Empowering our people

Sharing information to deliver the Strategy

Analysis and recommendations concerning internal communications within World Vision UK

November 2011

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Contents
Executive Summary Key recommendations Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Process of research and analysis Section 3 Summary of findings from desk analysis phase Section 4 Analysis and recommendations following interview phase 4.1 Organisational communications 4.2 Communications around the specific considerations of the London move and Childrens rights campaign 4.3 Internal communications culture Section 5 Embedding these changes Annex 1 Table 1 - Current World Vision UK internal communications channels 3 4 5 6 7 8 8

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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 are designed 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 influence 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 financial 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 finds 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 find the leaders and Directors within the organisation approachable, willing communicators who want where they can to engage staff. Perhaps most significantly, 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 significant 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 sufficient 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 reflected.  Establish and maintain an organisational calendar and a clear, up to date organisation chart and contact list, saving staff time, and giving them basic information essential for planning and delivery.  Continue to make basic changes to the intranet, in order to reflect 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 offices, 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 6 units 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 significant 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 office, 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 specific 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 first 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 will be 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 confidentially, though Table 1 in Annex 1 gives 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 a corporate 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 significant 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 findings from desk analysis 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 fit 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 to galvanise staff. There has been some internal engagement done already round this in key teams (Public Engagement marketing, communications, fundraising)  World Vision UK has some specific short term challenges to address (brand, move) and a long term internal communications strategy is needed. Threats  Impending move of some staff out of office 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 find 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 recommendations following 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 final 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 first 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 coordinated, 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 difficulties 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 within the 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 reflect 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 specific channels which nonetheless are pan organisation in reach. 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 when travelling 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 T  he channels not always appropriately used: some emails sent by managers or as updates are too long and unfocused; the notice boards around the organisation dont give staff contextual information or link content to the strategy. As noted, the intranet not fit 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. L  ack 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 major meetings: 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. L  ack 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 fire 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 fix 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. These are 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 figures 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 briefings 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 the lack 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 to facilitate 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 find 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 find or maintain. A number of external audiences need to be updated on a regular basis with facts and figures 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 efficient and limit risk of incorrect information.

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4.1.6 Organisational communications recommendations

Immediate priorities C  larify leadership and responsibility for internal communications: the point of this exercise was not to find 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 financial 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 first one, but it would make accountability and implementability easier. S  ubject to discussion of the first 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 reflect 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) T  he 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 fixing

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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 reflect the position of staff who will work from London as regards ASMs (see section 4.2.1 overleaf) T  he existing weekly email: this should continue but be explicitly linked to the strategy headings, and a senior manager / Director should ensure that the content reflects 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 the organisation at a fixed point each month. The Leading Edge publication could be developed as a basis for this style of cascade briefing 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 find 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 find it a useful way 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 finalising 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 specific considerations of the London move and Childrens rights campaign 4.2.1 London move
Most 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 offices.

4.2.2 London move communications recommendations:

 Managers to instigate an open discussion about the communication challenges of having two offices, 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 findings from the interviews were that:  The campaign was being developed and led more effectively than earlier attempts. People felt better engaged, and that the fit of the campaign could be applied to their work.  There remains a need and an opportunity to flesh 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 specific calls that could be made to politicians, and key facts and figures relating to childrens rights.  A question remains about areas of work outside of the campaign.There was a feeling that some things wouldnt fit 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 clarification. 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 briefing.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 that expectations 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 refining, 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 find 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 filters 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 briefing 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 implications It is clear that there is not a pot of money floating around to invest quickly in internal communications. The post identified 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 UK internal communications channels

Channel Brief description All staff meeting Quarterly get together of all staff in Milton Keynes. Short presentations on a number of topic, including by CEO Ownership / responsibility Governance team organises. Agenda set by CEO. Teams need to suggest key topics (though not everyone clear about process) Sample comments 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 A good source of information, and one that has improved Its fine, 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 Embarrassing the only thing on the celebrations board is about a year out of date The country info is interesting, but why doesnt 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

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

Posters and notice boards

Intranet

Justins emails / blogs

Leading Edge

A variety of notice boards around the office some contain pictures and thank you letters from children, some feature organisational successes, media coverage and general news Lotus notes based system, featuring key organisational information (staff list, training, forms) and other useful documents Periodic emails from CEO when he is overseas he provides a regular blog often with video content Monthly one page summary of leadership and management issues

Not clear a variety of teams seem to have some responsibility for them

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

CEO and his office

Nick Wright

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 Good because it is concise I skimmed it over, looking for something of interest, but didnt read it in depth I offered a couple of suggestions to Nick and he was pleased because it was the first bit of feedback he had had! Page 18

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Pulse check

Team emails

Quarterly survey of staff views. Anonymous, but results presented by team against a range of indicators A number of teams provide updates for the rest of the organisation including: HEA espresso, campaigns updates, communications, summary, and country updates

The Public Engagement grid

Consultations or internal campaigns

Other

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 Different teams responsible The campaigns emails have got better they usually an administrator used to be too long they were hard to make or a co-ordinator who pulls sense of together content (though Our team does provide an update, but not always) 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 Detailed excel Planning team within Public The grid is good because when it gets sent out, it prompts people to say if plans have spreadsheet covering Engagement responsible changed they circulate the grid 6-weekly rolling It is a really useful planning tool within PE and to selected period detailing It is good but it is not in a very user friendly other teams marketing and format campaigns activity Sometimes it just has too much information on it The strategy consultation process was Focused consultative Different teams take excellent (more than one person said this) responsibility (eg strategy work with staff team, Government The presentation on marketing to our regarding particular different audiences was fascinating issues, eg the Strategy, relations, marketing) but also team led Sometimes we over consult initiatives such as presentations on market data, and on new initiatives Varies informal I get most of the key information I need A range of other from my car share mechanisms for finding out stuff I found out about the increase in sponsor were mentioned by payments by a conversation in the kitchen people. These were If youve been here some time, you probably mostly informal or know who to ask. It is much harder for new people irregular, and included Car sharing, Kitchen conversations, and relationships

HR

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Empowering our people

Sharing 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, Jenny Archibald and all staff members within World Vision UK who agreed to be interviewed for their helpful contributions.