Case Study

Background

Our client, a national financial services organisation, had historically struggled with retention
and recruitment in their communications function. This resulted in their communications, PR, social media, public affairs and internal communications not delivering the results needed to support the business. The organisation’s tone of voice and brand were not defined and messaging was not consistent.

The Communications Director recognised that a senior interim professional was required to help assess the existing function and determine the best steps forward to create a fully engaged and high performing communications function.

What was the challenge? 

The internal reputation of the communications function was poor and it would require a lot of
work to re-establish strong and supportive relationships across the internal stakeholder community.

This was a highly sensitive situation which, if handled badly, could have resulted in
significant internal backlash for the organisation. A full audit of the existing team structure and
skills within the team was required in order to determine the most appropriate course of action.

What our team did 

Recognising the sensitive nature of this assignment, our team reviewed our network of interim contacts who had experience of handling projects of this nature. It was hugely important that we handled the recruitment process with sensitivity and impressed upon the candidates that at that early stage the role was confidential.

Within 48 hours three candidates were presented to the Communications Director and CEO, and were invited to talk through their experience and similar projects. All of the candidates presented were immediately available and the successful candidate started within two weeks of our teamtaking the client’s brief.

In the time running up to the start date, the interim was able to meet with the Communications
Director and CEO again to discuss immediate priorities and initiate some research into the issues which needed addressing.