person should act in a

given situation

• Role Conflict – a situation in which an individual is confronted by

divergent role expectations

In groups, roles can be divided into:

• Task-oriented roles – roles performed by group members to ensure

that the tasks of the group are accomplished

• Maintenance roles – roles performed by group members to maintain

good relations within the group


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Learning preferences

An intelligent communicator will shape his or her strategy according to the

audience. Each employee will have a preferred style for how they absorb

new information. Honey and Mumford identified four key learning styles

based on the work of Kolb (Honey and Mumford, 1982). These styles, their

attributes and associated activities are summarised in table 7.1:

Learning Style Attributes Activities

Activist Activists are those people

who learn by doing. Activists

need to get their hands dirty,

to dive in with both feet first.

They have an open-minded

approach to learning,

involving themselves fully and

without bias in new

experiences.

• Brainstorming

• Problem solving

• Group discussion

• Puzzles

• Competitions

• Role-play

Pragmatist These people need to be

able to see how to put the

learning into practice in the

real world. Abstract concepts

and games are of limited use

unless they can see a way to

put the ideas into action in

their lives. They are

experimenters, trying out new

ideas, theories and

techniques to see if they

work.

• Time to think about

how to apply

learning in reality

• Case studies

• Problem solving

• Discussion


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Reflector These people learn by

observing and thinking about

what happened. They may

avoid leaping in and prefer

to watch from the side-

lines. They prefer to stand

back and view experiences

from a number of different

perspectives, collecting data

and taking the time to work

towards an appropriate

conclusion.

• Paired discussions

• Self-analysis

questionnaires

• Personality

questionnaires

• Time out

• Observing activities

• Feedback from

others

• Coaching

• Interviews

Theorist These learners like to

understand the theory

behind the actions. They

need models, concepts and

facts in order to engage in

the learning process. They

prefer to analyse and

synthesise, drawing new

information into a systematic

and logical 'theory'.

• Models

• Statistics

• Stories

• Quotes

• Background

information

• Applying theories

Table 7.1 Honey and Mumford Learning Styles adapted by Dr Richard

Mobbs, Leicester University

An internal communicator with an understanding of these learning

preferences in the context of, for example, a change management

programme, might adapt their approach as follows:

• Activist – learns best from active involvement in a task. Give them

scope to shape how the change will impact on their area

• Pragmatist – learns best when there is a link between information and

real life. Keep them informed and they will simply deal with the

change as it comes


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• Reflector – learns best by reviewing past experiences. Do not rush

them. Give them examples of how these change programmes have

panned out in other parts of the business, or in separate

organisations

• Theorist – learns well when information can be linked to theoretical

contexts. Provide them with lots of information. The more detail the

better


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Chapter 8: Organisational Culture

8.1 What is Organisational Culture?

A huge amount has been written about organisational culture over the past

century or so, but perhaps the simplest and most common-sensical

definition was coined in 1982 by Deal and Kennedy: “The way we do things

around here” (Deal & Kennedy, 1982).

In slightly more elongated fashion, organisational culture is a system of

shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which govern how people behave

in organisations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people

in the organisation and influence how they dress, act, and perform their

jobs. Every organisation develops and maintains a unique culture, which

provides guidelines and boundaries for the behaviour of the members of the

organisation, including the way in which they communicate internally.

Michael Watkins writing for the Harvard Business Review went deeper into

the different aspects of culture – meaning, control, protection – as

articulated by members of a LinkedIn discussion group he

facilitated(Watkins, 2013):

“Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which

serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.”

Richard Perrin

Culture is a carrier of meaning. Cultures provide not only a shared view of

‘what is’ but also of ‘why is’. In this view, culture is about ‘the story’ in which

people in the organisation are embedded, and the values and rituals that

reinforce that narrative. It also focuses attention on the importance of

symbols and the need to understand them – including the idiosyncratic

languages used in organisations – in order to understand culture.

“Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.”

Alan Adler

Chapter Eight: Organisational Culture

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Culture is a social control system. Here the focus is the role of culture in

promoting and reinforcing ‘right’ thinking and behaving, and sanctioning

‘wrong’ thinking and behaving. Key in this definition of culture is the idea of

behavioral ‘norms’ that must be upheld, and associated social sanctions

that are imposed on those who do not ‘stay within the lines’. This view also

focuses attention on how the evolution of the organisation shaped the

culture. That is, how have the existing norms promoted the survival of the

organisation in the past? Note: implicit in this evolutionary view is the idea

that established cultures can become impediments to survival when there

are substantial environmental changes.

“Culture is the organization’s immune system.”

Michael Watkins

Culture is a form of protection that has evolved from situational pressures. It

prevents ‘wrong thinking’ and ‘wrong people’ from entering the

organisation in the first place. Watkins says that organisational culture

functions much like the human immune system in preventing viruses and

bacteria from taking hold and damaging the body. The problem, of course,

is that organisational immune systems also can attack agents of needed

change, and this has important implications for on-boarding and integrating

people into organisations.

