World Vision UK - Empowering Our People

8/13/2019 World Vision UK - Empowering Our People

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Analysis and recommendations concerning internal

communications within World Vision UK

November 2011

Empowering our peopleSharing information to deliver the Strategy


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World Vision UK Internal Communications Final Repor t, October 2011 Page 2

DRAFT - Not for circulation

Contents

Executive Summary 3

Key recommendations 4

Section 1 Introduction 5

Section 2 Process of research and analysis 6

Section 3 Summary of ndings from desk analysis phase 7

Section 4 Analysis and recommendations following interview phase 8

4.1 Organisational communications 8

4.2Communications around the specic considerations

of the London move and Childrens rights campaign 14

4.3Internal communications culture 15

Section 5 Embedding these changes 17

Annex 1 Table 1 - Current World Vision UK internal communications channels 18


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Executive Summary

This report looks at internal communications processes, practices and culture

within World Vision UK and makes a series of recommendations which aredesigned to help the organisation continue its journey of improvement. It

begins with the assumption that just as effective communication is the key to

securing and building donor support and inuence with stakeholders, so the

delivery of an organisations goals is reliant on the whole of the staff group

feeling engaged and involved in the same way. This report analyses the current

situation and practices under the loose banner of internal communications

and makes recommendations for improvement in the short and longer term.The organisation has been through a period of change, and continues to evolve in its strategy, structure

and operations. The economic environment is tough, and the nancial year has just started, with plans and

budgets agreed. It is therefore clear that the organisation cannot make substantial investment in internal

communications. However it is equally clear that staff feel that if the organisation wants to take its agenda

forward as effectively as possible there must be some thought and change to how information is shared,

decisions communicated and feedback generated throughout the organisation.

The analysis nds many positives on which to build and many examples of effective organisational and team -

led efforts to share information: staff enjoyed the opportunity they were given to engage in the development

of the Organisational Strategy, and are as a result clear about its goals. In the main they view the changes

that have happened as positive and are enthusiastic to begin implementing the strategy and delivering the

new campaign around childrens rights. And they nd the leaders and Directors within the organisation

approachable, willing communicators who want where they can to engage staff. Perhaps most signicantly, all

staff shared the view, that as an organisation of 200 people with goals as ambitious as World Vision UKs, it is

essential that every ounce of organisational energy is clearly targeted at bringing about the positive change

that you all passionately believe in.

However, there were clearly challenges, and this analysis found evidence that there is room for improvement

of current internal communications practice. These have been grouped into three core areas:

Corporate or organisational communications: this is about the key internal channels and processes

for information dissemination and ideally feedback, up, down and across the organisation. The

recommendations in this area also encompass how internal communications should be managed at a

corporate level.

Communicating short term challenges: these concern the key challenges of embedding and maximising

the impact of the new Campaign, and ensuring that the move of a signicant number of staff to London

does not have an adverse impact on organisational communication and coherence of purpose.

The culture of communications: this is about the way the organisation does things. Some of this is about

leadership, some about values, style and tone and the perception of staff as key stakeholders. As an overtly

Christian organisation, there is much in the organisational culture which lends itself to mutual support

and shared goals. These are qualities that can help in supporting effective internal communication.


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Key recommendations

In the short term, to quickly improve internal communication at an organisational level, World Vision leaders

should agree to:

Create an internal communications function, at the very least making one person responsible for key

channels internal messaging, supporting across the organisation and supporting strategy implementation.This should be at an appropriately senior level with sufcient responsibility to lead strategically. It is

expected that this could be achieved with minimal impact on budgets.

Establish a clear, simple management cascade of core information and decisions, linked to the strategy

that will ensure consistent down the line communication across the organisation.

Clarify responsibility for the existing channels, and how they should be used. The purpose of All Staff

Meetings, the weekly email, the staff notice boards and the soon to arrive plasma screens should all be clear

to staff, and they should recognise how and when they will receive important organisational communication.

Continue the existing weekly email but explicitly link it to the Strategy headings and ask that a senior

manager ensures that key priorities are reected.

Establish and maintain an organisational calendar and a clear, up to date organisation chart and contactlist, saving staff time, and giving them basic information essential for planning and delivery.

Continue to make basic changes to the intranet, in order to reect as a minimum, up to date team and

corporate information, contact lists, plans and the calendar of events.A small internal team should look in

detail at the pros and cons of taking up the offer from World Vision Canada to use their intranet operating system,

in the same way as WV Germany has done.

In terms of the pressing challenges of the London Move and the One Theme Campaign, the key

recommendation in both cases is:

To involve operational staff in implementation planning if they are given the chance (in the case of the

London move) to contribute to how communications challenges will be addressed between the two

ofces, they will feel less anxious, and more able to make new systems work appropriately. The same is

true of the campaign.

