COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING STRATEGY FOR INVESTORS IN PEOPLE IN THE BANKING SECTOR
A communication and marketing strategy covering the implementation of the Investors in People standard at various sites within the domain of the BANKSETA needs to be seen in the context of the target “market” – the people who will be required to buy in to the process. While this will eventually involve people at all levels within the relevant organisations, the initial phase demands a heavy emphasis on the higher management levels. This is critical, firstly because they need to be fully committed to Investors in People and aware of the implications of the process for their people, and secondly because they will largely drive the on-going communications process down through their organisations as the implementation proceeds.
Any large-scale organisational communications process is complex and requires a careful balance. The initial phase is more narrowly focused at the higher levels of the organisation and requires more complex and substantial arguments with less repetition. As the communication starts to cascade down the organisation the message needs to be pared down and simplified but driven home more substantially, especially in South Africa where there are considerable disparities in levels of literacy, a wide diversity of languages, big cultural differences and high levels of sensitivity and suspicion. For example in South Africa, recent experience shows that at the operational levels of an organisation, people have to be exposed to a message at least 14 times before it is fully understood.
The banking sector has a number of inherent advantages and some considerable challenges in the communications arena. The aim of the strategy should be to take full advantage of the many plus factors and tackle the problem areas head-on as quickly as possible. A big bonus is that amongst the large and medium players the existing communications media are extensive and quite sophisticated, so there is no shortage of communications links. However, this poses some dangers, which are becoming clearer as electronic information dissemination evolves. For instance, information overload is already a significant problem, making it more and more difficult for non-essential messages to “get a hearing”. In an advocacy context where people are not obtaining technical information which they must have to do their jobs, or information which will be of direct, immediate benefit to them personally, electronic communications are essentially passive. And of course they only work at the Individual’s level of (computer) literacy. Electronic communications will play an important part in any communications initiative but they will have to be supplemented by a variety of more traditional media and methods, and ideally some fresh approaches.
It is important to appreciate that the Investors in People implementations are not taking place in isolation. They need to be integrated with other HR functions and the broader business environment is also an important element. The better the broader understanding of the aims and main aspects of the process, not just amongst employees in the organisations concerned, but even amongst the broader public, the more secure the participants will feel in going forward.
In defining the strategic outline of the message there are a number of important issues that need to be considered. The first is that the strategy needs to work at different levels, which can probably be broadly broken down into two target audiences. The first is the executive management level where Investors in People needs to be appreciated as a strategic initiative.
Communicating to this target audience involves issues such as:
l The bottom line benefits of the process – including the less easily quantified aspects such as the retention of key employees. In other words a strong, practical business case needs to be made for Investors in People as a means of leveraging people’s performance to achieve the strategic mission and achieve sustained competitiveness.
l The need for total top management commitment to the process as a strategic initiative, if it is to work. In this regard, a crucial aspect is the appreciation that this is not just another HR system, or even an HRD process. It is a fundamental organisational culture change aimed at transforming employee attitudes.
l The positioning of the process within the South African Labour and Skills Development legislative environment, and the government thinking that this reflects. Issues such as the recognition at Government level of the validity of the process as an effective means to translate Workplace Skills Plans into improved performance with equity are important. However, as with other elements of the communications strategy, this has dangers, and it will be important not to allow the Investors in People process to be seen as a Government initiative. The autonomy of the process is, and should be seen to be, rigidly maintained. This in turn does hold signal benefits for users of the process, not only in terms of international benchmarking, but also in the employment equity arena, where internal processes might have more difficulty in gaining credibility than an internationally accepted set of norms.
l The need for the Investors in People process to be aligned with the existing people management strategy of the organisation and the capacity of the process to do this with flexibility and at minimal cost. One of the significant findings of the research carried out in the UK is that people engage in the Investors in People process for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons given are that it a good mechanism to drive change, or a useful performance management tool, or a means to embed human resource strategy, or an international benchmark, or an effective way to improve the image of the organisation, or a means to link training to business needs, or an option to enhance the quality of products and services etc. This research, supplemented wherever possible by other relevant data, should therefore form a valuable mechanism in developing and implementing the communications strategy, as the range of capabilities provided by the process is clearly a major marketing factor.
