Before Perry Yeatman joined consumer-products giant Unilever as VP of corporate affairs 18 months ago, internal communications lay solidly within the realm of the human
resources shop. In her newly-created position, however, Yeatman is responsible not just for talking to the media and the external community, but also to internal stakeholders
throughout the corporation.
"Given the transparency in the world today and the speed of information, we saw that we had to more closely align external and internal statements," she explains - and she is
not alone. PR professionals at a range of corporations find themselves in the same position these days. In addition to preaching the corporate gospel to the outside world, they
are charged with making believers of those within the organization.
Those on the front lines of such efforts say they cannot go it alone. Rather, a successful interweaving of internal and external messages requires the active participation of
managers at all levels within an organization.
At Unilever, for example, Yeatman's team hosts a quarterly meeting with all 300 senior managers. "That presentation would have all the core messaging: These are the points you
have to cover with your team," she explains. "Then there is a 'Chinese menu' portion, where it actually becomes a team process. Each managerial team would say, 'Based on this list
of five corporate priorities, our work pertains to priority number two, and now we will have a brainstorming session about how we can get even better at delivering number two.'
They make that core corporate priority relevant and personal" for their subordinates.
Nora Miller takes a similar approach as marketing manager at Gunster Yoakley, a Florida law firm with 145 attorneys in six offices. In her role as director of internal PR
efforts, she conducts a monthly conference call with senior partners from all the offices. "Their main role is to help engage people in their office or their department regarding
specific matters that are in the news, or things that are happening within the firm that we can present to the outside world," she explains.
"They are the gatherers of information. I could do it myself, perhaps, but it would be very time-consuming and cumbersome, so we have put together this group to funnel the
information to me," she says. At the same time, the monthly calls give Miller the chance to pass on the firm's latest messaging to the partners, who in turn spread the word in
their respective offices.
Your Most Important Spokespeople
The emphasis on internal PR has swelled in recent years, as corporate America has become increasingly aware of the role that employees play in helping to develop - or sometimes
demolish - a firm's reputation. This holds true especially in times of transition or uncertainty.
As president of PR firm Strategic Niche, Susan Nielsen was engaged by an energy company then known as Washington Water Power to help steer the utility through a possible
merger.
"Internal communications was absolutely critical," she says. "With meter readers going into people's yards every day, with our people being so connected to their communities,
they were getting stopped all the time by people asking what was going on. Those over-the-fence conversations were critical, and it therefore was very important that employees
understand the depth and breadth of the process. Everyone from senior management to customer service representatives needed to be able to talk about what was going on."
It doesn't always take a crisis to bring to the fore the need for internal PR. The PR team at Bankers Trust, for example, won the 2001 PRSA Bronze Anvil for an internal
communications effort that is very much a part of daily work.
The "Back to Basics" campaign is an ongoing effort to define and communicate internally the bank's core values and beliefs. "We talk specifically about taking ownership, about
being an ambassador for the bank, about treating customers and colleagues as if they are privileged guests in your home," says Paul Erickson, senior vice president for the bank's
consumer division.
Erickson's office holds twice-yearly training sessions to remind employees about those basic values. The PR team then backs up those sessions by supplying every supervisor or
manager in the bank with a weekly tip and a lesson related to one of the "basics." Managers then share those tips with rank-and-file employees in their weekly staff meetings.
"Everybody comes from different backgrounds, everybody comes from a different place, and so 'meeting expectations' might mean one thing to one person and something else to
another person," says Erickson. "In order to differentiate ourselves from other banks, we want to have a really consistent message in how these things are applied."
At wine maker Fetzer Vineyards, U.S. brand director Doug Gillespie also adheres to this principle. His shop formulates the message, "but the way that message is communicated
will be up to the individual managers," he says.
While a necessary mechanism, especially in a large corporation, this strategy sometimes can be problematic for the PR executive leading the charge. Once managers get hold of
the message, after all, there is no guarantee that they will be able to fulfill faithfully the intent of the PR shop.
To ensure that everyone stays on target, Gillespie says, it is crucial to engage internal managers not just in the delivery of the message, but also in its formulation.
Thus, in the process of defining Fetzer's internal messaging, Gillespie has worked with outside agency Magnet Communications over the past six months to solicit input from
throughout the organization.
"This means you are not forcing anything on anybody" when you ask managers to help spread the word, he says. "If you are getting buy-in at every step of the process, then by
the time is does go live, everyone is talking from the same page."
(Contacts: Paul Erickson, 515/245-5244, [email protected]; Nora Miller 561/650-0783, [email protected]; Doug Gillespie, 415/444-7416, [email protected]; Perry Yeatman,
203/625-2272; [email protected]; Susan Nielsen, 509/462-5400, [email protected])
The Nuts and Bolts of a Utility Merger
With news of a possible merger in the air, the energy company then known as Washington Water Power brought in PR firm Strategic Niche to manage internal buzz. To keep
information flowing smoothly, the PR firm's president Susan Nielsen made use of a range of tools, including:
- a relevant and timely Q&A campaign, implemented via newsletter, posters, postcards and intranet;
- employee meetings, in person and via teleconference;
- a printed "Merger News" weekly newsletter;
- all-company voicemail announcements.
But the most successful tool, Nielsen found, was "the fact that both CEOs were willing to talk regularly with employees. That was really significant because employees could ask
their questions and get the answers from the source. People knew that these two people were in charge, and that was really important."