Internal communications: BBC

Motivating employees to recognise the talents of their colleagues

The brief

In 2003 the BBC completed its 'big conversation' aimed at pooling together the thoughts of employees on the purpose of the BBC and how it might improve. One of the outputs of this was a shared set of values.

We were invited to consider how internal communications might be positioned within the BBC to make employees more receptive to the values and participate in a major awards programme to promote the values.

The solution

We looked to other creative industries to understand the nature of the BBC and our thinking led us to a creative communication approach that put values in the background and people first. We adopted this ethos to the communication of the One BBC Awards, using plain English to remove any 'corporate' language.

Response to the awards was tremendous, with over 2000 nominations sent to the Making It Happen team, five times as many as expected.

"We've successfully communicated the awards using a style and language that people could believe in. We have a tone that works and will see people behaving in ways that this organisation needs."
Clare Brigstocke, Communications Executive, Making It Happen, BBC