Download PDFOn Friday 7th May, we held the fortnightly Town Hall meeting hosted by CEO Dennis van Schie.
Dennis started the session by announcing the sad news of a break-in at Elephant Space. He used this event to reiterate our “people first” approach. He further highlighted this, speaking of the Health and Safety conference held last week. Dennis took time out to read his speech, speaking of the initial steps that Colart took at the beginning of the pandemic.
Guests at this week’s town hall meeting were from the Communications Team, where Dennis introduced Communications Manager Gareth Meredith and highlighted the importance of communication.
“as I always say, it is the starting point to build trusted relations”.
Gareth’s presentation started by providing an overview of how and what the communications team (Irene and Gareth) do and provided some samples of new initiatives launched this year to engage everybody.
In explaining “why” we communicate, Gareth explained potentially how our Colart family should behave, stating:
Specifically, when we talk about “our Colart family” and our continual endeavour to feel like a family, how should that family unit behave? Not all families get along with each other, but long-lasting families have the confidence to speak up and be heard yet still feel like a unit. Our Colart family should behave the same way, don’t you think?
Followed by a commitment from the communications teams:
As a communications team, we are committed to fostering a two-way dialogue, allowing everyone to speak freely (and respectfully, of course) without judgement and in a “safe space”.
The Q&A function was opened up in this session. Throwing a curveball, the most significant learning was to provide better instruction on “how to use the Q&A function” ahead of the meeting. And here it is.
In the end, we received 45 responses, and here is what some of you said.
1. Most useful – Implementation of many different channels to deliver important and informative messages (news from people, TFAC, The Wall, etc.)
2. Least useful – Not sure about surveys, as I think a segment of our population submits responses, they think managers may want to hear vs. how the actual employee feels?
3. Takeaway message – We have a diverse workforce with many different opinions, and everyone has the right to be heard (and feel connected)!
4. to understand the breadth of the comms platform.
5. the best part is to know that comms is a priority and the company is looking to improve what we do.
If you couldn’t make it to the live event. Check out the video.
Hosted on Microsoft Teams – Live event, the Town Hall event had over 170 people join in. Thanks to all who were there!
Please don’t forget that there is a Q&A section on the live stream that you can use to ask live questions to the panel.
If you have any suggestions or you would like to hear about a specific topic that you think could spark interest then, please contact Irene Rubio or Gareth Meredith in the Communications team.
As an added extra, check out COVID-19 resources we’ve provided for you the intranet or via the links below: