simply's Content and Communications Director Patrick Hulbert and Content and Community Manager Aish Rajavelu recently interviewed Mark Feakes, Director of Employee Communications, and Melissa Sader, Managing Director of Employee Communications at Fitch Group.  

Fitch Group won an award at last year’s simplys awards, for the communications and engagement programme delivered throughout the pandemic to around 4000 Fitch Group colleagues globally.  

In this interview, Patrick and Aish talk to Marc and Melissa on their extensive experience within comms, their award-winning pandemic communications campaign, and what initiatives they’ve been working on at Fitch Group since then, including their mental health and wellbeing campaign they’ve recently launched.  

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For this episode of the simplypodcast, we are speaking with Xeniya Shilina, Senior Program Manager, Transformation Communication, Global Regions, Medtronic.  

Xeniya started her career as a journalist, before then going on to PR and finally internal comms. In her role at Medtronic, she is responsible for developing change communication strategies for large global transformation initiatives and creating central internal communication templates and processes for an employee base of 50,000 people spread over 40 countries. 

simply's Content and Communications Director Patrick Hulbert and Content and Community Manager Aish Rajavelu spoke to Xeniya on using gamification as a tool for engagement, as well as looking at her background working in Kazakhstan and the Netherlands.  

Listen to the full interview below to find out more.  

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For this episode of the simplypodcast, we spoke with Blessing Okebe, Head of Corporate Communications at GOTNI Leadership Centre, an organisation which focuses on redefining Africa's approach to leadership.  

As Head of Corporate Communications, she is responsible for all external and internal comms, guiding the organisation to achieve their goals through strategic communications, and ensuring any comms sent out reflect the brand identity.  

Blessing also works as a personal branding strategist, working with businesses and individuals alike to grow a profitable brand through digital marketing strategies, tech and content creation.  

Jidekaiji Global Magazine has also recognised her as one of 35 thought leaders and experts in Nigeria, and she has won the SuperWoman Under 30 Award Prize for Media in 2021. 

We interviewed Blessing to learn more about her background, what inspired her to pursue a career in communications and personal branding, and her tips for those looking to pursue a career in comms.  

Listen to the full episode below to find out more.  

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On this episode of the simplypodcast, we talk to Bessie Kokalis Pescio, Vice President of Global Internal Communications at Philip Morris International.

In this role, Bessie is responsible for leading strategic internal communications globally to support the business and cultural transformation to deliver on PMI’s vision for a smoke-free future, delivered to 70,000-plus employees across 90-plus markets through a global team and distributed network of 100-plus internal communicators embedded across regions, markets, and functions.

A trusted adviser to PMI’s senior management team, Bessie helps the company’s leadership to expand the reach, relevancy, and impact of strategic initiatives and corporate-wide communications. Under Bessie’s leadership, eNPS scores relating to internal communications have improved for three consecutive years.

We spoke to Bessie on PMI’s smoke-free journey, Bessie’s move into IC and how to become a ‘trusted advisor’ in organisations. 

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simply recently interviewed Catrin Lewis, an award-winning culture and transformation specialist. Formerly the Head of Global Engagement and Internal Communications at Reward Gateway, and it was for her work there that she won IC leader of the year at the simplys awards 2022.  

Six years ago, Catrin was asked to help inform, educate and engage Reward Gateway’s employees with their biggest story to date. Reward Gateway sold for the third time to a Private Equity investor and as shareholders in their Employee Share Program, they wanted to ensure employees felt fully informed and connected to the process. 

It was a huge campaign, and the first time Reward Gateway had appointed anyone with the sole responsibility of engaging their own employees.  

Since then, she has gone on to work on multiple global communication programmes across a range of businesses, with some highlights including RG’s Thank You Festival, developing and implementing Reward Gateway’s wellness programme, and introducing a new employer brand and EVP.  

Catrin is also author of The Culture Vulture, and The Little Unicorn - An Adventure Through The Disengagement Dangerzone.  

simply's Director of Content and Communications Patrick Hulbert and Content and Community Manager Aish Rajavelu recently interviewed Catrin, speaking about her journey into IC, her work at Reward Gateway and Tenzing, and her tips for those looking for a career in internal comms.  

