Kalina  Leiling

A report on an Internal Communications Event which won an award for effective internal communications Grapevine Awards 2010 in Bulgaria.

Author: Kalina Leiling

How did the high-level management of M-Tel hear their employees?

Hello, hello?
Communication is not just managers standing in a conference room and giving presentations. It is about face-to-face communication and good listening. One of the key drivers of employees` engagement is their conviction that they are close to people who make decisions and participate in decision making process as well.
    
You have reached the voice mail of…

What was missing in the communication?
The Hewitt survey “The Best Employers in Bulgaria 2009” in which Mobiltel took part, aimed to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of our company. After а precise analysis, we have concluded that the areas with the lowest levels of satisfaction relate to the communication between the low-level employees and high-level management. Only 44% of the employees agreed that the high-level management is accessible and 31% more likely agreed that the management keeps the right balance between the employees` interests and those of the company. Therefore, the management and Internal Communications team considered these results as unsatisfactory.
Our task as Internal Communications specialists was to find the tools to demonstrate to our colleagues that the management “speaks their language” and that topics that excite the employees, excite the executive directors as well. That is why we decided to put our colleagues and the management in a different business environment, in which they can proactively exchange ideas and benefit from them. This strategy included conducting a series of Executive Master Classes, where the executive directors met the low-level employees in order to present their vision on current topics, related to M-Tel`s place in the telecommunications world and participate in a Q&A session.

Who do you want to speak with?

What did we want to achieve with the Executive Master Classes?

We, as specialists in Internal PR elaborated a strategy with which we wanted to strengthen the conviction that the management is accessible and visible. It was necessary to give an opportunity to more employees from different levels and areas in the company to directly communicate with the executive directors and become motivated and inspired toward achieving superb performance, driven by these contacts.
The Master Classes are part of the Be a Part! Program. There were three main objectives of the initiative. First, we wanted to encourage the two-way direct communication between the low-level employees and the high-level management. Second, we wanted to make this meeting useful for both sides- to broaden employees` telecommunications vision and provide the high-level management with feedback on their performance. Third, but not least, we wanted to involve as many participants as possible who are engaged in the company`s activity.

Do you hear me?

What did we do to achieve our goal?
We consulted with some specialists from Marketing Analyses Department and together we prepared a feedback inquiry from the meetings. We asked our colleagues from the Creative Department to design the most attractive vision for these events. Special banners were produced and placed in the conference room where the events took place; they also had an electronic version which rotated on the intranet. For the first meeting, we extended a more personal invitation to our talented employees in the company, the colleagues with exceptional competences in their professional areas and the mentors, the people, who provide support to our new colleagues, inspire and promote innovation. We expected 150 people to attend the events. Our budget was restricted but we used it optimally, paying for catering services, technical equipment, translation, and photographer services and providing copies of the HiComm magazines to employees, the edition of which thematically matched the subject of the event. The magazine served as a recognition tool and initiative involvement and also an instrument to increase employees` understanding about the future business trends and perspectives.
 
Yes, Andreas speaking…

On 22 July 2010, from 10.00am to 11.30am the first Executive Master Class took place in a conference room at M-Tel premises, where Mr. Andreas Maierhofer, Chief Executive Officer was the main speaker. More than 200 people attended the event. We needed an interpreter for a simultaneous translation from English to Bulgarian. Even the colleagues who didn`t understand English very well, had the opportunity to participate in the face-to-face communication with the high-level management. The feedback questionnaires allowed the attendees to make comments and give recommendations about future topics that they would like to discuss with the executive directors.

Yes, Alex speaking…
The second Executive Master Class was held on 19 August 2010, from 10.30am to 12.30am. The lecturer was Mr. Alexander Kuchar, Chief Technical Officer. Again, more than 200 people joined the seminar. The event ended with an interactive exercise, in which the employees participated in an open dialogue with the executive director.
Special ”visas-stamp” stickers were given to the participants along with passports where to glue them. The purpose of the passports was for the employees to collect as many visas-stamps as possible from different internal initiatives. The first three employees who collect the most “visas-stamps” will win a trip abroad at the end of the year. Both initiatives– the first Executive Master class and the passports as proof for employee participation in important corporate events, were PR tactics of the Internal Communications team. The passport initiative increased the effectiveness of the Master Classes, provoked even bigger interest and increased employee anticipation toward future internal initiatives.

You won!

What did we achieve with the Executive Master Classes?
After every Executive Master Class we published news on the intranet about them. The news on the CEO Master Class was read 1963 times and the one about the CTO Master Class- 959 times. We made an analysis about the campaign. The employees praised very highly both meetings with the executive directors. The results showed that more than 120 people out of 200 filled in the feedback questionnaires for each meeting. The survey also showed that between 65-70 % of the participants don`t occupy management positions, which met our expectations and goal to attract this target group. 71 % of our colleagues thought that the first Master Class was useful, 57 % called it “inspiring” and 85 % stated that the innovations topic excited them. 90 % described the content of the presentation as clear. Almost everybody (97 % of those who filled out the questionnaire), said that they were satisfied with the event.

The feedback inquiry results from the second Executive Master Class showed extremely high level of satisfaction with the event as a whole and its organization. Almost everybody (97%) was excited by the topic about the networks of the future. Most colleagues defined the meeting as useful (66%) and informative (47%). For every fifth it was inspiring.

The Internal Communications team was convinced that initiatives like the Executive Master Classes make the communication effective and motivate the employees to participate more actively in different internal initiatives. The CFO Executive Master Class is coming up. The objectives are the same- active listening and face-to-face communication between the low-level employees and the high-level management.