Engaging employees across the void of space, time or role is a constant challenge for internal communicators. Brittany Golob investigates

One of Shakespeare’s and the history of film’s most famous scenes is the rousing, impassioned speech Henry V gives his soldiers before the Battle of Agincourt. Henry V and countless leaders before and after him were faced with a singular challenge: To give those following them a reason for doing so. To create camaraderie and give people a reason to take part in the cause, whatever the cause may be.

Though a far cry from the battlefields of mediaeval France, business leaders in modern Britain are faced with the same dilemma that Henry faced: How to engage with the hordes of employees working for a company either by choice or necessity.

Radley Yeldar’s director of culture and engagement Isabel Collins says employees have to believe in the brand, “It has to be something worth fighting for.” Engaging these workers presents a veritable challenge for internal communicators, but the resulting solutions are of the most innovative in internal communications. Collins says, “If you live in Greenland, you build your house with snow. It all depends on where you live and what you have to build with in terms of the culture and the attitude of your people.”

There are two points of conflict that run persistently through internal communications. One is the online/offline debate – should a workforce be engaged through digital or social means or face-to-face and via traditional methods? The internal communications camp also splits ideologically in regards to line managers – are they the lynchpin in the communications hierarchy who are responsible for customer satisfaction or are they the blockage preventing internal messaging from reaching frontline employees?

In the digital age, it seems the obvious choice to turn to technology to engage with hard-to-reach groups, especially those that are geographically disparate. But, culture must still be considered even when using a digital solution.

Often, what employees want is simply what all humans want: connection. For this reason, Yammer take-up is often employee-driven by on- the-road or shift workers seeking to engage with their colleagues or managers. But there is often scorn on the part of internal communicators for Yammer and intranets in general – not to the fault of the tool, only to the way it is put to use. Jeremy Starling, MD of IC agency Involve, says social media plays a supporting role in internal comms, “Social in and of itself is not going to make the change.” Monika Wencek, UK lead for customer success at Yammer, says social media has a slew of revolutionary impacts on a business, but should be integrated into the wider internal communications function, rather than as a standalone solution.

“Technology is just an enabler,” Josh Knight, former internal online manager of Vodafone says. “You have to make the message relevant to the audience to make sure you connect with remote workers and make them feel like they’re part of the team.” He and current partner at intranet development company Kinseed, former global head of collaboration

and online at Vodafone Pal Bhusate, pioneered a new intranet that changed Vodafone’s employees’ online behaviour by changing social media systems.

Behavioural change, though, is most effectively achieved through emotional connection. Video, a longtime player in IC, has been reinvented to achieve that. “Film can do an amazing amount in terms of moving people and helping people have an emotional connection,” Simon Kenwright, engagement director at London-based agency Maverick – which recharged DHL’s flagging global workforce with an emotionally touching, narrative- driven video – says.

A recent video by Northwards Housing featured its own employees dressed as superheroes or as hapless comic extras to impart health and safety messages. By injecting humour into the message, the housing association was able to address an issue relevant to its workforce in an engaging way. Like Henry V’s soldiers, people need to feel an emotional or intellectual connection with a message in order for it to make an impact. Similarly, the explanatory videos used by construction company Wilmott Dixon, oil exploration firm Tullow Oil or Citibank’s 200th anniversary music video are able to engage employees with the company’s content. Video can connect employees to each other from through shared experience. Tullow Oil’s handycam-filmed diary-style videos by on-the-ground employees allow others to understand what their off-shore or remote colleagues do on a daily basis. These act in a more latent way in regards to behvaioural change. Such videos can help to connect people across boundaries, but also help to connect people more deeply to the brand.

Employees in remote locations, without access to company intranets or simply disengaged by digital platforms require non- digital communications tools. For a workforce made up of travelling salesmen, delivery drivers or other remote workers, face-to-face engagement is often most effective as it can be the only interaction this workforce has with the company. “When you have a workforce that is largely on the road, the value of getting people into a room together cannot be underestimated,” Kenwright says. Live events also allow for dialogue between the employees and business leaders. Jeremy Petty at scarlettabbott says encouraging questions, participation and discussion avoids broadcasting messages and gives employees an opportunity to share their thoughts on how to improve the business. During the massive Olympic Games Maker orientation events, Giles Cattle, head of planning and experience at Crown, says focusing on people was important, “We looked at what it would mean to them as individuals. That’s key to all employee engagement.”

