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journal of internal communication volume 10

journal ofinternal communication...also with engraved pens. “Colin, I’ve got stop coming either.” I like this story. In most large organisations there are frustrating processes

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Page 1: journal ofinternal communication...also with engraved pens. “Colin, I’ve got stop coming either.” I like this story. In most large organisations there are frustrating processes

journalofinternalcommunication

volume 10

Page 2: journal ofinternal communication...also with engraved pens. “Colin, I’ve got stop coming either.” I like this story. In most large organisations there are frustrating processes

2 www.gatehouse.co.uk

For further information about Gatehouseor any of our services contact us:www.gatehouse.co.ukTel: +44 (0) 20 7754 3630

Email: [email protected] @gatehousegroup

Gatehouse1 Vogan’s Mill Wharf17 Mill StreetLondon, SE1 2BZUnited Kingdom

General disclaimer: No responsibility or liability is assumed by Gatehouse Consulting Limited for any views, opinions and content provided by contributory authors. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, Gatehouse Consulting Limited cannot be held responsible for published errors. The views or opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect views of Gatehouse Consulting Limited. Inclusion of any advertising material does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of any products or services or the claims made by any provider.

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 INTRODUCTION

Colin Powell tells a story from his days as U.S. Secretary of State.

One day, a guy showed up with a pallet of souvenirs, to be given out to White House visitors. Each package included a pair of expensive engraved pens, badges and framed photographs. A month later, the same guy showed up again with yet another pallet of souvenirs. Powell said, “Why are you bringing this? We haven’t used up the ones you brought last month.” “I’m sorry, sir, but these are my orders.” After a couple more months, Powell decided to put a stop to this waste. He probed, until a senior purchasing administrator told him that the pens were contracted to be delivered every month, and no intervention could stop it. One afternoon, Powell was in a meeting with President George W. Bush. They finished their business early, and President Bush asked if they had anything else to discuss. Powell said,

“Well, now that you mention it, I’ve got this problem…” and went on to describe the pens. Bush walked across the room and opened a cabinet, revealing a stack of similar Presidential souvenir packages, also with engraved pens. “Colin, I’ve got the same problem. I can’t make them stop coming either.” I like this story. In most large organisations there are frustrating processes that seem to happen just because they’ve always happened. Even senior leaders can’t make them stop. I wonder what would have happened if Colin had asked his comms person to look into it? In our profession, we’re often in the best position to make organisational change happen,

Simon WrightDirector, Gatehouse

Lee SmithDirector, Gatehouse

“...we’re often in the best position to make organisational change happen...”

because if we’re good, we have a bird’s eye view of the entire organisation. If you have a great example of behavioural change, get in touch with us and we’ll feature you in our next issue.

All the best

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Contents

AUDIT & RESEARCH

Our Brand of Education: How The Cooper’s Company and Coborn School uses branding to prepare for the future .............................................................. 4Headteacher Dr David Parry explains how research and branding are supporting the school’s development and helping make students and parents ambassadors of the institution.

Engaging train operators at Transport for London ............................................................8TfL used a communication audit to inform a new engagement strategy with train operators. Jade Eva, Employee Communications & Engagement Business Partner, explains how.

OPINIONS

10 Tips for effective Line Manager Communication .................................................14Gatehouse’s Chris Atkinson doesn’t pull any punches with this call to action for line managers. This is essential reading for all IC professionals working to improve line manager communication.

Is the value that communications brings and the importance of shaping the story really understood in change management? ....................................................18 Why should strategic communication be part of the planning process for change programmes? Dominic Walters uses his extensive experience in communication, engagement and change to answer this.

Rising to the challenge of a technical change initiative ................................................22

Kay Callaghan, Communications and Engagement Manager at Network Rail, was tasked with the challenge of communicating a technical change programme to the Network Rail team.

Your first 100 days in a new comms role ......................................................... 26

When promoted to a bigger role, you need a big plan to go with it. Leading internal communication agency Gatehouse walks you through your first 100 days.

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CONTENTS

CASE STUDIES

Restoring pride at News UK .................... 30

Duncan White, Internal Communicator at News International, explains how important it is for CSR initiatives to reflect your organisation’s mission.

Driving for Excellence at IFDS ................36

Find out how Steve Hargreaves, Senior Internal Communications Manager at International Financial Data Services, took employees from awareness to advocacy through a two-year communication campaign.

EY: a new global headquarters, a new working environment ...................................42

Jenny Moss, Business Enablement Communications Leader at EY, explains how she used an office relocation change programme to inspire and engage a workforce of over 900.

Partnering with Home Nations Common wealth Games teams is proving a great employee engagement tool ....................48

Gina Galbraith, CGI’s UK Communications Director, shares the innovative way CGI is building engagement through national pride.

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Headteacher Dr David Parry explains how research and branding are supporting the school’s development and helping make students and parents ambassadors of the institution.

ourbrand ofeducation

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 AUDIT & RESEARCH

The Coopers’ Company and Coborn is a large and renowned state-funded

school. With a history going back to 1532 and excellent exam results, we have a reputation for providing outstanding education as well as a rich extra-curricular programme. This obviously means that we are very successful in attracting students.

In this context, it would be easy to think that there is no crucial need for us to improve our branding and communications. However, I believe that the British education system is changing fast and that in the future, state-funded schools will increasingly need to develop strong brands and seek sponsorships.

With this in mind, I commissioned Gatehouse to run an audit to understand how our most important stakeholders, starting with parents, perceived us as an institution.

Brand development

The audit started with a quantitative survey distributed to parents. Results

“...our story goes back to the time of Henry VIII – when Nicholas Gibson, a grocer and philanthropist, wanted to provide education for London children. The survey told us that we should be emphasising this more in our communications.”

were very positive and showed that our reputation and quality of teaching were by far the primary reasons people wanted their child to attend the school. Pride in the school was also very high, with an impressive 82% of respondents saying they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ proud of it.

However, the research also indicated that few parents were aware of the heritage of the school. Being a long established institution, we assumed that people knew our genesis and history. I believe it’s very inspirational to know that our story goes back to the time of Henry VIII – when Nicholas Gibson,

a grocer and philanthropist, wanted to provide education for London children. The survey told us that we should be emphasising this more in our communications.

