A message from the top

Employee communications channels

Leadership communications

Purpose	Typical audience	Pros	Cons	Can you do it yourself?	Thinking points
Our Co-CEOs and other senior leaders send these regular (and well-read) communications to DSM colleagues	All DSM colleagues	If you can grab a paragraph in a leadership newsletter there’s a high chance your message will be seen	You’ll have limited space to get your message across, and editorial decisions are not ultimately controlled by you	Yes	Make sure that your topic is relevant, with a good fit for your chosen leadership communication

What is this channel?

Our two leaders Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze send a periodic email to all employees (as do leaders of our Business Groups, sites and functions). Could it be that your message fits with topics covered in one of these updates? Of course, leadership communications like this are used sparingly to avoid overkill. But if your message fits…why not grab a paragraph – and the chance to reach a large, highly engaged audience.

What and when is it typically used?

Think about your audience; can you share your messages properly and reach them via this channel? Check out the comparison notes below and weigh the pros versus cons. This will help you decide how to spend your time/ money for the best result.

Benefits

All DSM employees receive leadership communication in their inbox.
People read them.
Being included in this email = leadership recognition of your topic.

Challenges

Timing is determined by GC&B for Co-CEO or BG memos (and by site management for site-specific emails).
GC&B will decide if your message is relevant for inclusion in a Co-CEO email.
If you are included, you’ll have limited space – so make the most of it!

How to use this channel

For the Co-CEO email, reach out to GC&B to discuss a potential paragraph in an upcoming edition.
For a leadership email regarding your business group, reach out to the Nutrition cluster's Global Communications Manager or the Global Communications Manager for the Materials cluster.
For site specific memos, check with the Site Director.

Things to keep in mind

Needs to be relevant for a broad audience.

KPIs for this channel

How will you know ‘what success looks like’? Measuring the response to this channel /tool could give you a better understanding of whether you’ve reached your communication objective. KPIs can be qualitative or quantitative. Here are some ideas:

These messages are usually sent with support from an external vendor who can provide an overview of the number of bounced mails, opens, and clicks (if you included hyperlinks).
If the message is sent to a site via regular email:
- You can request a read receipt via the option tags. This gives you an idea of how many people opened the email. However, you won’t know if they actually understood (or liked) what they read!
- And you may get a lot of read-receipts - which need to be tracked manually.
- You could even consider adding a voting button: for example, asking if readers found the message relevant.

Final thoughts

If this a stand-alone initiative, then go ahead! However, if this is part of a wider initiative, you might want to take a step back and look at the broader communications perspective. A good starting point is our 9-step approach to creating your communication plan - which includes an overview of all the internal channels and tools.

Downloads

Writing Guide

Our aim is to help you write clearly, consistently – and creatively – in a way that is relevant to your audience (whoever they may be).
Email

Email is a tried & tested way of sending secure messages quickly, to a wide audience.
Images

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – and for good reason - the smart choice of imagery can help you create a compelling and memorable message.