Tuesday 22 November 2022 |  Wednesday 23 November 2022

Tuesday 22 November 2022

09:00 Registration

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09:30 Chair’s opening remarks

John Harrington, Editor, PRWeek UK

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CREATING A NEW STRATEGIC ROLE FOR IC

09:40 PANEL DISCUSSION: We’ve proved our worth; what’s next?: Transitioning internal comms towards a long term, strategic role in the business

• Reinforcing the power of internal communications for influencing your organisational culture and building belonging and community over time
• Pinpointing a role for internal communicators amidst long-term economic pressure
• I’m an internal communicator, an employee and a human: Balancing your feelings with business needs when working on highly emotive topics
• Carving out a route to a seat on the board, as a trusted advisor
• Changing perceptions: What do your colleagues think of internal comms?

Keith Coles, Head of Internal Communications, Brunel University

Sophie Timms, Corporate Affairs Director, Kier Group

Nicola Lally, Communications Partner, BDO UK LLP

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10:20 CASE STUDY: Reinvigorating perceptions of the leadership team through strategic internal communications

• Building trust and creating a sense of direction for employees
• Driving profitability through sustainable growth and disseminating key employee objectives and goals
• Engaging the whole business on a shoestring: Upskilling people managers to help communicate the vision

Jo Sparks, Head of Internal Communication, ATS Euromaster & Tructyre

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10:45 Becoming strategic internal communicators

The role of internal communicators is always evolving, and we're finding our job descriptions getting bigger and bigger... especially when it comes to strategic thinking and communicating. So how can we adapt and reach our full potential in this new role?

Lottie Bazley, Internal Communications Consultant, Staffbase

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11:00 Morning coffee break

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UNDERSTANDING YOUR IMPACT

11:30 Information is giving out; communication is getting through: Measuring the impact of your internal communications on your employees

• Knowing how much, how often employees engage with communications - if they ignored your call-to-action, did they even read it?
• Determining what success looks like in your business, moving from outputs to outcomes
• Understanding the different tools and technologies that are available to support your campaign measurement
• Proving the ROI of your communications to the business - is it possible?
• Continuous learning: Incorporating employee insight and measurement data into your future communications

Vicki Davies, Director of Internal Communications, National Highways

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FOSTERING COMMUNITY AND PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCE

11:55 WORKSHOP: ‘Europeans are checked out at work’: creating internal communications that engage employees during a period of disengagement

• Identifying the principle factors in engagement in today’s context, during The Great Resignation
• Bringing in external inspirational speakers and thought leaders for motivation and stimulation
• Understanding the different approaches required to engage the five different generational groups in the workplace

Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua, Business Storytelling Coach and host of podcast ‘thank god it’s monday’

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12:20 Networking lunch break

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13:20 CASE STUDY: Building a community with purpose in a distributed, multi-national organisation

• Facilitating community and belonging and a sense of common purpose
• Amplifying the good things that are happening in your workplace whilst combating resistance to change
• Acting as a catalyst for positive culture change and as a conduit to the wider market
• Taking a grass roots approach and finding the community opportunities

Armand David, Corporate Affairs Director, Digital and Vicky Crouch, Head of Internal Communications, Digital, BT Group

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CREATING A SENSE OF BELONGING

13:50 WORKSHOP: Belonging means membership not ownership (the antidote to employer brand)

• How can companies move beyond old-style ‘employer brand’ - to a sense of belonging as membership not ownership ?
• How can comms leaders’ - invariably ahead of directors in awareness of employees’ expectations - guide their boards?

With a mix of presentation and interaction, we’ll look at

• A maturity model for belonging and purpose - and why 'membership' not 'ownership' is so critical to our times
• How comms leaders can best support progress through phases to support belonging and unify purpose
• How our hybrid and unpredictable times require invitation more than instruction
• How to balance the ‘plumbing’ and ‘poetry’ of comms to meet this multi-layered challenge

Isabel Collins, is a leading specialist in culture and belonging. She has pioneered original approaches over the last 25 years and is now helping leaders reframe belonging for our times.

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14:20 PANEL DISCUSSION: Embedding diversity and inclusion into your communications, and your organisation, to foster belonging

• Moving diversity out of silos and committees so that it becomes part of everyone’s role
• Creating representative communications - both in terms of language and imagery
• More than a tick box exercise: Tackling inappropriate or non-inclusive behaviours through communications that positively influence your culture
• Responding appropriately as call-out culture advances
• Celebrating your positive societal impacts

Marghaid Howie, Global Head of Social Media and Continuity Communications, Thoughtworks

Kimberley-Marie Sklinar, Group Internal Engagement Manager, AutoProtect Group

Sharon Woma, Inclusion Co-ordinator, Integrated Care Board (ICB)

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15:00 Afternoon coffee break

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POST PANDEMIC STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

15:20 DOUBLE FIRESIDE CHAT: Blurring boundaries: how should internal and external communications interact?

• Ensuring your external communications feel authentic to those working on the inside
• Happy employees make happy businesses: What can we learn from businesses that have imploded from the inside out?
• Strategies for working effectively with your external PR team
• How should your tone of voice differ when communicating externally versus internally? What personality does your employer brand have?
• Managing a crisis internally - ensuring your employees are the first ones to know when something significant happens

Adeeba Hussain, Founder, Think Impact First Communications

Tara Geoghegan, Communications Manager, Haymarket Media Group

15:55 FIRESIDE CHAT, COST OF LIVING FOCUS: Supporting your employees through the significant impact of the cost of living crisis to safeguard their wellbeing at work

• Checking in: gauging how the cost of living crisis is impacting different groups of employees and understanding their lived experience
• Putting yourself in their shoes - empathising with the experience of lower paid and casual staff and those on zero hours contracts
• Mediating effectively between the leadership team and your employees
• Ethically communicating your financial results during the cost of living crisis
• As an employer you can’t completely relieve the impact but what financial benefits / mental health services could you communicate?

Kimberley-Marie Sklinar, Group Internal Engagement Manager, AutoProtect

Claire Morisot-Siebenthal, Co-worker Communications Leader, IKEA

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16:30 Chairperson’s closing remarks and close of Day One

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Tuesday 22 November 2022 |  Wednesday 23 November 2022