What's on your mind? Here are a number of solutions that we offer to address issues that you may be facing.
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The Challenge
A large services company doing business is over 60 countries was redefining their business strategy and the promise they made to the marketplace.
The Solution
This organization partnered with us to work through our strategy execution process outlined in the following steps:
- We worked with them to align all of the messages-business, operational, cultural, and behavioral-in a framework that told a story for the entire organization.
- Using driver analysis in an employee survey, we determined the three areas of internal focus that would motivate and engage employees to commit to the delivery of the new strategy. This helped the organization clearly focus their resources on those initiatives that would have the greatest impact.
- By working with each tier of leadership, starting with the global leadership team, the organization defined the messages and the role of leaders in modeling the messages and engaging employees in the new strategy. An action planning process established built-in accountability to ensure each leader fulfilled their commitments.
- A session was designed to tell the story of the change and very clearly identify the behavior change needed from employees. Train-the-trainer sessions were conducted around the world, and the participants then trained managers to conduct these sessions with their workgroups to build specific action plans around bringing the new strategy to life in their work group.
The Results
The new business strategy and its execution were regarded well by "The Street" and stock prices rose significantly. Questions were benchmarked in the annual survey and will be measured each year for improvement, using driver analysis to set priorities to continue improving levels of employee engagement.
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The Challenge
A global consumer products organization announced a new vision and values, but employee survey scores showed that the organization was not highly engaged in living them.
The Solution
As we partnered with this organization, the objectives were to:
- Align and mobilize their multifunctional teams behind clear priorities.
- Drive innovation by generating possibilities and encouraging risk taking.
- Respect and fully leverage the time, talent and opinions of others.
The work to accomplish these objectives included:
- Further clarifying the values and critical success factors so they were actionable.
- Developing messaging that told a story about their business strategy, why it was the best strategy, and the definition of success in the marketplace.
- Defining the desired behaviors that were needed from employees for the organization to achieve business success.
- Aligning leadership by facilitating a Say/Do Analysis to identify the actions they would need to take to build trust and credibility in the organization for the new vision and values.
- Designing working sessions for managers to facilitate with their employees to talk about how to live the vision and values in their particular workgroup.
- Developing an employee communication and engagement strategy that provided continual, creative ways to reinforce the vision and values, and associated behaviors, through storytelling.
- Launching a spontaneous, highly inclusive recognition program that reinforced the living of the values with a major kickoff event for all employees and workshops for all managers that taught them how to effectively recognize employees.
The Results
A year after this work began, the engagement survey was administered to employees once again. The scores on all values increased by at least eight percentage points with the exception of one value on which the organization did commit to action. The scores on that value went down by 10%. The organization quickly saw the impact of walking the talk.
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The Challenge
A global pharmaceutical company wanted to develop a global onboarding process that would provide a consistent understanding of the organization and culture, decrease the time it takes for new employees to become productive, and more deeply connect new hires to the organization. The challenge was that there were several groups around the world working on pieces of the processes at the same time, and there was no common framework around the new onboarding program to integrate this work.
The Solution
We worked with the global sub-teams to develop an overarching process that would be implemented worldwide. The process defined timing, categories of learning for the new hire, and how that learning would be experienced, whether through self-study, group sessions, or individual meetings with their manager.
The framework also had elements of flexibility built in to meet the needs of local geographies and groups. In addition, we created several elements to support the process, including:
- A visual look and feel to brand the process.
- A brochure explaining the onboarding process that was distributed to all employees worldwide.
- An intranet site that would be accessible to all new employees.
- An e-learning module to assist and motivate hiring managers to help new employees effectively integrate into the organization.
- Surveys that would be administered to new employees at key times in the process to gather feedback and improve the process.
We also developed a comprehensive implementation strategy, guide and tools to ensure that stakeholders (e.g., Global and local HR, Hiring Managers, Peer Coaches, Employees) understood their role and accountabilities and to generate commitment.
The Results
The new onboarding process received positive feedback from stakeholders, managers and new hires. In addition, an internal global award was granted to recognize the success of the project.
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The Challenge
A global biotechnology and medical device manufacturer was concerned about their ability to recruit and retain employees in their most competitive job categories. They determined that the "employer brand" that they were currently communicating to potential candidates and employees was not effective in articulating what was truly special about working in the organization.
The Solution
We worked with the company to develop a unique and compelling employer brand that defined what employees could expect from the company, and what the company would expect from employees. To do this, we:
- Interviewed senior leaders throughout the organization to determine what was truly unique about working at the company.
- Developed an employer brand "hypothesis", with organizational "proof points," which we then tested in employee focus groups to ensure they were credible and compelling.
- Conducted a quantitative survey with desired candidates who had turned down job offers, as well as a sample of employees, to determine the perceived strengths and challenges of a career opportunity with the organization.
The Results
- A powerful employer brand was developed that articulated the advantages of working for this company--an articulation of what the company could offer employees and what employees were expected to give back to the company.
- To support it, the organization aligned internal communication and processes around it and developed a visual recruiting campaign that would support it. In addition, we developed a method for demonstrating the return on investment for the employer brand.
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The Challenge
A global marketing organization within a pharmaceutical company was undergoing a major technology change in how they conducted their marketing operation. The challenge was that the new process had been communicated in a way that emphasized the complexity of the change, and employees did not understand the change or what they would need to do differently.
