Redefining a Communications Team

Jun 12

The Client

With 15 years in the business, our not-for-profit client has a well-established C-Suite and Board of Directors and employs over 100 staff across Edmonton. With their grant-funding model, they serve over 185,000 Edmontonians and more than 170 members.

**The Opportunity**

After six years with the company, the communications team had recently disbanded to pursue other opportunities, leaving a gap felt across the whole organization. With conflicting thoughts among the leadership team on what kind of communication support was needed, they decided to reassess organizational needs before re-hiring.

Making it Formidable

Formidable evaluated Company W’s structure, past and current position expectations, departmental functions, and role responsibilities. To deepen our understanding, we conducted one-on-one interviews with every key department that had historically worked with the communications team, as well as external communications stakeholder groups. We applied findings from a recent staff engagement survey and collected communications job descriptions and pay bands from similar organizations to benchmark future roles and resourcing. With that, we developed an extensive report, including a recommendation for communication team roles, and the key skills, characteristics, education, and work experience to look for in ideal candidates to fill those roles. We then met with the leadership team to review the findings and answer questions.

By collaborating closely with the teams, we identified the critical business needs and objectives, analyzed insights from the audience, and were able to develop solutions tailored to Company W’s specific challenges and goals for the future.

Services Provided

Group facilitation
Research and data collection
Strategic communications
Internal communications
Change management communications

Formidable Results

The project delivered a detailed recommendation report to steer the future of communications at Company W, and a presentation to leadership reviewing the document and facilitating questions and answers. The presentation included a deep dive into communications channels and a discussion of recommended next steps and was met with excitement and enthusiasm from leadership. Moving forward, Company W is in an excellent position for hiring and can support its new communications team with a thoroughly researched strategic plan based on company-specific data.