The Underside of Corporate Commitment: When Employees are the Heart – A Practical Guide to Internal Communication and Engagement Strategies

Lorena Sanchez coordinates business communications for TGV-Intercités from two angles, that of information and commitment. She publishes “The underside of corporate commitment – When employees are the heart” at Ellipses editions. The idea for this book germinated thanks to her series of podcasts “Les afterworks de Lorena Sanchez”. Conversations to understand how large and small companies deal with the subject of employee engagement in and for the company. This book offers testimonials from professionals working in companies in the private and public sphere and from experts in agencies and consulting firms, case studies and methodological inserts providing a practical approach to the subject and concrete tools. . It is a dive into the heart of the SNCF, Alstom, Pôle Emploi, Janssen, Bouygues international building, Disneyland Paris…Julien Féré, partner of the communication practice of Onepoint and director of the “Les sous de” collection and sign the preface. We discover an invitation in these terms “let’s stop separating external communication from internal communication. They are two sides of the same coin that constitutes the value of the company. Let’s stop separating communication strategy and HR strategy. This involves rethinking governance within the company and the management committee. And this involves changing the professions of communicators, from a “silo” vision and by expertise (by part of the communication: social networks, advertising, etc.) to a vision by campaigns and by projects.“.

1) Is it a “feeling” or has everything changed when it comes to internal communication? Certain words are emerging such as commitment, employer brand, etc. for example…pure “wording”? Or an unveiled complexity?

Lorena Sanchez : it’s a fact, since the health crisis, the internal communication and human resources departments have been put in the spotlight with a central role in informing and maintaining the link with employees. There are even internal communication departments that are renamed engagement departments. But we were already doing internal engagement and employer branding before that. What is new is the visibility now given to these subjects. Engaging your employees means making them actors and proud. Thus, we retain them. Engaging employees means giving them the opportunity to be ambassadors and to express themselves externally. Thus, we build a strong, visible employer brand and recruit new talent. All of the contributors to this book are unanimous: as communicators, we have a responsibility to ensure that the word commitment is not just a trendy word, but that there is good evidence behind it. And proof, the contributors of the book bring it through an authentic word with case studies and methodologies to enter behind the scenes of companies. Today, companies are rethinking this organization between internal, external and HR communication to put commitment at the center of strategies. How do we do this? By including the employee, by making him an actor, by giving him the floor. Thus, we consider it and value it. Therefore, beyond the word and the organization, commitment is a conviction. And to talk about commitment, you have to be yourself. All of the contributors are committed people who come from public or private companies, or from agencies or consulting firms.

2) You were in the front row with your podcast “Les afterworks de Lorena”, it was while listening that you wanted to write?

Lorena Sanchez : Indeed, it was while creating the podcast “Les Afterworks de Lorena” that the idea of ​​the book appeared as a logical continuation. I am committed to carrying these convictions that have driven me for almost five years, since I took on the position of internal community manager within the TGV-Intercités activity. Each stage of my career has consolidated these convictions, whether it is my expertise in community animation via a corporate social network, or the courses given in a specialized MBA in Internal Communications & Employer Branding, but also with my podcast “Les Lorena’s Afterworks”. And for the book, as for each step, it started with a meeting, the one with Julien Féré who shares this same vision and who trusted me.

3) I read the subtitle “When employees care” “badly” for the first time…I read (therefore) “When employees care”: it’s serious doctor?

Lorena Sanchez : the exact phrase is “When employees are at the heart of it”. But not being a doctor, I cannot know if there is a message between the lines concerning you… Nevertheless, what is interesting in this reading is the relationship to emotions, that is to – say the heart. In the book, we talk about these internal commitment strategies aimed at all employees. We are well aware that there are ambassadors, detractors and a huge soft underbelly. The interest of setting up a commitment action plan is to pull up this soft stomach. Today, it is not only with an information dissemination strategy that we can achieve this. It’s not just with a newsletter or an intranet article that you generate engagement. Giving employees a voice to create conversations generates commitment. In other words, having the messages conveyed by the employees themselves. In this book you have perfect examples, in particular the study of the case with the Gammeurs, it is expert agents of the SNCF tariff range, how we made carry a subject perceived as complex internally by the first concerned, that is- that is, the agents in contact with the customer. But there are also examples with ambassadorship or employee advocacy. How these employees are supported to talk about the brand on external networks, two examples with Pôle emploi and Disneyland Paris. For all the contributions of the book, we note that the collaborator is at the heart of the strategies.

4) Compared to other countries, what are the specificities of employees in France?

Lorena Sanchez : the question is interesting because in the book we end with an interview with Anne Sophie Schwartz who is a brand strategy consultant in Montreal. She notably began her career in France in agencies such as Nomen and Havas Paris. Today, she shares her vision of commitment seen in Quebec. She realizes the importance of involving employees in every decision of the company, particularly in the context of a merger and the creation of a new brand identity. It is precisely with this example that she shares her vision. She observes that Quebec companies still have to learn because they are for the most part very conservative with well-established strategic habits. In addition, two parts of the book, that of Thibault Perrin from Great Place To Work and that of Assaël Adary from Occurrence, discuss the expectations of today’s employees following repeated crises: health crisis , war in Ukraine, climate crisis. Thibault speaks in particular of trust through the words of employees and their expectations in this sense. While Assaël looks back on a study conducted by the firm Occurrence concerning the feelings of the French following the health crisis, how they now perceive their place within society and organizations and the impact of this crisis on their lives . These results are to be taken into account because the boundary between private life and professional life has been turned upside down. Therefore, we must not forget that an employee in a company is also – if not above all – a Frenchman with expectations. Marion Darrieutort of The Arcane agency comes back to this notion in her interview, when communication and governance overlap. Indeed, we expect much more from our bosses with the repeated crises. We will ask big business owners “what do you think of the war in Ukraine” or even “what are your actions in the face of the climate crisis”. And these are questions that employees also ask themselves and they expect answers to be guided.