Retaining focus this festive season will reap rewards for 2010
By Lee Nicholls, Account Director, Caburn Hope

It’s not just the advertisers who are willing Christmas to come earlier year after year – your employees become distracted weeks before the big day, and it is imperative that you start to plan now for that final push to achieve end of year results for your business and smooth the way to an efficient New Year.

A 2007 survey* estimated that around one third of employees – that’s approximately 9 million people – start winding down for the holidays from the 14 December, a full week and a half before the festive season officially begins. Productivity plummets, and one in three people state that they will come in late at least once during this period while one in five say they plan to throw at least one sickie.

Ironically, now is the time you should be upping communications with employees to deliver that last burst of energy before welcoming in the New Year to ensure that everything is properly in place for the next financial term. If you’re not careful, you could lose up to four weeks of productivity over the Christmas period, meaning that nearly one twelfth of the year is frittered away on festive cheer rather than bolstering your bottom line.

The important thing to remember during this period is that you cannot afford to lose sight of what needs to be achieved in 2010. Starting to position the business a full six weeks before Christmas through messages which provide clarity and direction will drive staff motivation and accelerate the work flow into the New Year. Reviewing what has gone well for the company as well as lessons learned can illustrate how the employees’ input directly corresponds with the organisation’s overall achievement.

By now you should know how well you anticipate the company to have performed this year, and can be passing onto staff exactly how this will affect any expected bonuses and pay increases. Telling people as soon as possible – whether it’s good news or bad – will drive motivation, build trust and foster respect. People don’t like surprises (well, definitely not the bad ones), so the sooner you can inform staff of any information that impacts on them the better.

Don’t leave it until 2010 to start talking about 2010 – put some well placed communications plans in play now for a successful year ahead.

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 which 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.

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