Our thoughts

Listen up, people!  Listening can game-change your workplace culture.

Posted on by noegrus

Listen up, listen in, let me begin.

Here we go again, folks, yet more insight into the world of internal communications from song lyrics!

This time, it’s House of Pain (that’s not a French house made of bread by the way) who are providing the inspiration.

As delegates at our ninth Barn to Boardroom (the networking event for all IC pros) recently heard, listening up and listening in to their people (and getting leaders to do the same) as part of acknowledging peoples’ diverse voices can go a long way towards delivering a great working culture.

You can’t just nod along

But real listening one-to-one is not all that easy. It’s more involved than just nodding along. And how often have you made your feelings clear about something via a survey, only for it not to be even acknowledged by your organisation? Even if it was about the rise in yoghurt thefts from the staff kitchen, it would have been nice for someone to say, ‘we understand’, right?

As B2B 2024 delegates discovered, showing empathy and understanding while acknowledging your people’s views and acting on them is incredibly important to their morale, motivation and to your IC delivery success.

Thankfully, our brilliant B2B speakers were on hand to help our B2B’ers safely traverse the listening and leadership minefield…  so listen up!

Engaging with Viva Engage

As Amy Ellis, Head of Internal Communications at PHS Group, explained, having clear channels and offering your people every chance to talk and share how they are doing is a nailed-on way of demonstrating you care and you’re listening.

Of course, it’s not without its perils, and her leadership team was nervous about pressing ahead with her project to introduce Viva Engage into the business.

Listening to their worries and concerns and understanding their fears was crucial to getting their buy-in. One of their big fears was that they wouldn’t be interesting or have anything to say on the platform.

So, Amy and her team listened. She created a safe space, demoed Viva Engage with them, and explained how it would fit in at PHS.

She listened to PHS people and had data she could use to convince the leadership team that it was what people wanted and needed. She listened in to them 121, helping them overcome individual fears and embarrassments.

It led to her mantra for them on Viva Engage: ‘Be Interested, Not Interesting’. It’s helped shape the leaders’ content, and they are now more visible and in the moment. They’ve opened up, shown real emotion, and shared authentic stories.

How she approached the leaders helped them listen to her, and taking time to understand where they were was transformational for them and the business.

A little league table showing which leadership team member has the most monthly engagement hasn’t hurt in driving some competitiveness, either!

Employee activism

Your people will always have differing views and opposite points of view, and some will be very vocal about how they feel.

 It’s especially true these days when there are so many conflicts and suffering worldwide. Black Lives Matter, Roe v Wade, Gaza, Ukraine. Perhaps your organisation could be doing more for the environment. Your people will have a viewpoint on all of these and more.

So, as Sarah Meurer, B2B Co-Founder and VP of Global Internal Communications at Elsevier, said, you’ll need to demonstrate that you’re listening and understanding while considering how much influence your organisation could or should exert on an issue.

Pretending it ain’t happening isn’t going to cut it, and Sarah suggested working with your leadership team to form a response (if relevant) was a good place to start.

Defining your organisation’s authority on a subject, whether it’s your concern, and how much change you should or could make to the agenda are helpful questions to answer when defining an internal (and external) response to a hot topic.

Whatever happens, Sarah stressed the number one priority should always be ensuring your people feel safe and psychologically protected in an inclusive environment.

Some key ways to deliver it are to create FAQs, be empathetic, offer support and education on a hot topic, and ensure internal social media is managed and monitored.

Where are you on the listening spectrum?

Successful organisations use customer insights and innovation, accept change, do the right thing… and, crucially, listen to their people.

Howard Krais and Mike Pounsford, Co-Authors of Leading The Listening Organisation, told our B2B delegates that workplaces are now entering an ‘age of listening’ where listening is paramount to business success.

To build a deep listening organisation, we need to hear and respond appropriately to our people and ensure that leaders have the right mindset and approach to do this across individual listening styles.

They said businesses can’t innovate without listening, especially to teams close to customers.

Ultimately, organisations need to listen to their people because it’s the right thing to do.

They shared their listening spectrum, which ranges from passive, more reactive, and BAU stages of being a listening organisation to deeper, more engaging, and co-creating organisations and everything in between.

HR and IC – they can work together by listening!

They may have similar goals, often the same values, and the same desire to ensure people can thrive in the workplace. So, why don’t HR and IC always seem to get along?!

Kathryn Kendall, partner and chief people officer at Saltus, told B2B delegates that listening across the departments can help bring people together.

It’s about talking and understanding how HR and IC can help each other. Make the ‘why’ and the ‘because’ of what you’re doing clear, and spend time understanding each other’s goals.

