The Arriva Rail London (ARL) internal comms team knew there was disparity in colleagues’ communications experience – especially for the hard-to-reach Drivers. We designed and delivered an extensive internal communications audit that provided the foundation for their two-year internal comms strategy with powerful results.

Arriva Rail London (ARL) manages the London Overground on behalf of TfL. 520,000 passengers across 106 miles of track every day – this is one of the busiest rail lines in the UK and has a complex ecosystem of teams and specialists to keep it running.

Internally they have a complex ecosystem of shift patterns, hardware access, job specific applications as well as a diverse workforce spanning the frontline to desks, which naturally poses a unique challenge for internal communications.

Post-Covid, ARL was ready to develop a new internal communications strategy, but first needed the data. We developed a communications audit with the aim to:

• Evaluate and understand how colleagues currently engage and communicate
• Understand what colleagues want from our communications
• Produce a communications plan to best engage our frontline colleagues

Our research began with senior stakeholder interviews, alongside a programme of ‘micro-conversations’ – essentially a couple of days spent riding the Overground and talking to Station Staff as well as a cupcake day interviewing office colleagues. We held focus group with Drivers at depots, Revenue Protection Offices on strike days and a trip to consult with the Traincare team on the night shift.

We also referred to a recent employee experience survey and carried out extensive research to assess how digital tools were being used and by whom.

From the audit findings we developed the ‘5 to drive’, five strategic priorities for ARL’s internal communications. Our strategic priorities supported by the detailed report we provided became the foundation for their internal communications strategy for the years to come.

Four key findings were:

• Comms needs to be a priority for the business
• Less is more in comms, we needed to be smarter about format and channel
• Exchange magazine is the point of connection that cuts across functions
• Recognition is working, we need to grow it and ensure accessibility

And here are just some of the fantastic results in the year following the implementation of their new strategy:

• Ad-hoc all business email open rate ­ 55%
• Intranet sit visits ­400% with launch of a new platform
• Exchange Extra (digital magazine bonus content) roadshow boosted views by ­118%
• 100% open rate of line manager bulletin when first launched, which levelled to 75% over the first two months

• Internal Communications and Engagement Awards 2024:
  • Best ongoing commitment to internal communications – Gold
  • Best internal communications from the transport and logistics sector – Silver
  • Best evaluation process of internal communications – Gold
• Data Comms award: Best data driven internal communications – Gold