DIRECTIONS SUPPLEMENT

JULY /AUGUST 08

TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE WORLD OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Why putting employees genuinely at the heart of the organisation is about genuinely listening to individual needs

Onelump

ortwo?

Directions SupplementJuly / August 08

What’s so great about working at Google? According to Avinash Kaushik1 who spent 11 months working there and wrote a blog about it, it is not only that the food in the canteen is superb, but that the chefs come and ask you what you think about the food – ‘to your utter shock the fi rst few times. They actually care’.

Of course, Avinash writes in his blog about other great things about working at Google, like the scale of the impact you can have, the green policies and the brilliant people. But this does illustrate that small things can make a big difference. And if you can make a person feel that the organisation cares by asking them what they think about the food, how would it make people feel if you asked them about the direction of the organisation? Or what we should be doing about climate change? And doing so in such a way that people feel listened to, feel that they have an infl uence – and also that they have a responsibility.

It is probably fair to assume that Avinash is not one of the ‘massive middle’ that professional services fi rm Towers Perrin identifi ed in their Global Workforce survey of nearly 90,000 employees in 18 countries. These are the 71% of employees who are

either partially engaged or partially disengaged. It seems to us that this is actually less of an engagement gap, and more of a gaping void – as well as a lot of latent energy and potential waiting to be released.

Avinash’s story embodies Towers Perrin’s conclusion that the organisation itself is the most powerful infl uencer of employee engagement and that companies have ‘a real opportunity to dramatically improve engagement levels, starting with listening to what their own employees have to say’2.

Olivia SprinkelHead of Employee Engagementsalterbaxterosprinkel@salterbaxter.com

Anyone for a cup of tea? We are running a breakfast seminar exploring some of the issues raised here in more depth in September.

For more information and to book a place, email Louise atldudley-williams@salterbaxter.com

Welcome to the July/August edition of Directions Supplement.In this issue we go inside the organisation and look at why taking the time to involve employees, ask questions and listen is vital for successful employee engagement (cups of tea not obligatory).

Lindsey Oliver of British Gas Energy and Penny Lawson of ITV shed some light on how they have listened to and involved their employees in decision making and ways of working which affect the whole company. And Tom Smith of Lane4, a leading performance development consultancy, and Stuart MacKenzie of Maynard Leigh, a leading behavioural change consultancy, look at different ways of creating the organisational conditions for engagement.

What was the background to the project? Why was a new vision required?Signifi cant changes in our industry and in our senior management team over the previous two to three years meant our old vision ‘Real people enabling businesses to do business’ was losing its meaning and wasn’t resonating with our people any more. This was made particularly clear in 2007 through the feedback we received from our people via the Financial Times and Sunday Times Best Companies surveys and our own annual employee engagement survey.

How did employees get involved?When we examined the feedback we had received, we were able to see fi ve clear themes that our people felt needed addressing and were very important to them. These themes were around leadership visibility, personal growth, empowerment, recognition and of course vision and direction.

In January 2008 our MD, Badar Khan, sent out a simple e-mail to the whole business summarising the fi ve key themes, asking for volunteers who would be keen to be involved in developing ideas and initiatives that would address each one.

We received over 100 responses and so set up fi ve cross-functional, cross-level Ideas Teams of 20 people, each responsible for working on a different theme. Each team was allocated a volunteer Chairperson from our Employee Engagement Champion network and sponsored by a Director who gave them support and guidance when they needed it.

What did the Ideas Team responsible for the vision do?The senior and then wider Leadership Team had already done a lot of work around the vision, with mixed results! So they handed it over to the Vision Ideas Team as the recognised ‘voice of the people’ to see what they could do with it.

What was the vision that was developed?Our new vision is ‘Energy Experts powering British business’ and is supported by six statements which describe how we’ll achieve it, including ‘we value and invest in our people’ and ‘we get every bill right fi rst time’. In quite a unique turn of events, the vision didn’t actually get fi nal approval from the board. It was the Ideas Team who had the fi nal say, and it was their fi nal say we have today. Badar was involved throughout the process but it was fully owned, agreed and fi nalised by the Ideas Team.