The best ways in which to reach disparate workers can be tried and true methods like newsletters, posters and environmental messaging. One method, the somewhat forgotten art of radio, has been revisited by Brand Conversation. The platform allows companies to create bespoke radio shows delivered online or via podcast in order to reach unconnected workers.

Wardour’s Julian Thomas says the internal built environment should also be addressed by communicators, “The first thing we do is visit those spaces where a campaign will be – staff bus stops, offices, engineering depots, places where you can capture them with something. We think about how we could interrupt that space and really make something happen.”

Reckitt Benckiser took that attitude to heart in a campaign to change its global workforce’s behaviour on water sustainability. RB’s director of global sustainability, Dave Challis says, “We had to do something to get the whole of the workforce to think about water in a different way. We knew that this wasn’t just a case of turning off the taps in the offices or concentrating on our products. There was much more to it than that.” RB’s lifts were plastered with supergraphics communicating facts about water conservation and use. This bombardment helped change RB employee’s behaviours in regards to water conservation.

Print plays its role, as it has for centuries. Stephen Golding, head of internal communications at Tullow Oil, says newsletters work best for remote workers because of their lack of internet access. Appliances Online, responding to poor reviews of its delivery staff posted on Facebook by customers, collated the comments in a printed book that it then sent out to every delivery driver’s home address. The change was almost immediate as drivers began to improve their service and ask customers for feedback online.

The debate about how and where to communicate with employees has solutions that, while varied, are well-defined. Everything from video to intranet to print has proven itself and achieved results when applied effectively to an internal audience. However, when dealing with line managers – and seeking to reach shift workers – internal comms is still finding its way.

Rachel Miller, director of All Things IC, points to line manager engagement as a means to mitigating crisis. If a team within the business is not treated to two-way conversation with business leaders, it

is susceptible to reputation-damaging public crises. During HMV’s now-infamous administration announcement, a member of the social media team live-tweeted about the mass firings taking place. Miller says people will find a way to speak, even at the expense of the brand, “If you’re not listening to them at peace time, when it comes to war time, they’re going to be noisier.”

Miller says line managers can be powerful communicators, but they can’t be treated as only a mouthpiece. “Give them extra information that is just for them, so they feel like they’re empowered. It’s quite simple; it’s all about power. If managers don’t feel like they’re being empowered, that they’re just being used, funnily enough, they’re not going to respond to that. Ultimately, they are the key to the people you are trying to reach. So make sure you have good relationships with those people, because you need to rely on them, particularly in times of crisis.”

Ladbrokes, in the attempt to turn regain its favour with customers, focused on line managers at a series of road shows. Starling of Involve, the project’s partner, says, “The most important step is line managers.” Engaging this group led to better customer service, less staff turnover and improvements to the bottom line.

Production company ITN’s Simon Baker says this relies on authenticity, “There’s something to be said for being authentic in communications if the message is going to affect people. Ultimately, you’re trying to tell someone a message that’s important, change behaviour or build the internal culture in some way. There are a lot of different ways of going about it, but if you know what you’re trying to achieve it’s all possible.”Like Henry V seeking to galvanise his armies behind a cause and to affect a behavioural change on the eve of battle, so too do brands seek a similar change in their workforces. “You have to find a way of reaching out to people who aren’t engaged. You have to find a way of getting them to believe in what you’re doing and why and then you have to get them to change behaviour and take action,” The Workroom’s creative strategy director Brigid McMullen says. A military’s captains and lieutenants are charged with leading soldiers into battle. Their message must be both in line with the leaders and inspiring in and of themselves. So too must a line manager’s communications.Line managers have immense power within an organisation. Companies will reap the rewards of a more engaged workforce – despite being geographically or functionally disparate – when line managers have the responsibility of overseeing their teams’ communications. Heather Derrick, head of R&D communications at AstraZeneca, launched a remote training programme to do just this – train scientific minds how to be better storytellers in order to more effectively communicate with their disparate, disengaged teams. The results were staggering in regards to satisfaction of those workers under the purview of the participating line managers.

