The Beasleys speak to T‐Mobile employees: Employee magazine goes from paper to electronic format

Abstract

Purpose

Details how T‐Mobile UK successfully transferred its employee newsletter, open, from paper to an electronic format.

Design/methodology/approach

Provides a case study of the T‐Mobile experience and draws out the lessons that other organizations can learn from it.

Findings

Reveals that T‐Mobile teamed up with UK editorial‐design company Words & Pictures to develop an approach involving cartoon characters, each representing a strategic business focus, which captured the imagination of the mobile operator's employees and delivered impressive online statistics of engagement, including increased reader time and 95 percent readership enjoyment.

Practical implications

Argues that other organizations wishing to achieve similar digital engagement should first understand the employees and their needs for communication and secondly should see the digital platform as a genuine opportunity to reinforce the brand.

Social implications

Shows how to reach, as much as is possible in corporate life, the hearts and minds of employees.

Originality/value

Highlights a way to increase employee understanding of key strategic issues.

Citation

(2011), "The Beasleys speak to T‐Mobile employees: Employee magazine goes from paper to electronic format", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 19 No. 5, pp. 18-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670731111153294