In tough times, don’t forget your secret weapon

May,  18 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – I got a Facebook message last night from an old friend (actually my first London boss) who I was delighted to hear from. Firstly, for the obvious reason – it’s nice when people get in touch – but more so because she’d read my blog (someone other than my mother emailing me about my blog is a rarity).

She’d been living and working in Spain for years until recently. She said with the recession there, her observation was that some large companies have just stopped bothering with employee engagement. A side effect of filling the work force with short terms contractors (less overhead risk) meant management perceived their need for communication to be less and subsequently their desire to invest in engagement went down. They stopped engaging people in the bigger picture.

As someone who is about to return to the UK (impeccable timing) to continue working in this field, I have to say I was slightly disheartened. Mainly because I think it reveals the knowledge still lacking in many organisations – that continuing to engage employees through the tough times, as well as the good can actually drive greater shareholder return. This is not the fluffy stuff. Getting it right can mean the difference between an organisation emerging stronger from the recession or a casualty of tough economic times. Engagement drives productivity and discretionary effort. Fact. Surely this in itself is enough for leaders to consider the advantages of continuing to communicate effectively through a down turn.

My advice to the C suite (and I say this to those in Europe as well as Australia) is yes absolutely, look at spend and be prudent, however don’t ‘cut-back’ on internal communication. It should be front and centre of your organisation during tough times. Your most powerful communication tool lies within your business – your frontline managers. Galvanise this army; equip them with the right skills, accountability and a powerful story, and you’re half way there. Enable them to have powerful conversations. Remember this should not be one way, the best employee communication is top-down, bottom-up AND horizontal, with a focus on informal influencers. Know who those go-to people are and leverage them.

As for my friend… after many years working in large and small organisations, she’s now busy avoiding mountain goats on a pair of skis in the French Alps.

As for me? Watch out UK. I come armed with a big and persuasive mission to fly the employee communication flag wherever I land (sans skis)…

New leadership at Ogilvy Impact

April, 20 – We are delighted to announce the appointment of Lorie Helliwell and Mike Beckerleg as new joint managing directors of Ogilvy Impact Australia.

Lorie and Mike replace Tam Sandeman who has decided to return to the UK after eight years with Ogilvy Public Relations Group of Companies – Pulse and Ogilvy Impact.

The appointments reflect a growing trend of companies recognising there is significant bottom line benefit when more focus and investment are placed on building brands from the inside out and driving strong brand ambassadorship with their people.

“With more than 15 years’ experience in the employee engagement industry, Lorie is renowned for the development and delivery of behaviour change employee programs which have driven countless business results. Together with Mike, whose significant insights from his rich experience as one of Australia’s smartest marketeers, the pair will take an already very successful and leading business to new heights,” said Kieran Moore, CEO Ogilvy Public Relations, Australia.

“Tam leaves Ogilvy Impact in tremendous shape and the new team is working in tandem with her to ensure a smooth transition period for our clients and our people.”

Lorie has been with Ogilvy Impact for over a year and was hired from the UK.  She has vast experience in employee communication and prior to joining Ogilvy Impact in Australia, led in-house functions for large organisations such as BT, Telewest and Trinity Procurement, a SAB Miller company.

Mike brings 25 years’ experience on both the client and agency sides. He has overseen the brand, marketing and corporate communications divisions of such blue chip companies as Sony, Vodafone and Seiko and spent several years running Telstra, one of Australia’s largest advertising accounts.

They are both looking forward to making a strong Impact… (ahem…)

Aussies win award for pimping up IT change

On Friday 30 March, Ogilvy Impact Australia won Campaign Asia Pacific PR Awards’ Employee Communication Campaign of the Year for our All About Me McDonald’s Australia IT major change management program.

The Campaign Asia-Pacific PR Awards have become an unrivalled benchmark for the region’s external and internal communication industry and showcases the industry’s best and brightest strategies that have truly transformed businesses and brands.

Up against the likes of other major agency networks, we successfully beat the competition with a program that enabled McDonald’s Australia’s 600-strong corporate team to continue providing exceptional service and support to 85,000 employees across its restaurants following the introduction of a complex technical IT change.

Productivity levels were maintained throughout the introduction of new technology tools and survey measures identified 100% of employees supported the change and 88% believed IT was making it easier for them to do their jobs.

Using a robust, change management methodology ensured the strategy was tailored to the audience, change impacts and operational challenges. But what set this program apart was the creative genius applied to the messages, brand and execution, taking IT change to new heights.

Surprise, intrigue, experiential and interactive communication lay at the heart of the tactical plan and along with leadership endorsement and a change champion network in full swing, we ensured a highly complex IT change agenda was implemented successfully on time.

A big congratulations and a sesame seed bun to our employee engagement experts – Megan, Sabrina, Lori, Stef and Tam.  Please call us if you’d like to hear more about this program and our change management methodology.

Sarah Clout

Strategist

Sarah brings over 10 years’ broad communications experience to Impact, having held senior roles in a variety of sectors. Sarah’s industry experience ranges from global organisations such as Shell, to local government bodies, plus financial services, healthcare, retail and the charity sector.

Focusing on employee communications, Sarah has also held responsibility for external stakeholder engagement including media, government and industry bodies – helping to align employee engagement with wider business strategy.

