Background

Nationwide Building Society is a long term mark-making* client, a British mutual financial institution, and the largest building society in the world. The half- and full-year business results are the key corporate employee touch points of the financial year. The client was looking to refresh the current approach to the delivery of the results, and to create a stronger link between the results and other important corporate communication pieces in the process.

Brief

Our challenge was to create a suite of print and digital results communications that would tie in to the corporate plan with strong visual links, increase employee anticipation and understanding, and improve overall engagement with the results. In response to the brief, we formulated a campaign intended to inform, engage, and inspire employees. It was an opportunity to put employees at the heart of Nationwide’s success. As such, the ultimate test of the work would be the employee survey.

The design had to make the information quick to digest, as the document is circulated to the entire employee population, which is made up of people in a huge range of roles. We had to consider the fact that free time is scarce across any business, and that all employees needed to absorb the information quickly so it would be easily to hand, particularly when interacting with members.

Our Solution

Working alongside the Nationwide team we developed a clean infographic design based on a high street, that put the information centre stage. It enabled us to draw the analogy of the company’s success being built on strong foundations.

The reverse of the results featured a statement from Nationwide CEO Graham Beale, and a rundown of important company news. The content was organised into business areas and bite-sized chunks, so that it could all be taken in easily. We also created a one-page interactive pdf version of the results, without the company news. This allowed us to include pop-up explanations of the numbers and terms, without visually overcrowding the document.

In considering the brief, we felt that there was an education piece missing from the process, and saw an opportunity to further improve the communication of the results to the whole staff. As a new addition to the results day gamut, we proposed a briefing document that would be sent out to managers a week before Results Day. It’s the role of people managers to brief their teams on results day, and talk through the key messages and numbers. This is to make sure that employees understand the link between the results and their roles (and their bonus structure), and helps to establish priorities for the half-year ahead.

The briefing pack would remind managers of their role on results day, advise them on how to meaningfully relate the results and the five-year corporate plan, and include a jargon buster, to help them explain the financial terms and figures clearly to their teams.

Effectiveness

The immediate feedback from employees was excellent. The new results suite took employee engagement to new heights, with 100% feeling positive on learning about the results, and 99% finding the results hand out useful or very useful.

The manager briefing pack was a new addition, and 97% of managers found it useful or very useful.

Quotes

“This was the first time we have worked with Steve and the team, and I was impressed with the quality of the work and service. We were looking for a fresh approach to engage our employees on financial results, and the materials produced by Mark Making were well received.”

Chad Rogerson, Nationwide

Employees on the half-year results hand-out:
“Much better visually, really powerful”
“I liked it because it was very high level and easy to read”

Employees on the manager pack:
“Very useful to receive information in advance of the day. Helped me prepare rather than having to understand and cascade all in one day.”
“Reminded me to book in a meeting with my team in advance”