Using insight to support improvement and change
National Highways is the government company charged with operating, maintaining and improving England’s motorways and major A roads. National Highways has an ambition of ensuring strategic roads are more dependable, durable and most importantly – are safe.
There are nearly 6,000 staff based in locations around the country. This includes Traffic Officers who serve in control centres and patrol key areas of the network, working 24/7, 365 days a year. There’s also a National Traffic Information Service and seven regional control centres.
With a new Head of Internal Communication and no robust measurement of internal practices, it was believed timely to undertake a review of internal communication to gain greater insight into staff’s views. The aim was to support the development of an internal communication strategy more closely aligned to core business objectives.
Different research techniques were used to reach the various demographic groups. For example: one-on-one interviews with directors and colleagues working remotely, office-based teams and managers joined workshops, and bespoke workshops for Traffic Officers to accommodate their shift patterns. We also hosted an online questionnaire and around two thirds of the organisation submitted comments and recommendations for improvement.
We shared the findings with recommendations for improvement with the Head of Internal Communications. The report provided solid evidence and data to develop an Internal Communications strategy and plan. The report and strategy were shared at a leadership event so the findings could be discussed and to enable further buy-in as well as providing an opportunity for leaders to look at their own role in enhancing internal communication.
“I’ve known HarknessKennett for a number of years. With this review, they delivered on our objectives and provided solid research that’s helped us to improve internal communications here at National Highways. What’s more, the review opened up conversations about the future of internal communications at all levels across the business.”
Head of Internal Communications, National Highways