Case study: IoIC Awards 2020 - Best Use of Storytelling

Sharing stories of women in the police service to celebrate the past, present and future Award: Best use of storytelling Case winner: Celebrating 100 years of Metropolitan police women for Metropolitan Police Service by Met Police’s in-house internal comms team BACKGROUND In November 2018, the Met Police celebrated the 100th anniversary of women police officers in the Met. To mark the occasion, the internal comms team ran an internal campaign, titled “Celebrating 100 years of Metropolitan police women”, from October 2018 to June 2019. The campaign celebrated the contribution and stories of incredible women, past and present, and looked to the future to inspire the next generation. The team aligned its activity to an external recruitment campaign to encourage colleagues to become recruitment ambassadors, and focused on telling the stories of “strong” Met women – showcasing that strength comes in many forms. Sharing stories of women in the police service to celebrate the past, present and future Award: Best use of storytelling Case winner: Celebrating 100 years of Metropolitan police women for Metropolitan Police Service by Met Police’s in-house internal comms team BACKGROUND In November 2018, the Met Police celebrated the 100th anniversary of women police officers in the Met. To mark the occasion, the internal comms team ran an internal campaign, titled “Celebrating 100 years of Metropolitan police women”, from October 2018 to June 2019. The campaign celebrated the contribution and stories of incredible women, past and present, and looked to the future to inspire the next generation. The team aligned its activity to an external recruitment campaign to encourage colleagues to become recruitment ambassadors, and focused on telling the stories of “strong” Met women – showcasing that strength comes in many forms. OBJECTIVES The IC team had five objectives it wanted to achieve through its campaign: Celebrate and reflect on the groundbreaking history of women in the Met and the benefits to London and society Recognise the dedication and contribution of its current female officers and staff Raise awareness and drive take-up of a range of HR initiatives to support women in the Met Improve the perception among women of a career with the Met, through the women recruitment campaign and accompanying PR Engage its people to be recruiters for police constables, ensuring they have the information needed to spread the word and encourage others to join The campaign was for, and about, the Met’s people. PLANNING Research undertaken by the IC team over the years has found time and again that the Met Police’s most popular form of internal content is human-interest stories, and that employees have a strong sense of pride and belonging to the Met. To make the most of this, storytelling was the focus of the campaign through all channels. Minimal “corporate” communications and few articles from Met’s management was shared during this team; the team did, however, publish content from Commissioner Cressida Dick and use the centenary to promote support available to women. The team used an over-arching ‘strong’ narrative to give its communications a common thread, and the campaign was linked to themes found in the Met’s seven-year organisational strategy of being well-led, well equipped and well-supported. Working with the organisation’s archivist and stakeholders, the team mapped historic dates and commemorative activities from October 2018 until May 2019 – the ‘bookmark’ dates of historical significance. Historic milestones and planned events were publicised, with each one having its own dedicated comms approach and stakeholders. The team focused on the stories and meaning behind the events, and maximised opportunities for using visual content and material from the archives. They also planned activity around upcoming events. The intranet is the Met’s main internal communication channel, so to maximise engagement, the IC team created an intranet story wall – Your Story – to recognise the contribution and dedication of Met women over the last century. The wall contained short stories and personal photos from and about inspirational and pioneering women, both past and present. To encourage and inspire people to share their stories, the team researched in advance the Met’s range of roles and identified female employees willing to share their own. These included the Met’s longest-serving female officer and her daughter, who is also a serving officer, a new recruit and those in specialisms including firearms and counter terrorism. The women approached were various ages, ethnicities and from various backgrounds. Once shared, the initial stories gave colleagues the confidence to come forward and share their own.IC’s approach was part of a wider departmental strategy, and the team took an integrated comms approach to the campaign, repurposing content to maximise internal and external engagement. THE CHALLENGE During this campaign, the IC team faced two significant challenges: 1. Taking the story offline With a workforce of around 43,000 people, the majority of whom are operational and not office-based, the team needed to explore other ways to tell its stories. To overcome this, a senior leadership event dedicated to the topic of women and diversity was run and an engagement pack was created. Key messages were also discussed on conference calls and Cressida Dick spoke about the campaign at events attended by thousands of officers and staff. 2. Engaging men in a topic that celebrated women, in a predominately male environment To counteract this challenge, the team approached a range of influencers – including sergeants and respected senior officers – and asked them to respond to online comments accordingly. One engagement event that the IC team promoted was “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day”. The approach to ask influencers and advocates to balance out potential online negative comments about the girls-only event worked incredibly well – the team received fewer negative comments than anticipated, which were balanced out by an influx of positivity. They also approached male colleagues to share stories about the women who had inspired them, to help them feel involved in the campaign. This was a success and, upon seeing stories from men on the Your Story wall, other men came forward to do the same. EXECUTION AND RESPONSE The stories that came out of this campaign were heart-warming, inspirational and celebratory. Some made readers laugh, while others made readers cry. People spoke about the challenges they’ve overcome, which often included life-changing illnesses and difficulties, how they overcame adversity, and their passions and motivations for keeping London safe. This approach was different to previous corporate communications the IC team had used – people shared personal experiences and opinions in an uncensored and unscripted way, and for the first time photos of employees outside of their work environment were published. Ambient products and content were used throughout the campaign, marking another first, and the team maximised every opportunity, creating visual content for use across its channels. Artwork was created using black and white archive photos to profile early pioneers, which supported the stories shared online. Pull-up banners were displayed across headquarter buildings and police stations and there were made available to hire. They became so popular that additional banners were ordered to keep up with demand. As well as using them at internal and stakeholder events, the banners were displayed at external recruitment fayres. For the first time, hanging banners and canvases were installed at key locations, including training venues, where frontline staff and officers would see them. A timeline exhibition stand showed the history of Met women through the years and colleagues wore lapel pin badges of the centenary logo, which was also used in email signatures. As part of campaign, the team also remembered officers who had died in the line of duty. Family members and friends of the fallen officers shared their heartfelt memories, looking back at the careers and events that led to their loved ones paying the ultimate sacrifice, and people were invited to leave their messages and memories. RESULTS The team built and maintained momentum throughout the campaign, publishing new content for 32 consecutive weeks. There were 104,862 total hits, and 7,841 likes. Almost 50 men and women shared their stories via the intranet story wall, which received more than 90,000 hits and 6,419 likes during the campaign. The story of the longest serving female officer received 566 likes, the highest number ever achieved for an intranet article. The campaign successfully improved perception among women of a career in the Met, and is believed to have been a contributing factor to the number of applications from women during the accompanying media campaign nearly quadrupling compared with the same period the previous year. Awareness was also raised of HR initiatives to support women, one of which was a women’s health bus that toured the Met. This was a great success, with officers and staff requesting additional locations. Career development days were also promoted, with spaces for all events becoming fully booked within hours. The IC team successfully engaged members of the workforce to become powerful recruitment ambassadors who were proud to showcase the Met, particularly to the girls who took part in Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Interest in joining the Met and the cadets went up as a direct result of the event. Anecdotal feedback was incredibly positive. The campaign created a legacy that is still relevant today – the Met Police’s 2020 International Women’s Day celebrations referenced the campaign and followed the storytelling theme of celebrating the past, present and the future. For such an operational organisation, which by nature is often very reactive to huge events and challenging issues, the team found the response overwhelming. And to top it all off, an additional and unexpected benefit presented itself through the increased profile and reputation of the IC department.

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Case study: IoIC Awards 2020 - Best Use of Storytelling

Sharing stories of women in the police service to celebrate the past, present and future

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