What would you do?

I have a challenge for you. I need some assistance and I think you are the best people to offer me some advice.

In a nutshell, the aviation industry is a tough place to be at the moment. Oil price is at an all-time high which means our fuel bill is also astronomical. It’s a competitive environment and we have to be the smartest and the strongest to survive.

We’ve been asked by our Chief Executive to come up with a campaign to raise awareness of the high price of fuel and also our need to keep our costs and spending to a minimum.

So, do you have any ideas? We have recently launched a campaign called ‘Ideas Pay’ which is a web portal for our staff to submit money-making or money-saving ideas. Depending on the viability of their ideas, they get a financial reward for it.

We have the option of posters, intranet news and email. We will also consider some social media as we have blogs built in to our Sharepoint-based intranet. So, what would you do?

In other news, I mentioned in my previous post about how the employees love Fresh magazine, but the Chief Executive doesn’t. It looks now as though one of the first cost-cutting measures will be the printing and posting of the magazine. It is likely to become exclusively available online. This in itself throws up some challenges, as most of our people spend the majority of their time in the air and without access to online content. Is it even worth continuing with it as an online publication? Should I fight back and try to keep it?

Intrigued to hear your thoughts…

Steve

Comments

[Marc Wright]

You should fight hard to keep Fresh Magazine as part of your comms mix for all the reasons that you mention. But how do you convince a stony-faced CEO?
Do a bit of quick and dirty research to find out which of your channels is providing the information that staff most want to get. It's called the Value-Volume Media Matrix

This is a favourite matrix among internal communicators who want to measure bang for buck in their media. You can use it to assess your channels and media and work out what to reduce and what to do more of.

It's on our site www.simply-communicate.com, but if you're not a member I'll send you a copy. Just send me your email to editor@simply-communicate.com. The beauty of it is that it will tell you what to stop doing, and thereby save money to put towards keeping Fresh.

[Mark Darby]

I agree with Marc - you should try and fight for it, especially if you can provide data (and quickly!) that it adds business value through employees using the information.

But.... reckon we've all had plenty of experience of the CEO saying "No" regardless of evidence, and you can partly understand it when it is a cost that can be cut quickly.

What's your back-up plan? When we had to get rid of our printed magazine and put it on online we introduced a "print PDF" button on the site. It certainly helped - but must admit overall it was a step in the wrong direction.

Mark

[Steve Evans]

Good question on the back-up plan...we don't have one. We certainly are considering the option to make it available online only, but I agree with you...I think it's a step in the wrong direction.

I am putting on my boxing gloves and aiming for a fight.

Steve

[Jasbinder]

Agree with the above - fight for plan A, have a plan B. Alongside the quick and dirty stats, when you are toe-to-toe, consider asking the CEO the cost of not having the publication, and have a fuller response ready that has a dotted line between the comms effort and the bottom line. Once the link is made, you could use your latest EOS results to suggest you link your comms effort to some relevant indicator(s). And what are your competitors doing? They may be in the same position, albeit without a CEO that thinks the employee publication is aimed at him. A period of economic uncertainty is not the best time to stop communicating, and enlightend bosses will use/keep all channels to drive higher performance.

[Keith Burton]

Steve, as we've served global clients in employee communications, we've found that print publications still play a vital role in connecting communities of employees. At one of the world's largest automakers, the company's most important communications vehicle is its monthly print magazine. It's distributed so that employees -- white and blue collar alike -- can receive it at home, where their spouse or family members also can see it, touch it and read it to get a sense of the organization. They would never consider taking this publication electronic because the tactile sense of it is what makes it special.

Our leaders sometimes fail to realize that audiences differ dramatically, and to reach plant workers, we have to employ face-to-face and more traditional measures; in other words, "balancing high tech with high touch." We need to do a better job counseling them on how to be more effective in their outreach.