At IKEA, choosing the right words when communicating with the workforce is everything.

Guy Britt, IKEA’s Global Head of Co-worker Comms, tells Katie Macaulay the use of ‘co-worker comms’ instead of internal or employee comms is very deliberate. “It’s based on the fact that those we’re communicating to are people,” he says. 

The team at IKEA want to activate their colleagues; inspire them, and create a two-way dialogue. The language they use matters. The tone, and respect they have for their colleagues is what really engages them.

Communicating in this human way to a large, global workforce like IKEA has its challenges. Getting the right message to the right people, on the right platforms – it’s not one size fits all.

So, how does IKEA reach and engage their unique audiences?
 
Tune in to find out.

Listen to the full episode here: https://abcomm.co.uk/podcasts/episode/episode-57-unboxing-internal-comms-at-ikea/

Moments

Moment 57 – Language matters: Building two-way engagement at IKEA

Katie’s guest this week is Keith Lewis, UK Social Media and Social Business Manager for Zurich Insurance – one of the world’s largest insurance groups with 55,000 employees in more than 170 countries – who is well placed to talk about employee advocacy and empowering people to tell their own stories.

Earlier this year, the Edelman Trust Barometer asked 33,000 people around the word how credible they would view information from a series of different people when forming an opinion of a company. Those answering said the most credible would be the company’s technical expert, while fourth on the list was a regular employee. In eighth place was the CEO. Edelman’s advice to organisations is to activate our employee voices – not just official spokespeople, but our specialists and regular employees.

In the course of their conversation, Keith tells Katie about the strategies he has employed to encourage employees to open up about their experiences and expertise, as well as the value of internal social networks such as Workplace by Facebook and Yammer.

Season 02

Episode 20 – Advocacy in action

Call it a shift. Call it a revolution. Whatever name you give it, it’s clear internal communications is no longer the poor cousin in the media family tree. At a time when your organisation’s products and services can seemingly be replicated at the touch of a button, the one thing that is hardest to copy – your organisation’s collective wisdom – is fast becoming its most important asset.

In one of the UK’s first internal communications podcasts, Katie Macaulay sits down with IC thought-leaders every other Wednesday to better understand how we can improve communications at work. After all, it’s what’s inside that counts.

Moment 57 – Language matters: Building two-way engagement at IKEA

The Internal Comms Podcast

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