S6 E5: Building a Global Internal Communications Function from the Ground Up

Adrian McIntyre: 00:00:01

From the Public Relations Global Network, this is PRGN Presents. I'm Adrian McIntyre.

Abbie Fink: 00:00:07

And I'm Abbie Fink, president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona, and a founding member of PRGN. With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:00:28

Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications, and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.

Abbie Fink: 00:00:47

For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com. And now let's meet our guest for this episode.

Brad Kostka: 00:00:59

Hi, I'm Brad Kostka, President of Roopco. We're a public relations and marketing firm located in Cleveland, Ohio. We provide B2B communication services to help our clients amplify their messages. And I'm happy to have on the podcast with us today, Tammy Zollner. Tammy is the senior director of corporate communications with RPM International.

Tammy Zollner: 00:01:23

Thanks, Brad. RPM is a global paint and coatings company, leaders in specialty coatings, sealants, and building materials and services. We have companies like Rust-Oleum and DAP that you may see in Home Depot or have in your home today.

Abbie Fink: 00:01:41

I love conversations with internal communications folks. I love talking with someone that gets what we do and the role of, you know, having an external communications partner. But you didn't get to corporate comms the normal way, so you, you started in it, is that correct?

Tammy Zollner: 00:01:58

That's correct.

Abbie Fink: 00:02:00

So how did that come about?

Tammy Zollner: 00:02:02

Yes, so I was, I had, at the time, I had been with RPM about over 19 years. I held various roles within it throughout that time. And when we were faced with the global pandemic, I was charged with the technology side of executing some of the large internal meetings and conferences and that kind of morphed into getting involved in the messaging for those meetings. And at the time I just, I was having fun. I thought it was great and it was something different and exciting for me.

And so, you know, then we kind of started having conversations about, oh, you know, we there, there, we, we need to formalize corporate communications at RPM. You know, are you interested in doing this? So it was just more of a morph into it. And, you know, it was also, you know, something I think I needed in my career at the time. Something different and change and very exciting.

Abbie Fink: 00:02:54

What did it look like before if it was the ... assuming you had some internal communications efforts. You're a large global brand, so there must have been something. So what was some of that transition that happened? You know, there were some positive things that came out of that pandemic. Right. So how did you evolve the department and kind of think about it differently?

Tammy Zollner: 00:03:18

Sure. So before that, the state of internal communications at RPM was very minimal and direct communications from RPM to all associates wasn't very common. We didn't have many means to do that given our decentralized structure and to give a little history there too. Historically, we were much more decentralized over time.

We had, you know, in order to get to the next growth point at RPM, we needed to centralize certain functions. So as part of the formal, you know, part of the strategy, bringing in corporate communications. So communicating from RPM was important to us and that then helped us, you know, bring a focus to communicating with all associates.

Abbie Fink: 00:04:01

So you are a global company, you have a workforce around the world.

Tammy Zollner: 00:04:07

Correct.

Abbie Fink: 00:04:08

It's difficult enough to communicate when they're across the desk from you. The challenge, when you have, you know, different time zones, different languages, different cultures, you know, what, what is it daily, what does it look like in terms of getting that messaging into the hands of the individuals across the organization?

Tammy Zollner: 00:04:29

Daily, we have a lot of different tasks we do, but we kind of, we try to keep the focus in taking, we think of three to five. Our CEO always preaches three to five, you know, as a rule. And so if you go beyond that in your focus points, then you' there's, there's just too much to do and not as, not as much happens. So we keep it down, I think three to five focus areas. So that, that's, there are big areas, but that's then how our team then goes out and tries to capture our audience, tries to communicate with everyone, trying to create what I call the connected culture. So reaching global audience.

You know, we've had to do a lot of connecting with different people throughout the org to help disseminate our information. So it's also building a. Using a tool that can email, you know, tens of thousands of associates at once. For those who are on email, using all those different tools, translations is another one. Translations we've really had to focus on.

And we weren't doing money for translations from the RPM perspective before, unless it were policies or something. But now it's translating our core communications, translating where we're talking about our values of transparency, trust and respect. So it comes down a lot to culture but the day to day is very busy and trying to use all those the new tools we have to get the message across.

Abbie Fink: 00:05:58

Now do you have members of the communications team dispersed around the the company in other markets or is it all based there in your office?

Tammy Zollner: 00:06:09

It's all based in our office here. Our team is structured. We're very lean and small. We just have four people including myself on the team. But we also have in our IT team we leverage their creative services team. They have a digital marketing and creative services. So we partner with them heavily.

It's kind of like you know, we consider each other on the same team because we work day to day together heavily. We don't have communications folks as part of RPM corporate spread throughout. Just because that's our intent isn't to replace the communications at our companies. So we at RPM we focus on communicating specifically RPM communications that are overarching through the whole company.

