Welcome from the Chair

Keynote Session

Survival of the fittest: What the downturn taught us about organisational change

The global financial crisis brought about organisational upheaval on an unprecedented level. But the drive to survive and thrive has forced many businesses to learn valuable lessons about managing change. Drawing on her rich experience working across many different industries, Angela Mohtashemi will explore the golden thread that runs through all successful change initiatives.

Attend this session for a review of the most valuable change lessons we've been forced to learn over the past year, and how communication must evolve to keep up.

• What are the most challenging aspects of change faced by businesses today?
• What can communication and HR professionals do to help?
• How are the most successful organisations tackling change?
• What partnerships must be formed for more effective change management?
• What are the most important skills needed by those managing change?

Angela Mohtashemi, Director HR Services Communication Practice
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Communicating through turbulence at British Airways

The global economic downturn has hit British Airways hard. As a result, many of the 38,000 employees are experiencing large-scale restructuring and reorganisation, which is leading to change fatigue. In this session, Penny Lawson will share how her team has worked with management and unions to communicate with staff during this exceptionally stressful time. This will include insight into:

• Getting the tone of communication right in times of crisis - avoiding a command-and-control approach
• Partnering with industrial relations on key change issues
• Working with media relations to manage the external implications of change communication
• Helping company leaders to communicate effectively through channels including face-to-face, online forums and print

Penny Lawson, Head of Internal Communications
British Airways

Morning Coffee

How colleague engagement underpins cultural change at E.ON

Driving internal cultural and behavioural change is at the heart of E.ON's strategy for engaging with customers. In this session, Tom Crawford will share the steps taken to build the company's brand from the inside out, including:

• Rethinking employee engagement and its correlation and impact on customer engagement
• Redefining the brand through employees
• Changing the way the company communicates with employees and customers
• Transforming leadership communication to offer front-line staff more meaningful contact with their bosses

Tom Crawford, Head of Internal Communications
E.ON UK

How Aviva won internal buy-in for a new brand identity

Building a global brand is a key priority for Aviva. As such, migrating the long-established and well-known Norwich Union brand to Aviva and engaging the 54,000 employees in the brand promise have been key to the company's future success. In this session, Lynne Gray will share insights into:

• Using video, training and face-to-face communication to migrate Norwich Union employees to the new brand
• Communicating through storytelling to increase brand recognition
• Tailoring brand communications to employees globally and locally
• Getting employees to celebrate the new brand through the One Aviva Day and a 24-hour online "jam session"

Lynne Gray, Internal Communications Director
Aviva

Being honest with employees about job losses at Experian

In this session, find out how Experian tackled the challenge of communicating news of redundancies to its employees by being open, honest and transparent. This session will cover:

• Keeping employees at the centre by deciding what they need to know, who they should hear it from and when
• Aligning internal and external messages on redundancies to protect employees and the company
• Deciding the communication timeframe and the most effective blend of communication channels to use
• Consulting with employee representatives throughout the process

Colin Archer, Head of People Communications & Community
Experian UK

Engaging employees in transforming the Post Office from loss to profit

Redundancies, branch closures, strike action. These are just some of the challenges that communicators at the Post Office have faced in delivering a five-year plan for making the publicly owned Post Office more commercial. In this session Alana Renner will share her experiences of:

• Working with leaders to deliver change messages using a wide variety of communication channels including face to face, newsletters and conference calls
• Introducing plain English into messaging
• Opening and building proactive dialogue with unions to avoid constant confrontation
• Using social media tools, including chat rooms, to create two-way communication with staff about the changes
• Building an engagement index to measure the impact of the change programme on employees

Alana Renner, Head of Engagement & Internal Communications
Post Office Ltd

Panel Discussion

This is your opportunity to debate the key challenges you face in managing change programmes successfully within your organisation. This facilitated session will be led by experts who can help you address any burning questions and issues highlighted over the course of the day and debate them with a wider audience.