The Melcrum Blog

Going under the change communication covers

2010-02-08T15:10:30+00:00

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

First we had the Undercover Boss. Sorry, I mean Melcrum was the first publisher to secure and showcase Stephen Martin, chief executive of Clugston Group and star of Channel 4’s 2009 ‘Undercover Boss’ series, as a keynote speaker for our Strategic Management Communication summit. Now, however, the programme has gone mainstream with a preview from the new American series given a prime time airing directly after last night’s Superbowl, a huge-audience slot normally reserved by a network to launch a new sitcom or drama.

Yes, the Americans have got hold of the format and, like the fast food culture they have so kindly exported to the rest of earth, they've gone large.

But while it might seem that we 'borrowed' an idea from Channel 4 the last time around, on this occasion it's arguably borrowed one of ours. Tonight at 8pm sees the regular Dispatches documentary team go undercover dressed as agency postmen to find out if the Royal Mail has delivered on claims that it is modernising and improving its service. In 2004 and in 2005, the team also investigated the company and, in Channel 4’s own words, “exposed serious systemic and individual failures within the organisation”, resulting in an inquiry by the postal regulator, followed by a fine of almost £10 million.

But we’ve gone one better. Rather than go undercover we’ve invited Alana Renner, head of engagement & internal communications at the Post Office, to talk about how she has engaged her employees and helped to transform the organisation from a loss to a profit making business at Melcrum's third annual change communication conference. What should be made clear is that the Post Office is a subsidiary of Royal Mail Group and operates under the Post Office brand managing a nationwide network of around 12,000 branches, the largest retail branch network in the UK handling more cash than any other business.

Alongside the Royal Mail, the Post Office has undergone huge upheaval with countrywide branch closures, redundancies and, as the frontline organisation for the Royal Mail, has had to deal with angry customers and equally frustrated employees. Alana will be on hand to answer all your questions so make sure you watch tonight’s show and come armed with any issues you would like to raise.

And if you haven’t yet booked on to the conference and workshops do it now! It's on between 9th and 10th March and is fast approaching. We've got an extremely strong line up this year, including behind-the-scenes case studies from British Airways, Aviva and of course The Post Office.

Vodafone Twitter account suffers internal breach

2010-02-05T17:14:46+00:00

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

If internal communicators hadn’t realised the power, speed and significance of social media then all you need to do is look at the following photo a Twitter user posted only minutes ago responding to a rather nasty message on Vodafone’s official UK feed. I won’t repeat it within this blog as it’s offensive.

According to @VodafoneUK, that is now having to field thousands of customer tweets complaining about the offensive message, the telecoms company’s Twitter feed was not hacked but the offending message was instead down to, in its own words, “a severe breach of rules by staff”. The message then went on to say: “We're really sorry. Dealing with that internally. Please keep your faith in us.”

The tweet out to customers was at least swift and will have salvaged some pride. In fact many customers have thanked the company for its rapid response, but sadly the damage has been done, spread worldwide and all at the click of a mouse button within a matter of nanoseconds. The tweet may have been hurriedly deleted but hundreds of users chose to retweet the original message.

It is still unclear what exactly happened but this must serve as a warning to all internal communicators whose responsibility it is to carefully manage these channels whatever business they're in.

If you haven't already, sign up NOW to Melcrum's must-attend Social Media Conference for internal communications.

Join 200 internal communicators on April 21st

2010-02-04T16:19:00+00:00

By Kelly Dyer, Senior Editor, Melcrum

This must be a Melcrum record – we launched our next member event only yesterday and already 125 people have signed up! It's now Friday morning and there are only 75 places left.

Wow, it must be good then. So, what’s all the fuss about?
“Fresh Ideas for Internal Comms” is a one-day event designed to bring together internal communication leaders from across Europe to hear the latest ideas and developments in the industry. This will take place at the Bloomsbury Hotel in London on April 21st.

Well that’ll save me time having to research all those developments myself.
Exactly, that’s the point. Busy practitioners tell us that it’s often a challenge to find the time to research what’s available in the market. Our speakers will share lessons learned and give you an overview of what they can do for you in a convenient format that minimizes time spent away from the office.

Who’ll be there? Anyone I know?
Ever heard of a small, low-key organization called GE? The keynote speaker will be Richard Bloomfield, Communications Leader at GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Richard will be sharing his tips and advice for getting the most from consultants and suppliers. And by the way, if you’re interested in this topic, take a look at this article on the Internal Comms Hub.

And with around 200 of your fellow communicators expected, the networking opportunities will be second to none!

So what’s the cost?
There’s no cost. It’s a free event as long as you’re a Melcrum member. The last Melcrum member event in September sold out early. This time, we have 200 places up for grabs on a strictly first come, first served basis – so book your place today! Just email membership@melcrum.com now.

What if I’m not a member but still want to come?
You can become a Melcrum member and come along to the event, as well as getting all the benefits that Melcrum membership involves. Contact Rebecca for more information at Rebecca.lacey@melcrum.com

It all sounds pretty good.
It is. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

Are caring CEOs a thing of the past?

2010-01-28T14:39:39+00:00

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

“Though I've never worked at Sun, this is the kind of CEO I'd like to work for.” This is just one of many hundreds of similar tweets posted by people around the world following an all-staff memo sent by Scott McNealy, the co-founder and long time chairman of California-based tech giant Sun Microsystems as he prepares to hand over the reigns to Oracle – a $7.4 billion deal that was initially done in April last year but that has only just been approved by the European Commission this week.