In the discussion, there were also some important observations pushing

against the view of culture as something that it is unitary and static, and

toward a view that cultures are multiple, overlapping, and dynamic.

“It over simplifies the situation in large organizations to assume

there is only one culture… and it’s risky for new leaders to

ignore the sub-cultures.”

Rolf Winkler

The cultures of organisations are never monolithic. There are many factors

that drive internal variations in the culture of business functions (e.g. finance

vs. marketing) and units (e.g. a fast-moving consumer products division vs. a

pharmaceuticals division of a diversified firm).


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A company’s history of acquisition also figures importantly in defining its

culture and sub-cultures. Depending on how acquisition and integration are

managed, the legacy cultures of acquired units can persist for surprisingly

long periods of time.

8.2 Characteristics of Organisational Culture

According to Study.com, the seven characteristics of organisational culture

are (Study.com, 2016):

• Innovation (Risk Orientation) – companies with cultures that place a

high value on innovation encourage their employees to take risks

and innovate in the performance of their jobs. Companies with

cultures that place a low value on innovation expect their

employees to do their jobs the same way that they have been

trained to do them, without looking for ways to improve their

performance.

Example: Tech companies such as Google and Facebook

• Attention to Detail (Precision Orientation) – this characteristic of

organisational culture dictates the degree to which employees are

expected to be accurate in their work. A culture that places a high

value on attention to detail expects their employees to perform their

work with precision. A culture that places a low value on this

characteristic does not.

Example: Accountants

• Emphasis on Outcome (Achievement Orientation) – companies that

focus on results, but not on how the results are achieved, place a

high emphasis on this value of organisational culture. A company

that instructs its sales force to do whatever it takes to get sales orders

has a culture that places a high value on the emphasis on outcome

characteristic.

Example: Commission only advertising sales

• Emphasis on People (Fairness Orientation) – companies that place a

high value on this characteristic of organisational culture place a

great deal of importance on how their decisions will affect the

people in their organisations. For these companies, it is important to

treat their employees with respect and dignity.

Example: Charitable Trusts


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• Teamwork (Collaboration Orientation) – companies that organise

work activities around teams instead of individuals place a high

value on this characteristic of organisational culture. People who

work for these types of companies tend to have a positive

relationship with their co-workers and managers.

Example: Hotels

• Aggressiveness (Competitive Orientation) – this characteristic

dictates whether group members are expected to be assertive or

easy-going when dealing with companies they compete with in the

marketplace. Companies with an aggressive culture place a high

value on competitiveness and outperforming the competition at all

costs.

Example: Stockbrokers

• Stability (Rule Orientation) – a company whose culture places a high

value on stability are rule orientated, predictable and bureaucratic

in nature. These types of companies typically provide consistent and

predictable levels of output and operate best in non-changing

market conditions.

Example: Civil Service, Local Councils

How does culture change? John Kotter writing for Forbes suggests it starts

with a powerful person at the top, or a large enough group from anywhere

in the organisation, deciding that the old ways are not working, who figures

out a change vision, starts acting differently, and enlists others to act

differently (Kotter, Blog 2012).

If the new actions produce better results, if the results are communicated

and celebrated, and if they are not killed off by the old culture fighting its

rear-guard action, new norms will form and new shared values will grow.

What does NOT work in changing a culture? Some group decides what the

new culture should be. It turns a list of values over to the communications or

HR departments with the order that they tell people what the new culture is.

They cascade the message down the hierarchy, and little to nothing

changes.

The key point about Kotter’s explanation is that internal communications

help share and celebrate new behaviours that are led from the top. If these

new behaviours are not manifestly evident, no amount of communicating

what they are will compensate for the gap in reality. In fact, perpetuating a

myth will only make things worse, with cynics running riot.


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8.3 Culture, Clutter and the Rise of Telecommuting

One of the modern day ills of corporate life is email overload, something

that many have come to recognise and some have tried to do something

about (Grossman, 2012):

• French technology giant Atos banned email on Fridays in a bid to

get employees talking

• Volkswagen has stopped routing emails to employees’ smartphones

when they go off shift

• The Brazilian government decreed that answering emails out of hours

counts as overtime

Perhaps organisations are waking up to the idea that if a piece of

communication is really important….you need to pick up the phone.

One way of dealing with clutter and boosting productivity is to encourage

more remote working or telecommuting as it is described in the States. Long

gone are the days of decreeing that employees must be sat at their desks

where management teams can keep a watchful eye.

A host of infographics exist to sum up the trend towards greater remote

working and the associated benefits, which according to US tech firm

Logitech can be counted in terms of productivity, time saving, energy

usage, morale and even human life.


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Figure 8.1 Benefits of Remote Working, Logitech 2011

Remote working, it should be pointed out, is not for everyone. This is usually

for purely practical reasons, but also sometimes out of personal choice.

