When two legacy companies came together to form Novonesis, the merger allowed its communications team to take a fresh look at the company’s internal comms channels.
Kathy Humphrey, head of communications for North America at Novonesis, told Ragan that Novozymes and Chr. Hansen entered the merger with very different internal communications environments. That gave her team room to reconsider what should carry over into the new company.
“We had two big legacy companies coming together as a brand-new company, with cultures that were very similar but also very different, especially around internal communications,” she said. “One part of the company was used to having communications support and established channels, while another part really wasn’t. It gave us a good opportunity to wipe the slate clean. We retired a lot, but it took time and a lot of change management.”
Humphrey also said that her team’s channel evaluation is an ongoing process. Channels that might work in one moment still have to prove their value as the organization and employee needs change.
“It’s not a one-time decision,” she told Ragan. “Our business changes all the time — we purchase companies, we merge, markets change and the internal organization changes. So we’re continuously monitoring and improving, figuring out what’s working and what’s not. We have our core channels, but we pilot all the time and try new things.”
1. Watch how your employees are using a given channel
The first step in evaluating whether or not to retire a channel involves looking into whether employees are actually using it. Humphrey said that her team looks at “heartbeat scores,” which measure communication flow and employee understanding of the company’s strategy that’s shared on a given channel. She added that those scores are then paired with the anecdotal evidence they hear about comms channels on the job every day for deeper insight.
“We can break it down by region, office, site or location,” Humphrey said. “That allows us to dial different internal channels up or down based on what we’re hearing from employees. Do they understand the mission? Do they understand the strategy? Are they getting what they need?”
Additionally, Humphrey said that communicators need to know how to read signals from employees. They might know a channel exists, but not feel a need to return to it to use it.
“You have to teach people where to get information,” Humphrey said. “There are so many different places, and unless you teach them where to get it — and it’s high-value enough for them to go there — they’re not going to use it and engage with it. Employees vote with their behavior, and you can see that.”
2. Know when to retire and rebuild
A channel with falling engagement may still serve a purpose. Humphrey said that comms pros should take a close look at how employees experience a channel before deciding on a retirement or overhaul. She shared an example about Novonesis’ old town hall format, which struggled to succeed in uniting employees spread across 14 sites in two countries, including virtual and frontline workers. Humphrey added the traditional headquarters-based format could leave parts of the workforce feeling removed from the experience, and it didn’t help that the presentation was on the dry side.
“It can feel exclusive to those who aren’t in the room, especially when you’re virtual,” Humphrey said. “So we pulled it out of that one big room and put it into a production environment where we could broadcast from anywhere. We added humor, entertainment and props, and then we created watch parties at our sites. That gave people an opportunity to connect in person, which helped drive engagement.”
Before retiring or rebuilding a channel, Humphrey recommended that communicators consider these factors:
- Frequency: Are employees hearing from this channel too often?
- Access: Can every employee group realistically use it?
- Format: Does the way information is delivered fit how employees work?
- Experience: Does using the channel feel worth an employee’s time?
Novonesis looked at those factors and determined a full town hall rebuild was in order. The company reduced the town halls to three per year, shortened them to about 25 minutes each and renamed them “Regional Connects” for a new sense of identity.
“We essentially retired what a town hall was,” Humphrey said. “We revamped it, rebranded it and said, ‘This is a brand-new channel. This is how we do it.’ We added the human element, the inclusivity, the humor and the education. If you increase the value, employees are going to vote by showing up.”
3. Make the switch easy for employees to navigate
When a channel is retired or changed, a communicator’s work shifts toward helping employees make the channel a part of their daily habit. Humphrey said that comms pros need to model that behavior and reinforce it through consistent messaging.
“You can’t set it and forget it,” she said. “You have to be the change agent, and we need those ambassadors. There are usually four or five people who are going to step forward first, drive the change and be the person everyone can look to. That helps other employees see what the new behavior actually looks like.”
She said a few ways comms pros can help employees adjust to a channel retirement include:
- Hold teaching sessions on how to use a new channel, rather than just pointing out that it exists.
- Redirect old habits to the new channel. For instance, communicators can encourage a leader to post an update on a new intranet platform rather than through an email.
- Provide managers with Q&A documents about the new channels so they can address employee questions.
Humphrey also said that comms pros need to keep the messaging about channel retirements and changes simple.
“When you’re retiring something, show people how the change is going to make their lives better,” she told Ragan. “At the end of the day, people want to know: How is this benefiting me?”
Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.