We’ve made a strategic decision to refer to our school motto ‘Love as Brethren’ more consistently. We use it in our communications with students, including in assemblies on British values, which we have to deliver as part of the anti-radicalisation agenda. It’s a powerful shorthand and provides effective guidance rather than overwhelming students with hundreds of rules. We’ve made it the true essence of the school.

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Sponsorship and looking ahead

While we have always had local sponsors, I believe that in the future we will need to develop much stronger relationships with the academic and corporate world.

We are hoping to become a centre of STEM [Science, Technology, English and Maths] excellence, and want to establish partnerships with large companies, such as Ford, for our students who are considering a career in engineering.

Five years ago, branding was alien to the education industry. But it’s a new era and more state-funded schools will have to think in those terms. We have recently appointed a School Business Manager who is responsible for driving our brand, marketing and positioning. Obviously some staff are not comfortable with this shift and believe that schools are not businesses and that we should not be concerned with branding. Deep down, they accept that we have to do it but it’s not in their professional DNA. My role is to convince everyone that the brand

“Five years ago, branding was alien to the education industry. But it’s a new era and more state-funded schools will have to think in those terms.”

plays a critical part in attracting students and sponsorships, thus generating incomes – and that we should all be acting as ambassadors of our school.

Improving communication

The research also indicated practical ways of improving communications with parents. A lot of our communications were paper-based, which wasn’t appropriate for many of them as paper documents often get lost. Our website was quite outdated and difficult to navigate, and needed a complete

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CHAPTER

Biography: Dr David Parry

Dr David Parry has been Headteacher at The Cooper’s Company and Coborn School for two and a half

years. He has been teaching for 37 years, ten of these in the independent sector in the 1980s. Seeing the financial threat to schools with the reduction in Government funding, he realised that he needed to develop a greater business acumen and he enrolled on an MBA at the UCL.

overhaul. We invested in a brand new website and in monthly and termly email newsletters. Those channels now offer a much more holistic view of the activities of the school. As a consequence, our communications are much more consistent and give a sense that we’re all operating together.

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Jade Eva is one of the Employee Communications and Engagement Business Partners at Transport for London. She explains how a communications audit informed a new engagement strategy with train operators.

engagingtrain operatorsat Transportfor London

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 AUDIT & RESEARCH

My main focus is our Train Operations division, which includes some of the

most ‘hard to reach’ people in our business: train operators (tube drivers). The nature of their job means it’s incredibly hard to communicate effectively with them. There are very limited opportunities to take them off their duties for team meetings, as this could have an impact on the service, and the main contact with managers is limited to a five minute booking-on time at the beginning of their shift.

In spite of the fact that train operators have relatively little face time with colleagues, they tend to identify strongly with their depot and the line they are allocated to. As a result, we tend to rely heavily on depot-based channels (such as notice boards, LCD screens, posters and pigeon holes) and on our popular organisation-wide magazine On The Move, which is sent to their home address.

Communication challenges

I believe that all organisations should take a moment to review how effective

their communications are. Even if it’s as simple as looking at what challenges your business throws at you as communicators and seeing how you can work around this to make sure your people are getting what they need. Given the operational dependency on the train operator role, effective communications is business-critical for us, especially considering that this is a heavily unionised environment, so it was important to address our communications challenges.

Like most organisations, we have typical communications challenges: lack of

“We spoke to over a thousand train operators to discover the issues they were faced with.”

face-to-face opportunities and not being able to have an effective, measurable two-way dialogue with offline audiences. So to understand what we could do about these in greater detail from our people, we started holding local workshops so train operators would have a chance to air their views. We spoke to over a thousand train operators to discover the issues they were faced with. When we found out how important communication and engagement was to this group of people, this gave us the impetus to commission an audit with Gatehouse. We delved into the detail of how we can improve our internal communication approach and get hard data to build business cases to support further action. The audit methodology covered one-to-one interviews with managers, a survey and some face-to-face workshops.

Audit findings

The audit showed that depot managers were very aware of their responsibilities as communicators, but were struggling to find the time to communicate

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effectively. Skills were also identified as a potential issue. The duty managers (who report to the depot managers and manage the booking process with train operators on a daily basis) felt that some sort of communications training was needed.

As we suspected, duty managers came up as the most trusted audience for train operators and there was also a desire to see more of senior leaders. On the latter point, we already knew this as it’s

“Surprisingly, train operators were open to using personal devices to receive work-related information.”

extremely difficult given the nature of our leaders’ jobs. Even if they get on the train with 10 train operators every week for a chat, they can’t scratch the surface because of the sheer scale of the operation. As a result, we started to think of alternative routes to the train operator audience for our leaders.

As for the channels, train operators stated they relied on some core channels (noticeboards and digital screens) and told us there was room

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 AUDIT & RESEARCH

Biography: Jade Eva

Jade Eva is Employee Communications and Engagement Business Partner for Transport for London (TfL). She currently heads up the team responsible for communications to train operations. Prior to TfL, she’s had a number of internal communication roles in both the private and public sector. She was named in the IOIC’s 2014/15 30 under 30 list and has won and been nominated for multiple awards, including three CIPR awards (including team of the year) and two IOIC awards. Follow her on twitter @minicomms.

for improvement and, surprisingly, they were open to using personal devices to receive work-related information. There were some strong positives too – our internal magazine got fantastic feedback.

Looking to the future

After reviewing the outputs of the audit, the research has helped with the business case for developing a staff website accessible from any device; potentially using an opt-in, opt-out personal device approach. We want to create strong, locally focused content that drives staff to the website, as well as using it as a platform to promote the visibility of our

senior leaders. This is in the very early stages, but the data from the audit helped us get the idea off the ground and get the right people excited about it.

The level of trust in duty managers, as well as their appetite for more guidance around how to communicate with train operators, has also led us to design a training programme to help them understand what is expected of them as communicators. The aim is to equip them with the skills and tools to engage with train operators on a day-to-day basis.

For me, the key benefit of the audit was to provide strong evidence of what

needed to change and solid data to back it up. As communications experts, we can usually see where the gaps are and what needs to be done within a few days of arriving in an organisation, but as much as we may like to - you can’t build business cases on gut feel. Not ones that get signed off anyway…

As for the future, my aim is to ensure any new channels we introduce are measurable and to make sure we keep checking that everything we do is aligned to our business needs. I don’t want to settle for half with how we communicate – it’s important to me that we keep getting better and better.

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Now in its eighth year, State of the Sector is an annual industry–wide census that aims to investigate the challenges internal communicators are facing – and where their focus will be over the next 12 months.