Some workers find it difficult to cope with the lack of routine, or the social

buzz of the office environment. Other finds themselves easily distracted

when working at home or simply prefer the way the physical separation of

office and home enables them to switch off when they come through their

front door in the evening.


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How should internal communications respond to the growth in remote

working? Here are some guidelines:

• Don’t get too reliant on email – one of the benefits of Skype for

example is that you can see when colleagues are available and a

quick ‘are you free for a call?’ message, followed by a quick call,

can be much more productive than an email.

• Where you do need to resort to email, pay careful attention to tone

and do all you can to avoid the risk of misinterpretation.

• Use apps for team collaboration – there seem to be an ever growing

number of these e.g. Trello, Campfire, Basecamp, Evernote and

Onehub, as well as the more familiar Google Docs and Google

Hangouts. Find out what works for you and stick with it.

• Be available – remote working does not mean being offline. Quite

the opposite. Ironically, it should be easier for colleagues to talk with

exactly who they want in a remote environment, where both parties

are free from other distractions, including unnecessary and overlong

meetings.

• Give feedback – remote workers do not want to feel remote so

make sure you respond to their communications and the requests for

input and feedback. Do not leave them to do the chasing.

• Plan the face to face time…and make it more than once a year.

8.4 Buzzwords

Another aspect of culture affecting the art of internal communication is the

use of jargon. Making fun of corporate jargon has become a popular game

in its own right, known as ‘buzzword bingo’. According to Wikipedia,

Buzzword bingo, also known as bullshit bingo, is a bingo-style game where

participants prepare bingo cards with buzzwords and tick them off when

they are uttered during an event, such as a meeting or speech. The goal of

the game is to tick off a predetermined number of words in a row and then

yell "Bingo!" (or "Bullshit!").

Here are just a few of the best (or more probably the worst) examples, as

compiled by Forbes, which most internal communicators have probably

fallen foul of:


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• Buy-in – agreement on a course of action, if the most disingenuous

kind. David Logan, Professor of Management and Organisation at

the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business

notes: “Asking for someone’s ‘buy-in’ says, ‘I have an idea. I didn’t

involve you because I didn’t value you enough to discuss it with you.

I want you to embrace it as if you were in on it from the beginning,

because that would make me feel really good.”

• Empower – what someone above your pay grade does when,

apparently, they would like you to do a job of some importance.

Also called “the most condescending transitive verb ever.” It

suggests that “You can do a little bit of this, but I’m still in charge

here. I am empowering you”, says Dr. Jennifer Chatman, Professor of

Management at the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School

of Business.

• Drinking the Kool-Aid – a tasteless reference to the Jonestown

Massacre of 1978, this expression means to blindly accept

something, such as a company’s mission statement. Robotic

allegiance is bad enough; coming up with tactless expressions for it is

horrendous.

• Move the Needle – this beauty, which has nothing to do with heroin,

is a favorite of venture capitalists. If something does not move the

needle, meaning that it does not generate a reaction (like, positive

cash flow), they do not like it much. So when pitching VCs, make

clear that you intend to move the needle. Or you could just say,

specifically, how your plan and product are superior to your

competitors.

• Open the Kimono – “Some people use this instead of ‘revealing

information.’ It’s kind of creepy,” says Bruce Barry, Professor of

Management at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Business.

Just keep your kimono snuggly fastened.

• Burning Platform – jargon for an impending crisis. Better: “We’re in big

trouble.”

So students beware. Do not be tempted to reach out, shift a paradigm,

leverage a best practice or join a tiger team, by all means do it. Just don’t

say you are doing it, because all that meaningless business jargon makes

you sound like a complete idiot.


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Instead, add power to your communications elbow by familiarising yourself

with the helpful glossary of useful internal communication terms that has

been put together by Rachel Miller: http://www.allthingsic.com/icglossary-

2/.

8.5 The Quality of Conversation

One of Lynda Gratton’s recurring themes is that organisations change for

the better where quality conversation thrives (Gratton, 2012). We all know

instinctively when a workplace conversation has been poor – we feel

drained and demotivated. In contrast a high quality conversation leaves us

feeling inspired and energised. In her book, Glow, she identifies four ways in

which conversations take place:

Analytical

Rationality

Low

Disciplined

Debate

Appreciative

Rigorous

Creative Dialogue

Energised

Sense Making

High

Dehydrated Talk

Ritualistic

Constrained

Intimate Exchange

Trust Building

Empathetic

Low High

Emotional Authenticity

Figure 8.2 Types of Conversation, Lynda Gratton

Dehydrated conversations she argues are like well-rehearsed set pieces with

pre-determined scripts and outcomes. Generally uninspiring. Disciplined

debate on the other hand, is based on fact rather than lazy thinking or

prejudice. It provides the space where employees feel they can ask the big

questions. In intimate exchanges, each party is prepared to share

something about themselves. This sharing relates directly to the emotional

empathy that drives conversation characterised by rapport, rather than

http://www.allthingsic.com/icglossary-2/

http://www.allthingsic.com/icglossary-2/


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conflict. As Gratton says “It is during these times of authenticity that trust

flourishes and cooperation is built”. All too often, she says, these emotionally

charged conversations are frowned upon in the workplace and perceived

as being negative or unhelpful, when in fact they are just what is needed to

get underlying concerns out on the table.