In addition, there are some longer term recommendations. It is recognised that resources to invest in

internal communications are limited currently. However, the following improvements should be planned in

to the resource allocation cycle if the organisation is to make a step change in the way it engages staff:

The organisational intranet should ultimately be completely redeveloped, on an appropriate forum which

can be supported internally by IT, and with a simple content management system which can be used

across the organisation with safeguards built in. The extent of the work needed will depend on whether

the option to adopt the World Vision Canada intranet model is taken in the short term.

The organisation should actively seek to develop more mechanisms for feedback and for iterative

discussion of organisational / operational issues for staff. Staff valued the Strategy consultation, but dont

feel on day to day matters there are the same opportunities to shape delivery across the organisation.

Some design capability for internal communications should be resourced to ensure that the quality of

information is of similar standard to that produced for external audiences.

In terms of organisational culture, demonstrating to the organisation that internal communications

is important will be a good start. Most importantly, there needs to be a sense of intentionality: that

communicating effectively with and between staff is a priority and is acknowledged as essential to

ensuring that World Vision UK delivers for the children and families it seeks to support. This report also

makes recommendations as to how the overarching changes in culture and practice might be embedded in

the organisation going forward.


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Section 1: Introduction

World Vision UKs headquarters, from where the majority of its staff operate, is based in one location in

Milton Keynes.

Within that building, around 200 staff work day to day, organised into 4 Directorates, within which up to 6units or teams operate. Some staff are based overseas, and there is a small team in London working on UK

Government Relations. In addition, a number of staff work part time, and for others, working from home is

a regular practice.

World Vision UK is the British part of the global World Vision organisation. World Vision UK shares the

vision, values and goals of the global umbrella, but has its own organisational strategy and manages its own

operations within that global context.

The current structure of World Vision UK is a result of an organisational change which took place in 2010.

This preceded a process of developing a new organisational Strategy, and a clearer planning process for

delivery of that strategy. The organisation has also agreed a new brand, and this will be operationalised over

the coming months. These factors taken together mean that the organisation has been through a period

of quite signicant transition as a result, with some turnover of staff, and some teams either just reaching

capacity, or having taken some time to adjust to their new priorities and ways of working. This transition

is set to continue into the medium term, with around 40 staff being relocated to a new London ofce, and

separately, with the development and implementation of a new unifying campaign on childrens rights (the

one theme campaign).

All of the analysis should therefore be seen in the context of this transition, and the recommendations

are geared to helping the organisation manage and emerge from that transition effectively. In addition, the

organisations strongly and deeply held Christian value base creates an ethos of shared endeavour and

a spiritually driven sense of mutual support. This means that informal networks for communication and

information sharing tend to be strong and recommendations implicitly acknowledge this.

The specic brief of this consultancy was to assist thinking about organisations key internal communications

challenges in general terms and in relation to the new campaign and the London move, and to make

recommendations to meet them.


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Section 2: Process of research and analysis

The work comprised two overlapping phases of analyses. The rst involved desk research of key strategy

and other communications documents, including the intranet. The second phase involved interviews with

27 staff from all grades and all directorates within the organisation. Some of the staff interviewed willbe directly affected by the London move. The staff were a mix of new and longer term employees and

some were spoken to individually, others in groups. Staff were asked a range of structured questions, and

encouraged to give positive examples of where internal communication was working effectively as well as

pointers to where improvements could be made. All responses were given condentially, though Table 1 in

Annex 1gives some examples of some of the responses including anonymous verbatim comments which

provide a useful insight into the variety of staff views expressed.

The analysis in this report is structured into three sections:

1. Corporate or organisational communications: this is about the key internal channels and processes

for information dissemination and ideally feedback, up, down and across the organisation. The

recommendations in this area also encompass how internal communications should be managed at acorporate level.

2. Communicating short term challenges: these concern the key challenges of embedding and maximising

the impact of the new Campaign, and ensuring that the move of a signicant number of staff to London does

not have an adverse impact on organisational communication and coherence of purpose. If these challenges can

be overcome successfully, they may provide learning for ensuring future challenges are equally well managed.

3. The culture of communications: this is about the way the organisation does things. Some of this is about

leadership, some about values, style and tone. These recommendations are important, insofar as they will

help the organisation avoid the risk that people assume by creating an internal communications function,

the problems will no longer exist.


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Section 3: Summary of ndings from deskanalysis phase

Issues emerging from the desk analysis have been categorised into a simple SWOT. The follow up interviews

were then used to question whether this analysis was right and to add depth and understanding to the

situation, and what needed to happen to build on strengths and tackle weaknesses. The initial desk analysis

found the following:

Strengths

The leadership team recognises the need to improve internal communications

There is an organisational culture which is in the main collaborative and committed

World Vision UK has incredible content powerful case studies of successes and vital programme in the

developing world

Strong communications skills and practises exist within the organisation already in relation to external

audiences (eg Funders).