This year’s report has a real global feel and has uncovered some fascinating facts about the state of internal communication.

Here’s a preview of the findings:

Stateof theSectorInternal Communication &Employee Engagement

Responses from over seventy countries around the world

70 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

300MORE THAN

ORGANISATIONS REPRESENTED30

OVERINDUSTRIESREPRESENTED

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Over two thirds of respondents think leaders understand the value they add to the organisation

list poor line manager comms skills as their biggest blocker

communicators responded

say reaching remote employees is a barrier to success

think their internal social channels don’t have a clear purpose

Less than half say social channels are managed by the IC function

admit they are not measuring the impact of their activities

say leaders in their organisations view the IC team as trusted advisors

2/3372

40%

44%

76%

1 in 10

Over half

Download the full report at www.gatehouse.co.uk/sos2016

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10tipsfor effectiveline manager communication

Gatehouse’s Chris Atkinson doesn’t pull any punches with this call to action for line managers.

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

When it comes to communication most line managers are quite lazy!

Most line managers simply reply on e-mails, meetings or notice boards to ensure their team have the information they need. Worse still, others assume if their team have any concerns or questions they will ask for the information they need. Ultimately most organisations have little or no awareness of just how costly this issue is.

I’m always reminded of:

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

- George Bernard Shaw

We know engagement is a critical topic for organisational performance.

Aon Hewitt publishes an annual report called Trends in Global Engagement. It includes a massive 6.7 million employees and represents more than 2,900 organisations. They found organisations with high levels of engagement “outperform the

average company on revenue growth (6 percentage points), operating margin (4 percentage points) and total shareholder return (6 percentage points).” Conversely, “bottom quartile engagement companies perform worse than average on all financial indicators”.

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issues. This is a huge mistake, you must start to put employee communications above other seemingly more pressing demands. Blocking time in your diary is for many managers the only way this happens.

2. Take time – It’s not enough to make the time in our diaries if we feel rushed or hurried when we speak with people. Communication isn’t like a manufacturing process where you look to constantly speed up performance and efficiency. Good communication isn’t always efficient because it has such a strong emotional component. Have the patience to take the time it needs.

3. Face-to-face wins, every time – There is no debate or contest when it comes to line manager communication.

Every time you send an e-mail instead of talking to someone, you are choosing to diminish your relationship in order to feel like you are being efficient. In the long run, you are being far from efficient.

4. Communicate more than metrics – Look at most of the communications you deliver. This includes e-mails, meeting agendas, phone calls etc. I would almost guarantee that 80% or more is exclusively about targets, reports, KPIs or organisational measures. Of course these things are important, but actually they aren’t what really matters to people. Start focusing more of your communications on the experience of work that the team are having and the reasons why the work is important.

So what drives employee engagement?

Factors such as opportunities for growth, freedom, organisational culture and organisational reputation all play a part, but one factor is more influential than the others – the relationship the employee has with their line manager.

This is why line manager communication is much more than a ‘soft’ issue. It has a direct and profound impact on the productivity, engagement and performance of your workforce.

Here are my top 10 tips for line manager communication:

1. Make time – In a fast-paced world, communication often gets prioritised a long way below other commercial

“Line manager communication is much more than a ‘soft’ issue. It has a direct and profound impact on the productivity, engagement and performance of your workforce.”

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

5. Have unusual meetings – All teams get meeting fatigue from having the same meeting with the same topics over and over again. Start to shake things up, run meetings in different locations, perhaps run meetings without slides or run a meeting with a totally radical agenda which is far from the norm.

6. Show (positive) emotions – We are seemingly sanitising organisational communications such that content is delivered through technology with no evidence of feeling. You may see occasional outbursts of anger or frustration in your organisation but when was the last time you saw a line manager speak with genuine passion or enthusiasm? When was the last time you felt inspired listening to a colleague?

7. Know their vision – Your people are working every day for you and for the organisation. They have a destination or dream in mind. Unless you know what that dream is, you will stand little or no chance of motivating the person. So spend significant time listening to their vision for their future, ask questions,

Biography: Chris Atkinson

Chris Atkinson leads Gatehouse’s Elements of Engagement development programme for

line managers and leaders. He travels extensively worldwide specialising in engagement, organisational culture and inspiring leadership. Over the last 14 years, Chris has worked in more than 20 countries with 43 different nationalities.

show interest, and encourage them to describe what they hope for in the future. This is not a five minute chat; this is a deep, personal and powerful conversation that will build trust.

8. Communicate the roadmap – Most likely, their aspirations extend beyond their current role or even your team. Once you’ve found out their vision, make sure you communicate how the work they are doing can be a vehicle to take them towards their ambition. The closer the link between their activities and their future, the stronger their motivation will be!

9. Play to strengths – Here is a simple observation: people enjoy spending time doing things they are good at. We often see people volunteering for tasks or roles that give no additional financial reward, why? Because it’s fun, they enjoy it and that’s satisfying for people. If a person isn’t naturally picking up a particular skill, stop giving them that task, find alternatives for them until you see them flourish.

10. Give personal recognition – In this context, the word ‘personal’ doesn’t just mean giving it personally (i.e. face-to-face) it also means giving recognition about the person as an individual. You need to understand that saying ‘thank you’ isn’t giving recognition, it’s just common courtesy. The power of recognition is telling someone that you recognise a personal quality or talent that they have, something that is uniquely them which you value.

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Dominic Walters discusses the value that strategic communication can bring to change programmes – and why it should be part of the planning process from the start.

thevalueof strategic communication

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

Over the past decade I have been involved in a number of large change

programmes – primarily focused around IT and digital transformation. What continues to surprise me is how the value of strategic communications, and the role it could have in helping to shape a change programme from the outset, is still not fully understood or utilised.

Don’t get me wrong – most programmes will have a communication role on the team, but quite often this individual is either brought in late in the game, after many key delivery or engagement decisions have been made, or have a very tactical, as opposed to strategic, role. It is not uncommon to find the communication individual tasked with organising programme team meetings, taking minutes, distributing agendas, co-ordinating diaries – all critical for a successful project but not necessarily what many, in our profession, would consider key communication activities.