Creative dialogue is where rationality and emotion are combined to great

effect: one rooted in the categories of structure, the other in images of

meaning. If you can achieve this, then you move from fragmentation to

unity, where spectacular results are possible. To put yourself in more

situations where you can have creative dialogue, Gratton advises her

audience to seek out people who are interesting and exciting with whom

they can converse on broad and wide topics. At the same time, she warns

of the dangers of the cynics – the ‘spell breakers’ who destroy the quality of

conversation. These people need first to be identified and then avoided. In

the event that you have a boss who is a spell breaker, then the advice is as

follows:

• Make an extra effort to be upbeat and positive. Keep conversation

to a minimum

• Display your emotional intelligence with questions such as ‘how can

we work more effectively together?’

• Decide if your boss is symptomatic of ‘the smell of the place’. If they

are not, then you probably need to work on finding a new boss. If

they are, you probably need to work on finding a new company

8.6 Leaders and Leadership Style

When it comes to analysing organisational culture, there can be little doubt

the leader and his or her leadership style, is a significant factor. As Andy

Bounds pointed out, not all animals are equal and people tend to copy

their boss (Bounds, Interview 28.01.16). According to Bounds, leaders have

three communication roles:

1. To be a role model – just telling your team to go and do magic things

is not very motivational. Indeed, it is probably hypocritical. Leaders

need to show what the magic looks like

2. To lead others – most people are happy being led. Leaders need to

tell their teams what they expect


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3. To respond impressively – leaders need to act on what they see, feel

and hear with dynamism. In a progressive, well led business, there is

no room for boring, pointless meetings that have no actions arising.

Neil Baines-Thomas of Close Brothers also articulates the need for leaders to

constantly coach the senior management team to be great

communicators and to role model the desired behaviours (Baines-Thomas,

Interview 04.03.16). He cites the recent example of the FBI request that

Apple create a version of its operating system that would allow the FBI to

circumvent security controls, so that it could inspect the contents of an

iPhone used by one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernadino attack.

Apple claimed the order "would undermine the very freedoms and liberty

our government is meant to protect" and has appealed against the court

order. Rather than allow the staff to follow the story solely in the media, Tim

Cook the current Apple CEO, immediately wrote to his staff explaining why

Apple is appealing against the court order.

Lizz Pellet a Fellow in Organisational Transformation from Johns Hopkins

University in the US, argues that culture is created by four distinct methods in

an organisation (Pellet, 2010):

1. The actions and behaviors of leaders

2. What leaders pay attention to

3. What gets rewarded and what gets punished

4. The allocation and attention of resources


112

Figure 8.3 Leaders and Culture, Felix Global Corp, 2010

Edgar Schein is a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management

and a recognised expert on organisational culture. He argues

(Organizational Culture and Leadership 2010), that culture springs from three

things (Schein, 2010):

1. The beliefs, values, and assumptions of founders

2. The learning experiences of group members

3. New beliefs, values, and assumptions brought by new members

Of the above, says Schein, it is the first that dominates.

Most commentators seem to agree that the basic leadership task is to

inspire others to achieve great results. In order to do this, they need to role

model the behaviours they would like to see throughout the business and

they need to be skilled in the art of communication. Rich Baker argues that

leadership and communication go hand in hand (Baker, Interview 22.01.16).

If you are not communicating you are not leading. Of course this comes

more naturally to some than to others. For those leaders who lack the

common touch – the ability to communicate at different levels – then they

at least need to be able to drive good communication practices through

the rest of the leadership down and outwards into the wider organisation.


113

“Making the connection between the company’s business agenda and the

employee’s agenda requires managers to translate general information into

specific individual relevance. They have to be the final link in the chain of

communication to their people” (Quirk, op. cit.).

For his book, The Language of Leaders, Kevin Murray interviewed over fifty

leaders, nearly all of whom identified communication as a top three skill of

leadership (Murray, 2012). Most identified the ability to think clearly and

strategically as the number one skill required to be a great leader, but all

recognised that the best strategy was redundant without an inspired

workforce to deliver it.

In her book, The Culture Builders, Jane Sparrow suggests that there are five

culture building roles to be played by managers and leaders (Sparrow,

2012):

1. The Prophet – identifies and uses purpose in self and others to create

alignment

2. The Storyteller – shares context, content, metaphors and examples to

engage others

3. The Strategist – identifies and builds plans for the engagement of

others

4. The Coach – gets the best of people and facilitates colleagues on a

journey to engagement

5. The Pilot – the role model, who keeps a hand on the tiller and ensures

that an environment exists where everyone is clear about their

purpose

Great leaders are able to switch between these roles according to context.