What’s the key difference between the vision originally developed by the Leadership Team and that developed by the Ideas Team? The Ideas Team took the wording and the sentiment that the Leadership Team had developed and simplifi ed it. The original version was a bit too detailed and prescriptive – not, well, visionary enough. The Ideas Team brought a level of confi dence that we could ‘drill down’ into the detail at a later stage and that it wasn’t required up front.

Lindsey OliverEmployee Engagement Manager British Gas Energy

In the spirit of questioning and listening, we’d love to hear what you think. All of these articles can be found online at: www.salterbaxter.wordpress.com. Do you agree? Or not? Please share and take part in the debate. Plus tell us what you think are the most important issues that businesses face today in engaging employees.

1 http://tiny.cc/RqylZ (a shortcut to Avinash Kaushik’s blog post)2 http://tiny.cc/EuhRN (a shortcut to the relevant page on Towers Perrin’s website)

Owning a vision – How British Gas Business employees generated a new vision for the company. Lindsey Oliver speaks to Directions.

British Gas Business (BGB) is the B2B arm of British Gas.

Just under 2,500 employees at fi ve sites who are mainly offi ce-based and include account managers, billing, debt, and sales.

In 2008, British Gas Business was listed in the Financial Times Top 50 Best Workplaces UK index for the fourth year running.

“ All the focus was immediately placed on ‘How can we achieve the vision?’”

Earl Grey

Mint

Rose

hip

Camm

omile

Directions Supplement July / August 08

How did you communicate the new vision?Badar and his senior team communicated the vision to all our people via a series of roadshows at venues close to each site over a period of 3–4 weeks. The actual ‘reveal’ was through an ‘Apprentice’ style video showing how the vision had been created, starring, you’ve guessed it, our Ideas Team. Badar and his team then went into detail about how we would achieve our vision and supporting statements over the coming years.

People were then given the opportunity to discuss what they’d heard in small teams and fed back to the whole group about what excited them about the vision and what they personally thought they needed to do differently to help achieve it.

Because our people had ultimately been responsible for developing the vision, throughout the launch there were no quibbles about its validity. All the focus was immediately placed on ‘How can we achieve the vision?’ rather than ‘Is this right?’. As such, we’ve achieved a high level of buy-in and this has given the subsequent roll-out and communication a real sense of momentum. People stepped up and offered to lead various initiatives to support the development of each statement, it was quite something to witness. The end result will be a continuation of the roll-out, heavily influenced by the feedback received.

What other plans do you have for engagement around the vision going forward? We’ve already had ‘Vision barbeques’ at all sites. With so much change to take in at the roadshows, a chance to reflect on the vision and then discuss in an informal, fun atmosphere a week or so later has proved a hit.

The main roll-out activity will be the ‘Vision in a box’ – a pack of support material that will be used at team meetings to drill down into the detail to make it come to life for all our people.

The main objective, however, is to relate all our existing activity back to our vision, not create a standalone programme around it – that’s where people will best be able to make the connections.

What would you say was the key lesson that you learnt from this process? Simply that involving people in decisions that they have an interest in and that affect them is the right thing to do. If you want buy-in then involvement from the start makes it much easier.

A company band might not be one of the recognised techniques of employee engagement. But for us it is all part and parcel of creating the right environment at work.

At the heart of our approach is a ‘belief in potential’. It is about supporting personal and professional development to allow people to become the best they can be. This is facilitated by a strong coaching culture. Monthly ‘Magic Mondays’ help us share learning as well as being a vehicle for business updates, and we are all entitled to 10 development days and optional sabbaticals.

We all have a clear connection to the vision of the organisation through a balanced scorecard mechanism, which helps us to balance, amongst other things, our well-being in an organisation with a strong drive towards achievement. Our own individual scorecard connects to our team’s scorecard, which connects to the organisation’s. Managers at Lane4 are encouraged to continually challenge and support their teams, creating an environment where individuals have the confidence to be innovative and to flourish and are more likely to understand the true value of their contribution.

