Financial Services Company Aligns Employees to their Brand in a Spin-off

Situation

As a result of numerous acquisitions and wanting to penetrate a new space in the marketplace, a leading financial services company was planning to split into two publicly traded entities.  This would result in the spin-off of multiple product lines and over 10,000 employees into a new company.  The leadership team had invested a large amount of time and money developing the NewCo external brand, and now needed to translate it for their employees to ensure alignment between the NewCo brand promise and what the employees would actually deliver.

The executive team hired Roberts Golden as both a strategic and execution partner in the development of an overall strategy and plan for employee brand engagement and to engage in the planning and development of an internal communications vehicle utilizing (amongst other things) an intranet platform.

Action

Working with the executive team and the head of internal communications, Roberts Golden:

• Developed a 4 month engagement and communication strategy and plan that cascaded information about the spin-off to Senior and Line Managers, HR Generalists and the broader employee population.
• Created and facilitated a workshop with the organization's cross-functional brand team to define what it would take for NewCo employees to deliver against the company promise / marketing value proposition.
• Provided strategic direction for the development of the organization's first, enterprise-wide communications channel (their intranet); also provided tactical support such as gathering and defining requirements across all company functions, overseeing the design agency and providing overall program management support.
• Additionally, Roberts Golden provided a seasoned communications executive who worked alongside the Internal Communications Director to create and ensure timely delivery of CEO email blasts, the worldwide launch event, manager webinars, a leadership brand briefing guide and other critical communication materials.

Results

The organization successfully executed multiple events and communications that helped create awareness and excitement for the changes that were occurring and of what it meant for employees to live the brand promise.  The launch events and materials were well received by employees and a survey of managers revealed they felt well-informed and prepared to lead in the new organization.  The client was grateful for Roberts Golden's ability to provide both strategic and "roll up your sleeves" assistance in a very flexible manner.