We all know times are tough, whatever sector you’re in. Frozen or constrained pay have become the norm, with 2012 expected largely to continue the trend. Little surprise, then, that the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)’s annual survey of Employee Attitudes to Pay found that a larger proportion of employees received pay cuts or freezes in 2011 than in any year since 2008.

Keeping staff motivated during a recession is a challenge, and the stakes are high. Morale directly affects productivity, creating a downward spiral when things start to slide. So how can your workforce stay focused and positive, even when they don’t get the pay review they’ve been counting on?

The CIPD’s survey concluded that good communication is key to any decision on pay, and that employees attach even more importance to communication when the news is bad. But there’s a long way to go. 40% of employers surveyed failed to communicate the rationale behind their pay decisions. And of those who did communicate, only 15% related their decision to individual performance.

Since 2008 satisfaction has steadily fallen ─ even among employees who received a pay rise. Yet satisfaction levels rise when decisions have been explained (in 2011 doubling among those whose employer had explained their pay rise to them). But with only 19% of employees feeling that their pay rise reflected their performance, even good news could be more effectively communicated so that employees feel appreciated and understand what’s important to their organisation.

As the CIPD points out, organisations need to invest in sharing with employees the economic realities they face. You may need support from experienced communication specialists to ensure that your communications succeed. Take time to articulate exactly what you want to achieve through your communications. And make sure you have a clear picture of how your employees feel right now. From there you can consider each of your audiences, what you need to say to them, and how you are going to establish a dialogue. Create a conversation about the current climate, your employee’s performance, and what needs to happen for pay to increase. Only then will your workforce be equipped with realistic goals and the motivation to perform well.

When financial rewards are so limited, engaging each employee in honest and informed communication is essential to sustaining the loyalty and momentum that will see you through harsher times.

What communications have you implemented about pay? If you’d like to talk to an expert, get in touch on 01273 480 404

‘Communicating successfully in a 21st century business’

11 January 2012 – Christopher Hopkins, Managing Director of award-winning employee communication consultancy Caburn Hope (www.caburnhope.co.uk) has announced a challenging agenda for its new 2012 seminar programme.

Caburn Hope has created a series of dynamic and highly participative ‘master classes’ that will tackle some of the challenges faced by HR professionals in a 21st century business. These free to attend, breakfast sessions will focus on how best to take advantage of the latest digital, economic and political developments in order for companies to engage their people, build loyalty and retain first class talent.

Kicking off with ‘Communicating successfully in a 21st century business’ on 8 February, the programme includes the following dates and topics:

• 28 March, Communicating your pensions’ changes
• 30 May, Successful reward communication
• 25 July, Communicating employee recognition
• 26 September, The key to leadership success

Caburn Hope’s Managing Director, Christopher Hopkins, commented “I am really pleased to announce such a strong line-up of breakfast seminars. These sessions have been devised to provide HR professionals with best return on their time and up-to-date knowledge and support that they can take back to their office.”

The seminars will take place in The View Studios at Altitude London. Located on the 6th floor of the impressive Grade II listed Millbank building, The View Studios over-look the River Thames towards the London Eye, providing a perfect back-drop to an intimate, inspiring and conductive meeting.

For further information or to book a place please email events@caburnhope.co.uk or contact Alessandra De Santis on 01273 480 404.

As competition for talent becomes ever fiercer, embracing new communication channels is going to be essential in ensuring a successful business for the 21st century.

The business landscape is always changing but the pace of that change over the past decade or so has accelerated hugely thanks to a combination of economic, political, cultural and technological factors.

Just as the marketplace has never been more turbulent and unpredictable, so the workplace has never been more varied, or offered so many opportunities. The people who work for you are spread right across the demographic, social and geographic spectrum and have a wide variety of expectations and preferences about how you interact with them.

Keeping these disparate groups happy, loyal and united is a challenge. Enlightened bosses know that they must combine the four elements of the employee value proposition – reward, business strategy, brand and behaviours – to build loyalty and engagement in their staff, and that effective communication is the cement binding these elements together.

But communicating in the way you have in the past might no longer be good enough. The latest generation of young people to enter the workforce expect to engage in a proper conversation with their employer on a much more democratic basis than ever before. They have casually embraced modern communication technology in a way that their predecessors couldn’t have dreamt.

Employee surveys frequently show that younger employees are surprised by the ‘old-fashioned’ communication preferences of their employers. And yet a recent poll on the Caburn Hope website shows that – when it comes to reward at least – HR professionals are only confident in using print and email to communicate, with no votes at all for more modern channels such as social media, SMS messaging or web-based communication.

Cannier businesses realise that they can harness technology to democratise their internal communication, engage their people more and thus build loyalty and retain the best talent – from any background and any generation.

Those who embrace new technology, and use it appropriately in their communication have a huge competitive advantage.

You already know about the incredible proliferation of smart phones, social media and the like, but are you using them to your company’s advantage?

The potential rewards are huge for companies that manage to position themselves ahead of the pack.

Start a conversation with your employees. Discover how they like to communicate and then build your communication strategy around their preferences. Even if they say they want something scary like smart phone apps, find out how you might be able to use them to your advantage.

What have you got to lose? The cost of doing nothing could be disastrous. Your people are your most valuable asset. It’s them who will steer your business successfully through today’s complex and challenging landscape. So engaging them, motivating them and communicating effectively with them is absolutely fundamental.