The memo, sent this Tuesday under the subject line “Thanks for a great 28 years”, was described by one US blogger, as having “more genuine emotion than you’ll see in a year's worth of official communications from most corporate leaders”. I’d be very interested to hear from you to see if, as internal communicators, you agree. Is your organisation’s CEO or managing director like McNealy or is he/she someone who hides away from staff in his/her ivory tower who communicating and engaging with employees about as often as Halley’s Comet orbits the earth? Email me at james.bennett@melcrum.com and let me know. I'd love to hear your stories.

McNealy, however, was clearly a man manager, a people person and a boss who understood that without great employees he wouldn’t have got as far up the corporate ladder as he had and, more importantly, the business wouldn’t have been so well respected. Just take the language in the memo. It’s full of ‘we’s’ and rarely about ‘I’s’, it's full of gratitude for “the Sun community” and how they made working at the company, as McNealy says, “really cool”, and above all, it's honest, something every employee yearns for in an organisation. Here’s are some of the highlilghts form his memo:

On innovation

“First and foremost, Sun innovated like crazy. We took it to the limit. And though we did not monetize our inventions as well as we could have, few companies have the track record in R&D that we had over the last 28 years. This made working at Sun really cool. Thanks to all of you inventors and risk takers who changed how we live."

On customer care

“Sun cared about its customers. Even more than we cared about our own company at times. We looked at our customer's mission as more important than ours. Maybe we should have asked for more revenue in return, but our employees were always ready to help first. I love this about Sun, which I guess makes me a good capitalist, if not a great capitalist."

On having fun at Sun

“Sun employees had way more fun than any other company. By far. From our dress code (“You must!”) to beer busts to our April Fools’ pranks to SunRise to our quiet enjoyment at night of a long, hard, well-done day of work, no company enjoyed “work” more than Sun. Thanks to all of our employees past and present for making Sun such a blast.”

Rather ironically and like the majority of CEOs, however, McNealy is also an admirer of the market economy and couldn’t resist Oracle’s multi-billion dollar offer. “To be honest, this is not a note this founder wants to write,” he said. “Sun, in my mind, should have been the great and surviving consolidator. But I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company.”

He may have been a great boss, but what we as communicators should also bear in mind when dealing with a chief exec, is that leaders may often say and act as though they care about their staff but they are ultimately there to make money. It’s only then that genuine emotion is rapidly and often rightly, as in McNealy's case, replaced by hard economic reality.

* It’s also interesting to also see that a couple of key new chief executives have been announced in the UK in the last 48 hours. Adam Crozier has moved from one troubled business to another leaving the Royal Mail to go to terrestrial television channel ITV. His appointment brings to an end a saga lasting almost eight months since shareholder unhappiness persuaded Michael Grade to quit as executive chairman. He was replaced on January 1st by Archie Norman, the former chairman of Asda. Even more interestingly, accordingf to the Financial Times, he also beat internal candidates including John Cresswell, the acting chief executive, who will now leave the company.

Meanwhile, UK supermarket Morrisons, that has recently undergone a successful re-brand, has hired Dalton Philips, a relative unknown CEO from Canadian retailer Loblaw. At 41 years of age, he’s also one of the youngest chief executives to lead a FTSE 100 company.

Let’s see how they get on, and if they last as long as Mr McNealy.

Research reveals widespread adoption of social media inside the firewall

2010-01-12T11:43:02+00:00

By James Bennett, Head of Content, Melcrum

Melcrum has embarked on a global study on large organizations’ use of social media to engage employees, deliver strategy and drive business results.

Preliminary findings from the Use of Social Media in Internal Communications 2010 survey sent to 50,000 global communicators, has revealed widespread adoption, a clear business case and visible return on investment for communicators.

Highlights of the survey findings will be presented at Melcrum’s Social Media for Internal Communication conference in London on February 9th to 10th, 2010, while the full results of the survey will be published in a comprehensive Melcrum report on sale in March this year.

Internal communicators are increasingly turning to Web 2.0 tools, such as employee and executive blogs, online video, and internal Twitter-style forums, to deliver key strategic messages, stimulate collaboration and knowledge sharing and boost productivity.

A recent Melcrum member survey at the end of last year found that 40% of respondents said the business case for social media within internal communication was clear and that there is visible return on investment, while 53% of the 2,212 senior communicators who responded said they were planning to increase investment in their organization’s intranet in 2010.

When asked about channels used for internal communication, online video and webcasts were cited as of increasing importance, with the intranet ranked as the most effective channel by 73% of senior communicators worldwide.

The business benefits of investment in social media highlighted included improved levels of employee engagement (21%), better communication with remote workers (16%), knowledge management and collaboration (25%), improving employee feedback (20%) and making business leaders more visible and accessible (14%).

Melcrum’s forthcoming report will concentrate on the role communicators perform in getting the most from social media, how they monitor and measure results, how they make the business case for additional investment, how they protect their organizations against misuse by employees, and social media’s impact on other channels such as email.

If you are interested in contributing to or finding out more information about the forthcoming Social Media Report 2010 please contact me, James Bennett, Head of Content at Melcrum at james.bennett@melcrum.com or Alex Manchester, senior consultant, Step Two Designs at alex@steptwo.com.au.

For the full press release click here.

Melcrum is also carrying out a series of interviews ahead of next month's social media in internal communications conference in conjunction with ipadio. Check out Abi Signorelli, social media consultant's great blog post and ipadio intrerviews now!