The Conference, as you would expect, brought together professionals from a wide range of industries all of whom wanted to learn more about the power of internal communications. The one-day event consisted of interactive and roundtable sessions, as well as case study presentations by communications professionals from some of the biggest household names including the BBC, The Body Shop and Five Guys. These presentations provided crucial insights into how they implemented their internal communications strategy and the impact it had on employee engagement, wellbeing and even the positive impact on business results.
Here are four examples that really resonated with Emma and make for some truly inspiring internal communications stories…
Body Shop
Speaker – Anais Nebel, Global Communications & Campaign Manager
Both during and immediately following the pandemic, the Body Shop realised that there was a global self-esteem crisis underway. With a strong ethos of utilising the business as a force for good, the Body Shop wanted to empower its employees and create an emotional connection. They did this by creating a ‘self-love anthem’, written by employees through affirmations, identified by asking three questions. Engagement from employees in doing this was extremely high, showcasing that they wanted to open up and let Head Office hear their thoughts. The resulting song was a huge hit, played at Body Shop locations worldwide!
BBC
Speaker – David Manning, Head of Internal Communications
During his presentation, David highlighted the importance of leadership involvement in internal communications. He noted that before he joined in his role, one department within the BBC had only received three emails in one year. Consistent communication and messaging was key to the BBC’s internal communication strategy for David. With team members and freelancers based throughout the UK this was crucial and very much worked in the BBC’s favour. An example of this that David used was the recent coverage of the Queen’s passing; this was rehearsed twice a year and consistently communicated amongst the team, meaning when the time came, everyone was calm, knew where they needed to be, and coverage went off without a hitch.
Five Guys
Speaker – Bastian Bauermeister, Head of Operations & Communications
When the pandemic forced all Five Guys restaurants to close, the Five Guys team quickly worked to launch their ‘Chatty Patty’ app that had been in testing stage; this allowed the team to easily communicate with one another, wherever they may be. Bastian noted that this communication tool was essential to the business’ survival during the pandemic. Not only does the app allow teams to communicate, it provides the opportunity to ‘learn while they earn’, with all documents available on the app with the aim of training the managers of the future.
TalkTalk
Speaker – Jane Garnsey, Head of Operations & Communications
TalkTalk is a huge organisation, with over 2000 employees and 3-4k global offshore contact agents. Their challenge was how they could engage with this very large team during the pandemic when everyone was working apart. Wellbeing was at the forefront of their strategy during this time, with the CEO playing an integral part in this through daily live events (from her bathroom no less!). During this time, they identified that a very small number of people knew what TalkTalk’s values were, and that these values didn’t align with their company policies and the culture they wanted to create. As a result, they set about refreshing their values, with the input of employees, this led TalkTalk to having its highest engagement score in April 2020.
Speaking about the Conference, Emma has said:
“The Engage Internal Communications Conference was a brilliant event, and for me, confirmed really strong themes and important factors within Internal communications. It was brilliant to be able to hear real stories from large organisations who have turned their internal communications strategies around resulting in amazingly good engagement scores, retention and even positively impacting external sales in the process.”
Want to learn more about great internal communications? Speak to the Endorphin team today on 01244 310 140.