CorpComms Magazine

Promoting rapport between employees and senior managers has always been akin to walking a tightrope, but the task becomes even trickier when an organisation is navigating through difficult times.

Few know this better than the Metropolitan Police, which has suffered a seemingly endless stream of setbacks and criticisms in recent years, and recognises the pivotal role that staff magazines play in ensuring that employees are not disheartened when times get tough.

The Met's employee magazine, The Job, has existed in some shape or form for 40 years and is now a 32-page publication. 'The Met is always going through challenging times,' says Jon Watkins, editor of The Job, who works for publishing group Seven Squared. 'It is London's biggest employer with 53,000 staff and is heavily scrutinised by the media.'

His approach to tackling difficult issues is to front up to them in all their gory detail. His team is currently working on a profile of the teams involved in the G20 protest, in which newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson died, in a bid to show what conditions were really like for those officers.

After the Jean Charles de Menezes affair, when an innocent bystander was shot by anti-terrorist officers, the magazine went straight to those responsible for the unit involved, as well as the people handling input into the inquiry, and asked all the tough questions.

'We say to them, You have had this criticism and we want to give you the opportunity to explain the Met's stance on this,' says Watkins. 'We brief people that we will ask the tough questions in order to get to the heart of why something is being done. We certainly try to move far away from being Pravda.'

More than a mouthpiece

It is vital that a staff magazine does not become just another management mouthpiece, otherwise companies may as well not bother. Peter Doherty, managing director of publishing group Headlines, says companies should see tricky issues as an opportunity to set the record straight, via the staff magazine. 'People will find out the bad news anyway,' he says. 'It is far better for them to have access to information from an official source, rather than rely on rumour and gossip.

'Everything has a spin on it. If employees hear bad news from outside the company, it may well have a negative spin on it. It is better for the company to be honest and straightforward, and to put the company's side across. Never try to cover up a difficult subject - you will lose all credibility and trust.'

The staff magazine also provides an organisation with the chance to reassure employees. But Andy Sivell, managing director of publishing firm Working Titles, adds: 'You can explain unpopular decisions in a very considered way, but senior staff should be prepared to answer direct questions arising from the magazine.'

Impartiality is key if you expect to gain the trust of readers. 'Getting the balance right involves us being very strict,' says Watkins. 'It would be easy to say 'Yes' to the Met all the time, but we are trying to remain impartial. We take time to rewrite things they give us because we want a staff voice. Engaging with the readership is crucial.'

Sivell strongly agrees. 'I have always advocated honesty,' he says. 'If you deliver bad news honestly, then people will believe the good news. Be consistent. Don't paint the company as open and all-inclusive if you really like to make decisions behind closed doors.'

Truth matters

If the staff do not believe what they read in their own magazine, then that is a reflection of the dialogue that exists between them and senior management. Therefore, if a company wishes to improve that dialogue then the staff magazine is a good place to start - but only if they mean it.

'A staff magazine needs to be trusted,' says Doherty. 'If people feel they are being preached to or it is propaganda, they won't believe it. You have got to treat people with respect, and the magazine has got to be seen as belonging to the whole community.'

A sense of community is what the editors of Shell World are trying to create within a huge organisation which spans the globe. Shell World, a publication for existing and former staff, has been around since the 1920s, and once featured Roald Dahl as a contributor.

Three years ago, it was divided into country models. Shell World UK is a 28-page magazine which goes out to 9,000 current and former staff. It is published by Aberdeen-based publishing group The Fifth Business.

'Because Shell is so huge, you can work all your life in one business and know nothing about another,' says Shell's managing editor Kay Bruce. 'Our aim is to bring everyone together.'

Readership feedback

The publication encourages staff to comment on issues and features, and includes a letters page allowing questions to be answered by senior members of staff.

'People do write in to pick holes as well, but we like that because it shows they are engaging with the magazine,' says Shelley Hoppe, editor of Shell World UK.

The magazine features real people working for Shell, and each issue is themed around a particular part of the business and includes a four page spread about the lives of one or two workers on the front line. For example, a recent issue featured an oil rig worker and an employee working in the same oil refinery where his father and grandfather had also worked.

Former workers also receive attention. 'Pensioner pieces seem to go down particularly well,' says Hoppe. 'For example, we interviewed two people who worked for Shell in the 1950s and the female perspective was fascinating. You got your cup of tea at 10am precisely and, if the lift was full, ladies had to get out to make space for the men.'

The magazine is not glossy - a nod to the environmental issues which dominate the landscape for oil companies at present - and makes a real feature of involving staff in deciding its content. All editorial meetings focus on ideas sent to the magazine's email address by staff members, and it even held a staff competition to come up with its front-page strap line People in Energy.

Right writers

It is essential to use the right writers. 'Whoever writes the magazine must be able to write well and know the company well,' says Working Title's Sivell. 'It's like writing a family newsletter. You have to understand that Auntie Maud can't stand Uncle Bob, but at the same time give a sense that we are all the same family and we have to get on. The staff magazine can be an immensely powerful media in times of recession. It is reassuring and can foster a sense of 'we're all in it together'.'

The German delivery group Deutsche Post DHL, which has 500,000 employees across 220 countries, has an obvious need to engender a closer sense of community. It aims to do so, in part, through its staff magazine, Network, which is distributed to 60,000 managers worldwide every two months.