I was once asked to review the engagement strategy for a large technology programme that was failing

to achieve the anticipated conversion rates with end-users who were simply not engaging. The first thing I found was the communications manager devoting nearly 75% of their time to managing and coordinating the Project Management Office (PMO) communications, as opposed to focusing on end-user communications. The next issue was that the communications themselves were inconsistent and lacked any programme theme whilst also being virtually incomprehensible to a non-technical end user. The communications manager explained that they had been recruited after the first phase of materials had been produced by one of the IT

consultants and had been raising this issue for some time. As it turned out, they reported to the IT consultant and were far too junior to have their voice heard.

I would argue that, in the case of large-scale employee engagement programmes, or where an organisation’s reputation may be at risk, it is critical that an experienced communications specialist joins the leadership team in helping to shape the right strategy for delivery from the outset. Why? Because the right individuals will have experience of mass engagement across complex organisations and know how to shape a compelling story that is

“What continues to surprise me is how the value of strategic communications, and the role it could have in helping to shape a change programme from the outset, is still not fully understood or utilised.”

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powerful enough to underpin a large transformation programme through the good and bad. In addition, this individual will be able to create a brand around the programme and then, crucially, shape the RIGHT communication strategy for that particular audience.

Another important reason for communications to be involved from the outset is that they will try and look at it from the end users perspective. They will ask tough questions and challenge the programme team’s approach because they are looking at it from a stakeholders’ point of view. Why is it important to the organisation? Why should people engage with it? How have change programmes been managed historically, and what has been their impact on people? They feel more empathy with end users – and are able to consider what makes the DNA of each organisation.

I remember working on a major IT transformation upgrade impacting over 15,000 manufacturing employees who needed to carry out a series of actions as part of the upgrade and where

failure would have resulted in business downtime. With an investment in excess of £50m and an estimated daily £1m cost to the business if it failed, this was a business critical programme. The right level and type of staff engagement was crucial and when I joined the programme, the original plan I was handed was to send out instructions via email a few weeks before they needed to take action. As most communications and functional leads know, getting an email read is hard at the best of times, but even harder when asking employees to do something they don’t want to.

Fortunately, I managed to persuade the steering board to change the approach and instead we created a programme brand that underpinned our strategy, as well as helping to provide a theme

“Leaders need to live and breathe the change you want...”

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

and tone of voice for all ongoing communications. The brand was not only an image, it became the programme’s story, helping to bring it to life and create a 30 second elevator pitch for the delivery team to use across the entire organisation. It was also used to galvanise an army of change champions giving them a fun and engaging set of materials to use when trying to engage colleagues. A series of amusing campaigns telling the story in a light-hearted manner warmed employees up and got them engaged, paving the way for the drier and less exciting information. The result was an exceptionally high conversion rate, little to no recorded downtime across the business and a delivery team that had a brand to hang all their future communications off.

This may be one example, but it shows how shaping a strong story at the beginning can have a powerful impact to the whole programme and its various deliverables. If you don’t, you can end up losing time and money and ironically, more often than not, this money will be spent on more communications and engagement.

Shaping the story also helps to get the leadership team on board and aligned. Leaders need to live and breathe the change you want to implement, in order to be in a position to “take it to market” and demonstrate to the rest of the business that this is important and relevant.

By bringing in the right strategic communications experience at a very early stage, you can make sure that the fundamentals are covered. This starts with defining the rationale for change and developing a consistent story that explains to stakeholders

Biography: Dominic Walters

Dominic Walters is a communication, engagement and change professional with over 18 years of experience in agency, management consultancy and FTSE 100 organisations. Dominic has worked across the range of disciplines and channels including employee, digital, media, brand and change communication, which enables him to have a truly integrated approach when defining communication strategies. Contact him at [email protected]

what it will mean to them and why they should engage with it. It can lead to the creation of the right brand and image for the organisation and its employees, which then may well impact how the change team will tactically deliver. And, of equal importance, you are bringing on board an experienced individual who can constructively challenge the programme plan on behalf of end-users. Above all, and most importantly, you are more likely going to reduce the risk of confused stakeholders, poor engagement and a negative programme reputation that will result in delays and rising costs.

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Communications and Engagement Manager Kay Callaghan discusses the challenges of communicating a technical change programme at Network Rail.

risingtothe challengeof atechnical changeinitiative

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

Network Rail is responsible for the UK’s railway network. We run,

maintain and develop Britain’s rail tracks, signalling, bridges, tunnels, level crossings and many key stations. Internal communications are complex because of our geographically dispersed employee base of 35,000 people across the country.

We’ve launched a change programme called Business Critical Rules to help us better manage our risks. The programme is reviewing all our standards, processes, systems, and procedures. Our current standards have evolved over 150 years, based mainly on learning from incidents and issues. This has led to some inconsistencies and, most importantly, our standards don’t fully address today’s risks. The programme is meant to predict and better manage key risks in three areas: safety, performance and reputation. It enables those closest to the business to make risk-assessed changes to activities like maintenance regimes. Ultimately, our goal is to embed a structured way of continuously improving.

When I joined, I was faced with a series of challenges. First, the programme had just been restarted after a pause – just a few months after its initial launch, which caused some credibility issues. Second, I didn’t feel that the comms that had been developed previously spoke to our audience. Third, the programme was incredibly complex and it’s been a significant learning curve to get up to speed with its technicalities!

Banishing jargon

The first thing was to try to translate incredibly complex messages into a simpler narrative that would resonate with our internal audiences. Most of the team had been involved in the programme from the beginning and were naturally very technical. This

‘technical’ aspect is what they built the credibility of the programme on, so it can be incredibly hard to convince people that messages need to be simplified.

I inherited an 80 page induction deck and it took a lot of convincing to strip all the irrelevant messages. Frontline people don’t need to understand all the technical details nor the mechanics behind the scenes of how we put the programme together. They want to know why we are doing this – in very simple terms – and how the programme is going to affect them. It took a lot of time and energy to convince people that communications didn’t need such large amounts of detail and diagrams.

I created an elevator pitch, sitting down with the team and trying to articulate

“The first thing was to try to translate incredibly complex messages into a simpler narrative that would resonate with our internal audiences.”

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the positive impact of the programme on the business – the benefits it was going to bring to individual teams on the front line and to other stakeholders. My personal objective was to provide some context around the programme, to set the scene and pull out key points in an easy to understand way.

Next, I created a series of simple but more visual deliverables, starting with a two-minute animation that goes through different elements of the programme in a way that anyone can understand. It’s cartoony and uses images and situations that resonate with people. I’ve also created a set of infographics that show the situation before and after, highlighting how time and money have been saved through making local changes (they won’t win any design awards but they explain the benefits clearly and didn’t cost me anything!).