If you would like to find out more and receive a copy of the presentation Managing Director, Christopher Hopkins and Account Manager, Joanne South delivered to the E-Reward conference on how to deliver this - please contact info@caburnhope.co.uk

Join Caburn Hope MD Chris Hopkins for a breakfast seminar on the subject of reward communication on 19 October at The Gherkin, London

It’s so important to retain your best workers during economic downturns, but when pay is squeezed and standards of living are eroded, people naturally focus more and more on their salary and benefits.

Your budgets are shrinking, yet the pressure is on to perform better than ever. How can you keep your people happy in these straitened times?

Effective reward communication can help to remind your workforce about all the benefits they derive from working for you – not just the financial ones.

Join us at the stunning location of Searcys at the top of London’s famous landmark – The Gherkin – for a special breakfast seminar on this subject.

Seminar details:

Wednesday, 19 October 2011
08.30 to 10.30

Searcys
40|30, The Gherkin
30 St Mary’s Axe
London
EC3A 8EP

Places are limited and available only to HR/Reward Directors or Managers

To register or to find out more please call Pamela Kent on 01273 480404 or email us at events@caburnhope.co.uk

Retaining your best workers during an economic downturn can make the difference between success and failure for any company.

When pay is squeezed and standards of living seem threatened, people naturally focus more on salary and benefits and less on job satisfaction.

In a recent survey by the Institute of Administrative Management, more than half (54%) of 2,000 UK workers across all sectors gave improving their salary and benefits as the top reason for wanting to change jobs. The second most popular reason (42%) was improving job satisfaction.

Last year’s survey saw 61% of respondents citing job satisfaction as the top reason for changing jobs, while 48% said pay and benefits was the most important.

This reversal will make senior managers nervous. How can they be expected to keep their people – and keep them happy – in straitened times when there’s no money to spend on increasing salaries?

One way is by leveraging reward and benefit assets to ensure the best possible return on investment from them. Employees really do value their benefits and many companies do a great job of selling them to new or potential staff – but the selling often stops once people are on board.

Maintaining that focus on promoting the benefits of working for your company through effective reward communication is a form of internal marketing that can reap serious dividends in staff loyalty.

There are numerous ways to communicate reward: seminars, webinars, presentations, team meetings or one-to-one conversations with line managers, podcasts, printed materials, social media, total reward statements or even advice from external experts.

Whatever method you choose, the basic principles underlying all effective reward communication remain constant whatever the economic climate – but it’s never more important to stick to them than when times are tough.

They can be summarised in five steps:

1. Define the journey

Establish a vision and objectives for your reward communications. Take some time to articulate exactly what you want to achieve given the difficult operating context.

2. Audit and review

You may think you have a clear picture of how things currently stand and how your workforce feels, but have you researched this properly? And how are you going to measure the effectiveness of your communication?

3. Framework and identity

Your reward communication must be consistent – in style, creative look/feel and language.

4. Build a communication plan

Consider your audiences, your channels, your messages and your timings – and then map them all out in a way that makes it clear to everyone involved exactly what will happen, how and when.

5. Ensure you can deliver

Once you have a view on what you want to say, how and when you want to say it and to whom, consider whether you have the right tools at hand to deliver your messages.

Caburn Hope will be hosting a breakfast seminar on this subject on Wednesday 19 October at Searcys, The Gherkin, St Mary’s Axe in London, between 8.30 and 10.30.

Caburn Hope MD Chris Hopkins and a guest speaker will be sharing their views on reward communication.

If you’d like to find out more, visit the Caburn Hope website , email or call 01273 480404.

By Tina Highsted, Account Manager

Pension communication is complicated. Our poll found that for the majority of you it is complicated or non-existent. It is more important than ever as part of the employer value proposition to communicate it effectively given the pension changes happening next year.

‘17% of employers spend nothing at all communicating their organisation's pension, 53% spend less than 1% of their total benefits spend‘ Employee Benefits, Axa Pensions Research

What makes communications effective?

We believe the three key principles for an effective communication are:

1. Keep it simple and stick to the basics
2. Think like a marketer by segmenting and targeting your audience to make the message work for the recipient
3. Give it impact with clear, concise messaging

Here is our step-by-step guide

1. Make it relevant

It's important to know your audience - one size doesn't fit all. Employees differ in age, literacy and numeracy levels, learning styles and attitudes. They may be new or long-serving members of the scheme. They may be located in different parts of the country or world. Target the content and method of delivery to ensure that you engage your audience.

2. Recognise the needs of the employee

Good communications should provide the employee with the information they need throughout their membership in the scheme and to help them to understand the options available to plan for their retirement and to understand their own benefits once retired. Communications should be:

• clear, helpful and relevant to the customer
• delivered using an appropriate method and at the appropriate time.

3. Content

Your key messages should be direct and consistent. It is important to communicate in clear plain language that is easily understood. The message should be simple and straight forward avoiding the use of pensions jargon. Too much information can be a distraction. Also, don't be afraid to repeat your message as people forget about 80% of information immediately after they receive it. Repeating a message over and over, especially in a new fresh way, gives a better chance that more is retained.

4. Branding

Communications should be branded consistently to avoid the risk of a disjointed employee experience. By leaving individual providers to deliver the key messages the employee may become confused about who the message is actually from.

