Engaging communications at RSA

Citation

Brown, A. (2010), "Engaging communications at RSA", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 9 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2010.37209cab.004

Engaging communications at RSA

Article Type: HR at work From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 9, Issue 3

Short case studies and research papers that demonstrate best practice in HR

During times of change, maintaining employee engagement is a challenge that underpins the performance of any business. RSA Group (formerly Royal Sun Alliance) has been undergoing a period of rapid and significant change. The global insurance business rebranded in 2008; the new UK chief executive, Adrian Brown, and his leadership team are implementing a new vision; and a restructure has seen more than a 10 percent reduction in staff all throughout 2009.

With a diverse employee base of over 8,000 people spread across different areas of RSA’s personal and commercial insurance services, one major issue facing the UK business was how best to communicate with employees. The need to quickly align them with the new brand and vision saw RSA commission the Engage Group to review its internal communications (IC). The brief was to help the organization improve its communications effectiveness by working collaboratively with RSA’s IC and HR teams.

Defining the challenge

Before starting work, Engage Group spent time with senior executives and front-line employees to understand the company’s new vision and values, and to assess the IC team’s needs and objectives. Together with the HR and IC teams, four major challenges affecting RSA’s communications were identified. They were:

1. 1.

   Measurement of communications effectiveness across all channels needed improvement. There was some ad hoc measurement of individual channels but RSA did not have the full picture.

2. 2.

   It had too many channels – 28 in total, serving the core UK audience, different business areas and local services.

3. 3.

   There was no clarity over audience profiles and no segmentation in a complex business with multiple sites.

4. 4.

   IC had no clear business case or proof of return on investment, beyond anecdotal evidence.

Engage Group conducted a full communications audit, using a quantitative online survey of 3,000 employees. It asked 40 questions that would give the RSA hard data on which channels were most effective for delivering particular messages within the organization. Communications effectiveness was used as the measurement, rather than levels of satisfaction as these can be high even if channels are not delivering tangible business benefits. The drivers of effectiveness were measured in terms of broader corporate value – quality of information, clarity, trust, alignment with the brand vision and values and customer focus – and delivery against the specific aims of each channel.

Strategic analysis

Engage Group performed a number of new strategic analyses that would inform RSA’s approach to IC, using its engagement survey data and cross-referencing it with the channel review data. They included the following:

• •

  Strategic priority analysis helped assess which channels were key strengths and which required critical improvement to deliver core messages on the new strategy.

• •

  Key driver analysis helped create tactical plans for improving each of the communication channels.

• •

  Segmentation analysis helped identify four key clusters of employee types within RSA with different communications needs. Looking beyond RSA’s typical segmentation model, which applied business demographics of where people worked and sat in the company hierarchy, to one using personality type and communication preferences, informed decisions around its channel mix. RSA now has a much better idea of its audience groups and is able to concentrate on the areas that are going to make the most impact.

• •

  Linkage analysis explored the relationship between the internal communications survey data and the HR team’s existing employee engagement data from a Gallup survey. This enabled the business to quantify the link between communications effectiveness and engagement levels. By proving the ROI on internal communications, the IC and HR teams could deliver an even more compelling business case.

A fresh approach

Empowered by such a compelling body of evidence, RSA asked Engage Group to help it develop the findings into a practical “scenario-based” communications strategy. This included general principles for communicating within RSA; a channel guide outlining their purpose and capabilities; message guides on how to communicate different types of messages; and audience guidelines on how best to communicate with different groups in RSA.

Engage Group visualized for RSA what better communications might look like. Internal branding, the in-house magazine and other channels were refreshed to improve communications effectiveness and employee engagement. For example, the monthly internal magazine – Upfront – began an evolution toward a more event-driven channel, focusing on “bigger stories” within the organization and segmented content to reach different audiences. This was a significant move as Upfront involved significant spend, but was having minimal impact on communications effectiveness.

The changes expressed some fundamental principles that emerged from the research, including:

• •

  The messages and designs should be tailored to their audience.

• •

  Communications should be structured to allow greater “upstream” feedback.

• •

  Content should focus on utility, timeliness and clarity.

• •

  Communications should contextualize RSA’s mission and purpose.

The survey findings also encouraged RSA to develop Team Talk, its new online briefing tool for leaders to engage teams with key company developments. This is in line with the strategy of driving engagement through leaders at local team level. Team Talk received over 3,000 hits in the first month, which is approximately three visits per leader. Over 70 percent of leaders felt it was a highly effective tool and this figure is expected to continue to rise as leaders get more familiar with it and more content is added.

The need for collaboration

What started out as an in-depth audit of RSA’s internal communications grew into a wide-ranging study of how communications effectiveness can drive employee engagement across different audiences. Once that link is proven, it is easy to make the case for greater investment in IC and regular measurement.

At the heart of the study’s success was the idea that employee engagement can only be addressed effectively if HR and IC teams work together, and at RSA the HR and IC teams had worked closely together previously. HR usually owns the data that demonstrates impact on performance (churn, sickness, absenteeism and productivity) and employee engagement, but IC often owns the tools to improve engagement. If HR teams want to create engagement, they need to work much more closely with IC and if either team wants to demonstrate that they are directly contributing to better organizational performance – through more engaged employees – then close collaboration is a must.

Andy Brown and Anthony BurrowsAndy Brown is based at Engage Group and Anthony Burrows is at RSA.

About the authors

Andy Brown is a Partner at Engage Group and leads its analytics business. He was previously managing director of YouGov Consulting and a partner at Mercer Consulting where he led the organizational research practice. In his earlier career, he was global practice leader for organizational research and analysis at The Empower Group, the strategic consulting division of Manpower, and was also previously head of research at Gallup. Brown holds a doctorate in survey research analysis from The University of Oxford. Andy Brown can be contacted at: andy.brown@engagegroup.co.uk

Anthony Burrows is UK head of employee engagement at RSA. He previously worked in business, internal communications and business-to-business marketing roles at RSA. He is passionate about employee engagement and how communications can be used to drive this. Anthony Burrows can be contacted at: anthony.burrows@uk.rsagroup.com