Tailoring the messages

I came up with a strategy and I managed to get people to sign up to a few basic principles: we would not

‘bombard’ the whole business simply because it’s an important programme – it’ll affect everyone eventually, but, as communicators, we know that messages don’t sink in until they’re actually relevant. So my strategy was to run a light general awareness campaign on our corporate channels, and target our detailed comms to those affected, telling them what they needed to know when they needed to know it.

Getting our Chief Executive on board was key. He’s very focused on continuous improvement so for him, Business Critical Rules are a no-brainer and he’s been a positive advocate, talking to frontline people to hear how they make a difference.

The programme will continue its roll-out over the next three years. Different parts of the railway will be affected but in the short term, our focus has been on the track area. We’ve developed tailored comms for this specific population that have been released via face-to-face briefings (sometimes at night!), e-updates and Yammer.

“Our job as internal communicators is to make change real for people and put our audience at the centre of our message.”

The one thing that working on this programme has reinforced is that we should never forget that our job as internal communicators is to make change real for people and put our audience at the centre of our message. It can be really hard – there’s often a degree of politics and a perceived need for ‘vanity publishing’. But it’s our job to push back and remember that our audience is the success of the programme – not the boss!

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Biography: Kay Callaghan

Kay Callaghan, like many of us, fell into internal communications by accident over 20 years ago. She held a variety of comms and marketing jobs at the Office for National Statistics, before becoming Head of Internal Communication & Engagement at The Royal British Legion. Having supported major change programmes in both organisations, she’s now helping implement a once in a generation change to 35,000 people on the railway.

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When you’re promoted to a bigger role, you need a big plan to go with it. In this article – a summary of a new guide from Gatehouse – we outline our top tips for getting off to a good start.

yourfirst100 daysinanew commsrole

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

So you’ve just been appointed to a new role as internal comms lead –

a plum job in a big name corporate and a step up from your previous mid-level position.

It’s day one and expectations are high – not least from the CEO, who fought the rest of the board to elevate the role and salary to a level to attract the very best. No pressure then! Looking forward to new challenges and a plush corner office suite, your attention turns to your start up to do list.

Here’s our ten killer tips to get you off on the right track:

1. Get started before you get started! – First, don’t neglect the last 100 days in your current role. Reputations are hard to build and quick to destroy – so remember that how you leave is every bit as important as how you arrive.

Your preparation should begin the moment you’ve accepted the new role. Try to immerse yourself in your new company’s world before you get

through the door. Consider what’s likely to be on the CEO’s agenda. What’s the competition like?

2. Understand the business – Your starting point should be the business’s vision, mission and strategy. As a strategic internal communicator your role exists for one reason – to help the organisation achieve its goals. Where is the business heading over the next five years? What are the likely impacts on employees? What new products or services are in the pipeline?

These are the sort of big picture questions you’ll need to answer during the early months – and by seeking the answers you’ll help position yourself as a strategically focused communicator from the outset.

3. Clarify your remit – During the first few weeks, clarify your role and remit. Job descriptions and recruitment ads don’t always capture the essence of a role – particularly what it’ll be like on a day-to-day basis, so establish that quickly.

Spend time exploring this with your line manager and senior stakeholders – what do they think the focus of the role should be and what are their expectations of you? What does success looks like?

4. Identify the players – You’ll be able to assess fairly quickly who will readily support you and who will take time to win over. There are a number of key relationships for any senior internal communicator – from the CEO and top team, to change programme leads and

“Try to immerse yourself in your new company’s world before you get through the door.”

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functional heads. Ask them about their past experiences of internal comms – what went well and what went badly – but always resist the temptation to criticise your predecessor. And whatever you do don’t forget to include the CEO’s PA in your list of VIPs!

5. Sit up and listen – You shouldn’t do anything until you have a good understanding of the organisation and the audience. No IC pro worth their salt will spend their first few months at their desk, so get out and meet people. Talk to frontline people, be visible in the canteen and set up some informal discussion groups.

As you conduct your road trip, tune into the organisation – what’s the word on the street? What are the rumours across the business? What language and jargon is most commonly used?

Listening is probably the single most important skill you can demonstrate during your first 100 days.

6. Deliver some quick wins – You’ve got a reputation to build quickly, so it’ll be vital to deliver some quick wins. Think about this during your first few weeks:

► Where are the opportunities to roll up your sleeves, get stuck in and make a visible difference?

► Balance the need to be strategic, with the requirement to get things done. Don’t spend so much time planning that you fail to deliver results.

► However, don’t fall into the trap of responding to everything that lands lands on your desk, or you’ll get lost in a swamp of tactics.

7. Don’t change everything overnight – As an experienced practitioner you’ll already have clear views on what’s good and what’s not so good. But avoid making too much change too quickly. An ‘out with the old’ mentality can be dangerous and organisations have long memories.

Take your time and pick your battles. Resist whole scale change during the first 100 days.

8. Commission an audit – One of the single most insightful things you can do towards the end of your first 100 days is commission an agency like Gatehouse to undertake a comprehensive internal communications audit.

You shouldn’t do it too early – you need to know what questions to ask and

“Listening is probably the single most important skill you can demonstrate.”

“Take your time and pick your battles.”

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 OPINIONS

where to focus the research. But done well, an audit will give you a robust and scientifically sound assessment of the current state – showing what works, what doesn’t and where the gaps and priorities are.

9. Review your capability – Alongside an audit, you might want to assess your team’s capability and broader resources. Think about what you might need over the next 2-3 years to deliver against your aspirations.

Do you need trusted advisors? Do you need content specialists? IC is often fairly lean, so you’ll need to think creatively to identify and build the capability to deliver your plans. And finally, get a handle on what budget you might have at your disposal.

10. Invest in yourself – While trying to prove yourself to others, don’t lose sight of your own needs. Make time to relax – and remember ‘sleeping on it’ is often the key to unlocking outstanding creativity.

Think about your own development too. If you’ve moved into a new sector or expanded your remit, then you might well need some focused training or coaching support.

“Your first 100 days are an amazing and scary time – a time of discovery, a time when you’re in the spotlight, a time when reputations are built...”

100DAYS

Download the full guide at: www.internal-communication.com/100days

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Duncan White explains how News UK has leveraged The News Academy to build internal pride and external reputation – and why it is critical for CSR initiatives to reflect your organisation’s mission.

restoringprideat atNewsUK

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These days, it is a short-sighted company that doesn’t invest in CSR.

