It's the honesty that makes it work.

Open, honest communication is one quality that defines all great employers. People want to know what is going on, what is expected of them and how well they are doing. Now you can let them know. We work with employers on all aspects of practical communication, from tactical emergencies to strategic planning and delivery. We build global engagement programmes but we can also show you how to escape death by PowerPoint.

Effective communication is vitally important, but not very difficult. Just apply the four work principles of Best Communication Practice

• Be clear about your objectives - Measure everything.
• Identify your audience - What is in it for me?
• Start early and keep going - Don't put it off!
• Honesty is the best policy - Be yourself.

Audit & Review

How good are your current communication channels? How could you improve them?

It really helps to know where you are now, before you decide where to go next. So why not let us get all your existing communications out on the table and see what they're saying? As well as reviewing the style and content of existing messages, we can also explore how your people prefer to receive information and how well existing channels are actually performing. It's no good sending out a beautifully designed HTML e-brief if your people are already swamped with emails. It may be that coaching your managers in team briefing could deliver better returns than publishing another newsletter.

Message Development

From mission vision and values to EVP development, we help you find your voice.

Employers that talk confidently about who they are and what they do attract and retain better people. Whether it's an employee value proposition (EVP) or a new set of core values, we can help you shape the messages that differentiate the purpose, character and style of your organisation. Messaging platforms can provide a rallying point and statement of common purpose for colleagues and they can provide a manifesto to the world outside. They can define the common ground between corporate objectives and personal aspirations. They can build team spirit and inspire exceptional achievement. But in this, as in all communications activity, honesty is the best policy: there is no better advice than, 'be yourself'. The more accurately you can capture the reality of your workplace, the more of the right people will join you and stay with you.

Culture Change

Use communication to transform behaviour and boost performance in your organisation.

In most culture change programmes, the majority of target behaviours relate to communication in one way or another. So although it's important to announce, explain and promote the organisational change, effective communication can also provide a beacon example of the new culture in action. It is not just a signpost on the journey, but a practical demonstration of what life will be like at the destination. As well as providing communication support for the launch and implementation of culture change initiatives, we can also show your people how to communicate more effectively with each other. Cultural transformation is about delivering positive changes in behaviour and attitude; it's no coincidence that effective communication does exactly the same thing…

Sharing our Knowledge

We can train your people to communicate more effectively, from web writing to blogging.

Effective communication is far too important to be left to the professionals. Everyone needs to do it, and that's why we spend a lot of our time sharing knowledge and skills with client teams. The formality and the depth of the training vary widely: it all depends on what you need. We've taught global recruitment teams to write effective job postings for their careers sites, and we've worked with individual executives to make their presentations less boring. We've ghost-written company-wide briefings for business leaders and we've shown a global charity how to set up and run an effective blog. Wherever we introduce new communications platforms or technologies, we also help the home team to become self-sufficient in using and maintaining them. We'll sell you a fish if that's what you want, but we also sell rods and nets.

Engagement Surveys

What are your people thinking, and what are you going to do about it?

Many staff surveys are worse than useless because they are neither fed back properly nor acted upon decisively. Surveys must never be considered as an end in themselves, but a platform for dialogue and action. The point of the survey is that you capture the views of the team, reflect on the implications of those views and then decide what you are going to do about them. There should be a recognisable cause and effect: "You told us that, so we decided to do this…" When this happens, people feel they are having an impact on the direction of the business, their views matter. If you do a survey and nothing follows, you just raise the level of cynicism. It's also perfectly acceptable to reflect on the views expressed and decide that you can't accommodate them – as long as you explain your decision. If people are telling you something you don't want to hear, a stony silence is not the appropriate response.

Don't Mention it

All the things we can't talk about, although we can drop heavy hints.

Some projects we can shout about, but there are also more sensitive jobs where we operate as a silent partner and 'Mum' is absolutely the word. Often the circumstances are made more challenging because there are demanding timescales or a high degree of media interest. In the past we have provided communications support for everything from pay negotiations to post-merger cultural integrations. These are not the kind of tasks that will ever win awards or feature in our case studies, because they are usually so commercially or politically sensitive. But wherever an employer has especially difficult or complex messages to get across, we can help.

Best Practice

Explore the thinking and method that shape our work. It's mostly common sense, clearly expressed.

Effective communication is vital and valuable, but it is not especially difficult. We have found that the application of four simple principles more or less guarantees success, even in the most challenging circumstances…

• Be clear about your objectives - Measure everything!

The first question should always be, 'Why are you doing this?' What action, behaviour or attitude are you trying to bring about? If you know the objective, you are much more likely to achieve it. Bear in mind that the best solution to your challenge might not be the most obvious medium or message. And with clear objectives, it's also very much easier to identify success and measure the return on investment.

• Identify with your audience - What is in it for me?

Always, always, always look at the project from the reader's point of view. If you want someone to think or behave differently, what's in it for her? Why should she? And while you're at it, you need to think about how your target audience is going to receive and react to your message. This will help you to make better choices about media as well as message content, tone and voice.

• Start early and keep going - Don't put it off.

Communication tends to get postponed. This is a fact of life in the corporate landscape, but the earlier you start communicating – and the more sustained your interaction with the audience – the more successful you will be. A frightening number of business change initiatives, from IT projects to culture transformations, fail simply because people don't know what's expected of them.

• Honesty is the best policy - Be yourself.

There may be commercially sensitive situations or difficult human circumstances where it feels hard to be open about what's happening. If something can't be shared, it can't be shared. But don't adopt secrecy as your default setting. Honesty helps you to earn and deserve people's trust: if you share what you can when you can, people will be more forgiving on those occasions when you can't.