She said investing in listening, genuinely hearing your people, acting on it and ensuring that approach starts from the top is essential to becoming a listening organisation.

It needs to be nurtured. After all, a good workplace culture can’t be taken for granted!

So, there we have it – another B2B done and dusted. Judging by the feedback so far, it was definitely more House of Fun than House of Pain!

In fact, it was so good we’re doing it again next year.

To register for B2B 2025 and enjoy great IC insight (plus a smashing BBQ, free gin and more), go to https://ineedsurgery.com/register-for-tickets/

See you there!

Right, why writing right is right for writing right internal comms… right?

Posted on by noegrus

What, why, where, who, and when are just five little words, helpfully, all starting with a w, so they are easy to remember. 

The next time that horrifically blank Word document stares back at you, willing you to create an award-winning piece of internal comms content, but you’ve got nothing in the tank, start by answering your five Ws. What do I need to get across? Why are we doing it? Where is it happening? To who and when? 

It’s a good place to start. 

Of course, there are some nuances and other bits and pieces to consider when writing for an internal communications audience. But keeping those five little words in your mind and sketching out rough answers to each question should give you a nice basis from which to start your story, email, or that passive-aggressive note asking people not to nick your yoghurt from the shared work fridge. 

Of course, as the Fun Boy Three and Bananarama so wisely once sang, it’s not what you do; it’s the way that you do it. (I did promise never to mention them again in a previous blog, but here we are—sorry!) 

What the 80s pop funsters were obviously trying to say is that while what you say is important, it’s the way that you get it across that will keep everyone on tenterhooks eagerly awaiting your next beautifully composed piece of content. 

Answering those five little questions is the bones of your story, your email (or that passive-aggressive note we spoke about earlier), and it’s a useful mantra to stick to.  

Let’s get to the point already 

If you like a bit of overly flowery prose good for you, but don’t forget to get to the point. It’s a crying shame, but people will scan and read what you put in front of them. In fact, you’re scanning this now I bet. 

All those hours wrestling with your thesaurus (why isn’t there another name for thesaurus?) are to nought if you don’t get to the bleeding point up top.  

That’s why I started with the five ‘Ws’ in the first two paragraphs, that was the point I wanted you to remember. Of course, you may have dropped off to sleep by this paragraph, in which case you won’t be reading this bit anyway. 

KISS! Thought that might wake you up. KISS, of course, stands for keep it simple, silly. That last S actually stands for stupid, but not being overly rude to your readers is another good takeaway to remember. 

So, be less Dostoevsky and more Post-it note. Clarity of message is king. Keeping things simple and ensuring clarity of your message is king, and the king of your writing is clarity of message (a little bit of repeating your core message will help get it across, too, hopefully you saw what I did there). 

Let’s utilise your leverage and deal with the shark 

Write how you talk. Who in real life says utilise instead of use? Have you ever heard anyone say’ leverage’ in any conversation you’ve had throughout your life? What does leverage even mean? 

It’s not big or clever to use long words. Or to tie lead weights to your writing with silly business speak that people will either laugh at or roll their eyes at. 

One old boss of mine, when we were faced with putting out some crisis communications, said we should ‘deal with the shark closest to the boat’. I remember what they were saying, I guess, but it was difficult to take anything else they said seriously after that! 

Slay that dragon

KISS doesn’t mean what we say has to be boring. If you’ve got a bit of space to delve into a topic a bit more, then a bit of storytelling does wonders. People like to hear about other people. If you’ve had a brilliant fiscal year, maybe focus on the people who delivered it, why they did what they did, and what barriers they overcame. We want to know how and why they had to slay that financial dragon rather than getting bogged down in numbers.  

People stories stimulate the soul and spark neurons. Adopting a more human approach means your communications can ring out across the corporate wilderness like a lonely wolf baying for the attention of its pack or a bellowed yodel across a pristine alpine valley. Sorry, got carried away there for a minute, should have kept it simple! 

The point is that a human-inspired story is more likely to be remembered by your people and talked about and shared. 

It’s what AI can’t do yet, it can’t be you. All those AI bots scrabbling across the internet for content helping you prepare that last-minute presentation to your boss can’t compete against your experience, your emotions, and your human responses. 

Reject AI and bring a bit of yourself into your writing. This will keep it honest, genuine, and, importantly, relatable to your audience.  

Rejecting AI will also keep copywriters like me in a job, of course (ahem). 

So, remember your five WSs and KISS. 

Oh, and let’s be more human… hah! Take that AI! 

Remember, we’re here to help with copywriting, storytelling, design, digital strategy, internal communications, EVP, and more! 