For us, well-being surpasses simply ‘feeling good’, we believe in building great relationships and strong levels of trust with each other. The research shows that individuals who have strong relationships with co-workers and their line manager are more likely to be engaged at work. For example, sociability is a strong part of our culture both informally and formally. We have quarterly company days which allow busy people time to connect, catch-up and review performance against our goals. We are also regulars at the annual Corporate Games, have ‘Work Club Environment’ groups for New Skills, Sports & Well-Being, Outings & Excursions and of course the Lane4 band that performs at our social events. Through these activities we are able to have different types and levels of conversations and discover mutual interests, all of which are essential to creating the right supportive yet high performance environment.

When high levels of rapport exist, between individuals, managers and teams, you have the essential foundation to build strong engagement at all levels. Not to mention a pretty good band.

“ For us, well-being surpasses simply ‘feeling good’, we believe in building great relationships and strong levels of trust with each other.”

Tom SmithHead of Organisational Development Lane4, a performance development consultancy

Creating the right environment – Tom Smith, an occupational psychologist by trade, shares some of the secrets that have made Lane4 the MPF (Managing Partners Forum) 2008 Best Professional Firm to Work For.

“ It was really exciting to be part of a team working alongside Badar shaping the vision and future strategy for BGB. The group itself was a diverse mix of people from across all parts of the business and we each brought different perspectives and ideas to the table. Over a series of sessions we shared and shaped our ideas to come up with the vision we have today. Everyone was very passionate about the final result and we have all been delighted at the enthusiastic response from the business.”

Lindsey Willars – Chair of the Vision Ideas Team and Solution Delivery Manager, British Gas Business IS

Time was when ITV was the only big beast in the commercial TV jungle. Now there are 300 or so channels jostling for viewers’ – and therefore advertisers’ – attention, and a limitless range of online channels too. ITV has expanded well beyond making and broadcasting TV shows on our flagship UK channel, ITV1. We have a range of digital channels; a growing broadband service including Friends Reunited and a local news and ads service offering a showcase for local TV talent; and production centres in the UK, LA, Sydney, Berlin and Stockholm.

A new company mindsetIt’s now a key requirement of our five year Turnaround plan that every new programme or business idea should be capable of generating revenue not only from spot advertising on TV, but from at least two other means: live interactivity, format sales, online games, DVD rights, merchandising and so on. With the economy under considerable pressure, this approach is more important than ever. And, it requires a new mindset from everyone in the Company: broader-reaching creativity, sharper commercial sense and a willingness to assist quite different parts of the business (some with different P&Ls) from before.

But we know from our most recent staff survey that people can find it difficult to work across boundaries in ITV; it doesn’t always feel easy or natural. Our programme-makers think so differently from our commissioners or broadband teams, or marketers or salespeople, our journalists or international deal-makers that staff tell us it feels like a set of different companies. And, as for motivation, as one candid Generation Y colleague put it:

“I turn up to work, see my mates and go home. I have a routine, it’s what I’m good at and I’m happy with it. It’s not as if anyone’s really showing me the way.”

What to do? A small team has developed a 360 concept-to-cash process that ensures ideas with multiple applications are conceived, developed and given the best possible support through the complex commissioning and international marketing process. We now want to spread this and make it part of the DNA of ITV – and quickly.

Thinking the unthinkableThe baton has been passed to a project team made up of our Fast Trackers: young talent who are spending time in each part of the Company on individual assignments, with few or no prejudices and legacy attitudes. This project is the collaborative core of their next few months and reports to the directors of Strategy, HR and Internal Communication. We have asked the Fast Trackers to think the unthinkable and create an experience or induction or online training programme or digital sandpit – to bring the 360 process to life and involve (rather than tell) people in the new way of working.

They will base it on an already successful 360 format, Hell’s Kitchen, in which a well-known chef trains up two teams of celebrities or members of public with no restaurant experience to create a dinner for a restaurant full of diners. The tension, ritual humiliation and current food fad has made this an international success on screen in the USA and Europe, with associated merchandising.