'We produce a German and an international edition, so all articles are in both German and English,' says Kate Larkin, account director at the magazine's publisher, theblueballroom. 'It runs to 80 pages and there is a team of us based in Bonn at the company's headquarters. The magazine deals with very senior-level issues, but told in a very human way. We have had to really understand the culture of the company in many different countries.

'We do a lot of regional stories - what it's like to do business in Japan, for instance. It is a totally global workforce working on global projects, so we profile global projects. The magazine is more about teams and functions than individuals.'

Merging cultures

Fostering an emphasis on teamwork has also been crucial for travel operator group TUI in helping to smooth the way for the merger of Thomson and First Choice in late 2007. Rather than choose which of the two staff magazines to continue with, TUI elected to launch a completely new publication Be.

'We identified that the magazine has to bring the company vision - of making customers feel special - to life. It has got to demonstrate that we are all part of that vision,' says TUI's internal communications manager Ellena Brooks.

'It doesn't matter whether you are cabin crew or IT support staff, we can track back to demonstrate how everyone is contributing to our vision.'

Brooks ensures a balance of stories from across the group, and includes a 'Pride Gallery', featuring photographs of staff and teams which have performed particularly well or won awards, as well as a page entitled 'Be Involved', which is dedicated to directors' commendations of employees who have gone the extra mile and testimonials from happy customers.

Finding common ground within TUI's diverse workforce remains a challenge, says Brooks. 'We have a very wide demographic - from sales reps in their 20s to airline pilots in their 50s. Their education and backgrounds may be poles apart, so we try to have a tone of voice which engages people on a human level - we are not preaching down from a directors' pulpit.'

The publication also encourages readers to suggest feature ideas and write in with their views of the magazine. A prize is offered for the star letter in a bid to stimulate participation.

Cuts both ways

It is this potential to create a two-way dialogue which makes a staff magazine such an important communications tool. Watkins says: 'At The Job, we have tried hard to create a dialogue which runs both ways. We have a sounding page where we run letters and we get responses where appropriate, so the Met is less nervous about doing it. We also publish names and locations because it shows people can air their views and there will be no reprisals.

'We set up a reader panel last year of half a dozen people, including an admin officer, a beat officer and a motorcycle officer. We tell them about the features we have planned and ask for issues to address within those. Giving staff channels into the magazine adds to its credibility.'

Another way to foster dialogue is to ask for reader comments via a generic email address, and provide links to surveys or further information on the company intranet. Doing vox pops, and featuring what front line workers have to say, is another important way to channel response.

It is helpful to try to measure response to a staff publication. The Met, for instance, includes regular surveys within the 23,000 copies of The Job it prints. Between 8,000 and 10,000 are filled in and sent back.

Doherty says he encourages clients to hold focus groups, e-surveys, and include competitions. 'If a lot of people are getting involved, then that is a sign that you have a healthy magazine,' he says.

Creating a good dialogue will help to target the magazine towards its audience and ensure they are engaged with it. Sivell, who produced the staff magazine for removal company Pickfords for two years, believes an understanding of staff as people is critical. 'There were some issues at Pickfords, such as literacy,' he says. 'So we kept the language simple, with short words and sentences. There were also some highly media-literate people in the company, so we used clever word play in the headlines.'

It is also wise to err on the side of the lowest cost option when it comes to production, he advises. 'When jobs are on the line, staff are more likely to grumble about a glossy, expensive staff magazine. The online gossip site Popbitch has proved that news in an email works very well if it is properly targeted.'

One truthful version

And of course there is nothing that people love to read about more than themselves. T-Mobile's staff magazine Open, a bi-monthly 36 page publication, aims to promote the efforts of frontline staff. 'We had two magazines before - Echo which was really a corporate mouthpiece; and In Touch for retail staff. But neither was really achieving what they were meant to, so we created Open,' says T-Mobile's internal communications channel manager Kate Connolly.

'The main aim is to provide a place for people to go for one version of the truth. We want to inform and inspire and everything that goes in the magazine is related to the strategy of the company. The magazine is there to represent the employee.

'We highlight individual staff members in a section called VIP, featuring people who've won awards or done something special to help drive the business, and there is a lot of demand to be featured in stories. We have our own inbox and each member of the editorial team has a patch within the company. We always look for ways to build in the employee voice.

'The aspiration is to create a dialogue with our people. We are trying to involve ourselves in conversations which take place around the proverbial water cooler.'

The magazine complements the information available to employees on the intranet and their weekly electronic newsletter. It is where people discover the context and reasons behind change and other business developments.

The magazine has been designed to look slightly out of step with other corporate marketing material to remove the idea that it is just a company mouthpiece. 'It hints at the corporate identity but you wouldn't pick it up and think Oh, that's T-Mobile,' says Connolly.

The Job also places employees at the fore. 'We are claiming to be the voice of the staff and their main source of information,' says Watkins. 'The Met is very diverse - it goes from senior murder investigators to canteen staff, but everyone's input is crucial. We try to show that through features - we ask the resource department about what goes into the teams because we want to include everyone's role, and represent that.'

One section of the magazine - 'I Could Do That Job' - profiles different staff roles, while features on police issues revolve around staff experiences and thoughts. An article on police radios, for example, will first set the scene with the experiences of staff members, before moving to the issue at hand - perhaps the development of a new piece of equipment.

All stories and features must have an employee reference, says Larkin. 'We might show how something works in action, or position a story about a sales rep who has increased revenues using a particular sales technique. It has to have a human element.'

As Shell's Kay Bruce points out: 'The most important thing is that a staff magazine should be like a mirror and when people read it, they should see themselves in it.' 

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