Weaknesses

There is an absence of internal comms structures and processes

There are limited dedicated resources

Where internal communication activities exists they are not well integrated with other parts of the

organisations communications mix (advocacy, public affairs, media, fundraising) NB this is not necessarily

an organisational structure issue

Despite efforts to improve content and functionality, the intranet is not t for purpose. It is not trusted,

not well used, content is often out of date, it has no technical support and does not function effectively.

Opportunities

A new internal brand and campaign focus on the rights of children is emerging, and have the potential togalvanise staff. There has been some internal engagement done already round this in key teams (Public

Engagement marketing, communications, fundraising)

World Vision UK has some specic short term challenges to address (brand, move) and a long term

internal communications strategy is needed.

Threats

Impending move of some staff out of ofce to relocate to London, though details (timing etc) unclear as

yet. NB the move in itself is not a threat, but the way it is communicated and handled could impact on

staff morale and performance.

2010 restructure some staff perceive this was not well handled from communications point of view.

This analysis found some staff expressing anxiousness that while they understood the aims and thrust of the

strategy, they were unsure of what it meant to them in practice; many expressed frustration that even simple

information required for them to do their jobs effectively staff lists, dates of key events, changes to processes

and procedures was not readily available and took precious time to nd out; and others felt that without

more clarity about decisions, more context around key priorities and regular structured information to help

them do their jobs, they would not be able to perform as effectively as they would have liked.


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Section 4: Analysis and recommendationsfollowing interview phase

This section is under three headings:

Organisational communication, which covers the key generic channels;

Short term communications challenges, which encompasses the Campaign and the London move;

And the nal part covers the communications culture.

At the end of each of these three parts, a number of recommendations are made.

4.1 Organisational communications

This rst part of the analysis covers the key organisational internal communications including the

management of internal communications; the core channels (email, intranet, all staff meetings, notice boards);

the management cascade; cross team communications; and communications for planning.

At the end of the analysis a series of recommendations are made.

4.1.1 Management of internal communications.

This is not seen to be anyones clear responsibility. A Team Co-ordinator within the Organisational

Effectiveness Directorate has some responsibilities for some channels, which she delivers well and with

a strong sense of where improvements are needed, particularly given the limited resources she has. But

overall there is not held to be a strategic approach to internal communication, nor are the various other

efforts across the organisation to communicate up and down and across the directorates felt to be co-

ordinated, or effectively aligned with the range of external communications that the organisation delivers.

The organisation has faced similar challenges and adopted innovative solutions recently, including for the

issue of Project Management (see box below)

Case Study: improving project management

The organisation needs to balance and manage a large number of projects at any one time. Whereas in

some teams, this was done effectively, and staff had the relevant skills and experience, in others difculties

were being encountered, leading to cost and time overruns, and occasionally project failures. A decision

was taken to appoint a specialist Project Manager, whose job is principally to work with teams across the

organisation to instil and support a level of project management discipline and consistency to minimise

the risk of things going awry.

Consideration should be given as to where the internal communications function should be located withinthe organisation. It is becoming increasingly common practice for internal communications to be located

alongside other communications professionals (eg those responsible for campaigns, marketing, fundraising etc).

On balance this would be the optimum place to locate the function within World Vision UK, although it could

also be located in a central function as it is a cross organisational support role. There are arguments either way.

The main thing is that the scope of the role and its seniority reect the importance of the challenge.

4.1.2 Existing channels

There are actually quite a lot of channels for communicating information within the organisation. Table 1

(attached as Annex 1 to this report) itemises these, identifying as many as 6 regular, organisation wide channels,

and a number of other informal, irregular or team specic channels which nonetheless are pan organisation inreach. There are a number of positives to build on within these channels, as well as some challenges:


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Positives

All Staff Meetings are generally appreciated and although there is a fear that they try and cover too much

ground, they are viewed as useful, with certain caveats around follow up, how the agenda is set and how

to access the information presented if you miss the meeting.

The time the CEO invests in communication welcomed: particularly well thought of are his video blogs whentravelling overseas.

There is no shortage of opportunities to communicate: the organisation has pretty much all of the channels

that youd expect for its size, with a mix of face to face, electronic, manager-led and cross team channels

all existing.

There are some good examples of effective use of the channels: the Strategy consultation was thought to have

been done well, and the new campaign has attempted to engage people earlier and more thoroughly.

Directors are felt to be strong, committed communicators and approachable.

Challenges

The channels not always appropriately used: some emails sent by managers or as updates are too long andunfocused; the notice boards around the organisation dont give staff contextual information or link

content to the strategy. As noted, the intranet not t for purpose.

Lack of understanding of what channels exist and what they are for: people were not clear about the process

for getting things onto the All Staff Meeting agenda, for example. And very few people are able to update

the intranet. Neither is there clarity what should go in all staff emails etc.

Some channels are led from different parts of the organisation: this is useful in terms of sharing the burden

and the potential to involve a range of teams, but does mean that messaging is not well co-ordinated.

