Siemens – “Communication Is The Key To The Credit Crunch”

“The better a company communicates its position, the better it will be able to handle the credit crunch,” says Siemens Financial Services FD Steve Mason.

“Many credit issues are about people not really knowing enough about who has got what and when it needs to be refinanced and that’s really about communication.”

“Siemens is very careful about the corporate communications channels that it uses. For me, this is about communication and transparency.”

When Siemens IT Solutions and Services Managing Director, Clark MacFarlane was appointed in October 2007 one of his first challenges was how to communicate personally with colleagues about the company annual results and thank them for their hard work throughout the year. He wanted to deliver the message personally but with teams in over 40 locations, to speak to each individual it would take over 20 days!

“Rapide provided an inclusive solution to a business challenge for us. Their standards of service and attention to detail are excellent,” says Gabrielle Williamson, Head of Internal Communications at Siemens.

Rapide supports Siemens through its Team Call & Listen service. With it, Clark has the ability to record personal messages whenever he needs to and thousands of staff can dial in at the same time. This makes the communication inclusive (20% of employees are not online) and keeps communication consistent throughout the company.

Once Clark recorded his message, Rapide sent text messages inviting over 2,300 members of staff to dial in and listen to what their new MD had to say about the previous year’s results and what was needed for the year ahead. The Siemens Communications team also emailed everyone advising of the telephone number for Clark’s latest message.

Gabrielle Williamson, Head of Internal Communications at Siemens IT Solutions and Services is impressed by the service,

“The first message was a great success,” says Gabrielle. “This medium was completely new to Siemens and the response from colleagues has been fantastic, with people leaving feedback for Clark at the end of the message too. Going forward we will be using Rapide for every quarterly results message with our people.”

“If Clark spoke with each person for just five minutes it would take over 20 days to complete – Rapide’s Team Call & Listen ensured all colleagues received the same message, personally, at the same time, immediately after the results were announced.”