For example, during a period of change, different styles are required for the

different tasks identified by Kotter for creating the change: creating a sense

of urgency, building the guiding crew, motivating people to do new things

and making the change stick.


114

Figure 8.4 Adapted by Jane Sparrow from Kotter:

http://kotterinternational.com/kotterprinciples/changesteps

• Strategist

• Pilot

• Storyteller

• Coach

• Prophet

• Pilot

• Storyteller

• Strategist

• Coach

• PilotMake

change stick

Create a sense of urgency

Build the guiding

crew

Motivate people to do new things

http://kotterinternational.com/kotterprinciples/changesteps


115

Chapter 9: Reward and Recognition

Andrew Cody has this perspective: Internal communication should reward

employees (Cody, 2012). And that works on two levels. Firstly, you need to

enrich them with communication that explains their strategic fit with the

organisation. Secondly, you can thank them with social or, if you prefer,

tangible rewards when they provide value. It is a win-win situation. Happy

employees are productive employees.

Since the beginning of the nineties there has been a gradual rise in the

number of organisations offering strategic reward and recognition

programmes, where going the extra mile, typically linked to the

organisation’s stated values, results in some form of tangible reward. These

programmes are often peer to peer in nature, where anyone in the

organisation can nominate a colleague for an exceptional display of the

company’s values, facilitated by some kind of online recognition portal.

These portals are becoming increasing ‘social’ in style, where employees

can ‘like’, award nominations and write congratulatory notes on the

nominee’s ‘wall’.

Lenovo is typical of many technology businesses where structured reward

and recognition is totally embedded. Communications Manager, Charlotte

West, explained how reward programmes operate both centrally and

regionally, recognising sales performance and demonstrating the company

values (West, Interview 26.02.16). Each year the top sales performers from

around the world are celebrated via The Presidents Club and an all-

expenses paid trip to a glamourous holiday destination. Meanwhile the

Lenovo Way Awards celebrate those employees who regularly display the

five Lenovo values of plan, perform, prioritise, pledge and pioneer. West also

noted that reward programmes can be implemented informally and with a

sense of fun. By way of illustration, Lenovo issued a branded megaphone to

employees who were particularly active on social media on behalf of the

company.

The real power of a reward and recognition programme comes not from

the value of the rewards given away, but the way in which this is done.

Whether it is a round of applause in front of your departmental colleagues

or being called up to the main stage at the annual company conference, it

is the public display of celebration that really matters. Emma Thompson

describes the excitement and glamour of the annual employee awards

event held at the iconic Royal Courts of Justice in Temple, London

(Thompson, Interview 20.01.16).

Chapter Nine: Reward and Recognition

116

It is the social highlight of the year, where nominated employees from all of

the regional offices get the chance to don their best outfits and head to the

city for the HCMTS employee equivalent of the Oscars.

9.1 Voluntary Benefits

Another form of reward for employees that organisations have recognised

the importance of, is that of voluntary or flexible benefits.

These programmes enable employees to select and buy the benefits they

want at a lower cost than if they were to get them directly. Payments for the

services selected are often made through payroll and where a tax break is

available, such as with childcare, then via a mechanism known as ‘salary

sacrifice’ where the benefit is paid for out of gross salary. Essentially

employees have access to additional benefits at a cheaper rate. The

employer gets all the engagement, motivation and productivity that come

with having such a wide-ranging, interactive scheme.

Products that are typically included in a voluntary or flexible programme

include childcare vouchers, cycle to work schemes, personal accident,

critical illness, dental and private medical insurance, employee assistance

programmes and medical cash plans.

9.2 Employee Lifecycle Communications

In the same way that marketing departments try to manage the lifecycle of

their customers, with appropriate interventions at appropriate times, so too

are organisations beginning to appreciate the notion of an employee

lifecycle, where communications and messaging can be made more

personal from recruitment through to departure. Even in our modern world,

when employees are likely to move more frequently from organisation to

organisation than in the past, the importance of treating employees well

during their tenure is undiminished. Indeed, in a social world where every

employee has the power to enhance or undermine organisational

reputation, organisations need to get the communication right from the get

go.

The reality of trying to do this can mean the linking together of a variety of

HR systems that handle different aspects of the employee relationships and

that have evolved over time. Those have managed to do this describe an

‘employee hub’ which consolidates this information and sets templated


117

communication triggers for key milestones in the employee’s lifecycle with

that company e.g. joining, passing probation, moving department, gaining

promotion, 5-year and more anniversaries, birthdays, passing training

courses, completing appraisals, etc. As we have seen earlier, whilst the HR

function may own the concept, there is great value in the marketing or

internal communications professional getting involved with these processes

and the detail of the messaging.

Case Study from the Employee Engagement Division of Grass Roots:

Driving Employee Understanding at Santander and Linking ROI to

Total Reward

Grass Roots helped financial services company Santander to bring their

Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to life, making it accessible, relevant and

easy to understand.