Lack of space for feedback / discussion:most of the channels are one way; there is little time for discussion

at staff meetings; emails do not encourage feedback;

Lack of leadership engagement..... but at the same time, junior staff may feel they dont get a say in majormeetings: the intranet and internal communications email are the responsibility of a member of staff

who has no access to the leadership meetings or decision making processes. At the opposite end there is a

feeling that All Staff meetings are at risk of being dominated by managers and can be too high level in tone.

Lack of clarity about who is responsible:this is particularly the case with ambient media such as posters

or notice boards. As a result, they are wasted as opportunities, and the information they hold is often out

of date and irrelevant.

Case Study: the failure of notice boards a problem for plasmas?

The organisation has decided to invest in a series of screens to display dynamic information to staff, to

be located at a number of places in the Milton Keynes building. While this may be a positive development,

a look around at the existing notice boards illustrates the problems that can arise if there is not clarity

about ownership or purpose of these kinds of ambient channels. Currently staff notice boards are

largely unused, with the information they do contain being either out of date or irrelevant (in terms of

organisational priorities). As a result staff quickly ignore them as channels. Thought needs to be given

to the content and updating of the plasma screens if a similar situation is to be avoided.


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The staff notice board has

information on re exits, a risk

management helpline and then

a series of adverts for a local

theatre group, a plumber and a

holiday cottage.

Lack of technical support: there is no IT support available to x glitches on the intranet, and no capacity

to introduce new features (eg discussion boards).

An offer has been made by World Vision Canada which would allow World Vision UK to use their

sharepoint intranet system. This has been something that World Vision Germany have already adopted.

Looking at the technical requirements of the intranet was beyond the brief of this report. However, this

does look like an opportunity that should be explored.

There is frustration that while external communications materials (supporter mailings etc) are vibrant

and engaging, there is not the design or publishing support for internal communications materials.

There are limited links to strategy / organisational priorities: there are few attempts to use any of the

channels to communicate in a regular and structured way, linked to the strategic objectives (or at least

not that are perceived by many of the staff). The case study below of notice boards showing country

information is a small but informative example.

Case Study: information displays

about sponsored children

Throughout the Milton Keynes HQ are a number

of notice boards themed around different

countries (Uganda, Malawi, Bolivia etc). On each

board are a variety of pictures of sponsored

children, alongside letters from them and some

information about their circumstances. Theseare potentially engaging, and interesting to staff

and visitors. They could be improved, however,

and be even more effective, with some minor

enhancement, for example: a description of the

World Vision programmes and priorities in the

country; information about the country team,

along with contact details; some key facts and

gures about World Visions local work etc.


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4.1.3 The Cascade

Many organisations use a fairly standard model of cascading information down from the senior leadership

team to individual managers who then brief their team. There are many ways of doing this some heavily

planned and regulated, others looser or less formal - but the principle remains the same. There is some

sense of a cascade in operation at World Vision UK, although it is at the less formal end of any spectrum.Some observations based on the discussions are that:

Information cascades in different ways in different parts of the organisation, though most teams felt the

level of information they got from their senior managers was good. Exceptions tended to be in teams

which had experienced major turnover or the absence of a manager, and even within these teams, people

acknowledged that things were improving.

There was broad agreement that the Directors were approachable and shared key information with

their teams

However, it was acknowledged that directors and other heads are busy so briengs may not always

happen, managers may forget to pass on some information etc

Although there was no huge desire for regulation of management communications, it was noted that thelack of a core brief or script meant that sometimes teams had a variable sense of what organisational

priorities and performance and linkages to the strategy.

4.1.4 Cross team communication

The analysis found some good examples of this in practice, and every team is making some effort, eg

political literacy training is being offered by the government relations team, and the HEA espresso

bulletin which everyone who mentioned was positive about. Unfortunately, sometimes the best efforts

are unrewarded: for example, the Finance team invited key internal stakeholders to a training session on

changes to expense forms. 20 people said they would attend, but on the day only 4 turned up!

Although there is no excuse for not being proactive, there may be more the organisation can do tofacilitate better information sharing: there is no organisation wide calendar that is properly used, so

people cannot forward plan or co-ordinate, in relation to internal meetings, visits overseas, key campaign

moments, supporter mailings etc. The staff list is unreliable, and the intranet, though improving slowly, is

not trusted by most staff as a reliable information store.

Case study: overseas visitors and donors

Visits to the UK from country managers or other overseas visitors can be a great opportunity to

engage supporters, donors or other stakeholders. Unfortunately, sometimes these chances are missed,

because the external facing departments are not aware of the visits until too late.

4.1.5 Communications for planning

Again, there are some good attempts at doing this well: The PE grid of mailings and campaign activities

is a potentially very useful tool, although some nd it cumbersome to use and too detailed.

Lack of transparency / updates: some interviewees felt that not enough of the communications focused

on giving staff real and tangible information about progress against targets, so were unsure as to the overall

health of the organisation, or where they needed to prioritise their work to help meet organisational target.