So our goal, company goals that everyone's striving towards are which is our, you know, organizational improvement program, also our building a better world which is sustainability and also our values. So it's more of the communications that are overarching including benefits as well.

If it's company specific like you take Rust-Oleum they have their own communications team to speak to the Rust-Oleum associates. So we, we do have a focus there that it's, it's just about the what they need to know according to rpm.

Brad Kostka: 00:07:34

And I think the, the communications previously were, it was more top down from some of the senior leadership at at RPM to then senior leaders at, at the, you know, 50+ operating companies that RPM has. And now I think there's more like Tammy had to build a network of internal communications folks at the operating companies of who handles communications. And I think it could be some people in HR for employee communications or it could be some people in marcomm that then also help to disseminate some of the RPM overarching corporate messaging to the operating companies. And so that was like I know that was a big part of what you had to build.

Tammy Zollner: 00:08:15

Yeah. And that was key to reaching associates throughout the entire org. So you know, people on the plant floor who don't have access to or company access to computer emails. So that right there where we're partnered with either the comms or marketing or HR folks, it depends on the company who they have, you know, feet on the floor or at the facility. But they help us get the message. Whether we do posters with QR codes for plant associates or simply a post, or they can, you know, they can print an email, put them in their inbox. It depends. You know, some have digital signage. I love technology, obviously, so we try to leverage that wherever possible.

But reaching those employees was very important. Before we made corporate communications a formal part of our strategy, we had many people on the plant floor who didn't know who RPM was. Not even just the plant floor, but within our companies who didn't know who RPM was, even though we're the parent company. And we had overarching goals and, you know, so we want to now make sure everyone knows not just who RPM is, but what our goals are, how they contribute to our goals, you know, what our values are.

Abbie Fink: 00:09:26

That leads me into the question I have about, you know, as you've developed your internal strategy, there has got to have been some, you know, internal changes that have happened in terms of awareness and, you know, maybe a different sense of ownership from the employees about the company that they work for and the investment that you're making in keeping them informed. So, you know, kind of level setting from where it was to where it is now. What have been some of the, you know, maybe the key findings or things that surprised you about, you know, incorporating this, this focus in terms of its impact on your team across the globe.

Tammy Zollner: 00:10:05

So some of the key findings. Well, one was I was surprised being at RPM, I was surprised to learn that some didn't know who RPM was. Right. Like, oh, my gosh. So that was surprising.

But then it puts you on a mission where you want to fix it, and others, some other surprising is surprising, maybe not so surprising, but that then some are thinking, wait, we're fine over here in our little bubble. Now you're trying to penetrate our bubble, giving us all this information. And it could be information overload.

So it was challenging to find that balance of how much to give them, when to give it to them, how to give it to them. But we're still. It's still a challenge and will continue to be. But we do some, I guess, some measurements throughout the year to see, you know, gauge what we're doing, what we're doing. Right, how we need to pivot. Some of that is we do a corporate communications survey each year. It's actually going on right now.

And that's one of our best tools that we get information back from the associates. So that's where we're learning. What do they want and what's. Or what do they. More of. What do they not understand? It'll ask communications about or ask questions about our communications, like how they're receiving them, but it'll also ask questions about the programs. Well, how. So we can gauge how well do they understand our goals. And then also we use technology like some analytics to make decisions and such. But those are key, I think, to understanding how it's working.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:11:35

Tammy, are you involved in the marketing and brand communications or is that mostly handled at the operating company level by those teams?

Tammy Zollner: 00:11:45

Yeah, that is mostly handled by the operating company, at each operating company by those teams. I am responsible for the, I'll say the RPM brand, but we don't manufacture anything as RPM, so it's unique. So and when I say "brand," I mean both internal and external. So as you can see, we're talking about internal communications. But as we're, you know, we have embarked on this, a big part of our focus is internal because in order to have a strong external brand, you need to be strong internally.

Abbie Fink: 00:12:17

Brad, how does the role of an external agency support the work that Tammy and her team are doing internally?

Brad Kostka: 00:12:26

Yeah, I think as I said at the beginning, we have like, you know, almost 30 years of a relationship with RPM and with Tammy and, and it's been some support and strategy. It is some support in some of the day to day communications and materials.

She talked about some of the internal communications and these were things that we had developed and built and then that she took on and elevated then with her team as she started to build the function. And she had mentioned Covid being kind of a point where there was a bigger drive to do some, some internal communication.

And so we had initiated regular email communications and we had, and then built out like a PDF newsletter so that you could reach the non desk bound employees, that those could then be printed and put in people's mailboxes or in the, in the lunchroom or meeting rooms or whatever.

So that, that we were really, that was really important time to, as you know, everybody was scared and didn't know what was going on and you had to communicate protocols around coming to work and how, you know, how you operated.

