Networking coffee

Chairman's welcome address

Forward-thinking companies know that balancing stakeholder needs is essential for long-term success. But stakeholder engagement initiatives aren't enough - communication is key.

• Why employees are your best ambassadors
• A high level snapshot of the main communications challenges
• How far internal CSR communications have come in recent years

Richard Corriette, Social Entrepreneur

Keynote: Employee engagement and your bottom-line

161,500 employees, 60 countries - Royal Philips Electronics is one of Europe's top companies. Hear how employee engagement benefits Philips' bottom line.

• Why employee engagement is an essential part of Philips' business strategy
• How Philips successfully communicates sustainability issues to its employees, and how it pays off
• How and why its global perspective is important to local communities
• The challenges larger companies face when it comes to 'keeping it real' for employees
• Why implementing an employee-led communication strategy will enhance your brand

Joint Keynote: Stand by your brand

Company values need to be reassessed on a regular basis. If they're irrelevant or vague, what does that say about you and your company?

• Why definition is vital: The dangers of dilution, Chinese whispers and misreporting
• Don't be complacent: Stay in touch with your staff and gain confidence in your own product
• Make sure your message is one that grassroots care about
• Learn how two companies of different sizes define and refine their brand values
• Top strategies for safeguarding your message

Coffee break

The challenges of communicating to your CEO and the board

Is your CEO the missing pillar in your communications strategy? Engagement simply won't work without the involvement of company leaders.

• Generate a shared vision and move sustainability issues up the board agenda
• Get your CEO to champion your ethical values - Hear some real life success stories
• Snowball effect: How and why CEOs secure commitment from senior-level managers
• Evaluate and translate your CSR efforts into financial terms. Highlight the benefits & ROI. Speak their language!

Panel: Your fellow decision makers: From CSR aware to CSR active

All managers would like to see their companies act responsibly. Find out how you can help your fellow managers make informed and "sustainable" decisions.

In this session you will discover:

• How to build bridges between top management and middle management on sustainability issues
• How CSR directors and senior management effectively identify and clarify short-term goals and longer-term objectives
• How to build CSR excellence into daily management
• What information daily management needs from you, plus how to give them relevant stats, facts and figures

Lunch

Interactive Roundtable Sessions
The 5 Golden rules of Internal Communications

Roundtable #1: Reaching out to your employees

Many CSR professionals say their companies are strong ethical performers, but internally the message has yet to reach neighbouring departments. Find out how to build engagement across all job functions, levels, and company subsidiaries.

• How to keep your ideas alive and make them part of your "company's personality"
• Is everyone in your organisation aware of your company's values, and have they been given the chance to contribute?
• Identify some key "employee groups" and establish what role they'll play
• How Chiquita International encourages and rewards its employees through CSR participation, and why it pays off

Roundtable #2: Aligning internal communications with the external brand message

Learn how one of the world's largest cooperatives uses internal communications to engage people in a set of socially responsible brand values, and how this reinforces external brand delivery.

• How consistency between internal communications and external brand is achieved
• How the Co-operative Group made socially responsible values "come alive"
• How to make your vision and values understood and embraced by employees plus key tips to help build internal loyalty to your brand
• How employees can capture the hearts and minds of customers in a cost-effective way
• How the Co-operative Group links internal brand engagement and profitability

Roundtable #3: How to foster two-way communications internally

Communication is a two-way process that starts with listening. Learn how to build up a communication strategy that asks questions and listens before taking action.

Roundtable #4: Think globally, communicate locally

Pursuing a law-abiding, ethical and responsible corporate culture across the globe is a daunting task. This session highlights the challenges faced by multinational companies as they navigate different laws and cultural traditions.

• Learn how to communicate to a widely dispersed workforce spread over a broad geographical region
• How do you keep the core, common culture intact despite a merger or acquisition?
• Worried about language barriers and translation? Learn effective solutions to these problems
• Strip your message of its European nuances and choose words that resonate locally

Roundtable #5: Convince the sceptics

Convince the sceptics within your organisation about your values and bring them on board.

• Take away best practice to engage the sceptics in your ethics plans
• Learn techniques that help change minds, and behaviour
• Turn apathy on its head: great ways to get employees to read your reports and even offer feedback
• Find out what communication channels work when it comes to dealing with real-world employee reticence?
• Can a multinational have good intentions? Learn how to fight the collective "guilt feeling" of employees within your organisation

Conference ends - Cocktail Party

Networking coffee

Chairman's welcome address

Richard Corriette, Social Entrepreneur

Panel: How to drive a sustained employee communications process

Changing employee behaviour doesn't happen overnight. Short-term buzz and one-time initiatives are insufficient to achieve long-term change. What can you do to ensure sustained engagement?

• Employee communications as an agent of change, plus key tips to make change happen
• Examine your short-term and long term objectives
• More channels mean more touch points: Use simple tactics such as storytelling, publications, presentations and the intranet to continually engage employees
• Become a strategic player: Practical tools you'll need to keep your ethics relevant in tough economic or operational times
• Sustain: Gain great insights on how to make change stick

Coffee break

Panel: Good companies, better employees?

How and why ethical policies are a differentiator in staff retention and motivation issues.

• Discover how leading companies deliver workable ethical guidelines that all staff can adhere to
• Measure how communication policies impact human capital
• Reward policy - does it work? Are award ceremonies an effective way to engage people?
• How do you structure ethics assessments with staff performance reviews?

Leverage the power of new technologies

Learn how Vodafone, IBM and others have developed a complete online environment to engage with employees worldwide.

• Personal communications: what the emerging technologies are, who's using them, and why you should be using them too
• Blogs: How to ensure your blog won't turn into a "virtual war room"
• How to manage your company's e-resources to ensure successful, internal CSR communications
• Hear about IBM's online "ValuesJam" programme, designed to engage its 320,000 global workforce in revising corporate values
• Learn about Vodafone's internal video channel, and its project to convert Vodafone TV to people's mobile phones

Lunch

Workshops

Coffee break

Panel: Can the benefits of internal communications be measured?

Establishing the link between CSR-related efforts and financial performance can be tough. Gain invaluable insight on how Chiquita International managed to do it successfully.

• Identify the critical steps and factors involved in developing effective communication channels
• Results and benefits you should look for and how to measure them
• Recipe for success: Take one communications indicator, add one ethical indicator…then mix well!
• How to conduct low cost, non-intrusive measurement on a regular basis

15 tips to take back to the office

Using the best ideas you've learnt at this conference

Best practice benchmarking: Moderators from the roundtable sessions will present best practices and lessons learnt from the two days, along with some of the most valuable insights they have come across.

Leave this session with essential tips to help you sort through your own best practice research, and more effectively apply what you've learnt during the conference to your own initiatives.

Ethical Corporation, Tobias Webb, Editor

Richard Corriette, Social Entrepreneur

Conference Ends

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