Practitioner profile: Rebecca Cattran, VicRoads
Rebecca Cattran has been at the forefront of the internal communication function's growth at VicRoads, Australia, since its creation in 2006. Here, she shares how the company tries to meet the expectations of Gen Y employees and how she sees the future of the profession unfolding.
Tell us more about your role at VicRoads
I manage a team of three staff and our focus is on companywide internal communication, with key activities including:
- Developing and implementing internal communication strategy.
- Providing a change communication consulting service.
- Coordinating senior leadership communication and staff recognition programs.
- Managing our corporate intranet.
VicRoads employs 3000 staff and operates from 50+ locations around Victoria, Australia, delivering around $2 billion of road projects, licensing 3.6 million drivers and registering 4.4 million vehicles in 2008, which provides many communication challenges.
Our staff are based in many locations in very different roles – from road workers in the field, to customer-facing staff in our call centers, to technical staff working in our head office. They all have particular communication needs and preferences as to how these can best be met. While they have a primary interest in their own work area, they also need to have a sense of how this supports the organization, as well as knowing what else is happening that affects their work.
My team is almost four years old and we're based in HR, which gives us a particular focus on people. This enables us to influence VicRoads' communication culture and highlight its contribution to employee engagement.
We employ 3000 staff and operate from 50+ locations, which provides many communication challenges.
Is your background in internal communication?
It has been an evolution throughout my career, with each experience building on a foundation of my belief in people power and making a difference in my community.
My initial training was in biological science, where some inspirational lecturers opened my eyes to the complex interrelationships within our natural environment. My interest in communicating this to others led to my early work in community education and interpretation in a number of non-government organizations.
I was then drawn to strategic planning, but found I was becoming too distant from the "grass roots" to see the impact of my work, so I decided to make communication my forte. I started working in corporate communication in local government, where I was exposed to the full spectrum of communication activities.
This was where I first discovered internal communication, which further developed through my first dedicated internal communication role in 2003 within state government. My manager understood its importance and potential, and supported me in shaping its direction. It was great to be given that opportunity – I really enjoy the strong sense of community – both within my organization and the profession.
At VicRoads, I've been able to broaden that with my communication colleagues across government, drawing on my technical background and broad perspectives to help join the dots for others.
What projects are you currently working on?
I've just finished working with our Regional Directors on a series of information sessions about the Victorian Transport Plan. These were held in each of our seven regions, as well as head office, for any interested staff to attend. It was a partnership between VicRoads and the Department of Transport and the sessions were well received. It supports my belief that we have a responsibility to ensure our staff are as well informed about our business as the community, so that they can be advocates for our work.
We're in the final stages of developing a package of tips and tools for our team leaders and middle managers on topics including listening, recognition, facilitation, coaching, communication styles and communication planning. The format is colorful and compact with concise information to help them easily find what they need. It's all about getting greater consistency of communication practice to improve personal effectiveness and team performance.
We have a responsibility to ensure our staff are as well informed about our business as the community.
I'm also preparing to implement some new initiatives with our senior leaders. They wanted to build on our annual program of visits to all teams across Victoria. This year we'll be introducing monthly lunches on topical issues and facilitating greater involvement in social club activities.
What challenges are you faced with in your role?
Initially, it was all about helping people understand what internal communication is and how it can help them achieve better results. Many people still see communication as a one-off output rather than an ongoing process and, of course, everyone’s an expert!
When I joined VicRoads, my role involved establishing a strategic internal communication function and part of this required redefining internal communication – what we saw as our key business, what drove our approach and why. Getting visibility and credibility in a large organization takes time, but we now have more people coming to us early, rather than having to rely on keeping our ear to the ground.
The Black Saturday bushfire tragedy in February 2009 provided a catalyst for a number of changes – a greater priority for staff communication and more integrated planning involving communication and other key business functions. It's understanding that our staff aren't only our employees, but also customers and members of the community. So now we're playing a key role in cross-functional business projects, which is what I see as the main game.
