Overview
Recognising that communication was critical to the success of the international acquisition and the subsequent transformation and rebrand of the new business, this Construction Industry Client Partner asked us to:
- To design and build the Corporate Communications function and to establish a plan to communicate leadership and direction setting to the organisation from Pre-Day 1 activity and launch through separation and transformation.
- To work with the Programme Management Office and change management teams to communicate the emerging operational change model.
- To establish effective channel strategy and a communication framework for all internal and external communications, and to support the development of the external brands in partnership with the Marketing and Customer Insight & Experience team.
The Challenge
To communicate brand new leadership and direction from Day 1 launch and to increase overall workforce engagement and digital uptake across multiple sites that were experiencing varied levels of connection, digital literacy and infrastructure; and to reduce over-duplication and complication of existing messaging.
Approach
To establish a core Communications team and design a simplified operating model for the Communication function (including a defined channel strategy) and to create clear, effective key messaging for the leadership and direction of the new company.
Steps taken:
- Defined objectives and KPIs.
- Mapped key stakeholders and identify priority audiences.
- Established value proposition, vision, and key messages by audience by delivering insight surveys and focus groups to understand current state of the vision, to align values, and customer offer.
- Identified current internal and external channels across territories (for internal this included newsletters, apps, handheld devices, F2F meetings, CEO update and team events (and externally social media, website, branches, press releases and media coverage as well as partners and suppliers).
- Designed a communication strategy to include all internal and external communications activity.
- Defined approach for how communities and change champions can bring the strategy to life.
- Developed employer brand proposition with internal partners and wider business.
- Defined content and knowledge strategy and current communication tools including exploring how to reach more disconnected populations.
- Established a methodology and dashboards to measure how change and engagement is being successfully landed alongside the data team.
Outcomes
We delivered:
- The set-up of a core Corporate Communication function including a team of talented individuals with the right skills in place from Day 1, with defined roles and deliverables.
- A key messaging house and channel strategy.
- A temporary intranet solution whilst a more detailed offer was being designed and delivered with international partners by the wider Programme team.
- An established ‘internal working group’ for co-production and continuous improvement of communications with strong communication representation and relationship held within the wider change network.
- A rebrand development plan and integrated brand team.