Good design is invisible

Posted on by Fran O'Maolain

The thing about good design is you don’t often know it’s good design. Because it just works. 

Don’t get me wrong, design will give us those ‘wow’ moments and totally blow our minds. But 99% of design is totally unsung. It’s so good you don’t even notice it.

That’s not to say it’s easy, mind. It doesn’t just happen by accident. In fact, it’s actually an exercise in user experience. Let me explain.

Designing for the user

Someone once said, ‘the most important story you tell is the one in the mind of the reader’. The quote was actually about copywriting (I can remember that much, just not who said it!). Anyway, you could say something similar about design.

The important aspect of design is how it’s interpreted by the viewer. Therefore, everything is approached with that in mind:

  • What draws you in?
  • Where do you look first?
  • What happens next?
  • How do you get to what you need?

It’s how the mind works…

Have you heard of Gestalt theory? It’s a branch of psychology which says whilst the world is made up of lots of small parts, we process things as a whole. 

So, when you look at a car, you see a vehicle, not a collection of wheels, lights, windows and sheet metal. When you look at spaghetti bolognese (my favourite), you see a meal, not a mound of beef (or, in my case, plant) bits, mushrooms, tomatoes ,and  pasta.

Think of how complex the world would be if we processed everything there is to see. We have to make shortcuts. We do that by grouping things and seeing them as a whole. 

If we didn’t, by the time we processed the sharp claws, big teeth, narrow eyes, etc, the angry bear would have made its own spaghetti bolognese…  out of us.

Gestalt psychology is the foundation of good design.

The key principles

If we’re going to create visual things for people to process, knowing how they process them gives us a great advantage. 

There are various principles at the heart of Gestalt psychology. Here are some of the key ones:

  • Proximity – we make associations between objects based on their location. Where an object sits between two pieces of content, we assume it to belong to the one closest. 
  • Closure – we fill gaps between elements to create a whole image, even when there is not one. Dashes may form a circle, dots may create a square. We just need a suggestion of an image and our minds will do the rest.
  • Continuity – we see things as related when they sit in line. We naturally follow a linear path and connect those things that sit along it. 
  • Figure/ground – we separate what we see as the focal point from what we see as background. Contrast often helps us identify the light on dark or vice versa, but colours and imagery mean it’s not always that simple.   
  • Similarity – we naturally group items together based on colour, size, and orientation. Objects with similar appearance are thought to have the same characteristics (all words highlighted in red must mean X).

With all of these in mind, a good designer can use spacing, contrast, hierarchy and everything at their disposal to create pleasing visuals that just work.

It’s an experience for the user, built around how their mind works.

The unsung heroes

So, each time you look at a brochure, land on a website or see an advert, and just naturally know where to focus, what to attend to and what to take away, – spare a thought for the designer.

They have built visuals to play into how you see the world. 

They’re the ones who have worked hard, so ultimately, you don’t have to!

Get in touch if you need help visualising your story (we’ve also got a great Bolognese recipe too!)

Employer branding: should you hide the crap?

Posted on by noegrus

Let’s be honest; no business is perfect. Yeah, some are pretty good. But we all get things wrong. And we all have areas to improve. Still, when it comes to employer branding, let’s shout about the good stuff and put the rest in a drawer. Right?

Let’s leave that question hanging for a moment and go right back to the start. 

Why do we invest in employer branding? To help us attract better talent? To reduce recruitment costs? To engage existing employees?

Well, everyone will have slightly different objectives, but the crux tends to be attraction, with maybe a little retention. So, it would seem counterproductive to focus on anything other than the actual selling points of the business, wouldn’t it?

Well, our research suggests that when people are looking into a potential employer, the top two things they are looking for are 1) cultural alignment and 2) signs of their reputation.

What’s more, when it comes to choosing a job, we found that employer reputation is the second most influential thing for Generation Z (after culture) and the fourth most influential for everyone else (after work/life balance, salary and benefits, and culture).

People used words like “credibility” and “red flags” when describing what they’re seeking out in a potential new employer.

The reality is job seekers are looking at the good stuff but also digging deeper for reasons not to join.

Trust and believability

It seems safe to assume people’s behaviour is driven by a need for trust. When you read employer claims, you want to make sure they are as real as they say they are and you’re not about to waste time and energy.

So, let’s consider two hypothetical employer brands.

  • Business #1

You land on their career site. They’ve captured all the shiny great stuff that makes them look like a great workplace, with some nice personal employee content to bring it to life. Great.

You’re excited, but you do your due diligence. You look at Glassdoor and feel immediate disappointment that the reviews don’t match the company content.