Penny LawsonDirector of Internal Communication ITV plc

Stuart MacKenzie Managing Director Maynard Leigh, a behavioural change consultancy

Directions Supplement July / August 08

Traditionally, accepted research shows that the three pillars of ‘employee engagement’ are ensuring that your people feel valued, involved and developed. Whilst these make sense, our work in helping companies affect people behaviour suggests there is an equally important fourth pillar. This fourth pillar is the need people have to feel inspired which, in turn, requires that employees find meaning in their work.

To understand the process of employee engagement beyond mere research figures we must start by reminding ourselves about basic human nature. This is where Abraham Maslow started nearly eighty years ago. It is no coincidence that there is a correlation between the three pillars of feeling valued, involved and developed and Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’.

The feeling of being valued, both economically and socially, links directly to Maslow’s need for security and esteem. The desire to be involved and have one’s talents utilised and recognised links to the need to belong. Finally, the need to be developed, to unlock one’s potential, relates to the drive of self-actualisation.

Self-actualisation is not in fact the highest need, but something Maslow called ‘self-transcendence’ where people feel that they make a difference and serve some purpose. In this way, people feel engaged in something significant.

Leaders therefore need to know how to create meaning if they want true engagement. For example employees respond to organisations that have a reputation for corporate responsibility or for being a leader in the community. Rousing people to outstanding performance firmly rests on the fourth pillar of inspiring meaning at work.

Ask not ‘how much do you want?’, but ‘what matters to you?’.

Empowering our young peopleThe project team will illustrate the full life of this programme, borrowing from Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints and identifying the key constraint/s which limit the current process relative to our goals. They’ll factor in both market forces and internal constraints, using a series of hypotheses they’ve developed, about tension points which stop us working together such as time and money: “I don’t have the time to make someone else’s department money. I’m flat out fire fighting for my own.”.

Lesson learntA key lesson is to try not to be defensive. There are four generations of attitude in the workplace now. They all speak and feel rather differently about their work, authority and aspiration and all have something valuable to say.

Looking to the outcomeWe don’t know what the outcome will look like. And the journey is uncomfortable for many senior managers, but we’re confident that by being unwaveringly frank with ourselves and ready to trust and empower our young people, we will create an authentic and engaging step change in joined up behaviour. Now that’s a phrase I sincerely hope they won’t be using!

“ Try not to be defensive. There are four generations of attitude in the workplace now. They all speak and feel rather differently about their work, authority and aspiration and all have something valuable to say.”

Inspiring meaning – Stuart MacKenzie suggests that engagement begins with a sense of meaning.

Cooking up a storm – Penny Lawson explains how ITV’s young blood have been tasked with getting people working together in a new way.

This supplement is printed on Think Bright and is supplied by Howard Smith. It is an FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified material and is 100% recyclable.www.hspg.com

Printed by CTD, an ISO 14001 certified and FSC accredited company. TT-COC-2142 ©1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.Cwww.ctdprinters.com

Contact:

Louise Dudley-Williams ldudley-williams@salterbaxter.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7229 5720

202 Kensington Church Street London W8 4DP

Tel +44 (0)20 7229 5720 Fax +44 (0)20 7229 5721 www.salterbaxter.com

The Directions Supplements support our main Directions report and are produced every two months. The main Directions report is published each year and is now regarded as the UK’s most comprehensive analysis of the trends and issues in CR communications. If you want a copy, call us on the number below or emaildirections@salterbaxter.com

About us

We name companies, re-invent companies, re-position companies and re-brand companies. We help companies communicate with shareholders and their employees and we advise them on how to address corporate responsibility. We create brands, complete company communications programmes and global guidelines. We design, build and manage websites, e-commerce sites and all things interactive. We develop climate change campaigns and bring sustainability to life.

In short, we apply creative thinking to the big issues that businesses have to address in order to improve performance.

Our clients are extremely varied and include FTSE 100 and Euro 100 companies; some of the world’s most exclusive brands; independent, entrepreneurial businesses; world leading educational establishments; law firms; private equity firms and media companies.

Salterbaxter advise companies on branding, corporate responsibility, corporate reporting and employee engagement.