l One of the important marketing features of Investors in People which could be a valuable tool in communicating the benefits of the process at all levels, but particularly the senior management level, is the “paper light” aspect of the process. With a wide range of recent labour relations, employment equity and skills development legislation in South Africa now becoming a reality, the bureaucratic luggage is starting to become a cause for concern to many organisations, especially smaller companies where resources are not readily available. The research shows that in other parts of the world, Investors in People accredited advisers provide valuable expertise and guidance at this smaller business level, and the question of the availability of such expertise will be crucial.
l A particularly important issue at the executive communication level is the scope provided by Investors in People for better talent management through internal growth and retention. With the banking sector as a whole seeking to become a preferred employer as part of its wider strategy, and the need for organisations within the sector to retain valuable skills and so build competitiveness, the whole issue of talent management has become a vital strategic initiative. Investors in People not only provides a valuable means of helping to leverage talent, but equally importantly, it offers a credible and valid means of measuring this on an output basis. There is nowadays a dangerous tendency to measure such issues subjectively, for example, determining the status of organisations as employers of choice by “measuring” their performance using questionnaire surveys or even phone in or electronic responses. If such methods are not strictly audited they are intrinsically worthless. This is not just a minor detail – it is a foundational issue in the development of global competitiveness, and as the World Competitiveness Survey shows South Africa does not fare very well in the people performance index.
There are a number of other issues at this level which are relevant such as the close compatibility of the process with the Balanced Scorecard, the improved communications brought about by the Investors in People process, the scope it provides for benchmarking, productivity improvements etc., which can be dealt with in detail in the development of the communications strategy.
The other communications thrust would be to create a broader awareness of the process within organisations and even the public at large and thus reduce the shock waves produced by the introduction of what is essentially a far reaching people development initiative. It is clearly very useful if employees view the process favourably even before their organisations formally adopt it, and a sound knowledge of how Investors in People impacts on individuals and the opportunities that it can offer at that level, will considerably enhance the chances of successful implementation in organisations by helping to achieve buy-in from employees. One area which needs to be specifically addressed in any adoption and cascading of the process through an organisation is the question of middle management. Experience has demonstrated that middle managers are likely to show most resistance to the process if they are not fully informed and brought on board. Their very real concerns are around the impact the process will have on them, both in terms of a possible additional workload, and in the development of other people who could supersede them. The reality is that the process promotes and facilitates people development at all levels and improves the attitude of employees towards the organisation and its strategic aims, thus making middle management easier and more effective. The output focus also ensures that promotion is based on performance not on subjective assessment, so the development ceiling becomes one of capability and commitment rather than length of service or an “old-boy” network. Research in both the United States and the UK shows that training and development significantly improves retention of workers and has a powerful impact on organisational commitment.
While there is a certain level of awareness about Investors in People, the length of the process and the fact that it is inextricably integrated into the broader strategic approach of the organisation, can easily allow the media’s interest in the process to wane. In South Africa the process has clearly not yet achieved the critical mass necessary to become self-sustaining as is the case in the UK. In that country the situation is rapidly becoming one where organisations, which are not on the standard, tend to be regarded as “behind the times”. To achieve that level in South Africa will require a sustained and vigorous promotion of the process during the current “formative” stage.
As one of the important stakeholders in the process, the BANKSETA is well positioned to drive this communications initiative. The SETA has firmly established a leading position within the national skills development initiative and has built a powerful information infrastructure with organisations in the sector.
While this is primarily a rationale for a communications strategy and the details of the strategy can only be finalised once the full context has been defined and an appropriate strategy has been developed, there are some points about the general environment which might be relevant in the strategic decision.
As stated earlier we believe the strategy would need to be fairly broadly-based using a variety of media and a series of tailored messages. These would include channels such as the BANKSETA website and newsletter, organisation’s intranets, specialist publications (see note below), the mass media albeit to a limited degree, individual company newsletters, possibly an Investors in People newsletter, conferences, seminars and other smaller group meetings (particularly at executive level), and other relevant events such as business expositions.
Note: As regards specialist publications, the more general management journals such as the Financial Mail should be seen as more suitable media than specific HR publications because of their greater reach and the fact that there is a danger of straight jacketing the process as something exclusively for the HR community.
In terms of the broad strategic thrust of the communications approach, it might be wise in these early phases to place a particularly heavy emphasis on customer endorsement, preferably through research studies to support the generic message, while using the feedback from successful high profile users both to promote the process in general or specific aspects of it. As mentioned earlier, organisations engage with Investors in People for a wide variety of reasons, and supporting evidence showing that it can achieve the organisation’s specific aims is a powerful promotional tool.