So, you search for news articles about their culture and find they’ve made some bad decisions in the past. Hmmm.

  • Business #2

The business has captured all the great stuff, as before. But as you scroll through their content, these guys also make some admissions.

They made mistakes in the past, but it’s made them stronger and wiser as a result. They offer many great things, but they’re still working to improve X, Y and Z – and they invite you to be part of that journey.

Maybe they even give a narrative on their employer reviews and recent press, giving a humble understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and demonstrating the action taken as a result.

Which business do you choose?

Who fosters the most trust and belief?

A product versus a relationship

The thing is, when you look at how we market and sell products, we wouldn’t dream of highlighting the things they don’t offer people. Just picture it – “The latest iPhone has the world’s best camera but at the expense of the quality of the speaker”.

It just wouldn’t happen.

But with these products, we’re looking for volume. We want to sell to everyone.

What we’re looking to achieve in employer branding is more akin to building a long-term relationship. So more like eharmony than Amazon.

It’s about developing trust and understanding and taking the steps towards a commitment together.

Spotify admits that the way they work can be chaotic. Netflix openly says they aren’t a good match for people looking for stability or building seniority. Openness breeds believability but also increases the likelihood of finding the right person.

If something sounds like it’s amazing in every possible way, do you just think, “Wow, I’ve hit the jackpot”, or do you think “, Hang on, this sounds too good to be true”? Let’s be honest; an endless list of positives isn’t fooling anyone.

Put yourself in their shoes

It’s hard to distance yourself from the love you have for your company, your role or even your service. It’s what makes you a passionate professional.

But sometimes, the real value comes when you step back from your view of things and see it from your candidate’s perspective. Building your brand based on their behaviour and needs will bring you the most success.

So, should you hide the crap? No, you shouldn’t.

You don’t have to shine huge great lights on it, but the more balance you present, the more believable you’ll feel, and, well, the more you’ll lay down the first steps of a good relationship with the right match.

Want to know more about candidate views? Check out our research here.

Want to learn more about the Surgery and see how we’re people people? See our team here.

How do you convince a candidate to join you?

Posted on by noegrus

How do you get that perfect candidate to take that leap of faith? What would clinch it? And what does that tell us about how we’re really doing?

It’s a golden question. What’s the one thing we could do to convince you to join us?

For me, it’d be – show me how what I’m doing is positively helping people and positively helping the planet. And whilst I’m there, pay for some solar panels for my roof and perhaps a month’s travelling for my wife and me. Oh, and dog care whilst we’re there.

Okay, maybe I need to think that through a little more, but you get the gist.

We asked this question to over 100 people as part of a small research project. And do you know what they said? Certainly not this:

  • Make me MD
  • Buy me a boat
  • Give me shares
  • Double my salary

There were no outrageous requests. Not one.

We were shocked and disappointed. But actually pleasantly surprised! And maybe even a little moved. Genuinely, the nature of most replies was quite humbling.

What do people want? 

What is that one thing, then? What is the one thing that convinces you to join a company?

Yes, there were some of the things you might assume. There were people looking for financial reward, but more in a more measured way than you might think:

  • “More money and better working environment”
  • “Right now, it would probably be a significant salary increase.”
  • “Pay me fairly for my experience and what I bring to the table.”

It was far from the main theme.

You might also assume some requests around flexibility. And you would be right:

  • “Improve work/life balance”
  • “Show me how I can still put home life first.”
  • “four-day week“
  • “Remote work 100%”

But the absolute joy was in the consistent responses around fairness and ethics. People value being treated with respect, living up to values, honesty, and many other humble traits.

Now, we’re not expecting that to be a mind-blowing surprise – people are people. But remember, this is the ONE THING an employer could do. This is your big ask.

Here are ten responses to convey our point:

  1. “To be fair and transparent in all areas of the business.”
  2. “Remove badly behaved employees to live by values.”
  3. “Demonstrate  they are fair, kind and ambitious.”
  4. “Show me how they value their staff.”
  5. “Demonstrate that they put their values at the heart of how they lead and make decisions.”
  6. “Be honest about its failings.”
  7. “Show their track record to match their promises.”
  8. “Respect my views and opinions.”
  9. “Convince me they give off a good energy and that they’re positive about what they do.”
  10. “Have an amazingly driven, kind team.”

And so…

And so, the question is – what do we take from this?

It’s great that people have such humble requests. Treat me fairly. Value my opinions. But it suggests these basic things are currently absent. If that’s the ONE THING you want, then the likelihood is that you don’t have it right now. Is that an assumption? Yes, but it feels like a very logical one.

