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13 Apr 2012

The ABCs of CSR Reporting

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A healthy environmentJust a few years ago, Corporate Social Responsibility reports were ‘nice to have’. Slowly but surely, they’re becoming ‘need to have’. But putting one together for the first time can be a daunting task. How do you do it? What should be in it? Here are some pointers to put you on the right path.  

There are surprisingly few formal guidelines regarding how CSR reports should be constructed and what should go in them. Templates with structure and content suggestions do exist, but slavishly copying these templates point-by-point is unnecessary and may even be counterproductive to producing a good CSR report for your business.  They are, however, valuable for orientation purposes. Once you’ve looked at a few, you’re ready to start.

  • Remember that a CSR report is a commitment to continued reporting. Make sure that such a commitment exists within your organisation before you invest time, money and effort in creating a first CSR report.
  • Identify the leading CSR issues associated with your business: these can vary widely across industry and sectors (i.e., raw materials, environmental impact, health and safety, local labour practices). These are the topics that your stakeholders will primarily want to know about.
  • Determine how your company performs in these areas compared to best practices in your sector. If this information is not available, establish processes for gathering it. Performance indicators are the backbone of a CSR report and you will need a solid amount of such data before you can produce one that will be of use or value to you.
  • Consider whether your company truly has a strategy in place for improving your indicators. If this is not the case, such a strategy and road maps towards improvement need to be defined. A bad (or non-existent) sustainability strategy = a bad or unimpressive CSR report.
  • Define concrete, realistic targets for indicator improvement over the next 12 months. It’s much better to set modest – and achievable – goals than to make promises you can’t keep. Express your goals and targets as often as possible in quantitative terms that you can measure against in the future.
  • Keep in mind that although performance indicators are the backbone of a CSR report, overlaying them is always a ‘story’ – your company’s story! Once you’ve followed the points listed above, you’ll have a clear idea of the story your company has to tell, and a solid baseline for reporting and for setting new targets in the future.
13 Apr 2012

Writing a memorable speech

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Martin Luther KingSpeech! The idea can make even a highly competent businessperson nervous. But whether you’re someone who is at ease in front of a crowd or not, one thing is certain: your successful performance is already 75% assured if the text you have prepared has the key characteristics that make a speech a “good” one. Having written countless well-received speeches over the years, we’ve pinpointed three of them.

Keep it simple!

Leave the extensive PowerPoint presentations and piles of data at home. People really don’t remember much of what they hear, so your message has to be clear, focused and simple in order to grab – and keep – the audience’s attention. Concentrate on one main theme, and eliminate everything else. If you want people to have a tangible take-away or reminder of your speech, email or hand it out afterwards.

Make it relevant

Although you’re doing the talking, it’s not really about you. You’re only up there to give your views on the reason the audience is there in the first place. Why are they there? What are they commemorating or what problem are they trying to solve? Why should they care? If you answer those questions first, then they’ll want to know “how”? Then, and only then, talk about yourself or your area of expertise as it relates to the occasion or as a possible solution to the problem.

Tell a story

A good speech is really just a message – and three great stories that back it up. Stories that convey emotion, that are inspiring, moving or amusing, and that are real. The combination of storytelling backed up with concrete information is a powerful one. What’s more, these kinds of speeches are much easier to deliver because you can recall a story from memory, and tell it from the heart. A good speech is measured not by its style, length, or amount of applause, but by its effect on the audience.  If yours is simple, relevant and evocative, it will move your listeners where you want them to go.

Public speaking doesn’t always have to be serious. Want to add humour to a speech or presentation – or would you just like a good laugh? See how Darren LeCroix, a former International World Champion of Public Speaking, rocks a meeting of Toastmasters, the international non-profit organisation dedicated to teaching public speaking skills. Or check out our Speeches and Presentations microsite.

22 Oct 2011

Ask colleagues to find a second reader

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correction If you have asked colleagues to contribute material, either as input for copywriting or to be edited, it’s a good idea to ask them to get their text read  by a colleague before handing it in – on the principle that two heads are better than one. This way, any passages that are unclear or controversial within the department can be located and improved or removed before the editor or writer goes to work on the text. This not only ensures a better result, but also saves money on your publications budget!

07 Sep 2011

Don’t forget the final step

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finish Writing in a corporate context is usually a collaborative and iterative process. You brief us on what you want to achieve, we write a first draft, and then it’s your turn. You (and perhaps your colleagues) give us feedback so that we produce a new version that’s even closer to what you have in mind. Alternatively, you make changes to the document yourself.