And so, so it was really, we put a lot of those foundational things in place and then, and then we continue to support Tammy with, you know, where, you know, she says she has a lean, a lean team. And so then we're able to be an extension of that team where they need our resources for.

It could be script writing for a meeting or for video or producing some designs for presentations or collateral materials or whatever. So we're backing up her team where they need some extra muscle.

Abbie Fink: 00:14:13

Tammy, with your background in IT and technology, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about AI. I don't think there's been a conversation that we've had in the last handful of podcasts that doesn't somehow address AI, but certainly within the internal comms function and with a global audience, there's a lot of value in what that technology can bring. So assuming that you're using it, but how is AI advancing the mission there and utilizing it to improve and extend what you're doing from an internal comms perspective?

Tammy Zollner: 00:14:53

Sure. So, as you say, communications are highly digital now, and we are definitely using AI. I always say if we embrace technology carefully and in the right way, you know, it can boost our employee productivity and satisfaction. So even on our own team, but, you know, the trickles out throughout, you know, trickles throughout the organization.

So specifically AI, we are using a tool for our communications team called Jasper. Other throughout our organization are using it for marketing as well. It's not a replacement for the experts, but it's a very powerful tool in making us more efficient and effective. And that's. That one's more, you know, it helps with, with, with writing it.

You know, I can feed it information and it's kind of like ChatGPT, but it's proprietary. You know, we can use it to put confidential information. We have, we've got our bases covered there. But that's one way we're using AI.

The other, I mean, we're using it many, but another I'll mention is with translations, we're using an AI tool. We do a mix of human translation or AI, but depending on what it is, we do a lot of translations because a lot of the emails that we send out, we want to communicate with our associates in their native language when possible. So a lot of those are translated using an AI tool as well. So we're definitely embracing the technology.

Brad Kostka: 00:16:22

And I found what was interesting, Tammy and I talked about this actually just yesterday was as a public company, RPM is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, that there's a lot of compliance and reporting and risk mitigation that has to come into place.

And the fact that some of these tools have to go through some pretty rigorous analysis by the legal team and by the IT team in order to get, get approved for use. The. I think that they're, you know, they're very, very forward thinking and the ability for her team to get some approvals on some of these AI tools. I was, you know, really impressed with, with that and RPM's speed to adopt it where not especially for a patent coatings company that maybe is not, you wouldn't presume to be on the cutting edge of things. And so I thought that was particularly impressive.

Abbie Fink: 00:17:17

Are there other tools or technologies that you're using that you feel have been really impactful in the work that you're doing and thinking about it from a larger context. Internal communications is an important function no matter what size your organization is.

You may not be multi offices, but even if you have other people on your team, you have an internal communications need. And so what are some of the other, if there are some of the other, you know, technologies that you use that you found to be so helpful or any other kind of, "Hmm, this was interesting to find out in my journey to this role" that might be helpful for others that are thinking about the importance of internal communications.

Tammy Zollner: 00:18:03

Sure. One like there's a couple that come directly to mind is one is Monday.com, we started using. It really is helping our team stay organized and collaborate well with others as in like the digital marketing team, creative team. We're always working together hand in hand every day. And so Monday.com has brought us, it's a new level of organization to that and there's workflows built in, you know, appro, we can do approvals, we can, you know, review content. So that really has helped the team, internal team work together to be more effective.

But then also in relation to, I'll say our communication, I keep mentioning email communications, but in effect finding an effective tool to communicate, send out our emails, but also, you know, maybe make it efficient. Where we have, we have a global intranet, we have some digital signage. So we can, we're working on finding a tool that can, you know, we make it put some content out there and it can feed the content to other places at the same time. So that's another that we're using somewhat and are going to use further in the future.

Abbie Fink: 00:19:16

Any realizations or any interesting little, you know, that surprised you or things you were happy to have learned on this effort. And again, I'm thinking about what's important from a larger organization's internal communications efforts, but really what's you know, smart lessons that all of us can learn that, you know, have employees, no matter the size of our organization.

Tammy Zollner: 00:19:40

Sure. The first thing that comes to mind is there's always so much that you can do that needs done. You know that you need to narrow it down and pick your focus areas because it seems like it's, it's too much to, you know, to bite off if otherwise. So stick to three to five. I feel that that way you can make a bigger impact one step at a time.

And you know, if you're doing too much at once, you, you don't see as many as much progress. And another is technology. Embrace the technology. It's, it really helps sometimes we have, you know, when we're evaluating some technology, some are more, you know, we'll jump on sooner than the others. But when everyone jumps on, we're running and going when everyone's on board and embraces it. So it's a huge advantage.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:20:36

Thanks for listening to this episode of PRGN Presents, brought to you by the Public Relations Global Network.

Abbie Fink: 00:20:42

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