Sarah has steered key communications and change projects, involving company merger, acquisition and rebranding. She has worked with senior leaders on reputation development, helping to position new CEOs and brands as thought leaders with both employees and external stakeholders. She has also managed internal launches to ensure employees are engaged as ambassadors for new external products and brands.

Working with senior managers, Sarah has developed tools to deliver employee engagement strategy, from the analysis and diagnosis of employee attitudes, to stakeholder mapping and message matrices. She is experienced in developing events to engage employees with business strategy and values, from themed management conferences to overseas charity events.

Sarah also has extensive experience of employee communication channel rationalization and development, communications training for senior leaders, and illustrating business strategy by bringing employee stories to life. She is able to distil complex messages for a range of different audiences, and has successfully secured industry awards and corporate sponsorship packages to engage with internal and external stakeholders.

Sarah’s practical experience is enhanced by her academic studies, including an MA Distinction in Marketing Communications from the University of Warwick, and current part-time studies for an MBA at Warwick Business School.

When not working or studying, Sarah can be found exploring Sydney, either above ground or below, as an advanced scuba diver.

The art of creating conversation

Oct, 24 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – Not long ago I blogged about Australia’s PR industry dialing up its interest in the power of employees as brand ambassadors. So it was with great delight that I accepted the invitation from the PRIA (Public Relations Institute of Australia) to speak on employee communication at its annual conference yesterday – PR Directions 2011.

While it was clearly a positive move to see internal communication on the agenda – for me what was even more exciting was the title of the session – Cool watercooler conversations in your organisation: Effective internal communication – highlighting the industry’s understanding that we deliver so much more than newsletters, CEO blogs and mousemats with the company strategy on it.

Driving conversation and dialogue is absolutely what it’s all about – and to be fair, in our view, always should have been. Long gone are the days when a charismatic (and unfortunately sometimes the opposite) CEO’s town hall speech at the start of the year was enough to rally the troops. Today, more than ever it’s simply not enough. Employees are more comfortable to ask questions after hearing from the CEO and actively demand more transparency around company decisions. We say leaders are at their most powerful when they don’t really think they’re communicating – in the corridor after the big meeting, on the way to the car park, in the bathroom (not ideal) – but it is these informal interactions during which more authentic, genuine communication takes place that really counts – because they’re believable and tailored to the individual.

I was asked to give 10 minutes of insight from our rather enviable position of having a bird’s eye view into the employee engagement and internal communication of many of Australia’s top organisations. Here were the four points (there would have been more, but 10 minutes goes fast) I believe all organisations need to consider when it comes to driving conversation:

1. The introduction of social media has meant ‘water cooler’ conversation now has a new channel – with informal conversations enabled online as well as face to face.  Companies taking social media seriously as an external channel but not for their own people do so at their own peril.
2. Avoid MMM (Middle Manager Madness) – Time poor leaders and diverse workforces mean that many organisations are simply not giving communication the time it deserves. But who is it that needs to be skilled up on the art of conversation with the right content? Not just the senior leaders. It’s the middle or frontline managers who are key to succcess – they have the opportunity to converse with the frontline every day – so it’s clear – THEY are the ones who need to be invested in and at the moment they are clearly forgotten.
3. Great conversations don’t just happen. Well, they do sometimes – but they need help. Providing managers with the right tools to stimulate conversation is key. Be creative. Provide them with stuff they actually want to talk about – something they see the point in. Journey maps and conversation guides are just two of the tools flying off our shelves at the moment. What’s better is… when measured – they really do work.
4. And finally…  be culture and demographically appropriate with your tactics. If you want to drive a culture of conversationists – it’s got to come from the top. Don’t choose something crazy and out there if you have a cynical workforce. This may come in time – road test anything you’re not sure about. Nothing worse than getting it wrong – this could do more harm than doing nothing.

As we say – it’s not rocket science, but we are all different creatures and there’s an absolute art to getting it right. Thank you to the filled room at the Hilton today – it’s great to know so many PR professionals are interested in this side of communication. I hope to meet you all at a water cooler some day…

Aligned Incentives and Engaged Employees Improve Triple Bottom Line Performance

August, 16 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – We thought people might be interested in this recent article (August 2011) on CSR Wire which clearly outlines why organisations need to look at engaging their employees around their sustainability efforts.  Something our OgilvyEarth team has known since our first environmental behaviour change program back in 2004.

It shows that having an engaged workforce can positive influence the key components of ‘Triple Bottom Line’ performance: people, planet and profit.   An engaged workforce not only contributes to a company’s bottom line, but also improves the organisation’s social and environmental sustainability impacts too.

http://csrwire.visibli.com/share/bXnYAY

Over the years our OgilvyEarth team has combined its sustainability expertise with Ogilvy Impact’s rich understanding of employee behaviour change to run internal sustainability programs for some of the largest companies in Australia.

Our message is simple. It’s one thing to enhance corporate reputation and attract talent with great sustainability commitments. It’s quite another to ensure you’ve galvanised all your internal troops behind these goals. Achieving engagement around your sustainability initiatives does not happen through osmosis. Like all good internal communication, you’ve got to work at it. Invest the time to make it happen. Make it engaging and really drive true ownership and behaviour change at all levels of the business.