Santander wanted their employees to have a clear picture of everything

that was being done for them, including rewards, benefits, support,

development, and strategic direction.

The first step was to integrate all the existing employee value proposition

(EVP) systems through one single platform and make everything easy to find,

searchable and intuitive to navigate. Comprehensive employee marketing

data was gathered and analysed to create ‘bite size’ EVP communications

around different key points (moments of truth) in a person's employee

lifecycle.

Grass Roots then benchmarked the effectiveness of the existing total reward

strategy, which showed there was an opportunity to add significant value

back into the business by putting a new total reward programme in place.

The site has been incredibly well received, and shows the importance of

providing the right message to employees at the right time; and the value of

creating a single point of access to relevant information that is easy to use

and navigate.

Results

At the end of year one:

• Over 6 million page views and 800,000 site visits

• 90% of employees registered

• Over £9 million in flexible benefits ordered (27,000 orders placed)


118

• Employees have added the value of £1.5 million to their total reward

through tax and NI savings

• CIPD People Management Awards 2013 – Highly Commended in HR

Innovation Through Technology

• Employee Benefits Awards 2013 – shortlisted in three categories

9.3 A Culture of Recognition

No matter how well built and implemented the employee lifecycle

communication system is, many would concede that there is no substitute

for a culture of recognition, where saying ‘thank you’ comes naturally.

As Hannah Jones points out in her blogpost, we all want and need

recognition (Jones, Blog 2015). It starts in our childhood but continues

throughout our adult life which is modelled around constant social

feedback and acknowledgement. She says:

“So strong is our desire for positive affirmation, particularly during

developmental periods, that even a neutral reaction can be perceived as a

negative one. When we move to the workplace, this orientation is no

different. It is key that employers focus on how they can make authentic

and meaningful recognition part of their management philosophy in order

to retain top talent and encourage high performance.”

Jones refers to a recent survey carried out by US based recognition agency

O.C. Tanner which investigates the root cause of great employee

performance and how managers can tailor their workplaces to promote it.

The killer question posed is: "What is the most important thing that your

manager or company currently does that would cause you to produce

great work?" The results are summarised in Figure 9.1.


119

Figure 9.1 OC Tanner Survey Question: "What is the most important

thing that your manager or company currently does that would

cause you to produce great work?"

Overall, 37% of respondents stated that more personal recognition would

encourage them to produce better work more often – a clear illustration of

the importance of affirmation, feedback and reward for motivating

employees to do their best work.

Rich Baker suggested practical ways in which communication professionals

can help build a culture of recognition, formally and informally (Baker,

Interview 22.01.06). On the formal side, in larger organisations, it is about

advocating investment in a recognition portal and then supporting the

adoption process. In smaller companies, something as simple as ‘thank you’

cards can make managers feel more comfortable about giving recognition.

In his view, when it comes to powerful recognition, there is still nothing to

compare to the handwritten card from one’s manager. On the informal

side, it is about building the soft skills that enable managers to have grown

up conversations with their team members – the creative dialogue referred

to by Lynda Gratton and discussed in the previous chapter.

At Direct Line, one of the ways a culture of recognition has been

embedded into the business, according to Internal Communications and

Brand Engagement Manager, Paul Diggins, is via the Chief Executive

awards which are made annually on a regional basis (Diggins, Interview

26.01.16). Each region has a three-month window in which to make their

nominations, linked to the six company values:


120

• Take ownership

• Work together

• Say it like it is

• Doing the right thing

• Aim higher

• Bring all of yourself to work

Each regional winner is presented with a trophy by the Chief Executive and

the rolling nature of the awards – they take place at different times – keeps

recognition firmly on the board agenda throughout the year.


121

Chapter 10: The Characteristics of a Great

Communicator

Each interview carried out in support of this book, concluded with the

question: “Who do you admire as a great communicator and why?” Here

are some of the responses:

Neil Baines-Thomas – Organisational Capability & Development Manager,

Close Brothers Asset Management

“During the mid-90s I was at Bradford and Bingley when CEO Christopher

Rodrigues took the business from being a building society to being a bank.

He very quickly realised that the questions employees were asking were the

same as those that the customers were asking – effectively, why are we

doing this? He really upped the ante on internal comms with the simple

objective of ensuring employees understood what we were doing and why

we were doing it”.

Rich Baker – Internal Communications Consultant

“Two people spring to mind. The ex CEO of Carlsberg UK, James Lusada. An

extremely emotionally intelligent man with great self-awareness. He had a

keen sense of his strengths and limitations and he played to them. I was

particularly struck by how he empowered his team to do the job we were

hired to do.

I’d also like to mention Jeremy Higgins, the former Customer Service Director

at Cross Country Trains. He is a fantastic communicator who naturally

inspires people with his quirky personality and positive energy”.

Jim Beatty – HR Director, Burton’s Biscuits

“He is my boss, but I’d have to go for Ben Clarke, the CEO at Burton’s

Biscuits. Ben is a marketer at heart who understands the value of simplifying

the message and being really clear in his communication. He has the

human touch and natural empathy.”

