When a business expands in a short period of time, long-standing employees can sometimes feel left behind or out of the loop. While growth is a great thing, it needs to be handled delicately to avoid engagement and morale slipping.

Fortunately, Direct Rail Services realised a change in approach was vital to get internal communications - and its future success - on track. Enthuse stepped in to help set the wheels in motion.

The client

Direct Rail Services transports nuclear materials across the UK, safely and securely, by rail.

With clients including leading UK freight companies and major FTSE 100 businesses like the Stobart Group, Virgin and Tesco, Direct Rail Services delivers vital rail transport and network support services across the country.

Turning over around £80 million a year, Direct Rail Services has spent the past few years extending its award-winning service into new rail sectors, leading to significant growth and expansion

The challenge

When Direct Rail Services approached Enthuse, it had seen employee numbers almost double in the three preceding years, leaving some longer-serving colleagues feeling like it ‘wasn’t the same’ and wanting more information about future plans.

With a head office in Carlisle, main depots in Carlisle, Crewe, Motherwell and smaller depots dotted around England and Scotland, the Company was struggling to communicate effectively with its 450 geographically scattered colleagues.

This was starting to have a negative impact on team spirit and engagement, so management realised it was time for action.

Having no Internal Communication department in place, Direct Rail Services took the decision to promote an existing employee to the new role of Internal Communications Manager. However, stepping into this new role with no prior experience meant the individual needed a considerable amount of support to find her feet, identify the organisation’s communication goals, then come up with a plan to meet them.

The Enthuse team was pleased to be able to step in and fulfil this requirement.

Going into the project, it was our job to coach, mentor and train the new Internal Communications Manager and to facilitate clear, useful and structured internal communications going forward.

The objective

Although Direct Rail Services readily acknowledged the gaps in its internal communications, managers needed guidance on how to bridge them.

By working closely with the team, we established that their ultimate communication objective was “to contribute to improved colleague engagement by implementing a proactive and two-way communication strategy and plan, so that DRS colleagues feel proud to work here.’

This gave us a clear target to work with and enabled us to come up with a suitable and sustainable plan to fit the brief.

The solution

We quickly discovered Direct Rail Services was a business with many long-serving employees, lots of career progression and an excellent reputation among colleagues - many of whom recommended it to friends and family who went on to join the Company.

However, internal surveys showed employees felt elements of executives’ methods of communication needed improvement.

Establishing a regular drumbeat

Creating an internal communication strategy from the ground up meant we had to come up with a plan that wasn’t just fit-for-purpose, but truly sustainable and effective in the long term.

Our first suggestion was to set up a regular drumbeat of communication. The aim of this was to cascade DRS news to the entire team in a way that made colleagues feel informed, involved and engaged.

Communication had to be a two-way street, and managers needed our support to communicate effectively and ensure their teams felt included.

Methods of communication:

• A weekly newsletter, OnTrack, had recently been set up. This continued to be maintained by the new Internal Communications Manager, to keep in touch with colleagues, with input from Enthuse about best practice approaches.

• Monthly blogs were written and posted by senior executives, with guidance in blogging by the Enthuse team, to establish a direct line of regular communication from management to colleagues nationwide.

• A colourful quarterly infographic of business performance replaced a bland-looking, and largely ignored, KPI tracker. This was a low-budget solution yet it made a huge impact on employees, who were finally able to easily understand the stats.

• An annual State of the Nation roadshow was launched, for management to provide colleagues with an overview of the year and future plans. Following negative feedback from employees about previous events of this kind, we established that this would need to be a more fun, interactive experience for all and Enthuse researched the content, developed the script and ensured the Exec team was fully briefed. 

• The Engine Room, a company intranet, was launched. We ran an employee competition to name the intranet, to further encourage colleague involvement with the project. When logging onto the intranet, team members could easily access the latest news and updates about the Company

The results

The work we did with Direct Rail Services had overwhelmingly positive results and made a significant impact on the business.

A clear communications strategy and plan were not only put in place, but effectively executed and sustained by the team.

A number of new channels were established to maintain colleague involvement and engagement with Company management and plans - this included the aforementioned intranet, newsletter, emails and events.

Furthermore, a new Employer Brand was developed. This involved speaking to colleagues from across the Company, spanning various locations and roles, to ask the right questions and distil the information into the Company’s Employer Brand.

Several months after our communications strategy was set up, Direct Rail Services’ parent company, the Nuclear Dissemination Authority, carried out an internal audit of the business’s internal and external communications.

We were delighted to learn that the Internal Communications department not only passed but received a glowing report - a true testament to the hard work put in by all.

In a recent employee survey, Direct Rail Services’ team members gave managers a huge thumbs up for their communication skills, rating them 72% - a fantastic 15% increase on the previous year.

Employees also praised managers for their consistent feedback and positive recognition, highlighting the impact of our work on individuals, in addition to the effect on the general mood of the Company.

The Enthuse difference

Enthuse supported departments and teams across the business throughout this process, helping Direct Rail Services to establish a true culture of engagement and positivity across the board.

We developed HR training and bespoke personal engagement plans for each Executive director, to make sure each employee felt supported and heard.

We ran an interactive presentation on the importance of active listening at Direct Rail Services’ annual leadership conference, and we also helped an internal action group to set up a People’s Voice Group, to ensure colleague feedback was gathered and actioned.

Throughout the project, we provided training, mentoring and coaching to Direct Rail Services’ new Internal Communications Manager, ensuring both she and her colleagues had the knowledge, understanding and tools to sustain the strategy put in place in the long-term.

A testimonial from Rachael Ridley at Direct Rail Services sums up our work with the Company.

Andrea’s support during the setting up of our Internal Communications function has been instrumental in its success. Her vast experience and knowledge in the field of communications means we have been able to engage far more effectively than ever before with our colleagues, who are based nationwide and across a variety of shift patterns, which presented a huge challenge for us.

Andrea has worked well with our Executive team in creating personal engagement plans that enhance their presence when out and about and she has coached and developed the newly appointed Internal Communications Manager throughout the year, providing practical frameworks that will support our future plans. We would not hesitate to recommend Enthuse to other businesses!”

If you need assistance setting up or improving your organisation’s communication strategy, we’d love to help. Call 07812 343310 or email us at andrea.law@enthuse-comms.co.uk.