5. When to communicate

Information about the pension scheme must be timely. Whether communicating at a specific event, such as when a member joins, takes maternity or paternity leave, leaves before retirement, on retirement or death or because of a change to the scheme, information about the pension scheme must come at the right time to be most useful. However, it is widely regarded within the industry that continuous engagement with people, so that they are more regularly aware of their pension, is most effective.

6. Identify best ways to communicate

Consider the advantages of various forms of communication when setting out to communicate with employees. Sometimes it may be helpful to use more than one channel of communication, or to repeat the message at suitable intervals.

Online communications have increased in recent years with the use of pension microsites (an online secure website that communicates pension benefits directly, clearly and securely to employees). However, many people still like face-to-face communications in one to one situations, group presentations or meetings.

7. Reviewing the effectiveness of communications

Feedback and review are essential to proving the value of the communications and justifying the money spent on it. Seeking feedback is also a good way to show employees you care about their views and decisions.
Conducting a full-scale employee survey is still the most recommended method for gaining actionable employee feedback. Professionals recommend doing surveys on a regular basis, but say you shouldn't do it any more often than once a year because employees could lose interest if pressed for feedback too often.

Summary

If members don't understand their pension scheme then they may not appreciate its value or realise how it can help them to save for retirement. As a result they may not benefit from their scheme as much as they should.

Employers should have an interest in seeing that:

• members are engaged and motivated to plan for their eventual retirement and do not become confused and discouraged
• the messages are effective in attracting, motivating and retaining employees
• unnecessary time and resources are not taken up by ineffective or badly planned communications exercises
• the requirements of legislation are complied with.

These benefits are unlikely to be achieved unless the scheme is clearly communicated to the employees. This is where working with a communications specialist is essential.

To discuss your needs do get in touch.

The government-sponsored Employee Engagement Task Force has acknowledged communication as a critical element to better engagement levels in the UK.

Real and effective employee engagement is reliant on well-designed communication reflecting the brand values, connecting with employees on a genuinely human level, and embodying the Employer Value Proposition and employer brand. After all, engagement is about having adult conversations with employees: listening to what they say, telling them what’s happening in their organisation, recognising and empowering them.

Under the stewardship of David MacLeod and Nita Clarke, the Task Force will be swinging into action this summer, coming up with the tools and advice to help organisations put performance-driving engagement at the heart of their business strategies.

The first ‘Guru Group’ meeting – bringing together engagement experts, stakeholders and a host of influential HR directors – has taken place this month. Reportedly early discussions are focusing on what have been the barriers to engagement up to now. And this has put communication firmly in the spotlight.

The typical challenges to achieving effective engagement can be addressed head-on when communication is made a strategic priority. The traditional command and control management model, companies not embedding clear company values and vision, and inadequate skills and tools at line manager level to cascade company messages impedes engagement – but all boil down to communication issues. Equally communication will be pivotal if you are to ‘enable’ or ‘empower’ individuals across an organisation – all big themes in the engagement debate today.

Communication is the cement that holds together any employee engagement programme, but be wary of ‘communication, communication, communication’ as is being advised in some quarters. There is a subtleness about good communication. So think quality not quantity, and carefully consider tone of voice. We are constantly reminded that effective engagement should be about driving performance rather than just bolstering staff attitudes. But pieces of communication must never lose their personal, human approach, or employees will tire of them.

We hope the Task Force homes in on the power of communication, as it begins to map out the best engagement tactics for UK plc. Results will be far better if clear, concise, relevant, human and brand-aligned communication is used to drive the engagement juggernaut forward, now that the engine is running.

The results of our recent poll show that the majority of people are interested in using social media in internal communications, but are unsure of its application and effectiveness (67%). This is understandable and natural – don’t act before you feel comfortable and knowledgeable about it yourself. But there is a point where you do need to jump in.

From talking to companies there are three common barriers highlighted in implementing social media in internal comms. They are legitimate concerns but perceptions can somewhat be skewed by myths. So let’s dispel a few of these myths and overcome these barriers.

1. Social media distracts people from their jobs and makes them less productive.

A really interesting academic study recently found that if employees were able to blog at work, about work and leisure, it increased their overall productivity. This approach encouraged more posts, gained more readers, boosted the reputations of the writers within the business and that online conversations turned to offline relationships. If you are happy for employees to check their Blackberry’s at home or work the occasional weekend to meet deadlines, then what is wrong with the odd personal blog post in amongst work related ones? Of course there needs to be parameters so it doesn’t get out of hand but some trust does have to be shown to employees.

2. What if someone writes something negative or derogatory about our business?

To be totally candid, this is a bit naïve really. If someone feels negatively towards the company they will be telling people – internally and externally – over the water cooler through to e-mails. If these feelings are there already, adopting social media shows that you aren’t putting your head in the sand and ignoring the issue, that you want to hear from employees (good or bad), will listen and act on that feedback (so long as you do of course). This gives you the opportunity to respond to negative comments rather than letting bad feelings rumble under the surface. Again, there needs to be parameters – it shouldn’t be a free fall nor should there be personal remarks made about others. Lay out the boundaries in guidelines for everyone to see. This will relieve your concerns and protect employees.