Have you experienced any challenges communicating with Gen Y employees? How do their expectations differ?
I think the most obvious difference is technology. It has been an integral part of their education and upbringing and therefore it shapes their expectations about how they access information and interact with their peers at work. The challenge for us is to understand and manage these by providing the appropriate tools and a supportive communication culture.
Our IT area has recently established a Personal Productivity and Communication Board which makes decisions about key technologies to help make employees' jobs easier. This includes representatives from key business areas, as well as two members of our Graduate Program, to ensure we’re understanding and reflecting a range of perspectives. We recognize that this is a key issue for us that impacts attraction and retention of staff.
We ensure that key comms programs have real-time evaluation built-in, so participants can tell us what worked and where we can improve.
There's also common ground with Gen X, for example, in being strongly values driven – which helps highlight the importance of organizational culture and the need to "walk the talk".
Both of these are key challenges where internal communication can play an important role, working closely with HR, recognizing these as key drivers for employee engagement. As our demographic profile changes, they're increasingly a priority for a majority of staff.
Is measurement carried out regularly to monitor the success of communication initiatives?
Our communication plans which support key corporate initiatives identify awareness, attitude and behavioral objectives with appropriate evaluation measures to gauge the nature and extent of change we want to achieve.
We also ensure that key communication programs have real-time evaluation built-in, so participants can tell us what worked and where we can improve. This qualitative and quantitative feedback can very quickly tell us if we’re on track and peoples' comments can help steer them in the right direction.
Another forum I use is a network of internal communicators who meet regularly to talk about what we're working on and share our learning. I often use this group as a sounding board for front-end evaluation, in scoping my approach to corporate internal communication initiatives.
High-level tracking is also carried out through our internal communication and employee engagement surveys to measure the effectiveness of the communication process in areas such as communication from managers and senior leaders, and communication around change projects and organizational strategy.
A supportive manager makes a real difference – my manager sits on our senior leadership team, so she can give me valuable insights into what they're thinking.
Do you have any tips for influencing management decisions?
You need to start with establishing good working relationships with your key stakeholders. This includes understanding their priorities and challenges and demonstrating you're well informed about staff needs and issues. For internal communication practitioners, there are some key partnerships, which include external communication, HR and IT. Getting to know these people and working on projects of common interest helps strengthen their understanding of what you can bring to the table.
My role is all about advocating for staff and supporting managers, which means advising on how staff can be involved to build ownership in projects to achieve better results, including improved employee engagement.
We also need to translate the objective, helicopter view we have of our organizations to others, to help them see the connections between people and issues.
A supportive manager makes a real difference – my manager sits on our senior leadership team, so she can give me valuable insights into what they're thinking, which helps me maximize the effectiveness of my work.
And of course there's the Chief Executive. As the leader of our organization, I can help him keep in touch with people on the ground. I meet regularly with our CE to discuss how he can share what he's doing with our staff – this "top down" approach is informed by "bottom up" comms - tapping into the eyes and ears of my communication network.
How do you see the internal communication function developing in the future?
I would say the internal communication profession in Australia is still in its early stages of development when compared with UK, Europe and USA. Having said that, it's continuing to grow due to the importance of employee engagement and change management, as a result of the global financial crisis.
I think internal communication as a profession will become more sophisticated as people build their technical expertise and raise the bar. Groups like Melcrum's Strategic Communication Research Forum play an important role here – where they help take the discussion beyond the tactical.
Internal Communication is alive and well within government – in Victoria, we recently held our first summit for internal communication practitioners which was attended by 70 people – many new to the role and their organizations, so it's growing and changing all the time.
I think part of this growth will also see greater specialization – rather than internal communication all-rounders, more roles will be pitched as focusing on leadership communication or social media, for example, similar to what we see in the external communication arena.
Have your say
Do any of Rebecca Cattran's challenges resonate with you? What are your current challenges? What does internal communication look like in your organization at the moment? Share your thoughts with us below.
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