judith sparkes

8
The Power of Personas Harnessing demographic segmentation in employee engagement Judith Sparkes, Suncor Energy Marcus Evans 2nd Internal Branding & Cultural Development October 17, 2011 1 Suncor Energy Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta 13,000 employees in Canada, USA, Europe, Middle East, North Africa Leading position in oil sands supported by integrated operations Pro-active advocate of developing Canadian sustainable energy strategy Focused on: – Operational excellence – Growth Background

Upload: joannatalaga01

Post on 05-Jul-2015

330 views

Category:

Technology


3 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Judith sparkes

The Power of PersonasHarnessing demographic segmentation in employee engagement

Judith Sparkes, Suncor Energy

Marcus Evans

2nd Internal Branding & Cultural Development

October 17, 2011

1

• Suncor Energy

• Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta

• 13,000 employees in Canada, USA, Europe, Middle East, North Africa

• Leading position in oil sands supported by integrated operations

• Pro-active advocate of developing Canadian sustainable energy strategy

• Focused on:

– Operational excellence

– Growth

Background

Page 2: Judith sparkes

2

It’s hard to engage employees in the business if you can’t connect with them.

3

Before embarking on a communications plan, it’s vital to understand interests, perspectives and goals of audiences.

It’s the only way to connect organizational goals with what’s important to your audiences.

Personas can help bridge the gap.

Page 3: Judith sparkes

4

What are personas?

• Archetypes; hypothetical

“stand ins”

• Description of a fictional person

who represents major group of employees

• Realistic but not real

• Although fictitious:

– Based on real employees

– Grounded in reality as much as possible

Source of example: www.mollystevens.com/images/samplePersona.jpg

5

Benefits of personas

• Common and shared understanding of

audience segments

• Engage employees

– Test plans and strategies against personas to assess:

• Reach

• Resonance

• Manage communications and HR functions and

resources effectively

Page 4: Judith sparkes

6

How to create personasResearch

• Demographic data

• Surveys

• Interview business stakeholders who know the audience well

• Employee interviews and focus groups

• Basic demographics

– Age, gender, years of service

• Job responsibilities and what typical day looks like

• What person likes best about their job

• Teams or people person interacts with most

• How time rich/poor

• Goals, attitudes, beliefs

• Characteristics

• Motivators

• Preferences

• Other relevant information:

– Work environment

– Information-seeking habits

– Personal and professional goals

• Invaluable but rarely provides richness required

• Provide objective criteria – age, gender etc.

• Produces averages

• Doesn’t necessarily represent segments which actually exist

• Doesn’t help understand audience

7

How to create personasDevelop

• One page

• Name and photo

• Personal details

but don’t go

overboard

• Include elements

that make sense

in your context

• If narrative “too much”

for your corporate culture

– Minimize amount

of personal detail

– Give persona a title

rather than a name

– Write the persona as

a list of bullet points

rather than a narrative

• Patterns in

attitudes and

behaviours to

create clusters

Page 5: Judith sparkes

8

Suncor example

9

PersonasExample of an abbreviated persona

Page 6: Judith sparkes

10

PersonasExample of a detailed persona

“I have a computer in the control

room, but don’t use it to get to

company fluff stuff. My boss tells

me all I need to know to get my job

done and Sally in the front office

always makes sure that us guys

get print outs of the info that we

really need. I also flip through

the newsletter, but only really read

something when I know someone

in one of the pictures or articles.”

11

Practical applications – Example #1Using personas to test communications tools

Page 7: Judith sparkes

12

Practical applications – Example #2Using personas in strategy development

“In the Know” initiative

• An employee communications program that positions employees to be ambassadors for Suncor and the industry, called “In the Know”

• Opportunity to engage employeesin “new” Suncor

• Company-wide approach complemented by tailored business unit approaches

• Example: Refining & Marketing

13

Questions?

Page 8: Judith sparkes