3. We don’t have the resources to manage, monitor and administrate internal social media.

We obviously can’t say whether you do have the resources or not, but this statement tends to come from an assumption that it is very labour intensive. Develop simple and straightforward guidelines – say what employees should and shouldn’t be doing on these platforms, what topic forums ought to cover. Through light-touch management, internal communities can ‘police’ themselves. If someone says something inappropriate, the rest of the group normally comes down pretty quick on them. But do check-in so you can a) be involved and b) respond to comments/questions or queries. Automatic notifications can be set up for administrators so they can easily and quickly check content too.

Don’t let barriers grind you to a halt.

This is not the time to stand still and ignore social media. It can be a bit scary, but ask for help and guidance. A little bit of knowledge can go a long way in delivering great internal communication.

Companies are harnessing social media to improve the way people are recruited, trained, kept informed about internal matters and to provide a channel for employees to input into strategies and plans.

For instance IKEA became one of the first companies to communicate the details of their health plans on Twitter, conscious that its tech-savvy employees would be happier with succinct tweets guiding them to a dedicated company Microsite, than having a bulky brochure land on their doormat. Or how about Asda's Green Room where ‘colleagues share stories, photos and videos about life at Asda.’ Not only is it a way of connecting employees but because the site is open, it also builds brand reputation with customers.

It seems more likely though that many employers will lean towards social networks that are private and behind their company’s firewall. For instance Yammer.com allows micro-blogging (akin to twitter) to be viewed only by members of the same company, as used by the likes of Deloitte, Ebay and Groupon. If software systems like this can be built to fit with an organisation’s business objectives from the ground up, it’s little wonder that some think we’ll eventually be moving the whole HR architecture over to a social platform.

Social HR certainly sounds like the future, and many companies are keen to ditch neglected intranets in favour of the more immediate, connected nature of social networks. However you can’t communicate everything like this (not everything is a conversation for starters), and surely there’s a risk that employer branding will get lost. Our advice is don’t throw out the bathwater just yet.

Company’s ought to consider social media as part of the overall communication mix, not the Holy Grail on its own. It should be about encouraging a dialogue and not just about pushing out management messages – so the communication is much less hierarchical and more peer-to-peer. This way it will be more trusted and authentic. Social media is a key tool and becoming increasingly central to communication plans but there is still a place for websites, print and posters.

Even if you don’t set up a social media network, adopting a social approach to communication could be just as effective for you. It is about being open, honest, authentic and transparent and having a dialogue with employees. All communication should embody, project and perpetuate this whether it is on the likes of twitter or not.

As employees, regardless of age and gender, use social media in their leisure time and as consumers – why not harness that power, approach and aptitude for your internal communication?

But don’t rush into social technology because ‘it’s so important’, or ‘we must just do it because everyone else is’. Think about how Social HR fits with your wider communication strategy and ask how Social HR will reflect your employer branding.

If used smartly Social HR can improve employee communication and drive higher levels of engagement, but plan and experiment with it to make it work for you.

This month’s revelation that the UK economy contracted by 0.5% in Q4 of 2010 quite rightly shocked the business world. The message to private sector employers is to focus even more determinedly on generating growth as we head into 2011. The forecasts give reason for hope. The CBI expects 2.0% growth in the UK economy this year, and 2.4% growth in 2012, sending out an optimistic message that recovery is coming slowly, and a double dip recession unlikely. Meanwhile Deloitte’s influential quarterly survey of Chief Financial Officers confirmed optimism (in Q4 of 2010) among the UK’s largest companies that has not been seen since mid-2007.

Could this mean the misery caused by last year’s snow can be forgotten? Cost control has dropped down the list of CFO priorities, and finance chiefs are shifting from defensive to expansionary strategies, including taking on new staff and undertaking capital expenditure, Deloitte says.

“It’s early days to talk about recovery for many organisations, and of course there will be continued pressure on employers in 2011 and fears over jobs in many workplaces,” says Chris Hopkins, managing director of Caburn Hope. “But there’s a new air of optimism, and after several tough years, now is the perfect time to send out upbeat, encouraging message to employees. Driving performance will be everything in the next 12 months, so let’s talk up what we know our people can do.”

At this precarious stage of early recovery, communication has the power to lift morale, reassure employees who desperately want to know what’s going on at their place of work, and most importantly, inspire performance. “From leadership to the line, organisations need a strategy in place to tell individuals their performance matters and is valued,” says Hopkins.

“Upbeat messaging can drive momentum, and now is certainly the time for a ‘glass half full’ attitude. Let’s not talk about another tough year. Let’s say it’s going to be exciting and incredibly rewarding. It’s going to be a year when great communication stimulates market-changing levels of performance. So start talking your way onto the road to recovery.”

Click to see our Employee Communications Strategy

Despite the challenging economic environment affecting so many in the industry, we are continuing to expand our team of employee communication specialists, offering clients a real depth of knowledge and experience in this constantly evolving, specialist field.

At the end of last year we welcomed Pamela Kent, who joined Caburn Hope as Account Director. Pamela has taken on responsibility for new business development, and will be using her well-honed management and sales skills to oversee customer service standards and project delivery for Caburn Hope’s valued clients.

