Overview
Billions have been spent on external tone of voice for companies over the years, but a company’s internal tone of voice is often neglected. Can it be the same, or should develop a unique way of talking to your employees?
Beginning by establishing what constitutes an internal tone of voice and its importance in the context of internal communication, this course then uses exercises and group discussions to cover the practicalities of creating, planning and delivering a ToV within your organisation.
Whether you’ve got no set internal tone of voice or an out of date one that needs refreshing, you’ll walk away with a greater understanding and appreciation of ToV as a concept, a tailored plan for your organisation and the ability to start implementing that plan for a quick delivery.
Agenda
- Welcome and introduction
- Overview
- What is tone of voice (ToV) and what does it mean to you?
- How external tone of voice has changed our approach within internal comms.
- Why it’s important to define your internal tone of voice.
- Exercise using examples of well known (and not so well known!) ToVs
- Starting from scratch or building on success?
- Audience: Who am I communicating with?
- Organisation: What type of organisation am I working in? How strong is my internal brand?
- The comms and culture journey: What is it like to work at my organisation? How do people feel about it? How would they describe it?
- Present vs future: What does my organisation’s ToV sound like now and where do I want it to be?
Creating, planning and delivering your tone of voice: Using a template provided, you’ll work methodically through all the factors to consider when creating and delivering an internal tone of voice, concentrating on producing the ToV itself, and a set of usability guidelines.
- Creating
- What should your tone of voice contain?
- What words do you associate with your organisation?
- What phrases meaningfully illustrate your culture and internal brand?
- How can you order this information for colleagues to best access it?
- How can you present it attractively and usefully?
- Planning and Delivering
- Stakeholder mapping and involvement.
- Gaining support from key colleagues.
- User-testing.
- Creating awareness and encouraging uptake.
- Embedding a new ToV in your organisation.
By the end of this session, you’ll have a complete template, tailored to your organisation that will clearly outline the steps you need to take to successfully roll out an internal tone of voice.
Note: attendees will need to bring:
- A laptop.
- Any existing ToV guidelines, internal brand or style guides.
- Examples of writing styles used within your organisation that you think reflect a positive ToV and some that you would consider less positive.
About the trainer
Jill Wedge has been a journalist for more than twenty years. She took the National Council for the Training of Journalists Proficiency Certificate and worked in newspapers before moving into Public Relations and then Corporate Communications.
She’s been involved in Corporate Communications for 17 years, both on the client side (for Marks & Spencer where she edited all internal publications, national and international, and produced videos), for communications agencies and as a freelancer. She writes, edits, subs, advises clients on publishing and runs communications training workshops. Her company Vibrant Communications produces internal and external publications, and marketing literature.
She’s a former CiB, IVCA and PR Week Award-winner and a Fellow of the British Association of Communicators in Business
Current and previous clients include De Beers, BUPA, Esso, BP, BT, DHL, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Club Med, EMI, Thomson, Fidelity International and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Registration information
Pricing
Melcrum Members: £545 per person
Non-members: £595 per person
To be a Melcrum member you must be a subscriber to Strategic Communication Management or a member of the Internal Comms Hub.
3 Easy ways to register:
1. Register online using the links above.
2. Call us on +44 (0)20 7357 8888.
3. E-mail us at training@melcrum.com
