We’ve all been on the receiving end of “an email to all employees” from the senior management team which doesn’t quite ring true. It can leave you scratching your head and wondering whether or not management truly knows what happens on the ground, day in and day out.

Donna Edgell, Internal Communications & Engagement Manager at Travis Perkins shares her view on the benefits of effectively communicating corporate strategy to its employees. “If colleagues don’t understand their purpose around their job role, or where the business is trying to go, then they don’t have a sense of belonging or authenticity around what they’re doing”.

Edgell has also found that communicating strategy and values works best when storytelling is the vehicle for engaging with employees. she films the business strategy in motion, telling the strategic story of branch life “through the eyes of the colleagues who are actually delivering to customers and their fellow colleagues every day”.

Expressing what Travis Perkins represents as a business and what their core values are through the medium of filmic storytelling inspires fellow colleagues to go home and talk to their families about the pride they take in their work. But the key is having something that is authentic, that they can trust and that they recognise as true.