 “It’s our true north.” That’s how Sara Moorehead, director of communications and corporate affairs at Barclays Retail Bank, describes the organisation’s new comms approach. Following its merger with Woolwich and changes of leadership, with consequent changes in strategy, some employees were left sheltering below the parapet.
As a company, Barclays had to change and for the comms team the answer was the “employee value proposition” - or “the deal”, which tells employees what they can expect from Barclays and what the company expects from them.
That has been distilled down to help the customer get the best out of Barclays and you will get the best out of us”.
It isn’t a message that’s published on noticeboards, but all communications, from recruitment advertisements to business-as-usual messages are quality checked to ensure that they meet the deal’s criteria.
“That doesn’t mean we will refuse a message that doesn’t meet those principles,” says Sara, “but we will ask why it doesn’t and we will ask for it to be made more meaningful.”
The key to creating the employee value proposition was researching and understanding the audience and what makes up the organisation’s culture. And it wasn’t just about asking questions - employees were also asked to draw what Barclays meant to them.
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