The author cites many of the key components of great internal communication, but most importantly, companies should take heed.  Business communication does not need to be bland. Making it creative and engaging will give you a better chance of making it work and getting the sustainability results you’re looking for.

In times of crisis, don’t leave your people hacked off

July, 28 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – I, like everyone, have been continuing to watch drama unfold in Blighty around the News of the World hacking scandal. Fascinating for many reasons.

But I can’t help to wonder how those employees not allegedly involved in these terrible practices are feeling.  How they were communicated to?  How the leaders of News International will now look to rebuild the trust within their organisation globally. What would also be interesting to know, particularly given the fact that this story was going to blow will have been known for some time, what role internal communication has played in their crisis plan.

Many organisations face this internal challenge when they are dealing with a crisis – ‘what and when do we tell our people’. But it really shouldn’t even be a question. You should tell them first, or at the least simultaneously. An organisation’s people can be one of the most powerful assets a company has when it comes to delivering an authentic voice to the outside world, and are often overlooked with many companies choosing (wrongly) to worry about the outside first. We tend to find ourselves focusing on ’statements to the media’, but the same focus should be given to employees too.

My advice for businesses to be one step ahead in this regard is to:

R - emember your cascade plan – make sure you’re engaging your middle managers in the process

U – pdate your crisis plan – have a look and check that talking to your people is a key part of the process

P – eople -  remember they are a powerful communication channel – use them

E – mail – BANISH this in times of crisis – face to face communication is critical

R – educe – restrictions on social media – your people can be a powerful force online for you – trust them

T – imeliness – communicate in a timely manner – take the inside out approach – not the other way round

In most cases, your people want to help – so manage it and let them.

Peripheral Vision: PR communication in 2021

July, 27 – The practice of public relations is set for major change with Ogilvy PR Australia announcing a number of initiatives aimed at taking the company – and the profession - into the next decade.

On the back of research jointly commissioned by the company and chapters of leading Australian industry body the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Ogilvy PR has pledged to:

• Permanently stop measuring communications effectiveness by the much derided ‘Advertising Equivalent Value’ (AVE) in 2012 and evaluate the newly proposed ‘Value Metrics’ guidelines developed by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications;
• Bolster its strategy, planning, creative and insights capabilities by a further 15% in the coming year by redefining and reinvesting in existing roles. As the only Australian PR agency with a Strategy and Planning Director and a dedicated strategic communications research and insights brand the company will also begin the search for a creative director this year;
• Apply a unique 360 degrees communications filter to all briefs to further capitalise on a future where employee empowerment is paramount and digital engagement is an integral part of every consultant’s skill set; and
• Embark on an ambitious in-house training program aimed at giving consultants a better hands-on understanding of the operational demands of business and clients.

Respondents overwhelmingly agreed (76%) that the term ‘PR’ will be dropped in the next decade as the role and nature of agencies and the discipline itself changes. Kieran Moore, Ogilvy PR Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, said the public relations industry needed to redefine rather than rename itself.

“We believe the age of spin, after being on life support for several years, is now dead. While we don’t agree with dropping ‘PR’ from our discipline, we think this shows that companies, organisations and individuals are demanding authentic communications advice that focuses on the reality of reputation – in the real world context of business and organisational needs,” Ms Moore said.

Ogilvy PR, Australia’s largest and most awarded agency, undertook the research with the Australian chapter of IABC to mark the company’s 10^th anniversary in Australia. The research involved 300 online quantitative surveys among Australian PR and communications professionals, informed by 18 qualitative interviews conducted with leading industry figures.

The overall theme of the study was PR communications in 2021 and the responses showed that the biggest threat to the industry was the need to quantify and redefine the way PR outcomes are measured, while the “socialisation of brands” – the ability of companies to be seen as an integral and benign part of a target audience’s lives – was highlighted as the main role (67%) for PR in the future.

“This research further emphasises that communications is both an art and a science,” Ms Moore said. “More than ever before, brands must remain authentic as audiences are looking for engagement that interests, excites, amuses and provokes thought. PR practitioners need to become even better story-tellers as they relate a brand’s messages in compelling ways, whether you’re client or agency-side.”

Translating an organisation’s stories was ranked as the most important quality for PR communication practitioners in the next decade (25%) by those on both sides of the agency and client fence.

With commentators predicting labour shortages once the huge baby boomer demographic moves into retirement, the research found a strong expectation that employee value will rise in the next decade. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents thought that by 2021 employees will be an organisation’s most critical brand ambassadors and 78% agreed that employees will expect to play a role in shaping company brands of the future.

‘’That finding aligns with all the research and experience we have gathered through our employee communication consultancy, and it’s why we are going to further stress to our clients the necessity for internal and external communications to create a united front.’’ Ms Moore said.

Key research findings and industry reaction can be found at:

http://www.ogilvypr.com.au/category/peripheral-vision-study

For a full copy of the research results please contact:

Katherine Scott

Strategy and Planning Director

Ogilvy PR Australia

katherine.scott@ogilvy.com.au

About Ogilvy PR Australia

Ogilvy PR is the largest and most awarded public relations agency in Australia, scooping more than 50 Australian and global trophies in the last two years, including the top honour amongst all WPP owned PR agencies. Ogilvy PR is made up of specialist agencies including: Howorth (business and technology communications), Pulse (consumer communications), Impact Employee Communications, Parker & Partners (bi-partisan public affairs specialist), Ogilvy PR Health and Cannings (corporate communications). Ogilvy PR Australia is jointly owned by WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing, content and communications services group.

