Putting communications on the menu…

It's the trickiest context an internal communicator can face: a small but dispersed, multilingual audience, some of whom are regularly on the move. Reaching this audience, with messages that actually penetrate and make a difference, is quite a challenge.

This is the story of McDonald’s Europe Ltd – or MEL, as it's known to itself. It's the corporate structure that sits above the country markets, the McDonald's restaurants that sell us our burgers and fries, and includes legal, finance, supply chain, IT, HR and communications.

MEL's comms team asked Redhouse Lane to audit their internal communications and help them devise a strategy for improving on current practice and keeping everyone in touch.

Our findings showed that while they had some good tools in place, the culture of the organisation prevented them from being used properly.

Geographic spread

MEL employees are spread across 13 countries, sometimes in several offices within those countries – and there are 140 of them! So connecting with everyone and helping them all face in the same direction isn't easy.

“Europe”, which includes Russia and its neighbours, is the fastest growing region for McDonald's globally. A lot of this is down to the energetic and innovative leadership of Denis Hennequin, the president of McDonald's Europe. He's the man responsible for the redesign of the restaurants – the transformation of McDonald's to a cool, contemporary high street destination.

This revamp, though, is both MEL's strength, and one of its problems. Staff have a strong sense of identity – with McDonald's, the global brand. They don't feel they belong to MEL.

What's more, both they and their colleagues in the local markets know that the success of McDonald's is down to sales in restaurants and not the less visible roles they themselves fulfil. Simply put, they didn't feel valued.

A problem shared

A key tactic for the MEL comms team is to share their challenge with colleagues. Redhouse Lane's research showed that MEL staff want to know each other better and collaborate; they just need someone to take the lead.

At our suggestion, the comms team is now highlighting these issues which is making the team more visible and encouraging people to buy into the process.

We pointed out that although the obstacles seem large, the solutions are within their grasp. MEL has an intranet, with a community area, so there is a platform both for publishing information and for social networking. Now they need to add value to web content to drive traffic and encourage regular use.

Getting to know you

MEL staff don’t know each other, which isn't surprising given they're so dispersed. And getting everyone together is no mean feat. The solution is to make people known to each other in other ways.

Again, the channel already exists. MEL has an online “people finder” with the capacity to hold more than names and contact details. Staff will be asked to publish photos and thumbnail biographies so that colleagues can draw on each other's expertise more effectively.

And while these simple initiatives won't magically raise the status of MEL staff, greater contact and transparency across the organisation should build a greater sense of unity. In this way, perceptions of their relative value will become less of an issue.