So, whilst there’s a nice view of humanity from the responses we received, there’s maybe a tainted view of employers.

Are we all getting the basics wrong? 

Are we failing to make people feel they’re appreciated for the value they bring? Are we failing to be honest about our mistakes? Are we failing to show people we care about their opinions?

Here at The Surgery, we’ve always said to have the best employer brand you just need to be the best employer. And I think this underlines our view.

So, before we get excited about the snazzy things we can do to attract new people, let’s get the fundamentals right. For us, that starts with listening. Let’s ask people how we’re doing and build a plan that turns their thoughts into positive action.

Once that’s sorted, I’ll get back to negotiating that month-long trip and those solar panels 😉

Want to hear more about that research study? Download the report here.

The candidate snapshot report 

Posted on by noegrus

What do candidates look for in a new employer? Take a peek and find out… 

We spend a lot of effort recruiting the best talent we can. And it’s hard work.  

Employer branding is a way of making it a little easier, helping people know what you’re about before they even stumble upon a job ad. 

But to get it right we need to understand the people we’re targeting. Are they looking for their next employer? Where do they look? What do they want to find? 

These are just a few of the thing we’ve tried to uncover in this piece of research. So go on, have a read. 

Download your copy of our whitepaper: The Candidate Snapshot Report

AI – the rise of the machines or a useful tool?

Posted on by noegrus

Head of Digital Matt Prudente shares his expert view.

Q: Tell us what you know about AI. Do you see it as a positive or negative?

It’s a funny one. I see lots of positives and a lot of potential. But I also get everyone’s concerns, although maybe people have been watching Terminator too much!

Like anything, there are new tools that come along. I view AI as a tool. My simplest explanation is the development of a screwdriver. A basic screwdriver is great but requires a lot of effort. You can take some of that effort out by using an electric screwdriver. That’s progress, isn’t it? 

It’s how I view AI. We have a lot of repetitive tasks that can be handled by technology. We do it all the time. The Industrial Revolution obviously had a huge impact. And now, with coding and computer tasks, I think AI has the potential to be a great tool. It already is.

We’ve seen it problem solve and build websites. Platforms like ChatGPT can generate code for software like WordPress. If you want a particular function, you ask for it and it’ll create the code to drop into your website. AI handles those more mundane tasks, so you can focus on the bigger picture. 

Take Wix, for example. You can create an entire e-commerce website. It provides content, imagery and a template of your choice. It knows what works and can even apply SEO principles to it. 

And then there’s medicine and science. It’s helping come up with new drugs.

AI will make many developers nervous but it still needs someone at the helm who knows what they’re doing. I think the future will be AI carrying out complete problem solving. It needs data input – visual, language or figures – to produce the solution.

Q: Have you tested it out? Any thoughts on which platforms are performing best (ChatGPT, Bard, Code T5 etc)?

We’re at the stage where we’re figuring out what suits us. We’re already using ChatGPT but there have been some failings. We create hybrid apps and use a framework called ‘ionic’. So I tasked ChatGPT with producing a particular kind of ionic app. It came back with a series of code and told me what to do. As I read, I could see that it was wrong and outdated. There’s a limitation there which means it must be checked constantly.

Having said that, as developers, we’re meant to do code unit tests, to check something’s working correctly. We create our own code to check the code. AI could perform a task like that in a much simpler way. We want to use these tools to make the process less manual.

Co-pilot, a Microsoft AI assistant, is something I’m really interested in it. The benefits will be spending less time on laborious tasks and seeing greater output – quantity and quality – meaning a better product for the client. It’d also reduce the cost of a project. As a business, we’ll be able to deliver faster and save money.

Q: How might AI benefit/impact your role in digital?

There’s always a worry but in any role, we have to keep up. Companies pay for employees to attend training courses to improve their skills, or upskill to an area that’s needed. We should always find a place where we’re needed for work. It just adapts over time. My job changed from working as a printer’s apprentice at 16 years old, to where I am now, heading up digital for the Surgery. I’ve constantly adapted and changed, but there’s always been a job for me. We just don’t know what that’ll look like in the future.

A hundred years ago, lots of labourers had their livelihoods taken away but people still have work and there are many more of us now. AI will replace some jobs, just as it has done in the past, but other jobs will come into play because human interaction is still needed.

Q: Do you think we’ll get to a point where we can teach machines ethics, empathy and compassion?

Those are human traits based on love – different kinds of love. As humans, love is there but we don’t always follow it. We don’t always show empathy and compassion. It’s something we need to cultivate in ourselves. That makes it a challenge, for me, to say that a computer could ever be sentient because it’s feelings, not data.

