Engaging staff through internal communications.

• Author: Landais, Beverly
• Position: AFFILIATE NEWS AND VIEWS

Editor's note: This article first appeared in the PSMG Magazine. With active groups in the key commercial centers in the United Kingdom, the Professional Services Marketing Group is an affiliate of LMA.

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Internal communications has a key role in building a firm's reputation as an "employer of choice." At Baker & McKenzie, with the strong support of senior management, we put as much effort into our internal communications as we do our external marketing.

Our internal communications are led by the marketing and business development department, working hand in glove with senior management and the HR team. The twin objectives of our internal communications are to build on staff engagement and to enable our people to give voice to ideas, suggestions and feedback. Our aim is straightforward: to inform and involve all our people in the strategic business objectives of the firm.

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Engaging people through internal communications involves ensuring everyone understands key priorities: how they fit in and can achieve their potential, therefore contributing to the success of the business. We define success as having highly engaged people who think, act and behave like "stakeholders" in the business. These are messages that are all the more important in uncertain economic times as employees who are genuine stakeholders can help the business navigate more successfully the choppy economic waters.

To accomplish this we have implemented a programme of activities, including briefings to all staff, the publication of a quarterly hard copy newsletter called Commonground, staff surveys, an electronic "news ticker" that conveys latest stories and achievements to people via a scrolling message on their PCs--plus a series of lunch meetings with the managing partner and other senior management.

The staff briefings provide everyone in our office with the chance to hear the same message from our business leaders within the space of one day. They cover various topics including updates on the firm's business strategy, news on our client service programme, as well as details of new initiatives. The briefings include a question and answer session and are covered in Commonground.

After the staff briefings, we actively seek feedback from those who attended and the number of people who provide this suggests there is a high level of engagement. Following up on any feedback is important in maintaining this level of engagement, so the...