BEEP BEEP BEEP
That'll be my alarm.
I used to hate mornings. Prior to my foray into internal communications, I spent years working in an operational role that I… let's just agree that Finance wasn't ticking my career fulfilment boxes - and I had to talk myself into going to work every morning.
Thinking about it now, I haven't done that in a very, very long time. We all say it, don't we, but every single day in my role REALLY is different, and that's one of the things I love about it. I'd better get dressed…at work, we are trialling a 'dress for your day' policy at the moment so I choose smart jeans and a shirt with Doc Martens (stilettos live under my desk for emergencies).
8.45am
I usually arrive at work around 8.45am after a zippy 10-minute bus into Leeds City Centre, which I usually spend listening to a new band for my music blog. I recently moved from London to Leeds after 12 years in the capital - I'm still revelling in walking leafy streets, and no longer doing two-hour commutes, although I do miss the capital's never-ending choice of lunch options!
First thing's first – if I haven't checked my emails and diary on my way up the office stairs, I'll look out for any urgent items once I'm logged into my laptop. Then I'll check my Trello to remind of my priorities for the different projects I'm working on - I have the first 30 minutes of my day booked out to prepare for my day.
So what do I actually do? I'm the charity's Internal Communications Partner, leading on internal communications for our largest transformation programme, so change is the name of the game as well as some BAU IC work when my team need support. I have a really wide range of stakeholders – from our Executive team and senior leadership, to our colleagues experiencing the various changes we're undergoing.
My first meeting is a short weekly one with of my main senior stakeholders heading up our transformation programme, where he gives me a download of what's happened in the Programme over the past week. We talk about timelines, upcoming communications in my plan, and he points me in the right direction for a conversation about one of our upcoming milestones.
10am
This morning, my other priority is to facilitate the sending of an all-colleague email to provide our charity with an update on how our transformation is going. It's all signed off, so I'll work with our Executive Assistants to send it from our CEO's mailbox. Our channels are quite traditional, and we don't have an intranet, but our colleague email read rate is really high as a result. After this, it's time to hit the emails and start working through my to-do list – right now, I'm setting up meetings that'll help me work on the next stage of my communications plan and reading through project documentation to educate myself on what's upcoming.
1pm
I'm terrible at taking lunch breaks, I really am, even though it's booked out in my diary on a daily basis. I either go to the gym downstairs or pick up some shopping, because if I eat at my desk I'll begin reading the news, will see an email notification…and end up doing work instead!
2pm
My next meeting is with one of our Project Managers, and others working on our workstream. We discuss training updates, how colleagues are feeling about the change at the moment, and I take some actions to find some solutions. We have eight offices, spread across the UK, and my team have started to visit them on a monthly basis. I was in Cardiff earlier this week so relay some of the colleague feedback from a session I held, which will help us improve some of the ways people interact with our transformation programme.
It could be a case of producing some additional communications content for our impacted teams, or guiding some of my business partner areas through some local initiatives to help embed transformation we're implementing. Either way, change is about people not just systems, and a big part of my role is ensuring the appreciation of this!
3pm
It's time for the floor-wide transformation huddle – where the whole floor comes together to hear progress updates and how we're doing against our timeline. Because of my role, I sit with our transformation team rather than with my internal communications colleagues, so I'm closer to conversations, able to react quickly, and a visible part of the people side of our change programme. I do see my team once a day usually even if we're not in meetings together – be it swinging by their desks on the way back from a meeting, or working from a free desk near them. It's important to keep in touch as a core member, and they've come to join us for this stand-up so we catch up afterwards.
4pm
It's time for a non-screen task! The change we're undergoing involves a new IT system, so we have a group of dedicated 'super users' who are our local experts and ambassadors. Not only do they ensure that colleagues have dedicated and familiar points of contact, it also relieves pressure on the hotline we have to support teams through any system issues they might encounter.
I'm collating some 'go live kits' for our super users to say thank you and also make them easier to find when a colleague needs them, so I spend some time packing the last of the kits up and getting them posted. They comprise of a personal letter from our CEO, a desk flag, oversized badge, a water bottle, and a lapel pin for their security lanyards. As colleagues are trained on our new system, they'll all receive a small lapel pin badge as a visible sign of change.
5pm
I start to wrap up my day, and block out some time tomorrow so I can focus on a project I'm undertaking – reviewing our team briefing cascade. This is part of my non-change comms work, but will absolutely ensure that we're able to communicate our next stages of transformation in the best way possible when the time comes. I'm currently consulting with team leaders and managers to find out about the current process, and really excited about leading this change.
I'm from a corporate background (in fact, I worked in accounting for longer than I've worked in internal communications!), so working at a charity is not only really rewarding, but also very interesting in terms of some of the improvements we can make (with a limited budget).
Our colleagues are really passionate and proud of the work we do, and being with them along our change journey will help them support our clients when they need us the most. I leave the office around 5.30pm, and this time, I really will go to the gym!
