CREATING MEANING OUT OF THE MADNESS
Thomson Reuters: A case study in measuring internal impact
Leah Cook and Erin HawkinsMay 13, 2011
MEASURING INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
• All-employee
communications
• Leadership
communications
• Internal social
media
REUTERS/Jean-Paul Pelissier
WHAT IS YOUR AREA OF COMMUNICATIONS FOCUS?
1. Employee Communications
2. External/Media Relations
3. Marketing Communications
4. Consulting
5. Hybrid of the above
6. Other
6 / 6 Cross-tab label
1
67%
2
17%
3
17%
4
0%
5
0%
6
0%
OUR BUSINESS
4
At Thomson Reuters, we provide intelligent information to the world’s
businesses and professionals, giving our customers competitive advantage.
TAX & ACCOUNTING: $1.1B
Checkpoint is used by all of the
top 100 U.S. accounting firms
HEALTHCARE & SCIENCE: $.9B
• Informing healthcare decisions
affecting over 150 million lives
• Used by over 20 million
researchers worldwide
MEDIA: $.3B
Reuters news and information
reaches billions of people daily
FINANCIAL: $7.1B
Provides financial applications
for over half a million
professionals globally
LEGAL: $3.7B
Westlaw is relied upon by 99%
of the National Law Journal's
top 250 U.S. law firms
MARKETS DIVISION – $7.4B PROFESSIONAL DIVISION – $5.6B
EMPLOYEE GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
Thomson Reuters employs 57,900 people in more than 100 countries
Americas
27,900employees
48%
Asia
17,700 employees
31%
Europe, Middle East, and Africa
12,300 employees
21%
5
EMPLOYEE SURVEYSHow can the company communicate and interact with
employees in a meaningful way?
REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
They’re doing that at The Gates Foundation, let’s do it at Thomson Reuters.
2010 THOMSON REUTERS, LEGALSIX EMPLOYEE SEGMENTS
7
19% 18%13%8% 18% 24%
How can I help Thomson Reuters Legal be more successful?
I’m here to do my job.
I wonder what it’s like to work for Thomson Reuters Legal in Belgium?
trl_2010 says: I’m finishing up my presentation, wish me luck!
Let’s work hard and get this project done so I can enjoy the weekend
Motto:
2,000
Employees
1,900
Employees
1,300
Employees
800
Employees
1,900
Employees
2,500
Employees
COMPANY
ADVOCATESINDEPENDENTS
GLOBAL CITIZENS
INFLUENTIALSSOCIALLY
CONNECTEDBALANCED
Population:
THE LEADERS – 27% THE WORKERS – 42%THE LEARNERS – 31%
EMPLOYEE INSIGHTS: WHAT DID WE LEARN?
• Communicating to a mature
population
• Continue using the intranet
to deliver news
• Where to invest time or limit
our time
• Ways to connect and engage
with employees
• Need for improved awareness
and usage of resources/tools to
assist with global connections
• Executive communications are
informative, but could be
improved
8
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
All-Employee Communications
THE LINK READERSHIP
10
ARE WE BALANCED? EMPLOYEE LOCATIONS VS. COVERAGE
11
40 percent of stories published in
2010 were written for a global
audience
WHAT ARE WE WRITING ABOUT? LEGAL STORIES BY CATEGORY
12
41
24
41 39
9
9
4 7
6
3
4 3
5
4
3 4
1
1
04
0
0
2
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
34657
1328816382 16422
5971
55022250
5223
2973
46151689
1000
2403
2713
1633
4371
602
178
11390
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
50000
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Impressions by TypeStories by Type
TOP STORIES OF 2010
More than 123,000 total
impressions 4,617
1,835 1,699 1,653 1,599
2,321 2,285 1,853
3,850
3,533
CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT: WestlawNext
• E-card campaign
– Ten cards distributed to 15,000
employees; unique open rate of
75 percent
• Articles on The Link
– 25,000 hits over a 10-month
period for 19 informative articles
• Educational town hall sessions
– More than1,000 participants; 99.8
percent of participants said the
sessions were valuable
CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT: WestlawNext
• Blog posts/Yammer
– First blog post had 182 hits within two hours of
posting; Most popular entry had 13 comments
• Video series: “I Have a Hand in This”
– 12,806 total views
– “Wow. I just watched the People Behind
WestlawNext video and I was barely able to hold
back the tears. How magnificent.” (Global Head of Brand Management)
• Live performances/special events
– 4,650 commemorative WestlawNext
champagne flutes given away to
employees during celebratory toast
WHAT IS AN INDICATION OF MEASUREMENT SUCCESS?
1. Hits
2. Comments
3. Attendance
4. Water cooler talk
5. All of the above
6 / 6 Cross-tab label
17%
33%
17%
0%
33%
1 2 3 4 5
Leadership Communications
LEADERSHIP EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS
• 74 percent: Average open
rate for division’s CEO
• 86 percent: Average open
rate for largest business unit
president
• 85.9 percent: Average open
rate for Eagan Employee
Giving Campaign
• 77 percent: Average open
rate for Managers’ Briefings
REUTERS/Tim Wimborne
SENIOR LEADER WEBCASTS
• Division CEO: Senior Leader
Webcasts
• Five sessions in 2010• 44 percent average participation
• 550 average number of attendees
• 13 countries represented
• Countries with highest
participation: U.S., U.K.,
Canada, Spain, China
• Largest business unit
president: Senior Leader
Webcasts
• 76 percent average
attendance
34%
5%
5%
56%
Average participation at Division CEO events
Live
Live and On-Demand
On-Demand
Did not attend
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER: OPEN FORUM ATTENDANCE
20Employee reported data collected from 12/3/09 to 3/21/11.
• 2,764 unique attendees of
roughly 6,500 audience
• 37 percent attended only
one event (1,025)
• 82 percent attended six or
fewer events (2,271)
• 11 percent attended more
than half of the events
(308)
• 78 percent were from the
US (2,160)
• 20 locations represented
New Attendees by Event
Social Media
0%
33%
67%
DOES YOUR COMPANY BAN SOCIAL MEDIA USE INTERNALLY?
6 / 6 Cross-tab label
1. Yes
2. No
3. Not Applicable
COMBINING THE LINK CONTENT AND BLOGGING
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER:BLOG SUMMARY
• 2010 numbers
– 187 blog posts generating 879 comments
– 6,222 hits and 1,403 unique users
• Most commented on posts
– Air Expo ticket giveaway
– Apps, pizza, cartoons and coffee
• What we heard
– Readers value business-related posts but can’t always
identify with topics; posts are less likely to evoke
comments
– Some think they might be judged based on business-
related comments
– Thomson Reuters CEO likes non-business topics
(including cartoons)
“I feel you are by far
the most accessible
executive and
although I have only
met you online, I
feel I know you
better than some
executives I've
worked for/with for
close to 9 years due
to your commentary
about free things,
food and family.
Thanks and keep it
up.” July 27, 2010
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER: TOP BLOG POSTS OF 2010 (IMPRESSIONS)
YAMMER ACTIVITY
26
Most Popular Groups
751 members
1670 messages
681 members
1446 messages
• Thomson Reuters usage keeps
growing
• 18,700 members
• 735 groups
• Most popular groups are
Technology focus area
• 112 percent increase in
members since July 2010, with
510 new groups created to date
• July 2010 survey shows Legal
employees make up about 30
percent of the Yammer users
HOW EMPLOYEES ARE USING YAMMER
27
To share news… To collaborate…
To create connections…
YAMMER HELPS GLOBAL BUSINESS UNITS
Discussion