Chapter Ten: Characteristics of a great communicator

122

Andy Bounds – Communications Consultant and bestselling author (The Jelly

Effect, The Snowball Effect, Top Dog)

“Walt Disney was a visionary, a brilliant sales person with a totally positive

mind-set. He would always say ‘yes, if’ rather than ‘no, because’. Like all

great leaders, he had great natural charisma. “

Paul Diggins – Head of Internal Communications and Brand and

Engagement, Direct Line Group

“Matt Barrett the former CEO of Barclays had the gift of the gab and could

communicate on a variety of levels. He spoke in a way that his audience

would understand. He had a knack for making the complex simple, was

very consistent and brilliantly clear. His authority was neither scary nor

hierarchical. People loved him. A superstar CEO.”

Teresa Carnt – Internal Communications, BP Fuels

At the risk of sounding sycophantic, I’d have to say my boss, Rachel Retford,

is the best communicator I have ever worked with. I admire the way she

combines clear strategic thinking, with a practical ability to gets things

done. Great at turning strategy into action. She really does walk the walk as

well as talking the talk. She is very down to earth, strong on prioritisation and

good at knowing when to say ‘no’”.

Annette Gann – Internal Communications Consultant with National Grid

“A senior colleague contractor at National Grid, Gabrielle Williamson, has

the typical attributes of a good communicator. She sees the big picture, is

an excellent team builder, empathetic, energetic and can work at pace.

She also manages upwards very well, which means she is successful at

getting senior level support when needed”.

Mike Klein – Internal Communications Consultant

“Jim Shaffer is a leadership coach, author and speaker who has a great

talent for being able to create a bottom line relationship between comms

and organisation change.” (Shaffer’s book The Leadership Solution is widely

regarded as one of the best business books on leadership, change

management, communication and creating high performance through

people).


123

I’m also a great admirer of Jeppe Hansgaard

(https://dk.linkedin.com/in/jeppehansgaard) a champion of organisational

network analysis and people analytics.

I’d also like to give a mention to Rachel Miller

(https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rachelmiller01) for accelerating the

development of a mutually supportive Internal Communications community.

Emma Thompson – Head of Change Communication, Her Majesty’s Court

and Tribunal Service

“A senior VP at my former company Cisco, was really good at making

people feel special. When he was engaged in conversation with you he

always gave you his full attention. Despite his status in the business he was

not afraid to show his vulnerability. This helped him appear normal and

therefore easier to converse with.

He also thought hard about what he was going to say before he said it.

Nothing was ever off the cuff. He avoided jargon, always using language

that was appropriate for his audience. And he was very good at choosing

the right words. He came to Cisco via an acquisition of another company

and I always remember him saying these words: “I didn’t want to be here,

but I chose to stay”.

Mark Webb – Social Media Manager, Dixons Carphone Warehouse

“Our CEO Sebastian James has the biggest Twitter following among FTSE 100

leaders. He was an early adopter of social media because he saw its value

in terms of communication. He uses his own language and says it how he

sees it. Sometimes he flies a bit close to the edge, but colleagues, journalists,

social media observers and analysts love that. They want to hear the truth,

straight from the horse’s mouth and that’s what they get.”

Charlotte West – Head of Corporate Communications, Lenovo

“My first choice is an obvious one: Richard Branson. He has that natural

passion which is very infectious. He’s charismatic and seems to do

everything with a touch of flair. I’ve also noticed that no one I’ve met who

has ever worked at Virgin, has anything negative to say about him. On the

contrary employees are proud that they have worked for a business for

which he is the leader.

https://dk.linkedin.com/in/jeppehansgaard

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rachelmiller01

Chapter Ten: Characteristics of a great communicator

124

My second choice would be Satya Nadella, the CEO at Microsoft.

Employees value openness and authenticity and Nadella is a very

transparent leader.”

Tim Wooten – Internal Communication Consultant and Author

“Andy Bounds. Learning to communicate with his blind mother has made

him the consummate communications expert”.


125

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Sparrow J, (2012), The Culture Builders, Gower

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Blogposts

Bradbury T, (2016), How Body Language Trumps IQ, LinkedIn

Cropley A, (2016), Change Management as a Core Competency for

Communication Professionals, LinkedIn

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Jobs, People Fluent

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Multinational Corporation to Network and Voice their Opinions, C3.co./blog

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Miller R (2017), How a Supermarket Chain uses Facebook at Work, All Things

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Interviews

Baines-Thomas N, (04.03.16), Talent Development Manager, Close Brothers

Baker R (24.01.16), Internal Communications Consultant

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Bobrowski M, (21.01.16), Brand Director, Burtons' Biscuits

