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I attended a conference on Strategic Internal Communications hosted by the Advanced Learning Institute ALI mid May in Toronto. The conference provided an array of tools and best practices to consider with strategic internal communications and employee engagement. The following provides a summary of an excellent case study that was shared at the conference. The case example was an RBC Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) employee communications campaign focused on employee education and awareness. The topic of the communications related to a recent RBC CSR initiative with a cause known as the RBC Blue Water Project involving $50 million in grants over 10 years to support watershed protection and access to clean drinking water. The employee program was to promote responsible water use with a 3-year employee communications campaign. The presenters noted that it was key to manage their executives' expectations as employee education and awareness is a multi-year process - it was not going to happen overnight. The following is a list of employee communications tips and tactics shared: Examples of what doesn't work to educate and engage employees:
Examples of what works:
The Internal Communications Campaign
- RBC developed a fun communications campaign educating employees through the use of an interactive quiz-poll featuring the option to adopt an RBC water project. Employees were asked to 'symbolically adopt a project'; they did not have to donate or spend time but align themselves by indicating their preference. As the employee clicked on their project, they immediately got feedback on how many employees had selected the same. This encouraged community building through employee participation; the quiz questions were witty and entertaining to educate and engage. Example quiz questions included, 'Why does RBC care about water?' Sample answers included 'Because its blue like our corporate colour'. In the last step, the key messages were provided, for example, the amount that RBC pledged. What do we want employees to do? Wear blue on RBC Blue Water Day, etc. The External Communications Campaign
- To go viral, a Facebook share link was provided so that employees could let their friends know which RBC Blue Water Project they chose to adopt. It enabled employees to connect to their friends and external social network. The internal communications team provided the messages that were posted on the employee Facebook pages. Not all employees were connected to Facebook from work, so they had to enable access from home. A resultant 12% of employees connected to Facebook. Each employee had an average of 236 connections enabling a greater extension of RBC messaging. Employees posted photos of themselves and their teams on their Facebook pages wearing blue on RBC Blue Water Day. The education quiz also was made available to employee Facebook pages and to the National Geographic which enabled free advertising. Over 30,000 quiz participants were added through this initiative. The CEO sent out only one email during the campaign, to announce the RBC Join the Wave Campaign. In addition, an employee What's Your Water Personality Interactive Quiz was hosted on the Intranet; for example, how do you drink water? Are you a brook, river, swamp etc. A fact was always provided, that related to the key messages. Conclusions:
The interactive quiz was an effective means of educating and building awareness of the RBC CSR initiative and engaging employees in a measurable and meaningful manner. The addition of Facebook enabled a viral campaign and an extension of the messaging. The added layer of partnering with relevant media, National Geographic, enabled an even greater extension of messaging. The cause of water enabled RBC to engage with their broad base of employees. It also engendered a greater sense of employee pride while supporting the corporate brand. Stay Connected with Brand Matters Follow us on Twitter Brand Matters is on Twitter. Follow us for more updates. Join our LinkedIn group We invite you to join Brand Matters' LinkedIn Group and participate in our branding discussions. We are Pleased to Announce Brand Matters has been nominated for the Top 100 WXN Award and the RBC Canadian Entrepreneurs Award. Brand Matters has been recognized by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) through appointment as the new Vice Chair of the CMA Branding & Strategic Planning Council, 2011-2012. Upcoming Events The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) Social Media Conference promises to be an informative and active networking event, June 23, 2011. The Advanced Learning Institute (ALI) is hosting a second Strategic Internal Communications Conference, Toronto, September, 12-15, 2011.
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