About the IABC Chapters of Australia

Founded in 1970, The International Association of Business Communicators provides a professional network of over 15,500 business communication professionals in over 80 countries. Australian members are drawn from a cross-spectrum of organisations, including the corporate, consulting, government and not-for-profit sectors. Our overriding commitment is to contribute to the success of our organisations through effective communication practice.

NEW RESEARCH RELEASED TODAY

May, 18 – Less than 50 percent of Australian business leaders believe enough resources are allocated to training middle and front-line management, resulting in a significant lag behind senior leadership in communication skills of these lynchpin team members, according to a report launched today.

The report, Australia’s Commsoscopy, is the second independent report[1] commissioned by leading employee communications consultancy, Impact Employee Communications examining the effectiveness of medium to large organisations in communicating the employment ‘deal’, or Employee Value Proposition (EVP), to Australian workers.

According to Impact’s Managing Director, Tam Sandeman: “We know that clearly communicating the employment ‘deal’ – what employees get for what they give – is one of the main ways employees are attracted, engaged and retained by organisations.  This is ever critical given the talent shortage.

“However, our study found there are some significant gaps in its delivery, particularly in terms of communication frequency and the ongoing role of an organisation’s leadership team throughout an employee’s tenure with an organisation,” she said.

The study also found that while most organisations recognise the importance of communicating the ‘deal’ and believe they have the right communications abilities within their senior teams to deliver this message, they often fall short as they are failing to put the right tools or resources in place.

“Given the vital role people managers play in retaining employees and improving their performance, the resistance from organisations to introduce communications skills for middle or front-line managers is an unnecessary and damaging compromise,” she added.

Social media was also found to be an increasingly used tool in making a difference in the effectiveness of communicating and demonstrating most of the EVP attributes.

“We found organisations that embrace social media perceive themselves as better communicators of their employment deal than those that don’t. This included allocating more support resources for middle and front line management,” said Sandeman.

“Currently, only 29% of Australian organisations are using social media for employee communication. Respondents cited that the slow growth has been due to a range of barriers (46% s believing that it poses too many legal and other risks).

“Considering and including elements of social media as part of internal communication strategies is now a must-have. It can not only engage employees but be used to identify knowledge, ambassadors and talent. It also ensures businesses look as though they’re keeping up with the fast-paced external media world we all experience outside work,” she explained.

These findings aim to help organisations identify some of the gaps in communication and ultimately assist in building this approach. By doing this, they are able to ensure the employment story improves relations between the organisation and employee but importantly, delivers a tangible impact on retention and engagement.

“Organisations need a strong, strategic internal communications plan, and it’s got to be more than a newsletter, the odd roadshow or the company strategy on a mouse-mat,” said Sandeman. “It was surprising to see only 38% of organisations with 500-599 employees had an internal communication approach in place. They’re missing an opportunity.  We know companies who are communicating effectively are delivering greater returns to shareholders than those which are not. So it’s a costly oversight.[2]”

The 18 page report can be downloaded here: Impact Employee Communications, Australia’s Commsoscopy

Impact Employee Communications is Australia’s leading employee communication consultancy and is part of Ogilvy PR, the largest and most awarded public relations agency in Australia.  Ogilvy PR Australia is a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.

For further information:

Tessa Sexton

STW Group

Ph: +61 421 098 674

Young professionals demand an internal change of focus

April, 18 – BY EMMA LEVINE – Like many employees in the communication industry, I undertook an internship while still at university. My four weeks with Impact proved to be invaluable as I gained contacts, advice and most importantly, my first real taste of the industry. However, as it was not covered in my bachelor of communication degree, it took me the longest time to completely understand what ‘internal communication’ was exactly, and I still don’t think I’ve nailed it!

As a public relations major I understood the part PR played in a company’s success, but didn’t see the reason for internal communication management – not because I disagreed with it, but because there simply wasn’t enough about it on my course.  I’m learning, this lack of understanding about just how powerful galvanising employee support through great internal communication can be, exists across many organisations.

It soon became clear as I better understood what Impact does, just how powerful what we do can be in driving organisational success.  Companies who invest in employee engagement are shown to have a higher rate of productivity and lower turnover. Employee communication ensures that the correct messages flow between all levels of management and that two way communication is facilitated. In short, it is crucial!

More and more companies are discovering the advantages of internal communication and it is becoming a growing industry in Australia. I really feel that it is time for all Australian universities to include an internal communication unit in their core communication degree requirements. By skimming the surface it is impossible to understand the significance of employee communication and the influence it can have on the smooth internal and external operations of an organisation.

Luckily I have an entire team of internal comms professionals surrounding me at Impact who are helping me to work out my EVPs from my ELTs. It may take me a while, but slowly I’m piecing everything together. Ask me again in another few months and hopefully I’ll be better able to explain ‘what is internal communication’.

But then again, don’t be surprised if I’m still completely overwhelmed!

