At our webinar on 6th September, Positive Change Group partners; Black Sun Global, People Made and Stratton Craig explored how the shift in the social and economic landscape has created a new set of challenges for employers, and set out how, by using a combination of innovative people strategy, authentic words and creative communications campaigns, employers can build employee belief in their business.

The theme of the session was very much aligned to the Group purpose of helping bold and visionary companies define and communicate their purpose, strategy, culture and performance. To help them inspire trust, build positive relations and create long-term value for the people who matter most.

People Made’s Founding Partner, Brook Calverley, began by setting the scene. Over the past few years there have been big swings in business and employee confidence; huge disruption to working patterns; fluctuations within the talent market; and a profound change in the relationship employees have with their work.

This has left employees feeling exhausted and burnt out, uncertain and anxious about the future, disconnected from their colleagues and uncertain about their commitment to work.

As a result of this businesses are facing three key challenges:

• The need to re-energise employees
• To reconnect them with the business
• And revitalise their culture

Pioneering businesses are responding by re-focusing their proposition, making the employee experience more flexible, human and supportive, as well as doing truly innovative work around empowerment, inclusion, well-being and flexibility.

Brook shared real-life examples of how companies are achieving this, including companies with internal podcasts sharing employee stories, flexible shift patterns for single mothers, and innovative recruitment practices.

We then heard from Nina Whittaker, Head of Client Services at Stratton Craig. Nina took us through some things companies need to consider when developing their messaging for employees. The rise in remote working has led to many companies having a greatly expanded geographical footprint, resulting in more diversity of employees with a broader range of needs and expectations when it comes to their working lives and how they want to communicate and be communicated with. Nina suggested that developing or refreshing your employee personas is a good way to help plan for the needs of all employee groups. By looking at how, where and when different groups consume internal communications, what their key motivators and challenges are, communications teams can better understand this complex audience and tailor messaging to be more effective.

Companies need to ensure their internal communications are aligned with their brand and purpose, but tailored appropriately. Tools such as messaging frameworks, flexible tone of voice and training toolkits can help achieve this. Nina also emphasised the importance of building employee feedback into your communications planning and noted one example of a company who host a monthly Q&A with the CEO for employees, which facilitated authentic engagement and real time employee feedback.

Finally, Nina shared some writing techniques and tips to make content more relatable, engaging and authentic.

To round off the session Black Sun’s Chief Digital Officer, Richard Dixon, looked at different approaches to bringing the employee story to life. Richard acknowledged that understanding the needs of different categories of employees and potential employees is challenging. From graduates to experienced hires, interns to senior management – they all have different priorities and expectations. Communications teams must also consider how to navigate the complex ecosystem of channels. Richard suggested starting by setting a clear purpose for each of the channels. He also noted the importance of ‘The Golden Thread’, that compelling employee narrative that is woven through all messaging and across all channels.

Richard provided some examples of great careers sites, companies using LinkedIn to its full potential, targeted recruitment campaigns, how to create a seamless experience between careers sites and application tracking systems and best practices intranets.

Finally, Richard highlighted the importance of measuring outcomes. Using analytics and carefully monitoring which elements are driving engagement can really help you to refine and improve your communications efforts.

If you would like the recording of the session, a copy of the presentation or to find out more about how we can help you with your communications please get in touch with Naomi Hawkins, Head of Business Development.