Hewlett-Packard's employees number more than 88,000 and span a variety of continents and languages. Internal communications to this geographically and culturally diverse group
were almost impossible to conduct simultaneously before the launch of @hp, the largest business-to-employee Web portal created to date.
In the past, HP had developed communications initiatives at its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., with little input from the global team. Materials were produced in English,
and local sites would coordinate translations as needed. Employees who received delayed communications, after their colleagues in the States, felt disconnected and less important
than their U.S.-based colleagues.
The new portal included not only corporate news but employee services, job search functions, information on clubs, activities, and life events outside of the workplace, and
solved the problem of internal lag time on communications. It allowed employees to access critical information quickly and provided a framework for company Intranet sites
worldwide. But HP still was faced with the challenge of generating awareness of the portal and building confidence and adoption of the new employee tool.
The team turned to Porter Novelli Convergence Group to articulate the benefits of the portal and to get employees worldwide turning to the Web when they needed internal
information.
Building Interactive Buzz
Porter Novelli and HP conducted research with employees across the globe to understand how the launch could best target managers, employees, functional leaders and executives,
including CEO Carly Fiorina and HP's executive council. "The biggest obstacle was that HP has tens of thousands of employees and hundreds of different locations," says Warren
Egnal, SVP with Porter Novelli Convergence Group. "They have eight official languages around the world, and going out to all those regions simultaneously was probably our greatest
challenge."
The team first identified a network of HP communicators in various regions and countries. Because the company is decentralized, these lists had to be built from the ground up.
The on-site network of communicators would translate and provide material in Chinese (simplified and traditional), English, French, French-Canadian, German, Korean, Japanese and
Spanish - in time for the launch instead of weeks afterwards.
In order to underscore the new interactive platform for important company communications, the team made interactivity the goal for the launch. They created email messages and
an online information kit containing FAQs, fact sheets and backgrounders highlighting the benefits of @hp. Plus, they created presentations and speaker notes for managers to
download when presenting the new portal to employees.
Emailed print literature was also sent to on-site communicators, who could then download and distribute it. Posters and brochures, like the email communications, were tailored
to individual regions.
Porter Novelli and HP also developed innovative e-cards that highlighted top level portal messages with Flash animation and music. E-cards were emailed and posted to various HP
intranet sites. An online portal demo was developed and distributed so employees could familiarize themselves with features and functions of @hp.
Global Unity
The portal went live on October 23, 2000, and employees worldwide have embraced the new tool. Since the launch, an average of 20,000 HP employees visit @hp every day, with more
than 50,000 registered users in the first month. That figure beat the communications team's goal of 50 percent awareness among employees across the globe within one month of the
launch date.
For more qualitative feedback, the team built a feedback form into the portal for employees and has conducted extensive user testing. Employee response has been so strong that
HP recently launched a brand new release of the portal, including a variety of new features:
- Individual employee and manager modules allowing managers to personalize their modules for administering their own organizations
- Navigational changes based on user testing by employees in nine countries
- Customized life and work content for individual regions
- Personalized arrangement - employees can arrange information in the way that best suits their needs for @hp.
The team also conducted email and phone surveys with its network of on-site communicators to measure the effectiveness of the @hp launch. One on-site employee relations pro
summed up the convenience of the new Web-based approach to communication: "The use of the technology available to us, i.e. Web sites for downloading materials and information, was
great. Let's use this method more often!"
(Contact: Warren Egnal, 310/444-7040, [email protected])
Campaign Stats
- Timeframe: less than six months; @hp launched Oct. 23, 2000
- Budget: $400,000 for the launch campaign (not including development of the @hp portal, done internally by HP)
- Daily visitors on average: 20,000 HP employees
- Hewlett Packard Team: Janet Beyers, program manager; Rachel Watkins, communications manager
- Porter Novelli Convergence Group Team: Warren Egnal, SVP; Amy Pickering, account supervisor; Lori Corbett, assistant account executive