Practitioner profile: Charles Willy, Aon
Charles Willy, is UK communications director for risk management, insurance
broking and HR consultancy, Aon. Here, he offers his advice for
establishing a lasting relationship with the CEO and shares his top 3 current
challenges.
What was your path into internal
communication?
About 12 years ago, I was working in
business planning, but my heart wasn’t
really in it. I noticed that communication
within the company wasn’t working as
efficiently as I thought it could, so I
decided to focus on that area instead.
Back then internal comms as a function was a “nice to have” but now it’s fundamental to the success of a company. My background is in marketing and sales and I’ve carried across some very relevant skills to the internal comms arena.
The abilities to write good copy and sell your ideas are integral to success, but the most crucial thing for a senior communication practitioner to establish is a clear line to the CEO.
How can this be achieved?
I always believe that when you meet a
new CEO you should take a gift. When I
met Aon’s CEO for the first time, I took
with me the results of the past three
employee surveys that we’d carried out
over the previous 18 months.
I always believe that when you meet a new CEO you should take a gift.
That offered some great stakeholder analysis and gave him a very clear overview of employee opinion.
It’s crucial to understand what keeps the CEO awake at night. Especially when he or she is new, they want to embed their new strategy and it’s our role to communicate it. If you articulate it effectively, you’ve made a friend for life.
Is now a bad time for people to be
starting a career in internal
communication?
No, in my opinion it’s a great time. I told
my team just the other day that 2009 will
be our year. We’ve never been needed as
much as we are now and we must take
advantage of that. It’s the best time to
display our capabilities.
Which qualities should a good internal
communciator possess?
You have to be really passionate about your role. It’s a very difficult role, so you have to be multi-faceted. Be organized and a good influencer.
You should also be like a dog with a bone who won’t let go – in other words, very resilient. Speak up when you have ideas and understand how you can shape communication and how this will improve the performance of the organization.
What are your main channels at Aon?
We have the usual mix of broadcast,
blogs and so on. However, as far as I’m
concerned there’s only one channel that’s
truly engaging and that’s face to face.
The impact that face-to-face communication has can never be underestimated, yet it’s one of the channels that’s the most challenging to implement well. Managers with strong communication skills are imperative.
Although there’s no process at Aon for formally assessing a manager’s communication skills, it’s well known that you won’t progress if you can’t communicate effectively.
What are your top 3 challenges at
the moment?
One of my biggest challenges is avoiding
the erosion of trust. I want Aon to be
seen by employees who are leaving, as
well as staying, as an open and
transparent employer. When senior
leaders are under pressure, they often
hide themselves away to work out tactics
and establish their plan of action.
You should also be like a dog with a bone who won’t let go – in other words, very resilient.
Unfortunately, this sends out the message to employees that they want to keep their distance. It’s especially important at times of economic downturn that communicators ensure a strong dialogue between leaders and their workforce is maintained.
My second challenge is to do with capacity and resources. We’re currently inundated with requests for communication support. To counteract this, we’re moving to more of a self-service model. We’re developing toolkits for managers, for example.
Thirdly, getting middle managers to better engage with staff is an issue. We recently carried out a survey and the results were enlightening. Around 75% of employees reported that although their immediate managers weren’t good communicators, they trusted them.
It means we have a captive audience and can improve the communication skills as the trust element is already there. We need to make sure that no manager ever says “I’ve been told to tell you that...”. That’s the moment you lose your audience. Messages need to come across as believable and from the heart.
Charles Willy has a career spanning sales, marketing and strategic planning roles, with 15 years’ communications experience in UK and international organizations. He is speaking at Melcrum’s London Change Communication Conference, February 2009. This will be on the topic of surveys and measurement at Aon.
Have your say
"I always believe that when you meet a
new CEO you should take a gift" says Willy – do you agree? Have you tried this kind of route only to have it backfire?
Do the challenges you face mirror that of Willy and his team? Share your experiences with us, below.
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