Don’t be an April fool

April, 1 – BY LORIE HELLIWELL – So midday April 1 has come and gone and the opportunity to play a prank on friends and colleagues has passed for another year. Hopefully you escaped – unlike Sabrina in the office here, who found her desk wrapped in cling film like a long-haul suitcase. To explain why would take too long… when what’s important, is to remember opportunities like April 1^st and all the “special” days around the world provide employee/internal communication professionals with great opportunities to pep up our communications with employees.

Why not have an out of the ordinary special ‘4^th of July’ message  from the CEO for example, or ‘Carnival’ celebration theme to recognise employees as part of your engagement program? The opportunities to reiterate corporate messaging  while being  creative are endless. Just think what you could do to celebrate your national, cultural or ceremonial festivals, and then plan in advance a calendar of communication “events” throughout the year that mark progress, engage employees and celebrate success. And importantly have fun.

Who said employee communication has to be dull?

More awards for Impact

Dec, 21 – Impact has had a month of success, winning award after award at the recent Asia-Pacific PR Awards and the Ogilvy PR Professional Achievement Awards.

The Asia-Pacific PR Awards recognise the best work in the communications industry. Now in their 10^th year of competition, the awards are dedicated to celebrating outstanding work and across the region. We’re thrilled to announce our win:

Employee Communications Campaign of the Year, Impact & OgilvyEarth – Bayer Australia

The Ogilvy PR Professional Achievement Awards, internal to Ogilvy, were broadcast live to approximately 70 Ogilvy PR offices around the world to celebrate the year’s best client work. A very excited group held down the fort from 1.30 to 3.15am to represent the Australia team.  Australia has a strong track record in these highly sought after internal awards and 2010 was no exception. Impact cleaned up, winning awards in two categories:

• Crisis Management – Ford Australia: Driving a great result for Australia – Ogilvy PR Australia
• Internal Communications – Bayer Australia and New Zealand: “Small Changes = Big Change” – Impact Employee Communications

At these awards global CEO, Chris Graves, announced a new award category in honour of David Ogilvy. The Giant Award is for people of any level worldwide who made a giant contribution to our company this year, exhibits and lives the giant characteristics David Ogilvy looked for, and someone who is decent to their colleagues and gives back to the Ogilvy community and society. There are only four of these awards and one of them went to our very own Tam Sandeman, Managing Director of Impact Employee Communcations.

Congratulations to Tam and all the teams involved in the winning campaigns.

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day Two

June, 30 – BY ALISON PIGNON – The standard of the content, presentations and debate on the second day of Melcrum’s Social Media conference for Internal Communications was very high overall. I was madly scribbling notes all the way through. Meanwhile, others were tweeting madly to share the gems they were picking up, with a prize being given to the person who tweeted the most throughout the day.

The conference was opened by international keynote speaker Euan Semple, with his entertaining mixture of dry Scottish wit and insightful observations. These included the need for organisations, and particularly leaders, to think less in terms of justifying ROI when it comes to social media and more in terms of justifying COI, i.e. Cost of Inaction – that is, not allowing it to happen.

The first case study was from a high profile professional services firm who is using social media to successfully encourage innovation and sharing of ideas by employees through an ‘Idea Zone’ on their internal website. It also turns out that this organisation has the largest Yammer community worldwide with 3,000 employee members. Their governance approach includes a social media steering committee and also a social media response team.

Next we heard from Robin Crumby, Managing Director of Melcrum who flew in from the UK to speak. He took us through some of the key findings of Melcrum’s 2010 global research into social media adoption internally by large corporations. It was interesting to hear that half of the 2,600 respondents (19% from the Asia-Pacific region) feel that the business case for social media is clear while the other half feel it is not clear. It seems the business world is still completely divided on this point. The research revealed what communicators believe to be the three most effective uses of social media internally:

1. Getting employees to talk, share information and collaborate
2. Building communities
3. Connecting to and learning from Generation Y employees.

After lunch, Lizzy Geremia, Brand Strategy Manager at NAB talked us through a very interesting case study on the use of online event technology to engage employees in the Personal Banking part of the business in the new brand promise. Using an easy to navigate and visually interesting online conference platform, employees were able to listen and watch a recording of the business head talking in an auditorium about the brand promise and then wander through to other booths to listen to other leaders’ ‘talking heads’. Employees were able to put questions to leaders via chat functionality, as well as talk to each other, and also provide online feedback. The results were great with the event reaching nearly 50% of the population and 95% of those who completed the feedback saying they had a better understanding of NAB’s brand focus as a result.

A final highlight of the day was the case study presented by a large banking, insurance and investing services organisation. I particularly liked how they measured the levels of employee engagement with social media tools and were able to group them into champions, advisors, members or just ‘missing’. The organisation identified the need to be more collaborative and grouped their communication tools under four groupings:

Connect – online portal

Share – video channel for employees to use

Discuss – Yammer and Microsoft Office Communicator

Innovate – Magazine

A lively panel debate closed what has been an interesting and engaging conference. Perhaps the next one will take place in a virtual setting?

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day one

June, 29 – BY ALISON PIGNON – The two-day Melcrum Social Media conference for Internal Communications started today. So far, the most interesting thing I have got out of it is the reinforcement in my mind that appetite for social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, or Yammer – the internal version,  is a personal thing. There’s no right or wrong, good or bad about it.