Listen to the full episode below to find out more. 

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For this simplypodcast, simply interviewed California-based future of work, futurist, and employee engagement specialist Jacob Morgan. 

Jacob is a four times best-selling author, keynote speaker, co-host of the be Your own Boss podcast, and the founder of The Future of Work University. 

He helps organisations home in on the employee experience and employee engagement through running a series of keynote sessions and also offering bespoke services to business leaders. 

With 115,000 LinkedIn followers, he is a leading expert on future work practices. 

We talk about the importance of coaches for leaders, how to eke out a culture in a digital environment, whether values are overrated, winning the war on talent, and if the return to work mandate is more prevalent in the United States. 

We also look at the further humanisation of communications, hyperpersonalisation, and digital transformation trends to watch out for.  

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Our latest simplypodcast episode is with Isabel Collins, Founder at Belonging Space, a culture consultancy.  

A former director of strategy and a director of culture and engagement, Isabel has run her consulting firm for a decade. Her specialism revolves around trust and belonging in organisations and how this affects the cultural ecosystem of an organisation.  

In the podcast we discuss the employer/employee relationship and how this is continuing to shape after the pandemic, how you can cultivate a culture in a hybrid environment, and a look at generational and cultural differences that could affect how people perceive an organisation.  

We also discuss how both employer and employee can find a balance to mutually trust each other, and whether the shift of power has moved towards the employee over recent years, and where this is a good thing or not.  

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simply's Content and Communications Director, Patrick Hulbert, and Content and Community Manager, Aish Rajavelu, recently interviewed Simon Fitzpatrick, Group Intranet Content Manager at National Grid. 

Simon has been working in communications since the early 2000s and has since worked for brands such as UBS Global Asset Management, Barclays, and Schroder.

When he started working at National Grid in 2020, their intranet had not been refreshed in many years and was running on antiquated technology. Working with the Head of Internal Communications, Simon undertook the project of completely overhauling the old intranet to meet the needs of their workforce.  

National Grid has more than 30,000 colleagues spread across Britain and the east coast of the USA, and their workforce is varied and contains a sizeable field-based contingent, so the challenge was to reach all their people and deliver the best possible digital experience for them.  

Listen to the podcast episode below to find out more about National Grid’s award-winning intranet, the ‘fish and chips’ method, and Grid:Home 2.0.  

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Charlotte O'Reilly is the Head of Internal communications and Engagement at the British Red Cross. She has been a communicator for over 13 years now, and has worked for numerous charities throughout her career, including ActionAid and Citizens Advice. 

simply's Content and Communications Director Patrick Hulbert and Content and Community Manager Aish Rajavelu recently interviewed Charlotte, discussing how she engages frontline workers at the Red Cross, workforce expectations in the charity sector, and their 'It’s All Different, All Red Cross' DE&I campaign. 

Listen to the full episode below to find out more.

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simply’s Content and Communications Director, Patrick Hulbert, and Content and Community Manager Aish Rajavelu recently interviewed Albanne McCleave, Internal Communications Manager at the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Nigel Williams, an Independent Consultant at Amberolo Limited.  

Albanne has been in the comms space for over a decade, beginning her career in PR and Press before moving on to working in internal comms at Thomson Reuters. She has since worked for brands such as Marsh and McLennan Companies, DAC Beachcroft LLP, and Marie Stopes International. 

Nigel Williams started his career in sales and recruitment, before working in digital change comms and intranet deployment. In September 2020, he worked with the RSC as a Digital Workplace Strategist, helping them deliver a global intranet across nine countries, transforming the RSC's communication and collaborative capabilities. 

It was then that their ‘beginner to blogger’ campaign was launched, and within a year they had 25% of the organisation blogging.  

We caught up with Nigel and Albanne to speak about their journeys into the world of internal communications, the RSC’s award-winning ‘beginner to blogger’ campaign, and their tips for internal communicators looking to get their employees involved more in content creation.  

Listen to the full episode below to learn more. 

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