The Power of Personas

Harnessing demographic segmentation in employee engagement

Judith Sparkes, Suncor Energy Marcus Evans 2nd Internal Branding & Cultural Development October 17, 2011

Background
Suncor Energy Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta 13,000 employees in Canada, USA, Europe, Middle East, North Africa Leading position in oil sands supported by integrated operations Pro-active advocate of developing Canadian sustainable energy strategy Focused on: Operational excellence Growth

Its hard to engage employees in the business if you cant connect with them.

Before embarking on a communications plan, its vital to understand interests, perspectives and goals of audiences.

Its the only way to connect organizational goals with whats important to your audiences.
Personas can help bridge the gap.

What are personas?

Archetypes; hypothetical stand ins Description of a fictional person who represents major group of employees Realistic but not real Although fictitious:
Based on real employees Grounded in reality as much as possible

Source of example: www.mollystevens.com/images/samplePersona.jpg

Benefits of personas
Common and shared understanding of audience segments Engage employees
Test plans and strategies against personas to assess:
Reach Resonance

Manage communications and HR functions and resources effectively

How to create personas

Research

Invaluable but rarely provides richness required Provide objective criteria age, gender etc. Produces averages Doesnt necessarily represent segments which actually exist Doesnt help understand audience

Demographic data Surveys Interview business stakeholders who know the audience well Employee interviews and focus groups

Basic demographics Age, gender, years of service Job responsibilities and what typical day looks like What person likes best about their job Teams or people person interacts with most How time rich/poor Goals, attitudes, beliefs Characteristics Motivators Preferences Other relevant information: Work environment Information-seeking habits Personal and professional goals

How to create personas

Develop

Patterns in attitudes and behaviours to create clusters

One page Name and photo Personal details but dont go overboard Include elements that make sense in your context

If narrative too much for your corporate culture Minimize amount of personal detail Give persona a title rather than a name Write the persona as a list of bullet points rather than a narrative

Suncor example

Personas
Example of an abbreviated persona

Personas
Example of a detailed persona

I have a computer in the control room, but dont use it to get to company fluff stuff. My boss tells me all I need to know to get my job done and Sally in the front office always makes sure that us guys get print outs of the info that we really need. I also flip through the newsletter, but only really read something when I know someone in one of the pictures or articles.

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Practical applications Example #1

Using personas to test communications tools

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Practical applications Example #2

Using personas in strategy development

In the Know initiative An employee communications program that positions employees to be ambassadors for Suncor and the industry, called In the Know Opportunity to engage employees in new Suncor Company-wide approach complemented by tailored business unit approaches Example: Refining & Marketing

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Questions?

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