With programming, humans set the rules but AI sets its own. Rules are ok but principles override rules. If you have principles, you can have two rules that cancel each other out. How will AI manage that, given that compassion and empathy feed in? Love overrides so many rules. Traffic laws, for example, are put in place to protect but what if a decision must be taken that doesn’t follow the rules, even though it’s the right and ethical course of action?

I’ve been trying to think of another hypothetical situation that might relate to this. Let’s say you have an air-conditioned room full of people, that needs to be kept secure. How would AI deal with failed air conditioning while still considering the security threat? Would it open the doors to let fresh air in? The data set might dictate ‘if the temperature reaches 38C, open the door’. Or will it watch people’s expressions, to understand feelings and emotions, and respond? Might it respond intelligently by putting people in place to act as security? How might they feel? A lot of facial recognition AI can read expressions, but subtle nuances often don’t tell the whole picture.

Q: How do you think AI and humans will co-exist?

 It depends on humans! We have choice. AI and technology all come from binary but with humans, we have a choice. It’s power. AI needs power. Computers. A man-made brain to be able to do this stuff.

When we have a power cut, it’s a disaster. AI is just technology, again. When your power tool runs out of battery, we use it manually. As humans, we have a choice as to what we do with it.

When the Industrial Revolution took place, it produced much bigger things and faster. And not long after that, we saw world wars and what was produced there. It can be great but destructive things were also created. There’s always the chance that humans can misuse tools. If you have a hammer, you can build or destroy. It comes down to human choice.

Q: Any other thoughts on AI, now and in the future?

It was 20-30 years ago that most of us were getting emails for the first time. From there, we’re using AI. We don’t have to be in an office – we can work remotely. That’s all come from huge, chunky computers. The advancements have been huge and it’s growing at breakneck exponential speed. Especially when computers are then figuring stuff out for you. The potential is amazing.

The pandemic changed the way we worked. We all had to jump on the digital bandwagon, whether we liked it or not. I wonder if that accelerated the need for AI.

Disruption… do it, deal with it and make it work for you!

Posted on by Fran O'Maolain

Disruption… it’s a fact of life these days.

Like your toast landing butter side down, losing your socks in the laundry, or hastily updating your LinkedIn profile after a terrible day in the office, you’ve probably already experienced disruption at some level.

If you haven’t, you will, sorry about that!

As delegates at our recent Barn to Boardroom event (the networking and learning event for I/C pros) discovered, the good news is there are some solid tactics out there to help you embrace it, learn from it, cope with it and even make it work for you.

In fact, sticking to great internal comms principles, driving an employee-led employee experience, adopting agility, putting out some authentic stories and being bold and resilient might all help, whether you’re being disruptive OR being The Disruptor (what a fab name that would be for a 1980s cartoon baddie, don’t you think?)

A ‘north star’ employee experience

As Barn to Boardroom co-founder and Elsevier’s VP Internal Communications Sarah Meurer and her lovely team Richard Etienne and Lisa Pantelli explained, defining your employee value proposition can give you a real anchor should the waters around you get a bit choppy.

Making sure your EVP is clear and well-defined with employees and that it forms the basis of not just the employee experience but drives through to the external talent proposition means it can become your shiny and twinkling north star.

It’s not something you can sit around with a cup of tea and come up with. Authentic EVPs are something you’ll uncover using insight, insight and more insight from your people.

Giving it plenty of welly at launch and through drumbeat comms, and allowing your people to tell their stories will get your EVP messages ingrained in your BAU and get everyone feeling it every day.

Ready for anything with agile thinking

A bit of agility can also get you ready to disrupt or be The Disruptor (trademark pending).

It’s about being efficient, reducing those processes that drag along behind you every day, stopping you from being innovative and coming up with those funky disruptive ideas. Like new names for ‘80s cartoon baddies, for instance.

As Kate Hughes, Group Internal Comms Manager from Cambridge University Press and Assessment, shared, an iterative define-build-release model can help you constantly refine and learn on the go. It’s for BAU not just for projects and campaigns!

Team scrums, project sprints, and development bursts. They’re all part of your wider agile armoury, helping to drive collaboration, to be slicker in what you do, to reduce risk, to visualise and prioritise the work, and to be on-your-toes ready for whatever is around the corner.

Once upon a time

Stories. We all love them. But if they’re not compelling, genuine or come from those who are actually living them then you’re missing a great chance to be disruptive.

Sam Bleazard, Employer Brand Content Producer at Fortnum and Mason, knows a thing or two about disruption. In fact, he even created his job himself after persuading the bosses at the luxury brand a bit of storytelling is exactly what they need. Nice disruption, Sam!