Pamela was previously Sales Manager at AXA PPP healthcare, the health and wellbeing solutions giant, responsible for the day-to-day management of a regional sales team, and involved in training and developing individuals, while supporting the team in pricing and regional tender work. Pamela’s stand-out achievements while at AXA include an enviable reputation for exceeding sales targets in occupational health, and employee assistance programmes (EAP); building meaningful partnerships with clients, strategic partners and other key stakeholders; and contributing to product development initiatives.

“My time at AXA has given me a thorough understanding of the value and importance of looking after your people as they are a business’s most valuable asset” says Pamela. “The contribution they can make to business performance and growth is invaluable, and now working with a growing company that excels in the effective communication of an employee lifecycle is very exciting. I’m confident that my own skills will enhance the already highly competent team of specialists at Caburn Hope. ”

In January 2011 Joanne South joined us as Account Manager on our employee communication work. Joanne has managed a range of marketing and communication projects from print through to interactive digital experiences, for public and private sector organisations.

Prior to joining Caburn Hope, Joanne worked for charity and agency Arts & Business, which promotes and brokers marketing and branding partnerships between businesses and cultural organisations. She specialised in the potential, impact and challenges of digital technologies in marketing from social media, immersive games through to websites; which led to Joanne running training courses on digital technology, presenting at conferences and generating press coverage.

In addition she worked with international business experts and professors on how and why taking a more creative and artistic approach to people development, employee engagement and organisational development is a must for a thriving and competitive modern twentieth-century organisation. She presented at the first International Congress on Experiential Learning in Berlin in 2010, which was organised by The Academy for Business in Society, an alliance of companies, business schools and academic institutions committed to integrating business in society issues into the heart of management theory and practice.

She has also worked as a management consultant, working internationally and across the UK on market research, marketing strategies and business planning for private sector developers, governments through to art galleries. While at University she completed an internship at Wired Sussex, the digital business development agency for Sussex where she secured funding from the European Union for an initiative to promote the technology sector as a career path for women.

Now that the full extent of the Comprehensive Spending Review has been revealed, private sector employers in the UK can at least get on with plotting their slightly less uncertain futures. George Osborne has effectively laid down an audacious challenge to private businesses to work even harder. With the public sector haemorrhaging jobs, entrepreneurial firms are charged with creating new business, reducing the unemployment figures, and expanding the economy.

How are we going to do it? I believe the mantra for 2011 has to be ‘drive performance through a truly engaged workforce’.

That means making sure your communication strategy is delivering results and genuinely inspiring people into action. Of course your people will only stick with you for the long-term, and go that crucial extra mile so you hit performance targets, if they’re fully engaged, and committed to corporate values they understand, buy into, and respect.

Here’s an opportunity for employers to put their pensions in the spotlight, and employees to receive more help planning for their futures.

New pensions regulations coming into force in 2012 require employers to automatically enroll all their eligible jobholders into either a 'qualifying' workplace scheme, or the new National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) scheme. NEST is a scheme designed to help low- to medium-earning employees save for their retirement if they don't have access to a good-quality, employer-sponsored pension already.

These pensions changes pose a great opportunity for employers to communicate and engage with their employees while there’s a wider media buzz around the importance of financial planning. It’s a win for employees too, as many will have pensions for the first time, or experience better pensions than they did previously.

But as 2012 approaches employers can’t afford to simply sit back and wait. It’s vital to make decisions now, and work hard on your communication strategies so employees aren’t confused, say pensions experts. Colin Mayes, Head of Pensions at benefits consultancy Enrich says: “Big questions are: will you opt for NEST or, if you have one, should you continue with your existing scheme? Does it meet the requirements? Are your IT systems up to scratch? What are you telling staff and how are you communicating with them?”

He says introduction of the new responsibilities will be phased in from 2012, giving smaller companies more time to comply. But there will be a lot of media coverage of NEST and pensions-provision generally, so employees must receive clear HR communication from the start, or may think they are missing out.

“Make sure they know when, and how, they will be auto-enrolled and how to opt out if they want to,” says Mayes. “And if you have a good existing scheme, make sure you raise its profile internally when NEST is in the news, showing how well it compares. You don’t want people thinking they’re missing out because their scheme isn’t a NEST. It’s worth pointing out that what they do have, or will have, is of the same standard, or better,’” he adds. Mayes says it’s worth looking into the Pensions Quality Mark (PQM) run by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) as an official endorsement.

Chris Hopkins, Managing Director of Caburn Hope agrees: “Having this accreditation for your pension and using it in your communications would be really helpful to reassure employees that their long-term financial wellbeing is of paramount importance, and that they’re being well-provided for.”

Hopkins strongly believes that clear, positive communications in the run-up and during 2012 will help organisations turn Pensions Reform to their advantage. “Even if there are issues around cost, for instance, if salary increases need to be tempered to pay for the additional pensions costs, that can be justified and explained to employees,” he says. “The core message needs to be that ‘this is for you, your future will be more secure, and you are benefiting from this great new pension arrangement’. Companies that aspire to being an ‘employer of choice’ would do well to communicate the efforts being made to meet the needs of their people. Genuine concern for the financial wellbeing of your workforce is a fantastic value, and certainly worth shouting about.”

Caburn Hope are pleased to announce our partnership with Enrich, a leading employee benefits solutions provider, to offer our Employee Communication clients specialist Employee Benefits advice, broking and consultancy.

In a reciprocal agreement, we have joined with Enrich as their Communications specialist, creating a team that delivers all-round benefits solutions and communications to engage and motivate employees.