There is a need for key organisational information which at the moment is hard to nd or maintain. A

number of external audiences need to be updated on a regular basis with facts and gures and progress

updates on campaigns, appeals and programmes. Having this type of information readily available (in the

form of key facts sheets for example) stored in one place, ideally on the intranet, would make this more

efcient and limit risk of incorrect information.


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4.1.6 Organisational communications recommendations

Immediate priorities

Clarify leadership and responsibility for internal communications:the point of this exercise was not to nd

structural solutions, rather to analyse the challenges and describe things that the organisation can do

differently and better. And given that this is the start of a new nancial year, with plans and budgets agreed,the scope for identifying additional resource to manage internal communications is very limited. But it

has become very clear that there is an appetite for internal communication to be more closely aligned

to the Strategy; better planned and disciplined; and clearly seen to be something the organisation takes

seriously. The organisations approach to Project Management has been welcomed by many teams and

perhaps offers a model. It is therefore recommended that a full time post aligned with the communications

functions and of appropriate level (ie hands on, and able to deliver, but also able to offer strategic input and support

to teams) is created. Using this model will help ensure that others in the organisation continue to feel that they have

responsibilities for communication, but will allow the central channels and functions to operate more effectively.

Other recommendations are not dependent entirely on agreement of this rst one,

but it would make accountability and implementability easier.

Subject to discussion of the rst recommendation, the leadership team should then agree which

channels the organisation wants to maintain and develop, identify clearly their purpose and ensure that

responsibility for their upkeep and delivery is clear and planned.

Update and simplify intranet content: at a very basic level the news page should update each week with

performance data and news stories from around the organisation. There should be an up to date staff

list, organogram, a page for each team with pictures and a description of their planned priorities (relating

to the strategy; and the organisational calendar should reect key internal meetings, overseas visits,

campaign milestones and external events (eg world AIDS day etc). These should hold the information

currently circulated in weekly updates (eg HEA espresso this would allow staff the option of opting out

of receiving those updates if they wanted, and retrieving them easily)

The updating and news function should be the role of the internal comms manager, though some IT

support should be allocated to amending the structure and functionality of the intranet to facilitate this.

In parallel, a small expert cross-team group, comprising (as a suggestion) the Associate Director,

Communications and Campaigns, the Co-ordinator from the Strategy Innovation and OD team (the

current intranet content manager) a representative from IT, and 2-3 from other teams should look in

detail at the offer from World Vision Canada to use their intranet system, and make recommendations

to the ELT urgently.

This should also prompt consideration within the ELT about occasional alignment of internal messaging

with the broader global World Vision umbrella. There is currently little co-ordination of internal

communication across the different World Vision organisations, and while the devolved structure of the

global organisation means this is not a major consideration, it will be important that a watching brief is

maintained on developments across global partners.

Notice boards / plasma screens: If the notice boards are to still be used, they should be used strategically.

So there should be one per Strategy heading; and in addition, one for the Childrens Rights campaign

and one for health, safety and welfare issues. The lead departments for each of these areas should have

responsibility for content generation and updating, supported by the internal communications manager.

Content should be a mix of success stories, performance data and case study. The key is that they

should look vibrant and attractive and tell people who dont know the detail what they need to know. If

the intention is that the notice boards be replaced by the plasma screens, then the same principles for

content capture and management should remain.

There needs to be a clearer process for All Staff Meetings. Content should be linked to the Strategy

(so that items discussed will be grouped under the four headings); the mechanism and timing for xing


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the agenda should be clear, and meetings should be followed up by ensuring that all presentations are

available on the intranet, along with any agreed actions. This should also reect the position of staff who

will work from London as regards ASMs (see section 4.2.1 overleaf)

The existing weekly email: this should continue but be explicitly linked to the strategy headings, and a

senior manager / Director should ensure that the content reects current priorities.

Consult on consolidating the various all staff emails: there are a number of all staff emails, including the

HEA espresso, the parliamentary update (though this has an opt-out), the country updates etc. While

some of these are popular in their own right, it is likely there is overlap in content, and that many staff

do not read them in the current form. A consultation with the key teams should identify how they could

be merged into one straightforward update, linked to the Strategy.

Longer term proposals

A complete rebuild of the intranet is necessary in the longer term. Lotus Notes is unsupported as a

platform within World Vision UK, and the way the site is instructed is a long way from how people now seek

and access information. There is the option to use the Canada WV intranet (see above). This may create a

half way house or a more rapid move to a refreshed internal website. In the long term this should include:

The introduction of a blog / forum for discussion amongst staff. This would need to be moderated (a possible

task for an internal communications manager), and would need stimulation from managers and directors,

but could provide a space for staff to share views and input which feels to be lacking at the moment

Dedicated intranet pages for external and internal campaigns

Better use of video and other dynamic content to bring information to life

Links to social media, WV partner websites and other external information.

Cascade Recommendations:

Introduce a monthly cascade for managers from ELT, summarising key decisions under strategy headings.