They may rename it, dress it up or sell it as something less corporate – but whatever you choose to call it, most leaders recognise that doing good is good business.

The issue that is less understood, is the tremendous value you can unleash by building your CSR programme on the core mission of the company.

Following a few years of inner-city tree planting and mentoring projects, in January 2014 we launched an initiative called the News Academy – a programme that is wholly designed to invest in the future of journalism.

Here at News UK, we believe in building a sustainable future for professional journalism so it makes sense for us to invest in where the next generation is coming from.

“The issue that is less understood, is the tremendous value you can unleash by building your CSR programme on the core mission of the company.”

We publish The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, so we know a little about how the news industry works, the current challenges – but also the passion we feel for our work. We believe that the stories we tell matter; we hold the powerful to account and we deliver the right content in the right way for our customers.

Our goal, with News Academy, is to reach those who would not necessarily

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CASE STUDIES

get a chance to pursue a career in journalism and show them that it is one of the most rewarding careers.

We have been able to use the expertise and passion of our staff to make the Academy a real success. We don’t need to convince them of the value of the programme – they have been living and breathing it every day since starting their careers.

Inspiring aspiring journalists

Our News Academy targets 16 to 18 year olds. We’re always on the look out for the next superstar, but our primary goal is not just to recruit young talent. Instead, the programme enables us to work with local communities and contribute towards a new generation of journalists – who share our values – curiosity, credibility, a fair mindset and an ability to challenge the status quo.

Most importantly, the programme gives our journalists a chance to share their passion and connect with the next generation.

There are four components to the News Academy:

1. National conferences – Once a month on average we partner with a local school in a major city – Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, Manchester, Cardiff or London – and hold a half-day conference. We highlight what it is like to work in the industry, giving young people hands-on career experience

“Here at News UK, we believe in building a sustainable future for professional journalism so it makes sense for us to invest in where the next generation is coming from.”

from industry professionals. Local media and politicians are invited to share their perspective on the media coverage of politics. After the presentations, students take part in ‘speed dating’ with journalists and discuss specific disciplines such as foreign, sports, or fashion in small groups. We finish with a mock press conference where participants get 15 minutes to grill an actor and write a news story. They are also tested on what they learned throughout the day. Around 200 schools have attended so far.

2. Visits – Our journalists and staff take part in visits to their old school or college to talk about the News Academy and speak directly with young people about the opportunities available to them.

3. Competitions – We run online competitions twice a month on our website www.academy.news.co.uk. Participants submit a short article on topical issues such as the refugee crisis or the rise (and hopefully fall) of Donald Trump. Entrants have their work judged by a journalist and published online.

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4. Summer school – This is the jewel in the News Academy crown, where 20 young people are selected to spend a week with our journalists, creating their own newspaper, learning key disciplines such as interviewing, investigative journalism and sports writing – all led by world-class journalists from our three titles.

Staff are the real champions

As with any company initiative, senior staff advocates are crucial. Guto Harri, News UK Comms Director was instrumental in driving the Academy forward, along with backing from Group HR Director Derrick Crowley.

This support empowered staff to make use of their allocated four days each year to invest in the News Academy and around 400 colleagues have been involved so far.

One of the key benefits of the programme is that our journalists get the chance to pass on their knowledge and talk about something they passionately

“One of the key benefits of the programme is that our journalists get the chance to pass on their knowledge and talk about something they passionately believe in.”

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Biography: Duncan White

Duncan joined the Internal Comms team at News International in July 2010. Eighteen months later, having navigated a phone-hacking crisis, he took over the department and introduced a raft of programmes that put staff at the centre. The News Academy was one of the programmes that flourished and he was subsequently appointed Director in October 2013. He sneaked

into PR Week’s 30 under 30 list in June of this year and when not in the office is likely to be found commuting from Cambridge, travelling or pretending to know about wine at a restaurant.

believe in. It is a powerful way to get our employees behind our mission as a company – making sure that professional journalism has a successful future.

Working with young people challenges us to think about what makes great journalism. The students are able to ask questions from the most basic issues, to the more complex such as a free press and the power of the media. It takes our journalists back to the fundamentals of why they chose this industry in the first place. Engaging with the next generation also allows our journalists to learn how ‘post-millennial’ readers consume news and what interests them.

It’s really encouraging to see how the programme has been received both internally and externally. I firmly believe that one of the reasons the programme has been so successful is because it aligns to our mission and purpose as a company. It is a great way for us to convey our vision in an honest and practical way and it helps employees build trust with the company.

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Steve Hargreaves took employees on a journey from awareness to advocacy through a two-year communication campaign around a key company value.

drivingfor excellenceat IFDS

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International Financial Data Services (IFDS) provides back-office services for

investment management and financial services companies. Since its creation in 1995, the company has grown from 70 UK-based employees to over 5,000 across the world. Around two years ago, we decided to create some energy and connection with our company values: integrity, innovation, partnership and excellence. We wanted to make sure that they were meaningful to everyone and could be put into practice every day, not just appear on the wall.

From the beginning, it was clear that the backing of senior leaders from across all regions and departments would be critical. Too many large cultural changes can become silo’d before they have even started and simply fail to deliver results. We therefore established a well-represented steering committee, with Board member sponsorship, to develop core messaging and behavioural principles for all stakeholders.

We then started with promotional activity in the offices and introductory

communication to all colleagues, asking people to provide definitions about what the values meant to them. We played this back to them through word clouds and other means, but very quickly, we were faced with the challenge of how to move from raising awareness to building in-depth understanding amongst employees and embedding these values into their day-to-day behaviours. We decided to put our focus on the value of excellence.

“We Dare You” campaign Our engagement activity commenced with the “We Dare You” campaign. We encouraged people to visit an intranet page that generated random ‘dares’ –

“Too many large cultural changes can become silo’d before they have even started and simply fail to deliver results.”

such as nominating someone for an excellence award or coming up with a new process. The objective was to take excellence to a granular level by encouraging teams and individuals to act on our key principles of excellence on a daily basis.

