Reshaping IC in a time of change
Unbelievably, October is already in full swing, but the good news is that it was time for another of our networking breakfasts! We love these sessions, and the enthusiasm that participants and speakers alike bring as they enjoy the opportunity to share great case studies and discuss strategies with peers (old and new) is inspiring.
This session focused on how IC strategies need to adapt during periods of business change, and we were fortunate to hear from Christopher Taylor, Head of Internal Communication at Eurostar, and Amy Knights-Whittome, Head of Communications at Newton, who shared their experiences around how they’ve reshaped their internal communication approach to support an evolving business.
In 2019 Eurostar and Thalys, two separate companies but with the same majority shareholder, announced their intention to become one organisation. With two very distinct brands, strong identities and many long service colleagues, the emphasis was firmly placed on a ‘coming together’ rather than a merger. With business plans disrupted by the pandemic, ‘day one’ with a single ExCo didn’t arrive until May 2022, and the single branded ‘New Eurostar’ was finally launched in October 2023.
Christopher reflected on the challenge of keeping confidence and energy alive in the wake of the pandemic, and the unification of these two brands was seen very much as part of the recovery effort. Christopher and his team were keen to seize the opportunity to shape the culture of the business and achieve genuine integration, and this required an understanding of the strong bonds colleagues had with the existing brands and the status quo, and an understanding approach to bringing colleagues on the integration journey. Christopher highlighted four key elements that underpinned their approach:
1. A compelling narrative that focused on the areas that are important to colleagues: a key sustainability message, a brand to be proud of and opportunities for individuals
2. A people-first content approach meant that, rather than talking about ‘IT changes’ for example, they talked about changes to ways of working. A sixty strong group of volunteers helped the comms team to understand what is important to colleagues in different parts of the organisation and create an approach that resonated with all audiences
3. A focus on creating two-way communication opportunities adapted to leaders and helped to establish a visible and approachable leadership team
4. Rather than selecting the communication approach from one organisation over another, a new approach and suite of channels is being created by the newly formed comms team, with a strong focus on face to face communication, and on the right channels to support the integration.
Core metrics around engagement, whether colleagues believed they were ‘operating as one’, and retention data were used to monitor colleague sentiment, and have demonstrated (alongside all the other drivers of engagement) the effectiveness of the communication approach.
Newton is a much smaller organisation than Eurostar; it is founder led, has a strong culture and a unique and successful business approach that has had to continually respond to rapid, year on year growth which is now seeing acquisitions too. Amy too referred to the importance of understanding colleagues’ attachment to originating brands and long-held cultural values, whether colleagues were from Newton or joined as experienced hires or through acquisitions. Rapid growth requires systems changes and behaviour changes; new approaches to face-to-face communication; an Employee Value and expectation setting around how the approaches of a smaller organisation may not be sustainable at scale.
Amy who originally joined Newton on a three-month contract through HarknessKennett, was so successful at understanding the business and cultural needs of the growing organisation, that she is now there permanently leading their communication approach.
Alongside getting to grips with the culture, Amy conducted a channel audit to help her strip out the noise. With a new managing partner operating alongside the founder, it has been important to create opportunities for both leaders to have an authentic platform which suited their leadership styles. Amy stressed the importance of engaging with leaders and the need for communicators to effectively bring their expertise to the table. She advocates an agile approach to leader engagement – recognising and using valuable opportunities for informal influencing (grabbing the opportunity to engage in thought provoking conversation) which can supplement the often limited scheduled time with key individuals.
Amy has brought some much-needed structure and clarity to the colleague communication approach through a re-imagined newsletter which highlights what you ‘need to know’ and ‘need to do’; explainers and team tools to build a line of sight and create consistency; and a redesigned SharePoint intranet. With a new 100-page strategy document in place, Amy has split it into a more digestible format by creating an interactive infographic with pop ups, to enable colleagues to focus on the parts that are important to them and build the line of sight to the part they play.
As we know change is always unsettling, and these new channels have helped the leadership team to reinforce the message that change doesn’t mean that Newton is a different business but one that continually seeks to be a better version of itself. Change is hard for communicators too – and Amy shared her top tips for keeping your head above water (see screen grab above).
Importantly she advocates listening hard – formally and informally, and reminded us all of the privileged place we occupy within our own organisations, and that we should enjoy being part of one of the best business disciplines
If you’d like support in tackling change communication within your organisation, get in touch as we’d love to help.
Published by Nicky
