Internal Communication with Louise Sturgess

Personal branding

Recently I’ve noticed a lot of articles and blog posts appearing on the subject of ‘personal branding’. The concept of ‘personal branding’ has been around since the late 1990’s, but now seems to be making something of a comeback. This could be due to a whole host of reasons but the increasingly tough job market has no doubt got a lot to do with it.

A while ago I attended an event organised by FreshIdeas, where one of the speakers was Margot Katz. Margot is an author, speaker & executive coach whose clients include Coca-Cola, Reuters and Standard Chartered Bank. She gave a presentation about personal branding and how gender should act as an enabler rather than a barrier to your personal brand. If you’re interested in learning more, then she has also written a book on the subject, ‘How to thrive in the new corporate jungle.’

At first, it may seem as if ‘personal branding’ is just about creating a whole lot of spin about yourself. But, as anyone in the world of branding knows, a successful and powerful brand is not just compelling but has to be true as well. In other words, if you’re just all talk and no action then you’ll quickly be found out and people will stop 'buying' you.

Whilst I think that the concept of personal branding is interesting, and that it may be a useful framework to use to think about personal development and career progression, I can’t help but be slightly put off by the terminology. Sometimes I feel that people are increasingly being ‘productised’ and terms like this just add to that.

Ultimately though I guess the idea of personal branding is just to be the best version of you that you can be. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

It's all part of agency life

I’ve decided that I might write a book and that the title might be something along the lines of ‘It’s all part of agency life.’ This was a line that was delivered to me by a boss of mine many years ago whenever things got tough – usually when we were all burning the midnight oil as a result of his complete lack of organisational skills….but I digress….A couple of very funny books have already been published about life on the agency side, such as ‘Who moved my blackberry?’ by Martin Lukes and ‘E’ by Matt Beaumont. If you haven’t read them and you’re in need of a few laughs, then I’d highly recommend them.

I haven’t given the book any more thought than what I’ve written here but I’m going to start writing down stories and anecdotes from my time on the agency side and see where I get to from there. I’ll keep you posted…. 

Riley proves it's not just for kids

Earlier this week, myself and Ken Frakes (our head of digital media here at Radley Yeldar) hosted the last in the series of our breakfast seminars ‘Integrating social media into your internal communication strategy.’ The event was well attended by companies including Virgin Atlantic, Thomson Reuters and Pearson and it was great to hear about what kind of things people are doing in this space. From what we heard, social media is definitely taking off across a whole host of different organisations, both large and small. One company was using a wiki to help them collaborate and share information better across their business. Another had implemented a discussion forum and was using the output to update the CEO about what was top of mind for people across the business. This knowledge was then used to help direct the CEO’s communication agenda.

At the end of our presentation we also took a look into the future to see what delights Web 3 might hold for internal communicators and I must say I think that some of it looks pretty scary. However, for any of you technophobes out there, there’s hope for us all. The world’s oldest blogger has just died at the ripe old age of 106. Her name was Olive Riley and if you’re interested you can take a look at her blog here. This means that the world’s oldest blogger is now 96 which just goes to prove that social media isn’t only the preserve of Generation Y or younger.

If you’d like to take a look at other upcoming events we’re holding, please take a look at the events section of our website.

Leading by example

Yesterday, Gordon Brown said that his ministers would have to go without any pay rise this year in order to set an example to the nation. Given the current economic situation the PM felt that a clear message needed to be sent out on public sector pay and the cabinet agreed. I think that Brown has made a very prudent decision, not just due to the economic climate but also due to his current levels of popularity.

Hearing this reminded me of the importance of leadership setting an example and of modelling desired behaviours. However, while senior management more often than not understand the importance of ‘leading by example’, not all of them actually do it. Or, it can be the case that they think they are, but when you talk to other people around the business, there is a big disconnect.

One of the most important roles of an internal communicator is to help identify if there are any gaps between perceptions and reality and to help support senior leaders in closing that gap. Leadership behaviour is arguably the single most important factor in driving culture and, as such, it is essential that companies get it right. 

Investor relations goes 2.0

This blog post by Dominic Jones shows how social media is being fully embraced by the investor relations community at the NIRI (National Investor Relations Institute) conference. A whole host of social media tools have been brought together using FriendFeed. FriendFeed is a way of keeping up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. This is a great example of how social media tools can work together to create communities, conversations and connections.

Mergers and acquisitions

Last week our Development Director, Richard Carpenter, spoke at a conference titled ‘SME Mergers and Acquisitions’. The conference was held in London and other companies speaking included Lloyds TSB, Grant Thornton and Brandenburg Securities. Topics ranged from acquisition and disposal planning to external communication challenges in the wake of a merger or acquisition (which Richard covered). However, employees were not forgotten in all of this and the presentations also touched on how to manage the ‘people’ factor.

There is a whole stack of research about the percentage of mergers that fail and figures range from 50% to 80%. There are many possible reasons for failure but one of the most frequently cited is the ‘people factor’. In other words, many companies do not have a proper strategy in place to deal with people issues that will, may and do arise. It’s easy at times like this for the focus to be purely on the hard stuff, such as financials and systems. If this all adds up then softer parts of the equation, such as people, can be forgotten.

Internal communication plays an important role in a merger and acquisition situation. If a strategic approach is taken, it can help to retain key people as well as retaining levels of morale and motivation. Whilst more formal communication tools, such as newsletters, intranets and poster campaigns have their place, more informal communication tools such as management by walking around and events that encourage and promote informal interaction between people of the different companies have been shown to have a positive impact on the merger outcome.