We made a discussion booklet available to our people managers. Instead of telling them what to do, we asked them to request the resources that were available to use in their teams. Over 300 managers asked for copies of our discussion booklet, which was more than we expected, it showed a real desire to follow up on the dares that had been recently published. The booklet gave

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people were acting on it. We launched a storytelling competition to try and capture these stories and showcase them across the business. Around 100 people submitted a story online, with the incentive of winning a Red Letter Day, which linked it all back to the organisation’s mission statement about building great experiences. We reviewed the stories and selected the very best ones, some of which we turned into a video diary interview to share at our annual leadership event. Whilst it was still a talking heads video, we wanted to show these people as

them a prompt to engage with their team. “What dare did you get? What did you think of it? Is there anything we can recognise or celebrate?”

Our internal communication surveys always tell us that face-to-face is the most effective way of engaging our staff and this initiative was a great way to leverage this channel.

Storytelling competition

Feedback from the ‘We Dare You’ campaign showed evidence that

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“What’s great about storytelling is that it shows different perspectives.”

mentality at work. When I come into work, I want to be the very best.” He goes on giving examples of when he’d been making improvements in some of the processes in his team. What is great about his video is that it shows that excellence is a mindset and an attitude.

Thank you trees

Our most recent initiative is the Thank You campaign. There are a number of ingredients to a culture of excellence. One of them is around accuracy – delivering to regulatory standards and getting things right first time and on time. Another one is to recognise and learn from excellence – so we’re continuing to launch activities and communication ideas that help to encourage the behaviours which underpin a culture of excellence.

Launched in September 2015, the Thank You initiative gave everyone the opportunity to appreciate their colleagues’ effort by giving them a personalised thank you card. It’s not that we don’t show gratitude already,

whom they are individually, so we filmed our storytellers in their own environment, outside of the workplace.

What’s great about storytelling is that it shows different perspectives. One of the videos was from an employee who represented Great Britain in a sport called Tchoukball. He explains what the sport is and then says, “You drive for excellence in your hobbies and your sports. You want to be number 1 in the sporting competitions that you take part in. What’s different when you’re in the workplace? I apply the same

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Biography: Steve Hargreaves

Steve Hargreaves is Senior Internal Communications Manager at International Financial Data Services. As manager of internal communications, Steve plays an important role in helping employees to live the company values and guiding behaviours that support its mission. He creates and coordinates communication plans to support strategic

initiatives and strives to ensure that all employees are engaged in the workplace and in their roles.

Steve has worked in the financial sector since 2004, taking on communication and employee engagement roles. He studied business, IT and communications in the North West and has a BA Joint Honours degree from the University of Manchester.

To me, a significant achievement is that local teams have now started to own the initiative. A number of teams in our Basildon office have developed their own displays about how they are driving excellence. This has spurred on teams in other offices to do the same. I think it’s a great signal when local offices start to put their own stamp on it.

but now people can peg the thank you cards they receive on the six-foot trees that we have placed in every office location – for all to see. Trees are now starting to blossom with a whole array of thank you messages that have been shared throughout the business from employee to employee. It’s a wonderful way of showcasing that culture of excellence that we’re really proud of at IFDS.

I think the key to success so far has been long-term planning. As a communication professional, it can be tempting to focus on a singular campaign, but they can then be difficult to sustain and you can usually expect a dip in people’s engagement with such initiatives. Having a minimum 12 month plan for your communication and engagement activities really helps taking people on a journey with you. Over the past couple of years we always knew that we were trying to move from initial awareness, to creating some discussions and understanding around the values and then showcasing personal stories to celebrate success.

“I think the key to success so far has been long-term planning.”

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Are your internal comms hitting the spot?

Research is a critical part of the internal communication mix. Without it you can’t demonstrate your value to senior leaders, build a robust strategy or know whether your channels or messages are really making a difference.

Over the past decade Gatehouse has conducted internal communication audits for some of Europe’s biggest businesses– from Bupa to GSK; TfL to Virgin Media – as well as a host of public and third sector organisations.

The insights we deliver help our clients get a handle on their internal comms and drive through improvements.

Call us today on +44 (0) 20 7754 3630 or visit www.gatehouse.co.uk to find out more.

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Jenny Moss, Business Enablement Communications Leader at EY, explains how she set out to inform, engage and inspire a workforce of over 1000 people when moving to a new global headquarters in London.

EY:anewglobal headquarters,, anewworking environment

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EY is one of the biggest professional services organisations in the world.

We have over a thousand employees in our global headquarters alone. Many of our people were based at our Waterloo office for over thirty years. They had grown accustomed to the building, the working environment and in most cases, their desks.

Workplace of the future

The time had come for us to relocate to a new office next door to our UK&I headquarters in London Bridge. Many of our offices, including UK&I, were being transformed into Workplace of the Future (WOTF) offices. WOTF means a more flexible environment for our people. Moving offices presented an opportunity for us as the global headquarters was also moving to WOTF.

Our project team had just over a year to renovate the office and move EY’s London-based executive teams into the new working environment… as seamlessly as possible! The challenge was that the new office would be open

plan and our people would no longer have assigned desks. Instead, we would hot-desk, have a variety of areas for formal and informal meetings and open spaces for people to collaborate together.

This represented a big change to our current ways of working and we had to devise a communications approach that would help our people with that change.

Our communications approach

We needed a change in behaviours to ensure the new environment worked well for everyone. Therefore a big part

of our communications approach was change management. For effective change, a key principle is that you start at the top and involve every layer.

We set out to engage key people in the business using a number of face-to-face channels, including town halls. We informed leaders and stakeholders about the move, gaining buy-in, explaining the new behaviours, and how it linked back to our Vision 2020 strategy. We then asked them to hold meetings to cascade these messages to their teams. Our thinking here was that people are generally more receptive to change when their leaders champion it.

Our Executive Assistants were key in the engagement strategy. They really know the business and work closely with senior leaders and therefore have a lot of influence. We invited them to a series of informal lunches and meetings to keep them informed and gain buy-in to the new ways of working.

To help manage the move, we asked our leaders to nominate a Move Coordinator

“For effective change, a key principle is that you start at the top and involve every layer.”

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(MC) from each of their teams. Our MCs managed the logistics of the move and played a key role in translating key messages between the teams, answering questions and generally being the go-to person.

Our channels

We developed a SharePoint site for the move. It included a note from our global managing partner, images and positive feedback from other global WOTF offices. It had our key messages, a lot of Q&As, information about our new area and much more.