Caburn Hope have also recently redesigned Enrich’s corporate identity, website and collateral to reflect their position as leaders in their field.

Enrich is a full service employee benefit and reward consultancy specialising in wellbeing, healthcare, risk, flexible benefits, pensions, and reward. www.enrichbenefits.com

Only 59% of companies are carrying out annual or half-yearly Employee Engagement surveys, shows our latest online poll, carried out by Caburn Hope in April 2010. A healthy 78% of respondents confirmed they have conducted some form of Employee Feedback or Employee Engagement survey, but a worrying 19% of these were on an ‘ad hoc’ basis, and the remaining 22% still don’t recognise the importance of assessing employee opinion at all.

“Measuring employee engagement is now widely accepted as an important facet of corporate life, but these surveys must be carried out regularly if organisations are to properly monitor attitudes and improvements to engagement levels over time,” says Chris Hopkins, managing director of Caburn Hope. “Highly engaged colleagues can add enormous value to organisations. Surveys highlight areas where dissatisfaction and lack of understanding are creeping in, and will help companies pinpoint weaknesses in how they are supporting and communicating to their people.”

It’s impressive that some organisations - 10.8% - are gauging employee opinion on a half-yearly basis, says Hopkins, but this low response shows how few workplaces have the time and resources to measure employee engagement regularly.

Surveying your people is a ‘bottom up’ approach, and can be complemented further by monitoring attitudes from the ‘top down’ too. This can be done by auditing and benchmarking your overall employee communication activity. “Engagement tends to flourish where leadership and managers inspire enthusiasm for work, and communicate company values and objectives regularly and clearly,” says Hopkins. “Acting on the results of employee feedback and wider communication audits can improve relations across the board. This in turn leads to more committed, motivated, and productive employees, giving real return on investment.”

Research by the Corporate Leadership Council in the US equates a 10% rise in engagement to at least a 6% increase in productivity, directly affecting the bottom line.

UK employers continue to individually recognise staff despite feeling the effects of the financial crisis, according to a new poll survey conducted by Caburn Hope.

Sixty per cent of respondents said they felt it was more important now than ever to individually recognise employees in times of financial hardship. However, cash incentives were less likely to be the method of recognition, with one quarter (25 per cent) opting to acknowledge their staff with non-financial rewards.

This is supported by a recent study conducted by Towers Perrin (2009) which revealed that one in ten businesses planned to cut reward spending (9.14 per cent).

Chris Hopkins, MD of Caburn Hope, said: “When there is so much talk of doom and gloom it is of fundamental importance that companies continue to individually recognise the needs of their workforce during these times of hardship to keep motivation as high as possible.

“Business is tough, but cash is not the only driver of engagement. In fact, research shows that performance improvement more than doubles when the reward is a non-financial one*. Introducing schemes such as personalised e-cards which instantly recognise the recipient will promote that feeling of goodwill whilst barely breaking the bank.”

*Workspan, November 2006 38.6 per cent for a non-cash award versus 14.6 per cent for cash

Caburn Hope has created a comprehensive pensions and flexible benefits communications programme for global aircraft and defence services supplier, the Goodrich Corporation.

After making some sensitive changes to its pension arrangements and introducing a new Defined Contribution scheme, Goodrich sought an effective way to help its UK employees make an informed decision when saving for retirement. Simultaneously Goodrich also launched its first flexible benefits scheme, Flextra.

Caburn Hope was appointed to create a communications strategy to launch Flextra and steer staff through the pensions consultation period. The brand ‘My Future, My Choice, My Reward’ was conceived by Caburn Hope and was consistently applied to all communications with a tone of voice which was considerate of this sensitive subject and encouraged employees to prepare for the future together with their employer.

The solution took a multi-platform approach, including a tailored website designed to provide a resource for both pensions and Flextra for employees. The site supports user generated pensions content which changes according to the scheme the user is viewing, and runs through the available flex options.

The communications package included in-print newsletters, posters, brochures for both Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit pensions schemes and a booklet to outline the new Flextra scheme.

The Goodrich Corporation is a global employer of over 25,000 people at 80 facilities across 16 countries. Its systems and services are supplied to aircraft and engine manufacturers, airlines and defence forces around the world.

More than one fifth of employers do not measure the success of their intranet facilities, a poll conducted by Caburn Hope last month reveals.

Twenty-one per cent of respondents stated that there were no procedures in place to assess the intranet offering within their organisation.

The top method of intranet measurement was shown to be the use of a feedback form with 43 per cent of the vote, whilst page impressions and time spent by user were jointly favoured by 14 per cent of those surveyed.

“The intranet is for employees and its contents should be led by employees,” said Chris Hopkins, managing director of Caburn Hope. “If there are no provisions in place to gauge intranet accessibility and the success of the content displayed there, you can never know whether the core messages you really want to drive home are ever being read, let alone absorbed and understood.

“Intranet facilities present an ideal opportunity to open up the flow of communication with employees. Measuring its success by embedding mechanisms to encourage feedback, whilst paying attention to the numbers of repeat users and click throughs, will allow you to create an intranet system which is entirely worthwhile to the organisation as a whole.”

Click here to contribute to our next research by taking part in our new poll, Do you feel it’s appropriate to individually recognise employees in times of financial hardship?