It was also encouraging to hear fellow internal communicators voicing what we already know: the more you learn about what the different tools can be useful for, the less afraid you are to use them.

The focus of the afternoon session by UK-based presenter, Euan Semple, was essentially about understanding the opportunities for harnessing the way employees are now communicating online, both inside and outside the organisation.

The session reinforced some important things:

• It’s about conversations: We emphasise all the time that great employee communication is conversation-driven. And unsurprisingly, it’s the same with social media. Social media tools are not terribly complicated. They’re really just a way of having more person to person conversations.

• Control to influence: He reinforced what we’ve also found, that one of the fears organisations have about using social media tools internally is that they appear to be disorganised and lacking in control systems – yet this is actually what makes them user-friendly. Because they are created and evolve organically, based on what the employees are interested in and want to talk about. This also means the business has more, not less, opportunity to influence what is happening. The internal communications team can tap into existing successful employee-led forums to seed questions and topics of discussion, rather than trying to push a ‘corporate’ version.

• Ask for forgiveness, not permission: Again, supporting our counsel that piloting tools and giving them a go is advisable for companies wanting to dip their toe in the social media pool. Rather than feeling that it’s absolutely necessary to first build a social media strategy and get buy-in from the whole senior team before launching a new tool, sometimes it’s just best to go out there and try it. Get a few people involved who you know are interested, for instance in a wiki or an online discussion forum, and then see how it grows. If there’s appetite for it and it turns out to be popular, it becomes a hugely useful source of knowledge and information for the organisation.

• Risk v reward: One of the things we know is top of mind for our clients when it comes to using social media is the perception that inappropriate conversations could pose a risk to the organisation’s reputation. Particularly if sensitive or damaging information gets out. And who has the resource to monitor all of this? It’s worth remembering that a) emails are not screened, yet they too can be damaging, and b) if you don’t trust your workforce, then you have a management issue, not a communication issue. Meanwhile, encouraging free and open discussion (based on a good social media policy and user guidelines) can only help to demonstrate the trust you do have in them.

• It’s not just the young who are interested: Statistics seem to show that the level of interest you may or may not have in using social media is not based on your age at all, but simply on your way of thinking. For instance, a large proportion of Facebook users are women over 30, not the typical twenty-something Gen Y-er we all might imagine.

I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing more tomorrow.

Cath Lawrence

Senior Strategist

Cath Lawrence is an experienced change management and communication consultant with over 20 years business experience working both nationally and internationally.  Her work has covered a number of industries including financial services, manufacturing, transport, FMCG, professional services, pharmaceuticals, local government and health and beauty.

During this time, Cath has worked alongside senior managers throughout many change situations including mergers and acquisitions, cultural change, business re-engineering, organisational redesign, crisis management, team development and downsizing. Through this experience, she has been able to relate to a wide range of business and personal challenges that people face and therefore provide a deep level of understanding, knowledge and guidance during change.

Cath’s enviable experience provides a strategic backbone for the change team, and as such she has developed and implemented campaigns for Pfizer, Heatcraft and Woolworths. Cath’s experience enables her to understand the organisational change challenges and the journey employees experience as change happens. She is able to facilitate the change process and work with the client to build meaningful change and communication strategies.

She has a BA in Business Studies from Sheffield University in the UK. She’s  a Certified Master Coach, a Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and a member of the International Association of Facilitators.

Outside work, Cath enjoys taking her clubs out and hitting a small ball whilst out for a long and pleasant walk. Her enjoyment of teeing off is closely followed by watching a good game of rugby or a trip to the theatre.

Kate Pirrie

Senior Consultant

Kate joined Impact in early 2010 as a Consultant. She works across a range of strategic employee communication projects, with clients primarily from technology and FMCG industries. Kate works closely with her clients to project manage their employee communication strategies.

Kate has previous experience in internal communications and HR practice working in a large investment bank in London. Here Kate was responsible for supporting the implementation of a change project across the Credit Risk area. In this role Kate was project managing the implementation of HR strategies and as well as developing and facilitating the employee communication initiatives around this change such as restructuring information and knowledge management including intranet, facilitating meetings, internal employee events and presentations, designing induction and training programs and stakeholder management.

Kate has also worked on a number of large scale employee and industry events both in Europe and Australia and has completed her Master of Arts – Communication Management at UTS in 2009 and BA at Monash University in 2002.

In her spare time, Kate enjoys an array of activities like walking, yoga, swimming as well as cooking and eating good food and wine with friends.

Tam Sandeman

Managing Director – Australia

Regional Director (APAC)

As regional director for Ogilvy Impact (APAC) and managing director in Australia, Tam has been developing and driving strategic communication campaigns for a range of major organisations across employee, corporate, crisis and issues management and consumer disciplines in Australia, Asia Pacific and the UK for over 15 years.

Heading up Impact’s major change communication practice, much of Tam’s work focuses on tackling some of the toughest people challenges which come with today’s ever changing business world. Her work has covered complex restructures, mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing and associated culture change—ensuring strong alignment of internal messaging with business goals.