We wanted our people to get a feel for what life would be like in the new office. So we set up a show suite to showcase the new furniture, ordered coffee and cupcakes for everyone, and hosted a number of drop-in sessions. We had an IT expert on-hand to give a preview of our new technology. We were going to have port replicators to minimise cables at desks, intuitive room booking screens, super fast and confidential printing via a new system called PrintPlus and more.

As part of our change initiative, we also hosted a series of ‘get ready for the change’ sessions. Here, we delivered detailed information about the logistics of the move, covered our new ways of working, showcased the different spaces and new technology, and then asked our leaders to deliver these sessions to their teams.

As we approached the move we started sending out a series of weekly countdown emails. This was to help make the transition for our people as seamless as possible. It included detailed information to help them prepare for the move, and a checklist of actions. We also designed a welcome guide and sent this out the week before the move.

The new office

On day one, we welcomed people to the new office with a postcard that had the top five things they needed to know to help them get started. This included where to get a coffee – we knew it would be a popular question.

We also surprised them with a gift bag in their lockers! We gave everyone an EY-branded power bank that said ‘Welcome to 6 More London Place’ and lit up with the London skyline when in use. We also gave everyone EY-branded sweets and a food voucher for the restaurant next door at our UK&I headquarters to encourage people to explore the area.

“This personal touch was really important; we may have a high-tech office but we’re still a people organisation.”

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Biography: Jenny Moss

Jenny is the Communications Leader for Business Enablement at EY. She has worked with EY for 17 years,

including 15 years in communications. Since June 2014, she had led the global Business Enablement Communications team. She has a Bachelors degree in American Studies from Hull University and a post-graduate diploma in Internal Communications from Kingston University.

Overall, we received really positive feedback on our communications for the move. People felt informed and that all elements of the move had been well communicated. Most importantly, people were ready for the change! They were very positive and receptive to it and were thoroughly impressed with the new work environment. It was definitely one of our best moves yet!

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CHAPTERNeed a safe pair of hands while you search for the perfect person?

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But help is at hand.

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CGI is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Gina Galbraith, CGI’s UK Communications Director, shares her story on one of the elements they are using to continue to build the CGI brand internally in the UK.

partneringwithHome NationsCommonwealth Gamesteamsisproving agreatemployee engagementtool

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CASE STUDIES

CGI acquired the London listed Logica in 2013 and we had to take

our people on a journey to understand and live the values of the new CGI. For the Logica people, they were not Logica anymore and for the 400 CGI members based in the UK, they were now part of a much bigger, local team. In 2014, our UK President set us the challenge of finding an innovative way of further building awareness of the CGI brand internally and externally.

The idea

One of the activities we considered, mainly from an external brand awareness perspective, was to partner with three UK teams – England, Scotland and Wales – for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The values and ideals held by the teams around talent and commitment to excellence closely reflect our values, making CGI a natural partner for the teams and their outstanding athletes. The more we talked about it, the more we realised that this could actually be really powerful for our members and would support a number of our existing CSR, wellbeing and employee development initiatives. So rather than sponsoring the teams for external marketing purposes, we decided to approach it as an internal campaign to create a feel-good factor and inspire our people.

Working with the teams, it took us nearly a year to build our comprehensive Commonwealth Games Programme around a number of core “pillars” of

activity. We wanted to create a good spread of different initiatives ensuring we leveraged maximum benefit from our budget whilst appealing to the widest audience – after all not all of our people are budding athletes or even enjoy watching sport.

The partnerships

Through the partnerships, we get access to athletes, teams, tickets, events and coaches, which we use to create experiences that money can’t buy. We have our “Have a Go” sessions, where we take sport into the workplace (e.g. table tennis); supported by our wellbeing programme, Oxygen, we have developed an Inspiration Zone where we host Friday webinars run by leading sports nutritionists, psychologists

“The values and ideals held by the teams around talent and commitment to excellence closely reflect our values.”

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CASE STUDIES

and coaches. Later in the year, we’re planning a ‘Hero to Home’ competition for people to win the opportunity to have a sports coach come along to their local school. There’s a real wow factor in giving the school and the kids access to someone high profile.

We also have volunteering opportunities such as the youth games in Samoa, where two of our people spent their Saturday with Team Wales helping kids prepare. They were completely blown away with the experience and commented on how proud they are to

“We get to go on a journey with these athletes...”

be working for a company supporting the next generation of talent.

Finally, we’re running a ‘Race to the Games’ competition and ultimately, we’ll send one of our people to the Gold Coast for a trip of a lifetime during the Commonwealth Games in 2018.

As part of our programme, we’re also sponsoring nine SportsAid athletes and will have three elite athlete ambassadors. SportsAid is a charity that sponsors junior athletes with national level potential. We get to go

on a journey with these athletes and when you hear some of their stories and see what our SportsAid and ambassador athletes are doing, it’s hard not to be inspired, whether you like sport or not. This is what we’re seeing internally in response to what we’ve been doing.

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“It is possible to draw many parallels between what you do in a business environment and what these athletes aim to achieve...”

Sporting success vs. business success

It is possible to draw many parallels between what you do in a business environment and what these athletes aim to achieve on the sporting field and this is something we do a lot of at CGI. We have professional athletes and sports people come in and talk to our people about everything from training, health, lifestyle, psychology in sports, to the parallels between the sports and business environments. At the end of the day, we all have a desire to succeed.

The reality is that if you apply the principles of what it takes to be a successful athlete to a business environment: what makes a good team; preparation; goal setting; self-awareness; and a desire to win, the principles of success are the same.

This programme has become a ‘golden thread’ that’s joining up a lot of different activities. We’re able to connect different pieces together and translate

Biography: Gina Galbraith

Gina Galbraith is the UK Communications Director at CGI. Having worked in global communications roles for more than 15 years, she has extensive experience of mergers and acquisitions, senior executive change, strategy reviews, brand programmes, crisis communications and employee behavioural change.

these messages to our people through various channels like our health and wellness programme, our talent and leadership development programme and our Inspiration Zone webinars.

It underscores how – although people think these types of sponsorships are only for external marketing – actually, sometimes the best audience can be internal. Our people are now sharing the stories of our sponsorship externally with clients and their friends and families. They are building our brand better than any marketing campaign could do by actively sharing and demonstrating our brand values.

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THE JOURNAL OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION VOLUME 10 CHAPTER

Open a new chapter in internal comms, for free!Get inspired with real-life stories and expert advice. Learn the latest internal communication tactics direct from leaders inside the world’s most exciting companies.

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