Understanding what employees want from the company and their unmet needs in terms of communications can help a company reach every audience. Not only does that increase employee engagement and satisfaction, but it improves customer service, bottom line and the brand’s overall reputation.“It has to be about creating a culture where people feel listened to and putting the channels in place to allow people to have the communications open to them,” Rebecca Pain from theblueballroom says. “It’s not just about what happens internally or with your bottom line, it’s about your reputation.” Shakespeare linked Henry V’s unlikely victory in 1415 with enigmatic leadership and a passionate army. Companies with thriving customer service and employee satisfaction and a solid reputation can trace those victories back to similarly powerful messaging and engaging communications.

Case studies

Non-desk bound employees

British Airways

BA, like many Olympic sponsors, used its sponsorship to engage its workforce of 38,000 people, most either up in the air or down on the tarmac during the working day, Wardour stepped in to help the airline. Throughout the Olympics, BA employees had access to an app and microsite called Trackside which allowed them to upload photos and other content from their experiences volunteering and viewing the Olympics, share and view others’ content and engage in friendly competition.“What we’re trying to do is reignite passion for the brand, to make people feel that they understood what the future was like for British Airways,” Wardour’s Julian Thomas says.

Olympic Games Makers

Crown Business Communications was charged with engaging the thousands of volunteers who had signed on to be Games Makers at the London Olympics. Historically, Olympic volunteers experience a high rate of drop outs. Crown designed a series of large-scale events to create a sense of shared ownership and shared experience. “These Games Makers, all 70,000 of them, had gone through an individual journey and this was the first time they would be brought together en masse,” Giles Cattle, Crown’s head of planning and experience, says. “We wanted to use these orientation events to try and deliver a better retention of these Games Makers.” London saw the highest-ever retention of volunteers at 87%.

Geographically disparate employees

DHL

When DHL drastically reduced the size of its workforce, it sought to engage those remaining around the company’s core purpose - international couriering. Due to DHL’s geographically disparate workforce, language was important, as was culture. Maverick developed content suited to each location and in each local language. It debuted a film that documented DHL’s history to reconnect people with the company’s journey. “When you’re seeing grown men who have been in international trade most of their lives – not necessarily your gentlest of audiences – moved to tears, you know that you’ve managed to hit the nerve that you wanted to hit,” engagement director at Maverick, Simon Kenwright says. Not only were employees reintroduced to the company’s culture, but DHL saw a massive change in bottom line. The company went from losing €2 billion per year to making its largest-ever profit of €1.1 billion in 2010.

Citi Group

The banking crisis left Citibank with depleted trust in the brand and a thoroughly disengaged workforce. Coinciding with the bank’s 200th anniversary, it began to focus on its internal makeup. “Even internally people didn’t know the stories about Citibank,” former MD of the global project office at Citi Jonathan Woodier says. The centrepiece of the year-long project was a music video featuring Citi Group employees. Singers, drummers, rappers and ukelele players galore – 700 employees from 50 countries in total – took part in the video. Some even spontaneously turned up in national costume, including a sombrero-befitted Mexican singer. They were filmed in studios, offices and local sites and the video was a success. The 200th project was responsible for a 37% rise in brand value. “Banks have lost that trust,” Woodier says. “But rebuilding it is important.” Citi’s employees became the primary means of rebuilding.

Shift workers

NHS

The NHS faces a very real problem: When employees are not engaged, people die. Mortality rates have proven to be directly correlated to staff engagement at NHS hospitals. The organisation encourages employees to bring their own device to work promoted by chief executive of NHS Employers, Dean Royles.

By involving leaders with employees and encouraging conversation, most of which is positive, the NHS can help create a happier, more engaged workforce. And, bonus, fewer people die