This would of course not replace the need for regular and timely communication between directors

and managers, but could be an important fail safe to ensure a consistency of information within theorganisation at a xed point each month. The Leading Edge publication could be developed as a basis for

this style of cascade brieng

Longer term

At the next Bi monthly senior managers meeting, managers should discuss and agree how they will

communicate their discussions / decisions to the organisation in the future.

Cross team communications recommendations:

Teams should be given a template to use to update their pages on the intranet. These should include:

- Pictures, names and contact details of all staff as well as where to nd us

- Brief information on teams priorities

- Information about team meetings - regularity, how to get something on the agenda etc - A space for weekly updates or other communication

- Monthly commentary on performance, and on what is coming up

The template should be designed to look attractive, corporate and in line with organisational guidelines.

Word limits should apply to each section.

If teams still want to send out weekly updates, they should do this with an option for people to opt out and

an encouragement for people to check the intranet for latest news.

Some staff made the suggestion that informal time be given over (eg on a Wednesday lunchtime) for

information sharing sessions. There are concerns about the amount of time, however, that people have for

this kind of activity. Potentially this could be piloted to see how staff react and whether teams nd it a usefulway of updating colleagues.


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Communications for planning recommendations:

Set up and sustain an internal calendar (using Outlook, or google calendars or lotus notes. If email is migrating

to outlook, then it makes sense to use this as the platform). As a minimum any calendar would need to cover:

Key internal meetings (and deadlines for nalising agenda)

External trips by CEO, programme managers and others, and visits to the UK from in-country staff Key supporter mailing dates and campaign milestones

Additionally it could be extended to cover key external dates (party conferences, international advocacy days etc)

The weekly internal email should remind people each week to refer to the calendar when planning meetings.

Responsibility for adding and changing events should be dispersed to key contact points in each team,

with overall control resting with the internal communications function

4.2 Communications around the specic considerations of theLondon move and Childrens rights campaign

4.2.1 London moveMost staff felt that while communication around the move had been poor initially, it was better now. Some

expressed the feeling that the organisation was trying to be too positive, when it would have been better

for staff to be told it was going to be a long and complex process. The establishing of a dedicated team who

provide updates on progress is felt to be a good step.

However, staff do have concerns about practical communications considerations following the move. And

at the moment they are unsure where to go with their concerns. A number of interviewees said Ive heard

that or the rumour is in relation, for example, to how managers planned to split their time between

London and Milton Keynes, but there was very little certainty.

There is an opportunity now to engage staff in planning how they want communications to work across the ofces.

4.2.2 London move communications recommendations:

Managers to instigate an open discussion about the communication challenges of having two ofces, and

ask staff to help shape proposals. These could help clarify issues where there is currently uncertainty eg the

amount of time managers will spend in each location, the likelihood of having video conferencing facilities etc

Some staff suggested the idea of having occasional all-staff meetings in London. While this was acknowledged

not to be practical in the immediate term, it was something that could be considered from time to time

in the future

The clear messaging and project management that is now underway is welcome and should continue

Informal channels for discussion and suggestions should be established a permanent suggestion wall

to place ideas (virtual or real)

4.2.3 Childrens rights (one theme) campaign internal communications

Introducing a one theme campaign on childrens rights has been a deliberate attempt by the organisation

to bring focus to its external communications, and better align policy, programme operations and messaging.

The choice of childrens rights seems to have been welcomed within the organisation, and there is recognition

that it is a concept which is not only in line with the organisations strategy, but still has appeal for the media,

politicians and supporters. Key ndings from the interviews were that:

The campaign was being developed and led more effectively than earlier attempts. People felt better

engaged, and that the t of the campaign could be applied to their work.

There remains a need and an opportunity to esh out what the campaign means in practice some

teams, including marketing and fundraising, wanted more clarity on the implications of the campaign, in

terms of new language that might result from the focus on childrens rights.


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There was a hope and an enthusiasm for clarity on impact of the campaign specic calls that could

be made to politicians, and key facts and gures relating to childrens rights.

A question remains about areas of work outside of the campaign. There was a feeling that some things wouldnt

t under the childrens rights banner, but nevertheless the organisation still needed to champion them, and some

supporters would be interested in them. This needs to be the focus of further discussion or clarication.

Again, rather than give this communications set of tasks to an internal communications manager or team,

they should become part of the project management of the overall campaign group.

4.2.4 Campaign Recommendations:

Brainstorm the need for key materials with a cross organisational group of operational and managerial

staff. Potential outcomes could include campaign FAQs, style guides, key facts etc.

Engage non-managerial staff in an informal brieng. Ask them the question what does the campaign mean

to me? (capture this and use it on notice boards, intranet etc).

Make sure key campaign milestones are in the organisational Calendar. Dedicate one internal notice board and / or plasma screen to the campaign, with full updates, materials

and background information.

