Link with human resources

Listening forms 50 per cent of a good communicator’s tool kit and listening to what staff are saying is at the heart of upward feedback and appraisal. This is the province of human resources (HR). Strong links between human resources and communication professionals are being forged because both are essentially support staff for management. Management cannot deliver performance without the help of staff; staff cannot perform well unless they know what they are doing and why.

BP is now working towards making communication one of the criteria for selecting a manager and measuring his or her performance on it. In other words managers will have to communicate with their staff if they want to get on in BP Oil. So the HR and communication professionals are joining forces to help coach, train and counsel managers in these vital skills.

It was perhaps easier to forge the links between HR and communication in the BP Oil head office than elsewhere: the consequence of the dramatically downsized and open plan location was that they now sat next to each other.

While this was happening in BP Oil, the BP corporation was putting out an extremely powerful, simple and memorable message, former Group chief executive David Simon’s 1:2:5. This meant he committed BP to cut debt by $1 billion a year, make $2 billion a year profit and hold capital spending to $5 billion a year. And all this to be done by 1995. It was a message cascaded over the course of the next couple of years to analysts, to the press, to staff.

Back in 1992 no one outside BP believed it possible. It was accomplished a year early.

A couple of good communication practices are implicit in this 1:2:5 message. First it meets the communication best practice of being short, simple and memorable. Second it was used consistently. He told staff, he told the City, he told journalists. And he told them all again. And again. And again. Which is the third piece of communication best practice: repetition.

Management now understands the need to make messages as simple and memorable as possible, not to use head office jargon and they are turning to professionals for help.