As he says, sharing great internal personal stories (every business has great people with a story to share) is about creating that genuine, emotional connection with customers, and of course, with potential new talent.

Sam’s takeaway advice is to think about the stories you’re not telling. It’s likely they’ll be much more compelling than the one you’ve just posted on LinkedIn. Oh, and if you can get the CEO to share what they’ve been up to on your socials, it’s even better.

Eating disruption for breakfast

For Laura Campbell, Internal Communications Director at EasyJet, it’s all about resilience because resilience eats disruption for breakfast. She really should know. There can’t be many industries that have had to deal with as much disruption as aviation in recent years.

Natural disasters, cancellations, delays, even a global pandemic. You can add all that to the comms challenges presented by having a remote, up-in-the-air, and desk-based workforce at a high-profile household-name brand which is very visible on social media. Think I’d take the toast landing butter side down anytime!

Everything Laura and her team have dealt with has built real resilience. They use the power of their internal channels to integrate, to head off problems at the pass and to make their senior leaders visible and accessible. It means their strategy and responses to disruption are clearly signposted and out there. It’s really increased the value of their internal comms channels, too.

It kinda goes back to those good old comms principles. When the going gets tough, keep going and keep communicating. As Laura says, it means they’ve been able to bring back the joy (and the fun) of working in travel.

Be The Disruptor on LinkedIn

Personal branding, ooff. It’s one of those things we need to think about if we want to be disruptive, stand out and be noticed. It’s not always comfortable talking about what you do and how good you are at it, though, right?

As Vicki Marinker, Candid Career Coach, wonderfully told her attentive Barn to Boardroom audience, you can get yourself out there and grab attention without being a total $&*7.

It’s not all about you, of course. LinkedIn is where all the talent is just hanging around, waiting for the next piece of inspiring content to thwack them over the head. It’s where the decision-makers are too. In fact, LinkedIn is 277% (yes, you read that right) more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. 81% of B2B buyers are more likely to engage with someone who has a strong personal brand. Vicki makes a very compelling case!

So, whether it’s your brand or you’re updating the pages for Timpkins and Sons, remember Vicki’s seven Cs – complete your profile, curate your feed, connect, communicate, comment, create and be consistent.

So, another brilliant Barn to Boardroom (which had its own fair share of pre-event disruption thanks to rail delays, torrential downpours and chairs for the event only just turning up in time!) is done and dusted.

It was so good we should do it again next year!

Interested in employer branding? Download our whitepaper to understand the context, case and considerations for a modern employer brand.

The intriguing world of driving engagement through employee personas

Posted on by Fran O'Maolain

In the bustling realm of internal communications (IC), one pivotal element that often goes overlooked is the understanding of employee personas. These fascinating character profiles provide a window into a company’s workforce.

From the diligent tech wizard who lives and breathes innovation to the enthusiastic social butterfly who sparks contagious energy, employee personas offer valuable insights for crafting effective IC strategies.
So, how do they shape the fabric of corporate culture?

The Visionary Trailblazer

At the helm of every organisation, you’ll find the Visionary Trailblazer; someone who’s brimming with ideas and a tireless appetite for innovation. This persona thrives on opportunities to reshape the company’s future, eagerly seeking out the next big breakthrough. To engage the Visionary Trailblazer, IC should think about offering a platform for brainstorming sessions, sharing cutting-edge industry trends and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

The Analytical Problem-Solver

Meet the Analytical Problem-Solver, armed with spreadsheets, data-driven insights and an insatiable thirst for cracking complex challenges. This persona’s cerebral prowess and methodical approach ensures that no problem is left unsolved. IC should emphasise logical reasoning, present structured information, and provide opportunities for critical thinking and problem-solving exercises, to effectively communicate with the Analytical Problem-Solver.

The Social Connector

There’s a Social Connector in every office; a vivacious persona whose mere presence electrifies the room. They possess an uncanny ability to forge connections, build camaraderie and bring diverse teams together. To capture the attention of the Social Connector, IC should consider incorporating elements of fun, team-building activities, and foster an inclusive, collaborative environment.

The Detail-Oriented Perfectionist

Ever met that colleague who spots the smallest typo from a mile away? That’s the Detail-Oriented Perfectionist. This meticulous persona ensures that every comma is in its place, every PowerPoint slide is pixel-perfect and every document is flawlessly formatted. To engage the Detail-Oriented Perfectionist, IC should focus on precision, accuracy, and attention to detail, providing well-structured guidelines and templates.

