1. Engagement Planning - Communications

2. A Successful Engagement Programme requires expertise in 4 areas:
Project Management
A central point of contact who is able to coordinate the stakeholders, drive team participation and ensure that the many elements of the programme run to schedule. They need to have the authority to make decisions and handle sensitive information, and are accountable for the success of the programme.
H.R.
Knowledge of, and access to, H.R. systems and employee data. This includes any learning and development programmes.
Strategy
An understanding of the short and long term plans of the organisation, with foresight on any significant strategic changes and organizational development.
Communications
Knowledge of the communications opportunities and mechanisms that are available to create buy-in for the programme.
H.R.
P.M.
Comms
Strategy
This doesn’t necessarily need to be 4 different people, but understanding of (and influence over) all 4 need to be present.

3. What an Engagement Plan looks like…

4. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
WIT demo & data access
provided
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

5. Month 7 Month 8 Month 9 Month 10 Month 11 Month 12 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
PULSE SURVEY PROCESS
Initial call to create engagement plan
Confirm survey specifics
Survey live
Survey close
Create structure for employment groups z
Review comms in preparation of launching
3/4 week window for Managers to collate outcomes from action planning workshops
Data Available z
First data check and feedback provided
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided
3/4 week window Employment group action planning workshops
3/4 week window for Managers to implement action planning outcomes
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
3/4 week window to implement strategic initiatives decided by Exec Team
comms Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Comms to managers: Prepare for action planning
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
Comms from managers to employees: Action Planning next steps
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to employees
outlining key strategic initiatives update
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

6. Month 13 Month 14 Month 15 Month 16 Month 17 Month 18
FULL SURVEY PROCESS
PULSE SURVEY PROCESS
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
3/4 week window for Managers to implement any further actions
3/4 week window for Managers to review progress from previous survey actions
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to employees
outlining key strategic initiatives update

7. Communication plan

8. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

9. Comms to managers
Building excitement around the survey and ensuring that it is well communicated is key to achieving a great response rate. We recommend that all managers act as survey champions to help encourage participation.
Within your initial comms to managers it is essential that you outline the reasons ‘why’ you have embarked on this engagement journey.
Demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to change, by explaining what actions you’ll take after the survey is also key. This mitigates any concerns that the survey results will be ‘filed away in the drawer’ and never mentioned again. Managers should feel fully equipped to answer any questions from their team members.
It is a good idea to outline what support from managers you will require on the engagement journey. They will certainly need to be involved in the following:
Communicating the ‘why’ to their teams
Data Dissemination
Action Planning
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 9

10. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

11. Announce the ‘why?’
Building excitement around the survey and ensuring that the ‘why’ is well communicated is key to ensure all employees are bought into the ‘plan’, ultimately achieving a high response rate.
Now managers and survey champions are onboard it’s time to start communicating the ‘why’ to the rest of the organisation.
The key is to make sure employees understand how this survey fits into the wider picture of your engagement strategy.
Key points to address are:
Why the decision was made to run this survey and how it fits into the bigger picture
Key dates – when the survey will launch and how long it will run for
The confidentiality of survey responses - introduce your survey champions
Let your employees know that action will be taken off the back of the survey data which will help shape your engagement strategy
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 11

12. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

13. Email comms ‘its coming’
We recommend sending comms out to all of your employees 4 weeks before your survey launch date. Ideally it should come from the leader of your organisation.
The comms should:
Detail topics that will be included in the survey ie Leadership and Management
Reinforce the survey is confidential, allowing employees to give honest responses
Outline the results we share post survey use strict anonymity rules to ensure no individual responses can be identified
Include Best Companies privacy notice (legal requirement)
It is essential that these comms do not in any way offer employees a reward or put employees under pressure to complete the survey positively
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 13

14. Poster comms
Promoting the survey internally is key to ensuring a great response rate.
Posters can be provided by us for you to distribute and display internally. Where possible posters should be displayed around the whole organisation to ensure maximum exposure.
If your employees are based at different locations, embedding the posters in an and sending them to each employee directly also works well.
We tailor each poster to ensure it reflects which point in the survey your organisation is up to:
‘Get ready for our internal engagement survey’
‘Our internal engagement survey is live!’
‘Our internal engagement survey is closing soon!’

15. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

16. reminders
We encourage you to remind employees that they have the opportunity to have their say.
We recommend sending all employees who have been selected for the survey reminders, however you shouldn’t target individuals or only remind specific groups of employees.
If you are running your survey with Best Companies, we will automatically send these reminders, ensuring employees are not in any way offered a reward or put under pressure to complete the survey positively.
We would recommend at the same time reminders are being sent out, that you regularly provide live response rate updates to managers for their business areas, as you will be able to download live updates by employment group directly from your survey dashboard. This will enable managers to engage with employees and continue to drive excitement and awareness around the survey as survey champions.
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 16

17. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

18. Comms to managers - response rates
The more employees that respond to the survey, the more insightful data you will receive. Providing regular updates to managers on response rates from their own business areas, will ensure as many employees as possible will complete the survey
Once your survey is live, you’ll be able to monitor response rates in the ‘Survey Launch’ dashboard, both by Employment Group and the organisation as a whole.
We recommend comms updating managers on response rates are sent at the end of each week the survey is live.
Within these comms it is important for managers to understand that they cannot in any way offer employees a reward or put employees under pressure to complete the survey. All managers should be reminded the survey is optional.
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 18

19. Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 FULL SURVEY PROCESS
Survey live
Survey close
Confirm survey specifics
Create structure for employment groups
Data Insight Presentation with CEO z
Review comms in preparation of launching
Initial call to create engagement plan
Data Available
2/3 week window for managers to share data with their teams
Create Job Grade structure
WIT demo & data access
provided z
Data check and feedback provided
Call to discuss Data Insight session with CEO
Complete Part 1 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Complete Part 2 of Best Companies Organisation Questionnaire
Create employee data file incl. relevant employee data for survey
Provide final employee data file incl. any joiners/leavers
Verify managers reports for MC3 platform
2/3 week window to cascade MC3 to all Managers
2/3 week window for Exec Team to review strategic initiatives
comms - Survey invitation
Validation prompt sent to managers to confirm direct reports
Comms to business - headline results summary
Send comms to managers explaining why you’re surveying with BC
Poster comms ‘it’s coming’
Reminders
10 day
5 day
5 day
10 day
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Send out a thank you and explain what the next steps are
Comms to managers: Prepare for dissemination
Announce the ‘why?’ to the business
Comms to managers – Announcing MC3
comms ‘it’s coming’
Comms to managers:
MC3
next steps
Comms to managers: live response rates
Comms to high level mgmt: MC3
cascading

20. Thank you & what's next
When your survey closes, we would recommend sending a thank you note to your employees and advise them of the next steps.
If you have decided to donate a certain amount to charity for each survey response, you can communicate the total amount raised, as well as including headline information about the engagement scores the organisation as a whole has achieved.
Demonstrating your organisation’s commitment to change, by explaining what actions you’ll take after the survey is also key. This mitigates any concerns that the survey results will be ‘filed away in the drawer’ and never mentioned again.
© 2019 Best Companies Limited 20

21. Thank you
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