The Solution
We worked with the organization to develop a graphically compelling, colorful and "fun" journey map, which used a visual analogy to pictorially show the process. The map communicated the new process in a simple, compelling way, simplified communication around the process, and showed its advantage over the previous approach to marketing.
To develop and execute the journey map, we:
- Provided all employees with a copy of the journey map, which included language articulating the process.
- Provided managers with a supporting tool kit and process for discussing the map and tailoring the message to each specific employee group.
- Incorporated elements of the map into other communications and training that were connected with the implementation of the new system.
The Results
The journey map was a tremendous success, and employees became more engaged in and committed to the new marketing process. Understanding increased significantly and the elements from the journey map were still being used to communicate about the process 18 months later.
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The Challenge
A leading financial institution partnered with us on a communication audit, which clearly showed that if senior leaders were more effective in communicating about business strategy and current challenges, the entire culture would benefit and employees would be more engaged.
The Solution
We partnered with Corporate Communication to design an experience for leaders that creates organization-wide alignment around the role of leaders as communicators and builds their skills for successful execution. The work, which begins with the Operating Committee and their direct reports, includes:
- Interviews with participating leaders to develop customized messages and workshop content to meet the needs of each business group.
- A survey administered to participants' direct reports to assess the leaders' communication skills in each work group.
- A day-long, highly interactive workshop that includes:
- The business case for leadership communication using data specific to each team
- Aligned messages for the organization and each specific division
- Strategies for effective leadership communication during change
- Customized skill-building for each group that includes storytelling, listening, and recognizing
- An action planning process to clearly define next steps and accountabilities for each workshop participant.
The Results
Feedback from the training sessions has been positive and leaders throughout the company often refer to the session contents when discussing how best to communicate company issues and initiatives. A demand has been created to roll the sessions out more quickly and deeper into the organization. Questions about leadership communication effectiveness have been benchmarked in the 2007 survey and results will be compared for improvement in the 2008 survey.
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The Challenge
One of the largest financial institutions in the world established a goal to create a World Class Communication function by doing work that continually enhances the corporate reputation internally and externally, and is viewed by leaders as a key driver of business success. This would require that the function start doing more strategic work and stop doing some of the more tactical work for which people had come to depend on them.
The Solution
By partnering with Corporate Communication using our five-step Communication Transformation Process, we helped them make a significant change in the work they are doing and the way are perceived. The initiative addressed the following:
- Definition of the Business Model - The business case for this change was built using a combination of international research and organization-specific data. As part of building leadership buy-in, we also identified the Corporate Communication business model by visioning their work on a continuum with descriptors such as tactical vs. strategic, client driven vs. business driven and difficult to value vs. measurable.
- The Work - Once the vision was agreed upon, the implementation work included a communication audit to use as a benchmark and set priorities, clear definition of work that would be in and out of scope in the future model, leader and manager workshops to provide them with the skills and tools to be better communicators, a proactive media strategy, and a metrics and measurement plan.
- The Team - A plan was developed to engage all Corporate Communication employees in the new strategy and ensure they each understood the role they will play. Skills workshops are being conducted to help them transition to their new roles and recognition is a key component in reinforcing the desired behaviors.
- Tools and Processes - A playbook was created to provided tools and processes to be used in executing the new communication vision. A supporting website and measurement tools were also key support tools.
- Clients - Recontracting toolkits were created to help the communication team generate excitement and create new expectations with their clients.
The Results
This company recently underwent a major reorganization. Corporate Communication worked closely with the top executives through the entire process and was given credit at the end for "one of the most successful major changes" the organization has ever executed. The communication audit will be administered in the future to measure progress, and there are metrics in place for individual initiatives showing significant improvements.
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The Challenge
A global pharmaceutical company that tripled its revenue in just three years had articulated a new vision and set of corporate values. Transforming these into reality by putting them into daily practice, however, would require the organization to engage its thousand-plus employees more effectively.
The Solution
We conducted an employee survey and communication audit to assess messages employees were hearing, how employees preferred to receive information, how well they understood the new values and their role in achieving the vision, and what obstacles were preventing them from turning the vision into reality. The assessment identified four challenges. Employees needed:
- More information on how to live the values and achieve the vision. This information was subsequently communicated through a series of off-site workshops.
- More just-in-time information to better educate the employees on business performance and strategy. Designing and implementing an internal website helped meet this need.
- Improved communication skills for managers, which was addressed through manager training.
- Greater recognition for their achievements, which the company addressed through a new recognition program.
The Results
- We worked with the organization to develop and implement solutions to each of these challenges.
- The same employee survey was conducted 18 months later, and results showed that scores went up significantly in each of the area of focus by up to 19%.
Our services include, but aren't limited to:
- Strategy planning and implementation
- Leadership Alignment workshops
- Manager engagement/communication workshops
- Business strategy articulation
- Project management
- Social media strategy
- Cross-generational strategies
- Recognition programs
- Recruiting strategy and materials
- Virtual worker workbooks and tactics
- Onboarding
- Engagement surveys
- Communication Audits
- Focus Groups
- Communication skills workshops
- Journey maps
- Meeting design and facilitation
- Graphic Design
- Website development
- Print and electronic collateral
- Various Workshops and elearning