Communicating with a diverse, international workforce is always a challenge, particularly for a business undergoing a re-imagination of its brand and an evolution of its product portfolio.
As an initial step, Torque proposed an all-employee newsletter with a focus on diversity & inclusion, community and human-interest stories. During times of change, it is especially important that employees feel engaged, motivated, and part of the bigger picture.
With those goals in mind, we set about putting together a global newsletter that would foster a sense of unity and shared purpose across the global business.
Working closely with our client contact, we devised a process for delivery, from ideation to distribution. The key with internal communications is simplicity, and making sure that all stakeholders are aware of the requirements, deadlines and objectives at every stage of the process.
First, we looped in all relevant department heads and contributors for the inaugural newsletter, setting deadlines for content submissions, edits and final sign off. We set up a shared document in which everyone could drop their content, images and links.
With all the content collated, Torque edited the copy into a newsletter-friendly tone and style, alongside working with a designer to lay out the initial visuals in MailChimp. Once everyone was happy with the design and final copy in English, we could move on to the next stage.
The major complication with internal communication in a business of TIFS’ scale is of course the many languages that are spoken across the company – 23 in this case. We felt it was important for all employees to receive the newsletter in their native language – particularly given its focus on inclusion and unity.
Our trusted translation agency took care of this in a matter of days, turning round market-specific copy that matched the tone and style used in the English version, to ensure key messages landed correctly across all locations.
The final step in the process was to clone our English template in MailChimp and create 22 translated versions – a task that required patience and an eye for detail! After a final proof, the inaugural TIFS global newsletter was ready to go. Early feedback from employees has reportedly been overwhelmingly positive, so it appears to have had the desired effect and put the building block in place for a more comprehensive internal communications strategy in the future.
Now, onto the next one!
