WHY DO JOCKEYS WEAR SUCH A KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLOURS AND DESIGNS? IS IT FUNCTIONAL OR AESTHETIC? DOES IT HELP US SEE THE WINNER FASTER? DISTRACT THE COMPETITION? OR IS IT PART OF THE SPECTACLE OF THE EVENT, THE THRILLING WASH OF COLOUR AS OUR HORSE COMES ACROSS THE LINE FIRST?

At Straight Media we think it's a combination of all of these things - and a similar idea applies in employee communication. A jockey's outfit doesn't need the colour and excitement (a simple one-colour coding system would work fine to distinguish the competitors). But would we love horse-racing as much without it? The aesthetic spectacle grabs our attention and holds our interest, makes us open and receptive, and engages every part of our brain. We are receptive to it because we enjoy it.

It's too easy to forget this vitally important emotional link with an audience of your company's people. If the message is positive (bonuses come to mind) your people will engage instantly and willingly. But what about an uncomfortable issue like road safety? Will your people choose to hear the message, when it's hard for them to see the immediate benefit? What's in it for them? You can lead a horse to water, after all, but you can't make it drink.

This is why creativity is at the heart of everything we do. For us, it's not a nice to have; it's a must have. It's an integral part of the strategy of communicating effectively with your people.

To be clear, creativity doesn't necessarily mean colourful (or loud, or in-your-face). The real work and practice of creativity is effectiveness and quality. With each iteration of ideas, with every change and refinement and new idea, we get closer to success, and that's how we measure the quality of our work.

The website you're viewing now is an illustration of that principle. Although deceptively simple, it's been a process of months of thinking, refining, creating, tearing up, re-thinking and hair-pulling to end up with a site that does exactly what we wanted it to do. We've removed everything that isn't necessary. It speaks about quality and simplicity, is informative and easy to navigate, and yet it uses only three colours to do so.

We believe passionately that creativity is too often missing in employee communication. We see the value of communicating creatively and live it every working day of our lives. And by applying this to the arena of employee communication, we've discovered a way to address one of the major challenges faced by organisations today.

WHY EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION?

It's amazing how the world of employment has changed this decade. The war for talent is over, and talent is the winner; all of us now work in a seller's market. Organisations need every tool at their disposal to attract and retain the right people, and chief among these is the quality of your communication, as countless studies have shown.

Your employees are people, and their daily media life is a complex mix of technologies and contexts. People are becoming highly demanding consumers of media (especially your Gen Y people) and expect quality and creativity. Your message is just as much at the mercy of their judgement as their favourite TV shows. Quality counts. That's why we judge our work against the same standards as the mainstream media.

Thankfully for everyone in the employee communication industry, the value of our work is gaining acceptance and recognition right up to, and including, the board level.

WORKING WITH STRAIGHT MEDIA

Your expertise about your organisation is unrivalled. Not only have you studied and tested your organisation's vital signs, but you've lived and experienced it first hand every working day. What value can an external provider bring?

What we offer is a kind of neutrality that's possible only from an external source. It's our challenge on every job to clearly and creatively articulate your idea objectively and successfully. Often we're like a second opinion, giving our clients a way to condense the vast quantities of data, history, trials and errors into a single, creative thought, ready to be used across any media.

We know how long and hard you've worked on your strategy and we leave that part of the process entirely up to you. You've gathered the information and joined all of the dots; we can then help you complete the picture.

A BIT ABOUT SIMPLICITY

We don't want to make a big deal out of simplicity (or complicate it for that matter), but it deserves a mention on its own.

Simplicity is hard to achieve but it is rewarding work. Sometimes what we leave out is just as important as what we put in. And like creativity, simplicity is a process, a deliberate and methodical way of improving the way something is done. it does not come easily or by itself.

So, to put it simply: we put a high value on simplicity in everything we do.

GET IN CONTACT

We live and breathe employee communications every day. So we'd love to hear about your challenges and how your organisation ticks. Each organisation has different needs and that inspires us to keep coming to work. No two solutions can ever be the same, and that's a challenge and a blessing.

Rafe Spies
Director