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October 2005 |
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ISSUES
When two become one
Internal communication is a key success factor in mergers and acquisitions. So says Geoff Potter, former senior vice president of global corporate communications at GlaxoSmithKline.
"Mergers and acquisitions tend to be driven by financial parameters and so much of that depends on maintaining the commitment, loyalty and support of the workforce during a very testing period that can be quite protracted," he says.
Headhunters and recruiters are just waiting to pounce for your best staff. Media speculation and gossip will distract your workforce and performance will suffer. Communicating with frontline staff is crucial if you are to keep clients.
The vision must be clearly articulated from the very top and the deal's benefits and value stressed at every opportunity. You must ensure that external and internal communications are aligned.
A survey conducted in 2003 found that firms that communicated clearly about a merger saw their share price returns outperform the market by 12 per cent. |
 
Trident Communications can help you during, before and after a merger period with your communications. Contact consulting@
tridentcommunications.net for more information.
Source: CorpComms
www.corpcommsmagazine.com
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TRAINING
Delegates hear about readiness
Delegates at Carter Rae's sixth annual conference on effective employee communication were given a preview of the results of the 'change and communication readiness barometer' research conducted by Dr Carola Golser-Wamser.
The research revealed that 61% of respondents (C-level managers) believe internal communications will change in the next three years, driven mainly by employee needs. The most prominent barriers to effective communication are seen as being lack of communication culture (50%), time (41%) and communication skills (35%).
Delegates also heard presentations on work done by the Scottish Prison Service, Nationwide and Scottish Water in the area of motivation and engagement, and participated in a series of workshops.
One delegate commented: "The conference was excellent and very good value. It was well paced, with networking opportunities. Thanks!" |
For further information on the results of Carola's research and more on the 'change and communication readiness barometer', please email carola.wamser@
tridentcommunications.net
If you would like to order a conference pack, please email rcarter@carterrae.co.uk
If you would like to be kept informed about next year's conference, please email rcarter@carterrae.co.uk or visit www.carterrae.co.uk
/conference for the latest information. |
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ISSUES
Net waste
The purpose of most websites is to make money. However, far too many fail for a variety of reasons. Here are ten reasons why your website may be a waste of money.
- Wrong character: the design and content don't match the character of the company.
- Home not-so-sweet home: if your homepage has the words 'skip intro' on it anywhere, you have lost visitors.
- Lack of structure: if what users want is not obvious, they will move on — probably to a rival's site.
- Disappearing navigation: as soon as the user has to start using the back button, you run the risk of losing them.
- Mystery navigation: buttons that only reveal themselves when, or if, users roll over them are business suicide.
- Missing links: users often arrive at pages through search engine results that ignore home pages, so it is essential to provide a path to home pages.
- Haven't a clue: No matter how well organised your information is, this must be backed up by the design.
- Lack of interactivity: this should be encouraged to maintain users' interest.
- Out of contact: every site must have an email contact facility.
- Secret sites: If you don't publicise your website, how will people know it is there?
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Trident Communications ecomms team can help you to design and maintain your website. Contact ecomms@
tridentcommunications.net for further details.
Source: Communicators
www.cib.uk.com
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RESEARCH
It's good to talk
A survey by ISR (International Survey Research) discovered that 67% of UK workers believe they are more likely to hear about significant changes at work around the water cooler than from their bosses.
This statistic makes UK managers — along with those in France — the worst communicators in Europe.
This is bad news for UK communicators because the same survey found that in those companies that scored a below average communication rate, share price has fallen an average of 27%. By contrast, companies where an above average number of employees said they were kept informed saw their share price increase by 21%. |
Source: Human Resources
www.hrmagazine.co.uk
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ISSUES
Taking responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is currently sitting high on the agendas of many companies. But many companies are not communicating what they are doing in this area effectively.
Here are the top 10 tips for getting your CSR noticed:
- Be transparent: Don't just mention the good points, also highlight where there is still work to be done.
- Provide real-life examples of how third parties have benefited from the company's actions.
- Offer journalists exclusive stories that relate to their publication's readership.
- Exploit local and regional angles.
- Ensure someone on the board is willing to engage in a debate with a journalist.
- Get feedback from influential journalists about what they would like to see in a CSR report.
- Invite journalists to see in person the effect that the company's CSR activities are having.
- Consider how the company's CSR actions are relevant to the current news agenda.
- Demonstrate to journalists how CSR activity has been integrated into the overall business.
- Find ways to show how CSR has improved business performance.
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Source: PR Week
www.prweek.com
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MOTIVATION
Eating into staff turnover
A staff magazine that is uncensored by managers has been largely credited with turning around high staff turnover rates.
Pret a Manger, the food retailer, has managed to reduce their staff turnover to 65% — an impressive feat when you consider the industry norm is 100%.
In 2002, Pret's staff turnover was 95%. In 2003 it dropped to 86%, then to 82% in 2004. This year it dropped to 65%.
Rebecca Hemsley, Pret's Head of HR, believes this is down to Pret working hard to continually show its appreciation of its people. Perks include weekly drinks and an internal magazine that's allowed to appear uncensored by managers. |
Source: People Management
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
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