Former Travelport employee engagement manager Lee Nicholls joins employee communications consultancy Caburn Hope today (5 October) as account director.

Nicholls will oversee the growth of the consultancy’s business portfolio and provide valuable insight to the delivery of employee engagement strategy and employer brand performance.

Whilst working for Travelport Nicholls was responsible for driving employee engagement to 3,000 members of staff located globally in 145 countries. Nicholls built strategies to increase engagement and created communications tools to support management in the cascade of company goals, including the creation and delivery of an employer brand microsite and Manager’s Toolkit portal.

Preceding Travelport, Nicholls worked with Simplyhealth as employer brand and engagement manager for four years. During this time Nicholls was responsible for the creation of the new SimplyHealth employer brand after its transition from HSA and raised the company’s profile through the ‘Times Top 100 Best Companies to Work For’ guide. SimplyHealth ranked for five consecutive years, three of which were places in the top 50, and received two recognition awards for its employee offering.

Christopher Hopkins, managing director of Caburn Hope, said: “Lee brings with him a wealth of experience in aligning employee engagement strategy with commercial vision, and we are delighted that his appointment will allow us to provide our clients with a richer employee communications offering.”

In light of his appointment, Lee Nicholls said: “Employee communications must be of primary concern to any organisation hoping to achieve increased employee engagement. Actively communicating with staff in an exciting and inspiring way will drive employee motivation and engender a consistent employee experience from recruitment to alumni.

“Working with Caburn Hope is a fantastic opportunity and I look forward to the fresh challenge this role will bring.”

Caburn Hope is an employee communications consultancy which specialises in creative and strategic communications to maximise employee engagement and ultimately productivity across the entire breadth of the employee lifecycle. Key clients include Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kellogg’s, O2, HSBC and Aviva.

Caburn Hope has developed an integrated communication campaign to launch two new pension investment choices to O2 employees. A personalised mailing provides a strong call to action to use a dynamic new modelling tool available online. The modeller gives O2 employees an instant snapshot of the effect of their investment choices.

Based on data such as current age, predicted retirement age, level of contribution, whether the user will take a lump sum, and different levels of investment risk, the O2 pensions calculator forecasts the employee’s total fund upon retirement. Interactive sliders immediately demonstrate the impact of different circumstances and choices, including salary, retirement age, level of contribution and scheme selection. The tool also provides a useful printout the user can refer to when making their investment decisions through O2’s flexible benefits scheme.

See the modeller online at www.o2pensions.co.uk under Interactive Tools.

The main barrier for managers attempting to connect with their employees is a failure to understand the importance of engagement, our poll survey reveals.

Thirty-five per cent of those who took part in the poll judged underestimating the importance of engagement as the top obstacle for management.

The organisational culture of a company was cited as the second reason with 29 per cent, whilst 24 per cent chose lack of awareness or understanding of engagement as an obstacle. Just 12 per cent of respondents blamed uncertainty of where to begin as the primary reason for a breakdown in engagement.

Chris Hopkins, MD of Caburn Hope, said: “Every manager should recognise the importance of engagement, but the main question is whether they actually understand what it means for an employee to be fully engaged, and whether they know the ways in which engagement can be improved.

“Providing managers with the tools necessary to help them motivate employees, including clear communications materials which capture and excite the imagination of the manager as much as the employee, will emphasise the fundamental role of engagement and help deliver key messages from the top down.”


Click here to contribute to our next piece of research by taking part in our new poll, how do you measure intranet success?

Caburn Hope has launched Aviva’s first ever flexible benefits scheme to 22,000 employees.

Leading on strategy, we produced an exciting online presence for the scheme, www.myavivaflex.co.uk, supported by on and offline communications for maximum impact. At least 89% of Aviva’s workforce visited the site during enrolment.

Providing both information and an enrolment facility, the site enables two levels of user journey through its content, providing either a top level overview of the offering and enrolment process or the opportunity to drill down for further detailed information, facts and figures. Written and presented clearly with Aviva’s token ‘happy’ feel, quirky imagery, and a range of scenarios users can relate to, my Aviva flex is highly informative whilst remaining accessible.

Supporting communications to build excitement in advance of the live site launch included a lively intranet banner campaign, carefully crafted ‘splash pages’ to preview the scheme, and personalised booklets mailed to employees’ homes. Manager briefing packs ensured a cascade of communications through the business, helping managers to support their teams consistently and effectively.

Elliot Rees-Davies, Head of Reward at Aviva, said: “We understand and respect our employees as individuals and know this means they have different lifestyles, make different choices and need different things from their benefits package. My Aviva flex truly caters for everyone, which is exactly what we set out to achieve. It dovetails perfectly with our wider My Aviva Reward communications and has made a significant impact on employees in its first year.”

For our latest employee communications news and views, follow us on Twitter: @caburn_hope

Don’t miss us at the e-Reward Conference on 4th November. MD Chris Hopkins will be speaking on the power of effective reward communication alongside the Kellogg's Reward team.

Topics for discussion include the opportunity reward communications present to deliver key messages about the business, what really makes effective communication, and best practice examples from Kellogg’s new reward strategy. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Caburn Hope has helped the UK’s largest insurer make the act of recognition more meaningful for 22,000 employees UK-wide.

Spotlight is a dynamic new recognition scheme aligned with the company’s objective of creating a culture of individual recognition and reward where employees can be publicly thanked for 'going the extra mile'.

