Open for business: bringing digital engagement and strategy to life

Purpose – Bringing corporate strategies to life and engaging with staff have become key concerns of HR directors and CEOs alike in recent years. Active engagement and meaningful involvement in that strategy are difficult to achieve. This paper aims to document two successful internal communication projects in a multinational company, T‐Mobile. Design/methodology/approach – “Open” was already an award‐winning paper‐based internal communication that, as part of T‐Mobile UK's overall strategy for multi‐channel internal communication, was migrated to a digital platform. This represented a cultural shift for the employees within the organization. Findings – T‐Mobile and Words & Pictures co‐developed an approach involving cartoon characters, each representing a strategic business focus, which captured the imagination of the mobile operator's employees and delivered impressive online statistics of engagement, including increased reader time and 95 percent readership enjoyment. This was supported by an increased employee understanding of key strategic issues. Practical implications – Words & Pictures concludes that other organizations wishing to achieve similar digital engagement should first understand the employees and their needs for communication and secondly should see the digital platform as a genuine opportunity to reinforce the brand. Originality/value – This T‐Mobile and Words & Pictures case study focuses on two award‐winning internal communications projects that were successful in improving employee engagement through the transferal from paper to digital communication.