1. Slide 1 Linking corporate communication to business goals: the planning process Michelle Archard Senior Consultant CommOut www.commout.com.au

2. Slide 2 About CommOut Communications Outsourced CommOut consults to B2B companies on marketing and corporate communications and specialises in lead generation and online presence – websites, intranets, online marketing

3. Slide 3 Why link your plans to business goals? Credibility – you are more likely to get resources Helps you prioritise and fend off service requests Positions Communications as a valuable service within the company Use the plan to make everyday decisions

4. Slide 4 The process

5. Slide 5 Step 1: Situation analysis – the ‘now’ Get a picture of communications within the organisation today –strengths –weaknesses –operating environment –challenges

6. Slide 6 Situation analysis – how Identify your stakeholders Work out how many of each group you can realistically reach How are you going to reach them? –1-to-1 interviews –Focus groups (live or online) –Walk arounds –Surveys (paper and/or online)

7. Slide 7

8. Slide 8 Situation analysis SWOT analysis of the communication function with your team –Strengths: what do you do well? –Weaknesses: what do you do poorly? –Opportunities: What developments represent opportunities for future success? –Threats: What’s coming up that could make things worse?

9. Slide 9 Step 2: Business goals Gather information: –Annual reports –Other corporate reports e.g. Sustainability –Business plans –Major projects –Key business data e.g. profit, share price –Employee survey results –Customer survey results –Benchmarking data & Best practices

10. Slide 10 Step 2: Business goals Interview your key stakeholders –If there is a business plan then clarify it with them: what communications support do they need/expect for the elements of their plan? –If there is no business plan then find out what the focus areas are going to be: what communications support will be needed? –Ask them for the priority on the plan elements

11. Slide 11 Step 2: Business goals Write up short descriptions of all the goals e.g. “ Develop sales and marketing excellence across the organisation ” or “Expand into Eastern Europe by acquisition” List them in order of priority (usually according to the most influence on the bottom line)

12. Slide 12 Step 3: Your vision of success What does success look like? –Work with your comms team to write down statements of what success means e.g. All employees understand the key goals of the company and how they can contribute to those goals The Comms department operates as a well oiled service machine

13. Slide 13 Step 4: Determining Comms objectives How will you move from the ‘now’ to ‘success’? What are you trying to accomplish?

14. Slide 14 Step 4: Determining Comms objectives Using all the data you’ve collected, brainstorm with your team what the key objectives should be for the time period of your plan. Consider: –Content/materialsTools & vehicles –StructureProcesses –PartnershipsReputation –Leadership communication

15. Slide 15 Step 5: Prioritise objectives Success Importance Importance = How important is this to achieving your vision of success? Success = How successful are we today at achieving this? Critical: MaintainCritical: Improve Non Critical Improve value-add & performance or abandon

16. Slide 16 Step 5: Prioritise objectives Aim to get 5-7 objectives If too many in top quadrants then ask each team member to score them 1-5 and choose 5-7 with most points

17. Slide 17 Step 5: Linking the objectives to the corp goals

18. Slide 18 Step 6: “How” Work out strategies and tactics for each objective e.g. Objective =“Create and implement templates and processes to ensure consistent communications” Tactics: Create written procedures for common comms tasks Create MS Office templates for common documents/presentations etc Update style guide Train all communicators outside of the Comms department

19. Slide 19 Step 6: “Who, when and metrics” For each tactic, work out who is responsible, a timeline, deliverables and any metrics TacticWhoWhenDeliverableMetric Clarify departmental responsibilities between HR & Internal comms Corp comm manager DateDocument listing who is responsible for what is placed on Intranet and announcement made Reduction in the number of out-of- area enquiries that come to either department. Target is 100% reduction

20. Slide 20 Sources of metrics Employee engagement survey Polls on Intranet Dedicated survey Phone, email & time logs New hire interviews/testing

21. Slide 21 Metrics – measure of success, not completion e.g. Strategy = “Convey the strategy of the new CEO to all employees” Tactic = “Host a series of web meetings” Metrics: Basic metric – event occurrence Medium – event feedback High – awareness and understanding Highest – Behaviour change

22. Slide 22 Selling your plan You need to present your plan to your key stakeholders Use the mouse mat plan to show linkage between corp goals and your objectives Show the tactics for each objective Explain what didn’t make it onto the plan and why