Another year comes to an end and we want to offer you our thanks for taking the time to engage with us and hopefully having visited had a great experience with memories that will last a lifetime! We hope to see you all again soon. Have a great Christmas and an even better 2018! See you the other side.
Congratulations to our Management Apprenticeship Learner of the Year Katherine Broadhurst from Broomfield Alexander. Great effort to complete her ILM Level 5 in Management in 12 months!
For more information click here
Call of the Wild Ltd, are thrilled to announce they have won the Team Building Experience of the Year Award at the Conference and Incentive Travel Awards 2017 (C&IT). The judges were impressed by our Elite Team Performance work with Worcester Warriors English Premiership Rugby Team. The team were in danger of being relegated from the English Premier League to the First Division. This would have been financially disastrous.
Panasonic - Future Leaders Programme[/caption] Unfortunately, times can get tough within a business; staff members can feel under pressure and be faced with challenging situations. However, as a manager, it’s your duty to lead your staff through difficult times. Here you can learn how to lead your team and give them a light at the end of the tunnel.
For more click here
The HR Magazine reports today that further details on levy funding arrangements have met with mixed reactions.
The HR community has reacted to confirmation that the apprenticeship levy will go ahead as planned from April next year, despite calls from business groups for the charge to be delayed until after the economic impact of Brexit is clear.
The latest update on the levy, initially due to be published in June, has provided greater detail around funding arrangements. It has revealed that:
To read the full article then click here. For more on management apprenticeships in Wales click here.
AKA “covering your backside.” It’s tempting to ask for everyone’s approval before issuing an all-staff message (it seems the larger the organization, the bigger the problem). Don’t do this!
Everyone you ask will have an opinion—and not all will be helpful. If you try to incorporate all the suggestions, you run the risk of watering down your original message, to the point where it becomes disjointed, dull, and worst of all—ignored! If you don’t apply all the recommended changes, get ready for a spiral of time-sucking e-mails to explain why.
So be selective who you ask for editorial feedback and approval. Of course, seek your executive’s sign off, but limit approval and proofreading to just several trusted individuals.
In a large organization, it can be tough to keep a disciplined approach to communications—especially when bombarded by different departments demanding their all-staff messages must be top of the pile.
Remember you have a unique position: you’re the only one with an all-purpose passport across all communications for the company and it’s your duty to ensure messages are planned for and scheduled for best effect.
Think of your IC as the company newsroom, and you’re Chief Editor. Cull content that’s low in priority or significance (in newsroom speak, this is known as “drop the dead donkey”). Don’t be shy to push back on Fiona in Finance or Tim in IT if there’s a better time, place, or channel for their all-staff message.
Not only are you the curator of internal content, you’re the conductor too. So think carefully about which channels will get employee attention, are right for today’s more visual learners, and are fit for purpose.
For example, nonessential, nonurgent content such as staff announcements, fundraising initiatives, and social activities sit well together in a monthly newsletter. This kind of content bundling then leaves breathing space for urgent, essential communications—such as an IT outage notification or a cyber-security alert—to get the mental real estate they deserve.
Remember, today’s employees deserve more than e-mail, and it’s your responsibility to keep up-to-date on new tools which achieve message penetration. Ignoring new technologies could ultimately risk sabotaging your own efforts.
OK, some IC topics can be—let’s just say—a bit dry. (Anyone who’s ever had to write a few pithy words about company dress code policy or the importance of personal hygiene in the workplace will surely agree!) But every time you reach out, it’s a moment to engage with employees and personify your company’s brand values.
Add flair and personality to your IC and use friendly, easy-to-understand language—not corporate speak (check out this list of worst office jargon phrases staff love to hate). Work with your marketing team and take inspiration from their eye-catching campaigns. Access their resources: they may well have a graphic designer keen to create a humorous animated character, perfect for communicating your hand-hygiene message!
Mobility is one of the greatest developments in today’s workplace. But it’s also presented some of the biggest challenges for IC professionals, particularly those not prepared to adapt.
With the help of your IT team, explore the benefits of cloud-based internal communication platforms. These enable employees to view your IC content regardless of whether they’re working from home, in transit, or anywhere else for that matter (so long as they have network connectivity).
Go for secure, mobile-responsive solutions as these will display content to suit device (i.e., smartphone, tablet, or desktop).
These days, every department is expected to report on the impact of their efforts, and IC is no different. Measurement is critical. With specialist employee communication software, go one step further than simply providing metrics on who’s clicked what.
Unmissable, interactive, direct-to-screen tools such as scrolling desktop tickers, news desktop alerts, employee quizzes, or surveys provide a genuine breakthrough in IC tracking. (Another reason for the ongoing demise of e-mail is the inability to track who reads what.) Impress your bosses by providing extraordinary insights on message visibility, recurrence statistics, cut-through, attitudinal shifts, employee engagement, and more.
It is no accident that companies that are poor communicators are three times more likely to have no formal measurement of communication effectiveness compared with highly effective communicators. So, how do you measure up?
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Visit Call of the Wild Team and Personal Development website to learn more about our Leadership, Management Training, Team Development and Coaching solutions.
Sarah Perry is CEO of 