Using colleague insight to shape an internal communications strategy
London Northwestern & West Midlands Railways has around 3,400 people spread across the network from Liverpool, the West Midlands to London Euston. People undertake a range of roles, with the majority being in Operations and Customer Experience, which include drivers, station staff, senior conductors and colleagues undertaking train presentation. There are a number of established internal communication channels. With Internal Communications recently becoming part of a broader Communications function, it was believed timely to review its effectiveness.
HarknessKennett worked with the Head of Communications and the Internal Communications Manager to undertake the audit and provide an external assessment of internal communications across the business.
A range of techniques were used to reach busy colleagues on the move, including in-depth interviews with directors, attendance at existing meetings, focus groups (both online and face-to-face), and hosting an online, quantitative survey. The feedback was analysed and developed into an action-oriented report.
Following a working session sharing the feedback, including a range of recommendations from staff and demonstrating best practice internal communications, HarknessKennett have been asked to continue to support the Internal Communications team at London Northwestern & West Midlands Railways by working with them to develop an internal communications strategy.
“This review has helped put internal communications front of mind at London Northwestern & West Midlands Railways and gather valuable feedback from across the business including front-line colleagues. It’s provided us with an opportunity to talk about how internal communications supports our business commitments and the approaches we currently use. I’m grateful to HarknessKennett for conducting this audit and I’m delighted that we’re partnering with them now on developing our internal communication strategy.”
Charlotte Ritchie, Head of Communications & Strategic Engagement, London Northwestern & West Midlands Trains
Related Work
We placed experienced communications specialist Carrie, who quickly integrated into the team and delivered immediate value. Within her first week, she developed a communications plan and draft narrative to support key change initiatives.
Following a period of rapid, acquisition-led expansion, this mid-tier accountancy group asked us to source candidates for a maternity cover FTC role. The role was responsible for unifying seven distinct legacy cultures while maintaining engagement and clarity during continued growth. With further acquisitions planned and a major transformation programme underway, the organisation needed strong interim leadership to align people, culture and communications at both strategic and operational levels.
With several M&A deals underway, the Inchcape change & communications team needed senior support to manage integration and announcement messaging. The workload was growing fast, and they needed a skilled contractor who could hit the ground running.
During a major period of change, Belron asked us to find a fixed-term Engagement and Communication Project Owner to support its Technology & Transformation (T&T) team across several key initiatives.
Law firm, Pinsent Masons, asked us to source senior-level communications support for a high-profile role which included responsibility for partner communications.
With multiple transformation initiatives underway, Flutter’s Chief of Staff approached us to urgently source a Fixed-Term Contract (FTC) Communications Manager to support the UK&I People team for a 10-month period.
With a background in delivering change communications, Louisa led the smooth introduction of WorkBoard across Change, making sure messages landed with the right teams, at the right time, in the right way.
Donna Dew, Head of UK & Corporate Functions People Director at William Hill approached us to help her find the right candidate to cover a maternity leave over a significant period of change in the organisation including the integration with 888.
We helped Travis Perkins to find Matthew Ainsworth, an experienced internal and change communications specialist, to come in on an interim basis to fill a newly created role as dedicated group-wide internal communications lead.
With existing vacancies and new roles created, Yvonne had a number of roles to fill, and turned to us to help her find the right people fast. In a matter of weeks we successfully helped her to find four candidates who all met the high standards she was looking for.
With a lean comms team, and a large-scale programme to deliver, including the Unleashed Festival for over 2,000 employees in October, Sue asked us to help her find a Transformation Communication Manager for a fixed term contract.
At HarknessKennett we pride ourselves on providing services that people want to come back to. Nicola Marsden has been a client for over 10 years and across three different organisations; we’ve been delighted to support her with both our consultancy and resourcing services.
As a global leader in oil and gas, BP operates in 78 countries – at a scale that requires skill and experience when it comes to communications…
Splunk Inc. is a technology company, helping clients harness the potential of data with proactive analysis and reporting. From its US origins, the organisation now has over 5,000 employees in 27 offices worldwide…
Heathrow Airport handled 80.1 million passengers in 2018. This record feat required 76,000 people, working for 400 companies across the campus, making it the second busiest airport in the world…
Working with the UK HR Director at William Hill, we quickly found the ideal candidate to take up the challenge.