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04 Sep 2011

Know when to call it a day

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Producing a piece of communication is a bit like painting a painting. At a certain stage it’s perfect. Fiddling with it still further – a dab here, a dab there – can ruin the final product.

But it sometimes happens that a publication is ready to go to press: all stakeholders have approved the text, the designer has put all the text into the design, the proofs have been read and corrected … and then … the boss (or the communication department’s internal client) has a new idea. Or worse still, several new ideas. Sitting in the plane on the way back from a meeting, or relaxing at home the weekend, he or she reads it through once more. “Shouldn’t we add a bit about…?,” they ask. “I think we should mention… and Bill said he’d like to see more about…”

In many cases, especially if the publication is supposed to have some news value or needs to be deployed quickly, adding new material at this stage is a bad idea. Of course, it always possible to add more details or to give a more complete picture. But it is not automatically the case that more detail means better communication. On the contrary, it may mean less effective communication, creating a confused picture and puzzled readers.

It will certainly also mean extra expense – because altering a document at such a late stage is always costly. And it may well mean lost time and money (in terms of lost sales, for instance), as publication date is put back. The 80-20 principle is relevant here: if you have 80% correct, that’s probably as good as you need – time spent on getting the other 20% right is likely to be unprofitable.

If you are faced with a situation like this, you should probably try talk your boss or client out of adding lots of new material. You could suggest that it might be turned into a new publication instead, or be put on the website. But it should not delay publication of the present document. Otherwise, it may end up being delayed indefinitely, as new situations arise and “need to be included”. We have seen (non-compulsory) annual reports, for instance, being delayed so long that their distribution was eventually abandoned because they were so embarassingly late.

29 Aug 2011

Setting up an internal newsletter

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An internal newsletter can be so much more than a bulletin board. For example, it can support engagement, act as a channel for reinforcing strategic messages, or set the tone of your company culture. However, deciding what role your newsletter should play in your communication mix is only half the battle. Making sure it actually succeeds is where the real work comes in. We assume you already know what you want your newsletter to do — so here is our ABC of how to make it happen.

A is for Appeal
Your newsletter can’t achieve anything unless people read it. Make it cry out to be picked up and read, or clicked on and shared. To do this, you need to assess every aspect of your newsletter from the point of view of your target audience. Are they more likely to read print or digital? What kind of layout will grab their attention? How much text do they want to read? Even if it’s a channel for corporate and strategy messages, you need to think twice before using management-speak and pictures of grey suits. But remember — your newsletter is first and foremost a communication tool. Always ask two questions: Does this speak to my readers? Does it communicate and reinforce my messages?

B is for Budget
As you plan your budget, the most obvious cost factors will be set by the form your newsletter takes, not least whether you need to print and distribute it. However, there are a lot of less obvious factors that will be hidden inside your editorial process. For example, as a general rule, the more people who need to read and review an article, the more time it’s going to eat up. The less specific your brief is, the longer your designer, photographer or copywriter will spend coming up with the right content. The real trick here is to work with transparency (so everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them) and simplicity — kick those extra cooks out of the kitchen so you can get the recipe right.

C is for Control
Once you’re on the road, you need to keep a firm hand on the wheel to make sure you don’t veer off course. Newsletter projects can be susceptible to ‘brief-creep’ — when the people working on it think they know what it’s for and how to achieve it, but allow assumptions and misunderstandings to build up. Slowly, issue by issue, the look, feel and effect of your newsletter morphs into something you don’t want or need. Preventing this starts with you. Drill into your team the reasons why a particular style, or tone of voice, format or layout has been chosen. And make sure new team members thoroughly understand why things are being done a particular way.

29 May 2011

Anyone got a story for the newsletter?

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How to fill your newsletter

newsletter Oh, it sounded so good at that first meeting. “Let’s launch an internal newsletter,” everyone said. So you all worked out your comms aims, secured a juicy budget and built a crack team to help put it together. But now that the first publishing date is looming closer, you’re wondering how you’re going to fill all that white space. Well, there are a few tricks for making sure that you always have plenty of stories to choose from.
 

Newspeople are nosey networkers

Forget about Lois Lane wandering the streets with her notebook looking for stories. Real newspeople pump their contacts for information. There’s no way you can be everywhere at once, so put your network on the case, rooting out stories from across your organisation and sending you leads. Each internal event you go to is another chance to add to your list of content contributors. Luckily, most people are delighted to have their projects, ideas and achievements placed in the spotlight. Make sure everyone knows who to approach for a chance to be featured.