Caburn Hope’s communication consultancy, creative design and copywriting bring this to life for employees at every level of the business, engaging them with the values and behaviours that underpin Aviva’s new brand.

Colleagues can nominate individuals and teams who 'live the brand' for a Spotlight award for which they are awarded points to spend in an online shop, and any employee can send a personalised Spotlight e-card to instantly recognise a colleague. All e-cards and nominations are copied to managers.

Helen Jackson, Reward Director at Aviva, commented: “Spotlight is about saying thank you to everyone who displays the behaviours that live up to the Aviva brand. It is a very impressive scheme that is easy to use and implement.”

Our industry poll found that almost three quarters of communicators are actively changing the way they connect with employees during the economic downturn.

36% of responders reported they were increasing employee communication activity as it was “even more important” to engage with employees during turbulent times.

28% are cutting back, 8% are stopping comms activity all together and 16% are subject to a budget freeze.

Chris Hopkins, MD, said: “The recession is clearly affecting the methods, and most likely the frequency, organisations communicate with their employees. Whether communicators can still make impact with less resource is a true test of their mettle. Those who succeed understand that there has never been a more vital time to communicate with their workforce.”

“Comms success won’t come from trying to execute the same amount of activity thinly. It’s about doing fewer things but upping the ante; making each piece of activity work much harder for greater impact. Organisations reducing employee communication to less than the bare minimum should reconsider – communications ‘lock-down’ achieves very little and usually ends up costing more in the long-term,” he continued.

Caburn Hope has produced Kellogg’s first ever personalised total reward statements.

The statements feature some of its best-loved characters to grab employees’ attention and shout about the benefits they receive. Bright, bold, and jargon-free, they spell out the reward offering for employees at a glance. This is one of the first communication projects to be completed under the company’s new brand guidelines. Representing a new initiative in the company’s reward communication, the statements replace standard benefit and pension letters for much greater impact to boost employee motivation and retention.

Dave Lowe, Compensation & Benefits Business Partner, comments:
“Now, more than ever, we want our people to know they matter to us so we made a conscious decision to ‘sell’ our reward offering a lot more proactively than we’ve done in the past. Our trademark characters and fun features such as our ‘CornFlex’ section are backed up with a serious agenda. The statements are a new way of talking about reward for us – they do more than communicate the facts and figures relating to an employee’s pay and benefits; they embed our company culture, inspire employees and demonstrate we value them enough to put serious consideration into communicating their reward.”

Our work for Aviva and Goodrich was recognised as amongst the best in the industry as we were named Finalists in two categories at the 2009 Employee Benefits Awards ceremony: Most Effective Use of Digital Media (Aviva) and Most Effective Benefits Strategy (Goodrich). Visit our case study pages to read more about these projects.

The intranet forms an integral part of the internal communication strategy in most organizations as an information provider and collaboration tool. But social media also allows collaboration, dialogue, documentation and much more.

In this report, Melcrum looks at the future of the much-loved intranet and it's chances of survival in a web 2.0 world. Click here to visit Melcrum's Internal Comms Hub.

If you have subscribed to receive Spot On, our research and insight bulletin but have not yet received an issue, make sure you add 'news@caburnhope.co.uk' to your address book to ensure your email provider does not accidentally store it as Junk Mail.

To read more about how we helped Aviva bring its new brand to life by identifying benefits as a key brand ‘proof point’ among employees, click here to visit the Employee Benefits Magazine website.

Our work for insurance giant Aviva has been featured in Employee Engagement Today. To read about the project’s aims and challenges and to find out about why placing the employee at the centre of the strategy paid off, click here to read the article as a pdf.

We have launched our brand new e-communication, Spot On. Subscribe by filling out the form on the right of this page to make sure you don't miss out on the latest free research and insight from Caburn Hope.

We are excited to announce Caburn Hope has been shortlisted in two categories at the Employee Benefits Awards 2009: Most Effective Use of Digital Media and Most Effective Benefits Strategy.

Aviva’s stunning new reward portal My Aviva Reward has earned the insurance giant a place in the final for its use of digital media to communicate benefits to employees. We led on the creative design and strategy for this website, which harnesses some of Aviva’s trademark ‘happy’ to guide users through their reward package every step of the way.

Goodrich is a finalist for the company’s ‘Flextra’ flexible benefits scheme communications strategy (entered jointly with Towers Perrin and EHRO). Caburn Hope helped develop a microsite, newsletters and brochures to communicate the leading aerospace and defence organisation’s flexible benefits offering to employees.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on June 26th.

Caburn Hope has helped Aviva launch its new reward brand and benefits portal to 28,000 employees across the UK.

My Aviva Reward uses consistent branding to draw together all aspects of pay and benefits for UK employees and is a core component of Aviva’s integrated reward communication programme.

The project will play a significant part in bringing the new Aviva brand to life for employees and will support one of the largest UK financial services rebranding exercises in the last 10 years.

Caburn Hope co-founder and senior consultant Chris Hopkins said: “As creative leaders on this project, we are delighted with My Aviva Reward. Its completely integrated personal approach and bright, lively creative communicates employees’ total reward in a highly engaging way that will capture the hearts and minds of employees. We are very excited to be involved in this crucial stage of Aviva’s brand development.”