Bounds A, (28.01.16), Communications Consultant and bestselling author

Carnt T, (03.02.16), Internal Communications Partner, BP Fuels

Diggins P, (26.01.16), Head of Internal Communications and Brand

Engagement, Direct Line

Gann A, (15.02.16), Internal Communications Consultant, National Grid

Klein M, (01.02.16), Internal Communications Consultant

Low S, (08.01.16), Global Communications Manager, EMC

Retford R, (04.01.16), Internal Communications Leader, BP Fuels

Ryan M, (2015), President Operations, iFLY, Various Conversations Autumn

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Wooten T, (22.01.16), Communications Consultant & author, Shell

Case Studies

Barclays, Courtesy of Blue Goose

Business Innovation and Skills, Contributed by Susie Hill, First published by

Engage for success

Nationwide, Contributed by Fiona MacAllen, First published by the Institute

of Internal Communication

Santander, Courtesy of Grass Roots

Videos for Further Information

Cambridge Marketing College, Internal Communications by Alan Ansted,

https://vimeo.com/129439792

Career advice on becoming an internal communications manager by

Sophie McCourt, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvXjGx2tFNc

Think Engagement by David Coleman,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHBeqJ3wzg

https://vimeo.com/129439792

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvXjGx2tFNc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeHBeqJ3wzg


129

Websites for General Information

Emergenetics: https://www.emergenetics.com/uk

Engage for Success: engageforsuccess.org

Gartner: https://www.cebglobal.com/marketing-

communications/communications/internal-communications

Institute of Internal Communication: www.ioic.org.uk

https://www.emergenetics.com/uk

http://engageforsuccess.org/

https://www.cebglobal.com/marketing-communications/communications/internal-communications

https://www.cebglobal.com/marketing-communications/communications/internal-communications

http://www.ioic.org.uk/

References

130


131

Index

Activity classification, 76

Agency(ies), 7, 51, 89, 118

Attitudes, 35, 87, 88

Audience, 1, 41, 43, 46-48, 71, 76,

78, 97, 100, 122

Barclays, 7, 51, 122

Behaviour, 87-100

Beliefs, 87, 88, 101

Best Companies Survey, 38

Body language, 57-60

Brand(s), 6, 13, 44, 46, 71, 74

Budgeting, 52

Business Innovation and Skills, 83

Buzzwords, 107

Cascading Information, 47

Champions, 20, 48

Change Management, 10, 12-13,

98

Channels, 2, 9, 27, 38, 49-50, 55,

57, 64, 69, 71, 72, 76

Clutter, 31, 105

Context, 10, 36, 37, 40, 46, 98, 113

Conversation, 5, 37, 48, 57, 67, 109

Crisis, 6, 17, 19-20, 32, 34

Culture, 101-114, 118

Emergenetics Framework, 93

Employee lifecycle

communications, 116, 118

Engagement, 7, 64, 74

Engagement Pyramid, 15

Enterprise Social Network, 64

Evaluation, 73-86

Experience Index, 9

Face to face, 11, 16, 37, 55, 57, 68

Grass Roots, 117

Groups, 22, 32, 49, 67 ,69, 71, 94,

96

Honey and Mumford, 97

HR, 1, 3, 7, 32, 79, 104, 116

iFLY, 20, 48, 69

Implementation, 46

Infographic(s), 62, 105

Innovation, 6, 10, 83

Inter-departmental friction, 6, 22


Practitioner, 25-27


Applications, 72

Internal Marketing Mix, 1

IOIC Professional Development, 26

Kotter, 12, 104, 113

Leader(s), 32, 110

Leadership, 13, 32, 73, 78, 90, 94,

110

Leadership Style, 110

Learning, 97

Legal obligations, 6, 23

Index

132

Marketing, 1, 32

Media, 55-67

Mendelow, 42

Message (s), 19, 27, 45, 47, 51, 64,

69, 74, 76, 104

Message impact, 76

Messaging, 45

Metrics, 78

Mission, 5, 6-7, 32

Model of employee clarity and

willingness, 43

Mood, 78

Motivation, 87, 116

Multi-national(s), 37

Nationwide, 80

Objectives, 40

Personality, 90

Personality traits, 90, 92

Planning, 29-54, 57

Product and Service

Development, 6, 10

Purpose, 5-24, 73

Quirke, 5,9, 12, 13, 14, 27, 31, 33,

41, 43, 49, 79

Recognition, 6, 20, 32, 44, 87,

115-120

Retention, 10, 74

Reward, 2, 20, 32, 115-120

Santander, 117

Schein, 112

Segmentation, 41

Shell's Content Engagement

Algorithm, 77

Situation Analysis/Audit, 34

Slack, 68-70

Social Media, 16, 64-66, 71, 115

Strategy, 2, 15, 32, 41-46, 94, 113

Surveys, 38, 73

Tactics, 46

Telecommuting, 105

Thinking, 92, 102

Tuckman, 95

Values, 5-8, 20, 23, 37, 48, 88, 101,

104, 115

Video, 60, 69

Vision, 5, 6-7, 32

Voluntary benefits, 116

Workplace by Facebook, 70

Yammer, 38, 67-68

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