Home Depot Internal Communication Program

Suryabala Shenbagamurthy Oct 18, 2014

Situation Analysis Ø  “Home Depot does not encourage employee personal and professional growth” (Glassdoor ‘14)

Ø  Sep ’14 data breach impact 56 million customers’ credit card information (NYT ‘14)

Ø  83% of employees approve Frank Blake as the company CEO (Glassdoor ‘14)

Ø  The Home Depot US retail president Craig Menear will be announced as the company’s new CEO in Nov ’14 (HousingWire ‘14)

Key Business Goals Ø  Increase in data security and sales,

retaining and increasing loyal customers

Ø  Establish the retail outlet’s reputation by

gaining employee and customers’ trust

Ø  Build a strong employee management with

new leadership

Building Publics

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Employee Audiences Ø  C-suite management

Ø  Business managers

Ø  Tech support employees

Ø  Part-time employees

Ø  Other employees

Building Publics

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Communication Objectives Ø  Improve employee engagement by 25%

by the end of the fiscal year 2014 – 2015

Ø  Increase awareness on data security by

20% and steps to mitigate risks by 1Q15

Ø  Introduce the new leadership and adapt

to a new work culture in 4Q14 and 1Q15

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Key Communication Strategies

Ø  Qualitative and quantitative research on employee engagement

Ø  Educate employees on organization’s technical support and importance of data security

Ø  Deliver structured messages on the business drivers and the business mission

Ø  Face-to-face communication on the leadership change and its implications

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Communication Tactics

Objective 1: Improve employee engagement

Ø Employee engagement survey

Ø “Home.Network” program

Ø Focus groups

Ø Online forum

Ø Social events

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Communication Tactics Objective 2: Increase awareness on data security

Ø  Posters

Ø  Online training course

Objective 3: Introduce the new leadership

Ø  Executive memo

Ø  Enterprise meeting

Ø  Town hall meetings

Ø  Webcast

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Measurement

Ø Number of participants

Ø Number of innovative ideas proposed by the employees

Ø Feedback forms

Ø Google Analytics tracker

Ø Sound bites

Ø Active participation in the Q & A sessions

Ø Performance reviews

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Conclusion

Effective two-way symmetric internal communication

program to establish employee satisfaction and

productivity, customer loyalty, leading to increase in profit.

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Questions?

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