Fixed features fill themselves

Well, that’s not quite true. But there are a few regular items that can make life a little easier. One is the Opinion Column. Is there someone with a unique perspective or particularly important point of view that your readers want to hear? Asking someone to write a regular short column can take care of one slot per issue, and gives your newsletter a valuable and familiar human face. Another useful feature is the letters page. It can be tricky to get it fizzing — you may even need to appeal directly to your network — but such pages are generally popular and generate engagement. As a channel for feedback, they can provide valuable insight for management, too.

Turn readers into writers

Even better than a letters page is a social media page. Do you have an internal Twitter or employee YouTube? Any company message boards or corporate blogs? If yes, select some of the most interesting and engaging content from these channels and re-post it in your newsletter. It’s a brilliant way to create cross-channel buzz, and it will bring the best and most interesting opinions and ideas being voiced online to a wider audience, reinforcing the value of these engagement-boosting tools. And if you don’t have any social media support for internal comms yet — get on the case!

Find your own voice

Credibility is a difficult word for an internal newsletter. However, the fact remains that most people are put off by publications that sound too much like the work of corporate strategists. While politically tricky, carving out a little independence for your newsletter is almost always worthwhile in terms of reader engagement. This doesn’t mean that you have to go looking for scandal. Just report the facts and don’t be afraid to tackle sensitive issues. The braver editorial team might even publish the odd critical letter… Some management boards will see the value in this — and some won’t. But test the water. Get it right, and the value of your newsletter will rise exponentially.

24 May 2011

What did you do to my article?!

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Managing expectations

desparate Newsletters often depend on contributions from people within the company. But sometimes the information submitted needs to be significantly edited to make it as clear, informative and engaging as it needs to be for the audience. Obviously, you don’t want those who have worked hard on a piece to feel offended if changes are made to it. You can avoid this by carefully managing your contributors’ input and expectations throughout the process.

Sometimes when a colleague has spent time and effort on a submission, they may feel quite confident that it’s very good and ‘ready-to-print’. So if the article — to a communication specialist’s eye — is too long, complex, or woolly, this can create a tricky situation. These tips will help you avoid this happening, and make it easier to keep contributors’ feathers smoothed when big changes do have to be made.
 

Brief

Clearly define the parameters of the article, including the desired length, tone of voice and the essence of what needs to be communicated. Remind those writing from a specialised (scientific/technological) point of view that they need to keep it as direct and simple as possible if the audience is non-specialist. Should articles need to have specific layout characteristics, provide a bullet-point overview of what these are (e.g., include a headline and a sub-headline; provide an introduction of a certain length; use subheadings at least every couple of paragraphs). If these requirements are made clear to contributors at the start, they will be less taken aback if their piece later has to be adapted to adhere to them.

Respond

You can quickly see whether a submission is more or less fine, or whether it needs to be significantly modified. If it does (and it’s not feasible to ask the contributor to submit another version), officially thank them for their article: this gives you the chance to immediately communicate in a friendly way that changes are going to be made to the piece to make it fit the parameters. If possible, give them an idea of what these changes will be (e.g., you will be featuring just the results, not the study details; the language will be simplified; and you’ll be restructuring it to bring that interesting information to the top). This gives them a heads-up as to the changes they’ll see later, removing the possible element of unpleasant surprise.

Review

Some contributors don’t care if you change their work — but that’s not always the case. Assure those who have a serious vested interest (professional or political) in what they’ve communicated that you want them to review the edited version. The key to making this step go smoothly is — again — providing clear parameters. Emphasise that you are asking them to review the piece for accuracy (you don’t want them to rewrite it!). Request that corrections be inserted using track changes for easy identification. Mention that if they feel strongly about including deleted information, they then have to indicate text that can be cut to keep the article the proper length. Continuing to give contributors this element of control (carefully controlled by you!) right to the end of the process can help keep even the touchiest ones satisfied, and your editorial processes running smoothly.

24 Apr 2011

Don’t underestimate the time you need

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desert-island A tip for anyone commissioning an article that requires the writer to interview someone: don’t underestimate the amount of time it can take to arrange an interview!

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24 Mar 2011

Settle the word count early

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counter A tip for magazine editors: it can save time (and money) if the approximate word (or character) count for an article is settled early – before the writers start work. Shortening or expanding an article after it has been written is more difficult than it might seem.

It’s like trying to reduce the size of pizza from a 12 inch diameter to a 9 inch diameter. Sure, you can make the pizza smaller by chopping a slice out of it, but it won’t have the same aesthetic appeal and appetizing look as one that comes out of the oven as a perfect circle! In the same way, slashing a paragraph out of article will make it shorter but is likely to disrupt the storyline and break any links the writer has carefully put in to keep the piece a unified whole. Much better to let your writers know beforehand how much space you have for the article so that they can create it “fully formed”.

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