HPCL- Driving Change Through Internal Communication

HPCL- DRIVING GROWTH THROUGH INTERNAL COMMUNICATION Managerial Communications II Submission

DECEMBER 18, 2014

SUDIPTA SANFUI 0366/51

Situation Analysis 

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In 2003 due to major changes in the Indian oil industry competitive pressure increased in the previously state controlled market. This forced the organisation to focus on the strengths and the weakness of the existing and the potential competitors and to channel resources towards one customer segment or another. Culturally the organisation had to have major transformation after the government policies deregulated the control thus bringing in the private players. Employees still had “public system mentality” and they didn’t focus on the customers. For a long time the employees were used to the customer coming to them rather than the company going to the customers.

Problem Statement 

The organisation had to adapt to a fundamentally altered environment. Due to the change in the policies of the earlier state controlled industry, the change in the culture and mentality of the employees were essential to sustain the growth of the company.

Statement of Purpose 

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The employees of the organisation are required to focus on the common goal and vision of the company to sustain the growth and maintain its market share. The commitment of achieving change through internal communication, constructing new strategic and cultural vision for the company.

Options 

Vision Workshops

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Visit Marketplace

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Transformational Communication

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One-to –one communication

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Evaluation of Options 

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Vision Workshops In these workshops the employees were able to offer their own opinions and insights on the current state and future course of the company. Here they were able to hear their fellow employee’s views and vision. The workshops helped to promote trust and collegiality among the workshop participants, it familiarized them with the speculative, aspirational style of thinking that the vision-making process required. It set up a dynamic in which they developed and explored the link between personal aspirations and organisation’s growth. Visit Marketplace Formation of cross-functional teams and assigned them to do the market study and market research and understand where the customer is. They developed a good understanding of the views of the customer towards the company as against competing companies. Transformational Communication Here the two-way of communication is given emphasis on which would give shape to the better understanding of the decisions, policies and vision which in turn will contribute to better efficiencies and approach. One venue of two-way communication is MyHPCL, the company’s intranet portal. One-to -one communication HPCL executives strongly preferred one-to-one communication as the belief is that if the employee finds that somebody cares about him, then it has tremendous impact on the on their outlook. The company operates in a large market and cannot rely too extensively on one-to-one communication between leaders and employees. HPCL executives hold large scale town hall meetings to have their relatively physical way of one-to-one communication.

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Conclusion Behind the vision workshop program was a managerial vision of what the program could achieve for HPCL, and more broadly a vision of what internal communication could achieve. In the first conversation they enabled employees to talk with one another about the core purpose of the company and its place within a larger business context. The second conversation emerged as HPCL leaders engaged directly with the first conversation creating an interactive process in which they not only delivered messages, but also listened to what employees had to say. The market place visit initiative brought in varied and new ideas which changed the future brand image and service level of the company. In one such example one female employee from the finance office suggested that the HPCL outlets on the highways should have clean ladies washrooms and that is what which gives it the competitor advantage. In a similar stint another market research team resulted in key insights on how the company could improve its retails performance by improving its retails spacing. Taking up these insights HPCL began to modernize a large portion of the roadside gas stations. Another set was findings that dealt with the opportunity to serve the rural markets. The employees came up with a plan to place small retail outlets in the rural areas called Humara Pumps and the performance of these pumps were much better than expected and returned the investment in 3 years and side by side it increased the brand insight in rural areas. The two –way communication through platforms like “MyHPCL” and “Coin your idea” are great and robust initiative by the leaders of HPCL. This gave the employees to share their ideas and views and also get rewarded if the idea was found to be effective and feasible. By implementing these types of communication and programmes the company brought win-win situation for all. The effects of these programmes were tested during a time when in January 2009 the employees of OIL SECTOR OFFICERS ASSOCIATION called for a strike regarding the pay scale control by the government. All the employees of other oil companies went on strike but the employees of HPCL served to meet the surged demand in the market during these days. Robust internal communication played a key part in enabling HPCL to stand out amongst its peer companies. As the strike deadline neared, the company directed appeals to its officers via email and through HPCL intranet. In addition leaders help one-to one communication with numerous officers, urging them not to join the planned work stoppage. During these 3 days HPCL served day and night to meets the demands of the country and brought in the sense of dependability amongst the customers and also praised by the government for this great deed.

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