Company: Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA
Company Division/Group: HP Software Professional Services Communications
Company Description: Delivering value for the New Style of IT. Our enterprise IT software services, support, and software education deliver cost reduction, enhanced productivity, and reduced risk throughout the IT lifecycle.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications Team of the Year

Nomination Title: HP Software Professional Services Communications - Journey to Profitable Growth

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1, 2014 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

At Hewlett-Packard (HP), November 1st prompts a rapid succession of messages which unveil the corporate strategy for the new fiscal year. These messages cascade through several levels of our 300,000+ employee workforce before filtering through the business units (BU). As a mid-sized BU embedded in a company of this scale, we risk diluted engagement amongst our team as well as a lack of connection to the broader HP strategy.

The HP Software Professional Services communications team was tasked with the challenge to deploy our strategy in a manner that:

•Aligns employees to the CEO’s vision for the fiscal year, ensuring it is meaningful and relevant to our BU.
•Leverages the strength of the HP brand while developing our own platform to convey strategic priorities unique to our organization.
•Extends the lifespan of our launch messaging beyond a kickoff.
•Energizes and unites our team to a common vision/strategy – despite our BU’s global distribution at customer sites.
•Drives purposeful action and improved performance through employee engagement.

In order to support these objectives, the communications team led the following:

Virtual Summit – The Virtual Summit is the springboard for our fiscal year. During this online training, our strategic priorities for the year are introduced. We also reveal the look, feel, and voice that is rooted in every message and vehicle in our communications strategy for the next 12 months. Participation in the Virtual Summit was 97% in FY15.

Journey mAPP – To modernize our approach and meet the needs of our mobile workforce, we retired the illustrated PS Journey Map (used from FY11-FY14) and introduced the Journey mAPP in December 2014. This custom mobile application makes our FY15 strategy available at the touch of a fingertip and features customer-focused capabilities including Pitch Coach podcasts, customer scenario-based learning, and access to key marketing assets.

Local Enablement – These events bring our team together in their local countries shortly following the Virtual Summit to explore the content and dig deeper into the strategic priorities. In FY15, sixteen events took place around the globe with 87% participation worldwide. Each Local Enablement event leveraged the same agenda and workshop material to promote shared experiences across our global workforce.

Awards Broadcast – In order to promote linearity between our core messaging and employee performance, rewards and recognition is tied to our strategic priorities.

Incredibles – The PS Incredibles program distinguishes the top 4% of employees who deliver exceptional performance and leadership. Using a programmatic approach, we leverage this elite group of individuals as a catalyst for sharing information throughout all levels of the organization.

PS Perspectives Broadcast –This broadcast is intended to be more than an update on the state of the business; its purpose is to provide the clarity, information, and opportunities the team needs to remain continuously aligned to our strategic initiatives.

PS 360 – This twice monthly global newsletter purposefully aligns all articles to one of the 4 strategic priorities and is branded in the same look/feel as the Summit assets.

Top of Mind/PS Conversations – In order to help our team connect to leadership in a virtual workplace, we looked beyond email to engage our team. The PS Channel is our home for podcasts and videos that can be accessed on-demand, from any mobile device.
•Top of Mind is a series featuring short, 5-7 minute videos with the Professional Services VP as he explores pressing issues and critical updates on our strategy.
•PS Conversations is a podcast series that gives our team an inside look at key initiatives.

At a Glance – Our team is inundated with corporate messaging and it can be difficult to prioritize emails. To simplify and consolidate the view of pertinent communications for our business, we have created a monthly digest with an interactive, snapshot view of all vehicles that are relevant to the whole of our organization.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief accomplishments of this nominated communications team since the beginning of 2014 (up to 150 words).

•Ultimately, the HP Software Professional Services Communications team was responsible for ensuring that our leaders SEE our strategic vision, our employees BELIEVE in it, and our customers FEEL it in everything we do.
•This program was designed, developed, and delivered by the communications team, consisting of four in-house employees with a nominal budget.
•Since implementing this communications model in which every message aligns to our four strategic priorities, several performance indicators have improved.
•Employee Engagement Index (EEI) has improved by 20 points over last three years, to 70% favorable.
•The communications team was recognized as the Elite 8 winner in the category of “Vision & Values” as part of the Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces Awards for 2015.
•Overall business financials and customer satisfaction has improved.
•In a recent benchmark survey, 91% of participants said they Agree/Strongly Agree with the statement “I understand the Professional Services business strategy and priorities.”