Tam’s employee communication clients, many of which have been with her for years, include Nestlé, BlueScope Steel, NAB, Blackmores, Sony Australia, Dymocks and Hudson. And, while they’re diverse in industry, they all have one thing in common: diverse and disparate workforces with tough communication challenges. Her change work has taken her as far afield as South Africa, Korea, Malaysia and China.

Previous experience includes a senior role at Ogilvy PR’s Pulse Communications, eight years at GCI London, two years with an NGO in Central America and Fiji, as well as other in-house marketing and PR roles in the UK.

An exceptional all-round communicator, Tam’s work has won industry recognition annually both in Australia and the UK, most recently winning two global gongs. A 2010 International Gold Quill of Excellence for work with Ford Australia.  This work was also awarded the Best of the Best in the 2010 Gold Quill awards, receiving the highest accolade in international issues management – the Business Issue of the Year award.  She has been a judge for the IABC gold quills and is a regular speaker on employee engagement. She also drives Ogilvy PR’s internal corporate social responsibility program, So Inspired, and is a board member of Australian charity FebFast.

Tam holds a BA (Hons) in Public Relations from Bournemouth University in the UK. She’s an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and Australia’s Change Management Institute (CMI).

Outside Impact, Tam enjoys climbing small hills (most recently Kilimanjaro).

Lori Sarakinsky

Strategist (currently on maternity leave)

Lori brings over seven years of change management experience from Accenture where she worked on a variety of large scale global and multi-national business and IT transformational projects for a number of market-leading blue chip clients.

She has developed specialist knowledge of change projects relating to key business functions and processes, large-scale systems implementations and employee communication initiatives. Working on long term and often complex programs across IT outsourcing, HR transformation and Organisation restructuring, Lori has built solid consulting skills mainly in the areas of stakeholder management and communications.

She has wide cross-industry exposure in both the public and private sectors (including ‘The Change Program’; one of Australia’s most complex IT change initiatives implemented at the Australian Tax Office).

Lori has significant experience in building strong relationships with her clients. She has worked closely with senior management teams to develop change communication strategies and has managed the delivery of a variety of internal communication programs requiring global, local and external implementation.

She has worked extensively in developing communications strategy, change impact and stakeholder analysis and business readiness assessments. She is familiar with the challenges that face senior management throughout change programs and has helped her clients to engage and effectively communicate across diverse workforces to minimise the impacts of change.

Some of her client work at Impact has included projects with Johnson and Johnson Pacific, Surf Life Saving Australia and a large FMCG organisation.  At Accenture, Lori worked on a number of client engagements both in Australia and the UK: RailCorp, Unilever, Pfizer, Schering Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and the top UK retailer Sainsburys.

Lori holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She worked in London for nine years, five of which were with Accenture working on projects in the UK and Europe.

Vanessa Williamson

Strategist

Vanessa has a breadth of internal communications and corporate social responsibility experience within the FMCG sector. Her background includes supporting senior executives with communication strategies on brand, vision and values, communications skills training, measurement and change communication.

Prior to joining Impact, Vanessa spent eight years working in London with Diageo, a global drinks company. In her capacity as Head of Employee Communications for Great Britain, she was responsible for driving the employee communications strategy for this region, leading a variety of communication programs aimed at a diverse workforce of office, field-based, and customer-facing employees.  Here she worked extensively on Diageo’s award-winning community engagement and corporate social responsibility programs. She also has communications, policy and stakeholder management experience working within the government sector.

Whilst at Impact, Vanessa has brought her strong in-house experience to deliver work for Blackmores, GE Healthcare Services (Australia & New Zealand), Nestlé Australia, the Australian Private Hospitals Association, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and TCorp, the New South Wales Treasury Corporation.

Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Arts and Postgraduate Diploma of Arts from Victoria University of Wellington. In her spare time she likes to indulge in her love of all things Kiwi, notably their exceptional range of Pinot Noir.

Driving Sales Powerfully

In 2006, food and beverage giant Nestlé acquired the iconic Australian brand Uncle Tobys, its sales team and its range of products, bringing Nestlé’s total range to over 3,200 products. Nestlé faced a significant communication challenge: How to communicate business and product priorities simply and consistently whilst merging the new sales team into the business, and, at the same time, increase sales.

Impact and the Nestlé sales team developed a strategic and highly creative engagement event, based on strong employee insight, to engage Australia’s largest field sales team in plans for the year ahead, encouraging less risk-averse behaviour which contributed ultimately to an increase in sales.

Tactically this included employee focus groups, leadership workshops, a strong visual identity and theme, dedicated SWAT teams working with over 20 presenters, as well as highly-creative delivery of messages over an energy-filled two days.

A combination of anecdotal feedback and quantitative survey results from the field revealed an immediate behaviour change across all state teams – higher productivity, teamwork and collaboration across the states.

The campaign was awarded the 2008 IABC Gold Quill Award of Excellence and the 2007 Asia Pacific PR Week best employee communication campaign.

Giving Change a Personality

In 2005, Nestlé began the rollout of a global business excellence program which included a transition to the SAP enterprise set of procurement, distribution and sales management systems to its markets – the largest infrastructure project it had undertaken to date, affecting nearly 6,000 employees at 20 separate sites across Australia and New Zealand.

