Summary
Apollo Tyres Ltd., a leading brand in the tyre manufacturing industry globally, has a huge and diverse workforce of approximately 16,000 employees. This workforce is spread across their offices and manufacturing plants across the globe as the brand has presence in over 100 countries. The brand had identified challenges and issues in communicating with such a large audience base internally with challenges like cultural differences, language barriers and difference in availability of technology.

In light of the above, the organization needed to bind the entire workforce together in order to motivate them to continue on their growth path. The organization was also planning to introduce new systems in performance evaluation and management across operations. The role of communication in conveying these was of utmost importance for the overall success of the brand globally.

Backstory
The objective laid out from the beginning was universal adaptation of communication to suit the varied requirements across markets. Specifically in case of the introduction of the new performance management system, it was extremely crucial that employees across the globe understood the key aspects of the process and adhered to it. This was important for the organization not just to be able to evaluate the employees effectively, but also to ensure synergized processes across functions globally.

Solution
A visuals-led communication strategy was developed that was rich in creativity with a clear focus on conveying the key messages across the diverse audience base. It was also important to capture the attention of the employees throughout the campaigns in order to drive increase engagement levels and to improve retention of the messages conveyed.

The team effectively developed campaigns to communicate the essence of the new processes introduced. The strategy also included on-ground engagement with employees in the form of workshops, quizzes, contests and training sessions with an aim to reinforce the processes and achieve the communication objectives. Tools like EDMs (Electronic Direct Mailers), wallpapers, newsletters, intranet branding and office branding including posters, danglers, table tops etc. were strategically used to effectively fulfill the communication requirements.

Outcome
The communication strategies drove higher engagement across Apollo’s global offices with an increased level of retention of the key messages. A notable surge in employee feedback and involvement in activities was recorded besides very positive responses to the various engagement activities. Most communication objectives were achieved which were appreciated by the client’s global leaders as well.