The Enthusiastic Learner

Enter the Enthusiastic Learner, a perpetual student who craves knowledge and growth opportunities. This persona views each new project as an opportunity to acquire new skills and broaden their horizons. To captivate the Enthusiastic Learner, IC should offer a variety of learning resources, training programmes and platforms for knowledge sharing.

The Empathetic Supporter

Behind every successful team, there’s an Empathetic Supporter. This persona possesses exceptional listening skills and a genuine desire to help colleagues overcome challenges. They are the go-to person for advice, encouragement and an empathetic ear. Providing opportunities for team recognition and promoting employee well-being initiatives is a great way to tap into this persona’s needs.

Good stuff but how do we build our own employee personas?

  • First of all, talk to your colleagues with experience in building personas.
  • Talk to your employees. Set up working or focus groups. Understand their wants, needs and niggles.
  • Decide what criteria you’ll use to categorise your personas.
  • Build and store your new personas.
  • Test them out. They’ll naturally evolve over time but keep going.

Making use of personas

Having realistic expectations is important. In reality, you won’t be able to generate an optimum number of personas to cater for everyone but you can create examples highlighting common problems, based on your research or data. Addressing key challenges, segmenting your audience, deciding on preferred channels for communication and understanding what motivates your employees are all hugely beneficial learnings for cultivating positive engagement and hanging on to your staff. These learnings often have a domino effect, resulting in meeting your customers’ needs, meaning the business wins too.

Employee personas should serve as a guide to understanding your workforce’s needs. By striking the right balance between personalisation and authenticity, organisations can create a workplace culture where IC thrives, driving engagement to new heights.

Virtual work events: the good, the bad and the Wi-Fi woes

Posted on by Fran O'Maolain

In a post-pandemic world, virtual work events have become all the rage. We’ve bid farewell to the days of stuffy conference rooms and awkward icebreakers and said ‘hello’ to the convenience of online gatherings. But, as with anything in life, there are good bits and bad bits.

The pros…

Super convenient

No more commuting long distances, getting stuck in traffic, or rushing to make it on time. With virtual events, you can join from the comfort of your own home, or anywhere with a stable internet connection. Plus, it opens up opportunities for employees globally to participate and collaborate more easily.

Kinder to the purse strings

Hosting an in-person event can be a hefty financial burden. Think about it: venue rentals, catering, travel expenses and accommodation can quickly add up. Virtual events, on the other hand, eliminate these costs. All you need is a reliable platform, and you’re good to go. So, not only can companies save a ton of money, but they can also allocate those resources to other important areas of their business.

Being inclusive

Traditional in-person events can be challenging for employees with disabilities or those who have difficulty attending due to personal commitments. Virtual events allow everyone to participate on an equal footing, creating a more inclusive and diverse environment. Moreover, introverts, who may feel overwhelmed by large gatherings, can find online events more comfortable and less intimidating.

And the cons…

Lack of in-person interaction

While technology is wonderful, it can’t fully replicate the experience of being physically present with others. Non-verbal cues, spontaneous conversations and building personal connections can be more challenging in a virtual setting. It can be harder to establish rapport and develop strong relationships with colleagues and clients, sometimes leading to feeling isolated or disconnected.

Screen freeze and other glitches

We’ve all been there – frozen screens, lagging audio or poor internet connections. Technical issues can disrupt the flow of the event, cause frustration, and hinder effective communication. Backup plans are a must. Test the technology in advance and be prepared to troubleshoot problems on the fly, before it turns into a tech nightmare.

The buzz

Virtual events can seriously lack the energy and excitement that come with in-person gatherings. The buzz in the air, the shared laughter and the spontaneous moments of inspiration can be harder to replicate virtually. Engagement and motivation can suffer too.

Winning with virtual events

There’s no exact formula for producing a gold-star virtual event but you can follow some easy steps to make it much more likely. Here’s how to engage your audience and add some digital dynamism:

  • Trying creating a fully managed vision-mixed broadcast with production levels that’ll make the audience feel like they’re watching a TV show – as opposed to it feeling like ‘yet another virtual meeting’.
  •  Share real stories that capture the attention and imagination.
  • Mix up the content with live speakers, interviews, video, Slido (or similar), and chat.
  • Ensure the content is fast paced, with no one presenting live without interaction for longer than nine minutes. There’s even some proper neuroscience research from Inc to back this up.
  • Give people a reason not to switch off with a ticker tape teaser – ‘coming up next is….’
  • Make sure everyone knows it’s fully live (and not just a recording they can snooze through).
  • Let people interact with the speakers via the chat and Slido.
  • Keep it interactive and fluid with quizzes, questions and polls.

Let’s champion the virtual work event revolution, adapt to its challenges and make the most of our digital connections.