It would be great to hear examples of the different communication tools you’ve used in M&A situations, what’s been most effective and why.

How useful are company BBQs?

This Friday will see the first of a series of staff BBQs (weather permitting..) that we have at RY over the summer months. We have a resident BBQ expert (no, he’s not Australian, just a committed carnivore) who takes charge of the food and a budding DJ (one of our design team) who takes care of the music. The BBQs start at 5pm on Fridays and are a great opportunity for everyone in the agency to come together at the end of the week and have a drink and a chat. Even though we all sit in the same building, although not on the same floor, it can be very easy to go for long periods of time without having a conversation with some of your colleagues. So, the BBQ provides a great opportunity to catch up with people you haven’t spoken to in a while and find out how their flat / garden / pottery classes are going.

But these BBQs also have business benefits. A survey published last week by YouGov showed that working with good colleagues was as important as money in persuading people to stay with an organisation. It’s long been known that if people feel ingrained in the social fabric of the organisation they work for then they are more likely to stay in their job – and social events like this can help. It’s also an opportunity for people to forge relationships and friendships with people they don’t necessarily sit next to or work with on a regular basis. This can lead to better cross-company communication, people developing a more in-depth understanding of what different parts of the business do and, last summer, even resulted in the set up of a couple of ‘working parties’.

It’s surprising now much strategic thinking there is behind the burgers and the bun.

McDonalds hopes designer uniforms will improve staff ‘feel good factor’

Yesterday McDonalds unveiled new designer uniforms for its UK staff. Bruce Oldfield, who said he’d enjoyed designing the ‘contemporary look’ for the staff, designed the outfits. Shown on the left in the photo below.

So why has McDonalds done this? Well, a spokesperson from McDonalds said that its staff did a ‘challenging job’ and that the new outfits would help them ‘feel good’ in their role. It’s hoped that the new outfits will also go some way to improving the perception of working at McDonalds and stop the use of the term ‘McJob’.

All of this reminds me of a summer holiday job one of my sisters once had, serving food at a service station. This meant her getting up at some ridiculous time five mornings a week and getting a mini bus to her workplace along with some of her other colleagues. One morning, the conversation turned to the ‘new look’ uniforms that had been provided. Unlike the McDonalds uniforms, Bruce Oldfield had not designed these and the general consensus was that they were pretty awful. I can’t actually repeat word for word what was said on that bus that morning, but the overall feeling was, ‘not only do they treat us badly, now they expect us to look bad too.’

I’m sure that the new uniforms will go some way to making McDonalds employees feel better about their jobs and their workplace. We all know that what you wear does impact how you feel, how others perceive you and how you behave. However, if McDonalds is serious about improving the morale and motivation of its people, I do hope it’s going to look beyond baseball caps and polo shirts.

   

Keeping hold of talent

Over the last few weeks the papers have been full of horror stories of jobs being axed in the city and of a full-scale recession looming ever closer. Last week the London Metro reported that two major investment banks, Merrill Lynch and UBS, had made significant cuts to headcount. Merrill Lynch said it was cutting 4,000 jobs in an attempt to save hundreds of millions of dollars a year. There were reports of 900 jobs going at UBS and up to 40,000 City job losses have been forecast overall due to the financial turmoil. So, it looks as though the next few months are going to be pretty hard going for lots of people, not least for those who find themselves in the position of having to look for another job.

Redundancies always have a negative impact on workplace morale and motivation and it’s extremely important that companies handle these matters in a sensitive and professional manner. It’s also important however to focus on the people who you want to stay. In uncertain times, it’s often the ‘top talent’ who will jump ship first if they do not feel that they, or their career, are going to be looked after. Losing these people at the same time as redundancies are being made can cause severe disruption to a business.

Having a talent management strategy in place is essential for any company and this shouldn’t come into play only in times of crisis. Whilst managers are one of the greatest influencers when it comes to retaining top talent, mentoring, coaching, training people and involving them in the direction and future of the company all have a positive impact too.

It's all in the staff handbook

I’m in the process of developing a proposal for a potential client that focuses on the internal communication of company policies. For the business in question, failure to communicate policies effectively could not only lead to huge financial penalties but also injuries and, in worse case scenarios, loss of lives. It’s a topic that’s very much front of mind for me at the moment, as I’ve recently written an article for Communicator magazine (published by The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators) on this subject.

Whilst every company knows the importance of communicating policy effectively, so many of them fail to get it right. But in today’s environment, doing it well is increasingly becoming a ‘must have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’. Non-compliance can lead to a whole host of woes including damage to the value of the brand, loss of shareholder value and issues in recruiting and retaining talent, to name just a few. So what’s the problem?

Ask people what immediately comes to mind when you say the word ‘policy’ and you already have an insight into what makes this task so difficult. A quick quiz around the RY office produced a variety of answers including ‘dull’, ‘boring’, ‘restrictive’, ‘telling me what I can’t do’ and ‘confusing’ – not very positive associations. Policies are often viewed as ‘yet another thing to do’ and the fact that they are rarely translated into statements that explain how they will make the life of an individual or the whole company better doesn’t help matters either.

So what can you do to ease the pain a little? A good place to start is to provide a clear context for the policy and to link it to company strategy. Be clear about what you want people to do as a result of the policy. Think about whether it’s relevant to everyone. Is a ‘one size fits all’ approach appropriate or do you need to tailor things for different audiences? Use plain language and make things as easy to understand as possible. Communications packed with jargon and ‘legalese’ will instantly turn people off. It’s not always easy, but with some thought, care and attention it is possible to develop an effective policy communication plan.