In the short term, essential campaign documents and materials should be on the intranet. In the longer

term as part of any changes to the intranet, there should be dedicated Campaign pages on with all

source materials and updates

4.3 Internal communications culture

Discussions with staff revealed a number of challenges at the less tangible end of communication. These

were around things like the tone, the perceived priority of internal communication, the way success was

celebrated and bad news and feedback dealt with. There were also some issues raised about how decisions

are made and communicated, and some sense that while the strategy set an excellent high level vision, there

was a need for further work in translating that into meaningful blocks for people.

The Tone and style of communications: there was some frustration that while external communications

(marketing mailing, campaign materials etc) are vibrant, glossy, and give a great sense of World Visions work,

some internal communications were perceived as drab, cheap and not very well thought through.

While some managers and directors were praised for their communications, there remain some challenges:

over the length of emails (some updates were felt to take too long to get to the point), the appropriateness

of some of the content being sent to all staff; and the impersonality of mass emails.

There are also challenges around consultation. Most staff felt glad to be involved in discussions, particularly

around the strategy. However, there was a perception from some around the Jericho consultation thatexpectations for internal change were set very high, and then changes in circumstances meant that very

little appeared to change in the end. There also was felt to be some dissonance between the ideas being

implemented orange walls and TV screens and the proposals made by staff.

There is a quarterly pulse check of staff attitudes which a number of staff felt was positive and helpful. There

were some doubts expressed as to whether it was a blunt instrument, which could do with some rening,

but in general it is felt to be helpful, and staff appreciated the feedback.

The focus on staff wellbeing has been welcomed, and people generally feel that the rhetoric has been

matched by action. However, there were some fears that Directors, and by implication the organisation, could

sometimes take too rational view of making change and not strongly enough appreciate the emotional

response that people will feel as a result of disruption to their day to day activities.


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The organisation is not felt to be good at celebrating success, and individual teams are unsure how to tell

people about good things that have happened. Conversely, some staff felt that the organisation also did not

handle communication of failure or challenge very well either, preferring a positive spin to openness.

Case Study

Of the communal notice boards within the Milton Keynes HQ, one is dedicated to celebrations,

another to news and media stories about World Vision UK. Neither are used effectively, as the photos

below show. The point of this example is not to show that there is a problem of updating notice boards

(although this does seem to be the case), rather that a well meaning idea has not been thought through.

The organisation needs to answer a few simple questions: if we are using notice boards to celebrate

success, who will update them? How will they nd the examples? How will these be linked to the

strategy? If we are not using notice boards, what other mechanisms can we use? Etc etc

One further challenge was around decision making. Many staff interviewed said, in relation to a wide range

of issues (including the London move, as noted above) Ive heard that... or I think it is the case that...,

while acknowledging that they were actually unsure as to whether a decision had been made. More than one

member of staff agreed that sometimes news just lters out rather than decisions being made.

Responsibility for internal communications is universally held to be too low a priority within the

organisation. Part of this is manifested in the fact that the person with the most corporate responsibility

for communications whilst talented, well thought of and capable is not in any position to be involved in

strategic and other discussions. Neither does she have the authority to shape, stop or change the way that

people communicate.The Organisations introduction of a Project Management function has been welcomed and is proving useful

and may provide an example of how responsibility can be devolved, but good practise and consistency maintained.

There is a fear amongst some staff of information overload although on deeper questioning it appeared

that bad targeting of information was principally the cause of this.

The pulse check provides a useful way of gauging staff views. Responses were felt generally to be listened

to, and information about the results and their implications fed back. Some felt the pulse check itself did not

provide enough scope for more nuanced discussion of organisational challenges.


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4.3.1 Communications culture recommendations:

Directors and senior managers should continue to set a positive tone which seeks to inform staff. They

should be clearer about their decisions, and as per recommendations under 3.1 have better processes

for managing core communications channels

Leadership communications should be explicitly aligned with strategy (and by implication, organisational plans)to show how day to day actions and developments are helping or causing challenges to - implementation

The leadership team should publish Quarterly performance updates which should be accessible and

honest about challenges. These could form the initial presentation at All Staff Meetings.

As noted in section 3.1 a Project Management style approach is recommended to allow teams to be

creative, but supported and structured, with their own communications internally

Efforts should be made to open up space for informal discussion of business issues either on the

intranet, or in other physical space eg Wednesday lunch time / informal drop ins?

5. Embedding these changes

Finally some important steps that may help embedding these changes in practice within the organisation, and

for which some external support may be required, include:

Giving support to managers to improve communications skills: this could include a learning set around

effective brieng and communication. There are many skilled communicators already, who could help

others improve, but some external facilitation may help with this process.

Developing an internal communications strategy: in the same way as there is a marketing strategy, and one for

government relations, there should be a clear, leadership endorsed strategy for engaging staff as stakeholders.