Successful implementation would mean no interruption to Nestlé customers at the same time as delivering all projected revenue, sales and growth targets for the year. Implementing and going live carried with it the risk of major disruption to the business if employees did not embrace change actively in all areas.

Impact worked with Nestlé to combat resistance to change, developing and implementing a collaborative, creative and a phased engagement solution, quickly building employee support. Tailored engagement sessions at each site leading to real communication ownership at site level and the use of former Australian cricket captain, Steve Waugh, as a celebrity ambassador to front the campaign, were vital in ensuring a successful launch across the business.

The campaign achieved its over-riding objective of generating a positive environment and fostering a winning attitude, with Australia and New Zealand being Nestlé’s fastest, most successful implementation globally. Productivity was maintained throughout, notably also ensuring the company’s 11 factories and five distribution centres were back to full production levels in only seven days from ‘go live’, substantially less than the average. The company’s head office in Switzerland described it as ‘the best it had seen’.

Communication Skills Training

In 2002 the NSW Government was in the process of selling the state’s largest rail carrier, FreightCorp. This created uncertainty for thousands of employees and the company faced big challenges in communicating effectively with its decentralised, shift-based, 24-hour workforce.

In this period of significant change, management felt frontline employees were not sufficiently informed of organisational goals and initiatives. Operational requirements needed to continue, but employees needed to hear about and ask questions on the issues. Driver coordinators and driver trainers came in regular contact with train drivers and were well positioned to communicate to frontline employees if provided with the appropriate skills and confidence.

Impact conducted 17 one-day communication skills workshops for 160 FreightCorp employees. Training was made relevant by the inclusion of key findings from qualitative research with employees. Foundation skills were covered including presentation skills; negotiation; counselling; and team dynamics. Follow up check-ins with workshop participants were completed to keep the training front of mind and to offer additional support to individuals if required.

The training paid off. For the first time in NSW, employees voted in favour of a privatisation. The sale totalled AU$1.172 billion for the NSW Government.

IABC World Conference 2010 – Day One

June, 9 – BY TAM SANDEMAN – This week, the home of the Blackberry (the phone not the fruit), Toronto, sees the world conference of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) which had its fill of Ogilvy Public Relations.

Scott Kronick, president of Ogilvy PR North Asia, represented us in speaking about “Brand Building in China”. Scott’s insights reflect his 19 years in Asia, complete with success stories and failures of brand building efforts. The thirst for knowledge about China was evident through a very well attended session.

However, I am here to attend sessions on employee engagement, communication and change – hear and possibly bring back new thinking.

Day one saw various themes running through a packed agenda of sessions – change management, employee communications and leadership communication.

From the first sessions, the most obvious issue presenting a significant opportunity for improvement for internal communicators, is that there is now a recognised lack of confidence in senior leadership from employees.

This problem has grown since 2003, as cited by Professor Veronica Hope Hailey, from Cass Business School in London, who has been researching change communications for over 20 years (including Australia). Interestingly, she sees real danger in 2010, that leaders will attribute the reason for this breakdown in trust to the economic downturn. And, more importantly, going into recovery will NOT rebuild trust in organisations. Leaders need to invest time in improving the way they communicate and engage, and do it better than they ever have before.

Secondly, (and unsurprisingly) all sessions I attended highlighted the strong need for authenticity in leaders. As communicators we must work with senior leaders enabling them to communicate strategy and direction in a real, authentic manner. Only then will we ensure we turn business strategy into action.

Lastly, as with all our work, driving interaction and conversation will be fundamental for success as leaders trying to engage employees in business critical initiatives.

One particular first day highlight was hearing keynote speaker, Kevin Warren, CEO and President of Xerox Canada. A leader who truly lives and breathes employee communication and engagement and one who directly attributes positive outcomes on the bottom line to their investment in this area. Even better was his inspiration – a sign he’d seen on the wall of Ford Motor Company – “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, emphasising your strategy is nothing if you can’t get the people piece right.

Another highlight for our team must be our attendance at the prestigious IABC Gold Quill Awards dinner which saw us collect our two Gold Quills of Excellence for work with Bayer ANZ and Ford Australia, as well as a best of the best award for the Ford work. No other consultancy took as many awards and proved again, Australia and particularly Ogilvy Public Relations punches well above its weight on the world stage.

So far, Toronto has treated me well, and I’ve also managed to catch the BlueJays vs the New York Yankees before the conference started. Given Toronto is also the city of choice for this year’s very imminent G20 frivolity…  if they coped with an Ogilvy PR invasion, they’ll be OK.

More from day two to follow…

Impact stays on top

Nov, 12 – Asia Pacific PR Awards. There’s pre-Christmas cheer in abundance at Impact with two wins this week at the region’s premier PR awards. Impact was named best in show in the employee communication category – with an honourable mention for its work engaging Australian employees in Coca-Cola South Pacific’s Live Positively global sustainability platform.

A second accolade came in the form of a certificate of excellence for the team’s major crisis/issues management work carried out for Ford Australia earlier this year resulting in overwhelming employee support around a potentially contentious announcement.

We’re also thrilled to announce Ogilvy PR Worldwide was named overall Asia Pacific Network of the Year.

Impact’s wins were amongst 13 in total for Ogilvy PR’s regional group, six of which came from Australia.

Click here for more information on the winners.