Unilever

The restructure of Unilever in 2004 was a major strategic initiative designed to drive simplification and focus across the whole of the Unilever business. It involved significant changes for many of the company’s 250,000 employees as their historic reporting lines were moved away from country or factory and into Product Categories, Regions or Global Functions. In response to those changes, a communication project was set up to assess employee awareness of the new company strategy and the rationale behind it; the emotional connection employees felt for the company; the questions that employees still wanted answered and the effectiveness of the main global and local communication channels.

A complex programme of focus groups, interviews and questionnaires was organised during May and June 2006 which sent the internal communications management team, supported by Comma, to all parts of the Unilever organisation, including India, South America, USA, Far East and Africa. There was enthusiastic participation by employees who wanted to contribute their views, and all took an active role in the programme, sharing their thoughts on how communications could be improved and how the right information could be shared with them at the right time and in the most appropriate format.

The findings drove a number of decision-making processes. The internal communication function was able to plan and manage communication activity in a more integrated way as well as make better decisions on channel mix and content. Global and local communication leaders gained a better insight into the effectiveness of existing channels and as a result were better able to deliver future communications more efficiently as a result. Most importantly senior business leaders gained real insight into employee reaction to the changes and were better able to tailor subsequent communication to the needs of the business.