Where the ‘real people’ work
Yesterday I was able to visit a client’s factory. As we got ready for the tour, and I was given the gear, the hair net (yes really) and bump cap, the safety glasses, gloves, boots and even ear defenders (see picture below), I was reminded how much I enjoy seeing operations in action.
This dressing up ceremony also reminds you both of the importance ascribed to safety and that this is very different place for someone who has spent most their career working behind a desk.
I was at GSK when I first visited a manufacturing plant. It was the Maidenhead site where toothpaste was made. Their party piece was to show visitors how the different colours in Aquafresh all came together. On that visit I accompanied GSK’s then CEO, the brilliant Sir Andrew Witty. You will struggle to find a better leader to do a spontaneous Q & A with employees!
I remember seeing these big machines, the robots, the automation. I also started to see how so much of the communications we did in the centre were not useful for employees who worked shifts, who didn’t have company devices (or even email addresses) and whose interests and world view was entirely different to the one I was used to.
At Johnson Matthey, with 18 sites around the world, I took several opportunities to go to plants where I could meet the people who made the products. It was so helpful to learn, to think more about how we could deliver comms that made a material difference to their lives, rather than involving them in topics of no relevance. For example, the ongoing discussion about hybrid working was simply not on the radar of people who work shifts in factories.
It is a huge challenge for a comms person based in a head office, especially with the challenges of travel budgets disappearing to be present elsewhere in the organisation. But I can only say try! You need to try and get out, you need to visit, you need to talk to the people working in the sites, to listen to what’s important to them, to see what works and just as importantly what doesn’t. And don't be surprised if included in the 'not working' list is much of the ‘top down’ head office stuff that the company produces.
Enjoy the hairnet - it is very fetching!