A note on resource implicationsIt is clear that there is not a pot of money oating around to invest quickly in internal communications. The

post identied would cost up to 50,000 to resource if approved (at a salary level of 33-36,000 plus on

costs). However, it is thought that it could be possible to reallocate some existing resources to make the

post a possibility in the short term. Longer term proposals like rebuilding the intranet will needed to have

separate business cases made in the future.


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Annex 1: Table 1 - Current World Vision UKinternal communications channels

Channel Brief description Ownership / responsibility Sample commentsAll staff meeting Quarterly get

together of all staff

in Milton Keynes.

Short presentations

on a number of topic,

including by CEO

Governance team

organises. Agenda set

by CEO. Teams need to

suggest key topics (though

not everyone clear about

process)

good but rushed

agenda seems to change right up until last

minute

good, but if you miss the meeting you

sometimes miss out on information, as there

is no follow up

it would be good to hear more from

ordinary staff members about the practical

side of some of the things being discussed

Weekly internal

comms email

Put together by Jenny

Archibald in HR.

A summary of key

business issues in

the organisation

Developed by HR open

to anyone to submit. Little

sense of editorial control

felt by HR, though they do

edit and work with teams

A good source of information, and one that

has improved

Its ne, but unfortunately too many people

just ignore it

It doesnt really tell me the critical things I

need to know about the organisation

It should just stick to giving us information,

not personal views

Posters and

notice boards

A variety of notice

boards around

the ofce some

contain pictures andthank you letters

from children, some

feature organisational

successes, media

coverage and general

news

Not clear a variety of

teams seem to have some

responsibility for them

Embarrassing the only thing on the

celebrations board is about a year out of

date

The country info is interesting, but whydoesnt it tell us more about our actual work

in the country?

I couldnt tell you at all what is on the staff

notice board I never look at it

Intranet Lotus notes based

system, featuring

key organisational

information (staff

list, training, forms)

and other useful

documents

Relatively junior member of

HR has responsibility. Very

few people know how to

update it, and there is no

technical support

Rubbish; A disaster; Hopeless; never up

to date

I only use it as an absolute last resort

it has improved, but no-one uses it

Justins emails /

blogs

Periodic emails from

CEO when he is

overseas he provides

a regular blog often

with video content

CEO and his ofce Justins emails are short and tell you what

you need to know

His video blogs are excellent but he only

does them when he is travelling

I will usually read it if it comes from Justin

Leading Edge Monthly one

page summary

of leadership andmanagement issues

Nick Wright Good because it is concise

I skimmed it over, looking for something of

interest, but didnt read it in depthI offered a couple of suggestions to Nick and

he was pleased because it was the rst bit of

feedback he had had!


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Pulse check Quar terly survey

of staff views.

Anonymous, but

results presented by

team against a range

of indicators

HR The pulse check is useful its good to see

how our team is doing versus others

the pulse check is OK but sometimes

doesnt bring out issues clearly enough.

Theres a deep cynicism among many staff

about the pulse check

Team emails A number of teams

provide updates

for the rest of the

organisation including:

HEA espresso,

campaigns updates,

communications,

summary, and country

updates

Different teams responsible

usually an administrator

or a co-ordinator who pulls

together content (though

not always)

The campaigns emails have got better they

used to be too long they were hard to make

sense of

Our team does provide an update, but

it is targeted to people we think will be

interested, and they have an opt out

there are some good sources of information

available the HEA espresso email is very

useful (a number of people made this point)

There is a lot of abuse of the all staff email,which means that people send and receive a

lot of junk

The country teams emails are limited to

three bullets per country, and not linked to

the strategy

The Public

Engagement

grid

Detailed excel

spreadsheet covering

6-weekly rolling

period detailing

marketing and

campaigns activity

Planning team within Public

Engagement responsible

they circulate the grid

within PE and to selected

other teams

The grid is good because when it gets sent

out, it prompts people to say if plans have

changed

It is a really useful planning tool

It is good but it is not in a very user friendly

format

Sometimes it just has too much information

on it

Consultations

or internal

campaigns

Focused consultative

work with staff

regarding particular

issues, eg the Strategy,

but also team led

initiatives such as

presentations on

market data, and onnew initiatives

Different teams take

responsibility (eg strategy

team, Government

relations, marketing)

The strategy consultation process was

excellent (more than one person said this)

The presentation on marketing to our

different audiences was fascinating

Sometimes we over consult

Other A range of other

mechanisms for

nding out stuff

were mentioned by

people. These were

mostly informal or

irregular, and included

Car sharing, Kitchen

conversations, and

relationships

Varies informal I get most of the key information I need

from my car share

I found out about the increase in sponsor

payments by a conversation in the kitchen

If youve been here some time, you probably

know who to ask. It is much harder for new

people


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Empowering our peopleSharing information to deliver the Strategy

Analysis and recommendations concerning internal

communications within World Vision UK

This report and recommendations compiled and designed

by DHA Communications With many thanks to Dominic Nutt Janice Gentry

Documents

World Vision UK - Empowering Our People