The inaugural Internal Communications and Engagement Awards are taking place in London on 13 May. GSK has been shortlisted at the awards

When I heard GSK was piloting an all-company email newsletter that would serve personalised content to 130,000 plus employees and was on the hunt for an editor, I leapt at the chance.

Two months later we launched Your GSK News, our first all-company email newsletter which delivers relevant, targeted content to our entire employee audience on a fortnightly basis.

Each edition has 200 plus articles on average, which are produced by more than 220 communicators. Content is written in 13 different languages and targeted to 198 possible audience groups, but employees only receive news targeted to them based on their role, business unit and geography. These audiences have been defined using set data points in Poppulo, and dynamically updated through Workday each morning.

Prior to Your GSK News there were hundreds of email newsletters across the company that weren’t centrally managed. One of the primary purposes of Your GSK News was to tame that noise into submission by consolidating them into one. We were also tasked with reducing email more broadly and engage our employees in our new company strategy and objectives through a ‘one-voice’ newsletter.

One of the biggest selling points to land Your GSK News with our comms colleagues was the fact that local news would appear first in the newsletter – and global, corporate news would appear at the bottom. Allowing local communicators to contribute news in their own language was also crucial.

Key to Your GSK News’s success has been the fact that it is run by a committee of contributors, who have a vested interest in the channel. We run important decisions past them and give them a say in how the newsletter works.

This network that we have been able to build as a result of Your GSK News is the real achievement. We’re now pulling together in the same direction and forward planning as a group. Everyone shares their content plans in our fortnightly editorial board, we review how the last newsletter performed and we celebrate success.

We’ve also increased editorial capability – running clinics and workshops on everything from our brand and visual identity, to editorial tips and data and insights.

When you have over 220 contributors, plus all their stakeholders and extended network, you’ll be balancing lots of different, and sometimes conflicting, demands and expectations. Our employee feedback so far, tells us we’re on the right track.

On average, 93% of employees surveyed said Your GSK News helps them understand our strategic priorities. Ninety percent have also said Your GSK News is relevant to them – a sign that our audience segmentation is working as intended.

It takes a lot of time and resources to make something like this work. If you’re considering doing this in your own organisation, just a few words of wisdom. Make sure your strategic objectives are guiding your decision making. In our case, it was reducing the volume of email-based communication and increasing the relevance of our content for employees.

A strong senior sponsor is essential, but don’t forget to get your internal grassroots involved and give them some skin in the game. A dedicated editor role is a must have, as is a regular forum, like an editorial board.
Planning is also crucial. The team spent months planning and prototyping and even ran three full-scale rehearsals. It doesn’t have to be completely perfect at launch, but take time to test and learn. Also, a sense of humour is vital; surround yourself with great people and don’t forget to have fun!

Chelsea Jane Moore is the editor in chief of Your GSK News and internal engagement digital transformation lead

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