Managing a small team: Oil and Gas Company

Q1. This staff plan is being developed for the Communications and Corporate Affairs department. Members of the department will be responsible for coordinating with internal and external stakeholders. While internal stakeholders will include the employees and senior management of the company, the external stakeholders will include customers, vendors, media and government departments. Five roles are envisaged within the department. All these roles will be full time and will be as under:

• Role 1: Internal communications executive – Senior management, marketing and human resources
• Role 2: Internal communications executive – Finance, audit, safety and geology
• Role 3: Internal communications executive – Social media and internal publications
• Role 4: External communications executive – Media relations management
• Role 5: Corporate Affairs executive – Liaison with government departments, industry bodies, associations, environment lobbies and NGOs.

The tasks for the above identified roles are enumerated as below:

• Role 1

      Tasks

• Understanding communication requirements of the senior management team like CEO, CTO, CFO, and Chief of Industrial Processes.
• Draft all employee communication content, required by these officials. Will draft speeches, presentations, contributory articles and opinion pieces
• Organize official photo shoots of the senior management team and update their bio-profiles, to be shared externally as and when required.
• Prepare a daily report covering news about the industry, competition, market scenarios and government policies and regulations and share the same with the management team.
• Liaison with marketing and human resource department to understand their communication requirements and support during special events.
• All internal communications requirement will be handled directly by the executive while for all external communications requirement, he or she will coordinate with the external communications executive.
• Role 2

Tasks

• Cater exclusively to the communication needs of the four identified departments
• Regularly interact with them to understand their requirements.
• Prepare all speeches, presentations, contributory articles and opinion pieces required by managers of these departments
• Drafting any employee communication that the departments might want to disseminate.
• Industry and competition developments, which are relevant for these departments, will be compiled by the executive and shared on a daily basis.
• Role 3

            Tasks

• Utilizing social media platform to enhance brand image of the company
• Utilizing it to communicate with external stakeholders.
• Create, maintain and update the Facebook page of the company and also its Twitter handle.
• Upload information which is relevant and needs to be shared with the external stakeholders, on the relevant platform
• Monitor any complaints posted on the social media space and respond to the complainant at the earliest, in coordination with the concerned department or senior management team, if required.
• Periodic and regular publication of in-house employee newsletter.
• Coordinate with other team members to gather all inputs and prepare the content drafts.
• Coordinate with the designing agencies for getting the layouts ready and supervise printing and dissemination.
• Role 4

      Tasks

• Responsible for media management across the business territories of the company.
• Coordinate with the company’s media agency and ensure publishing of stories which will enhance awareness about the company and its operation.
• Prepare press releases, special notes, product notes and share it with the media as required.
• Coordinate media meetings
• Crisis communication and preparation of crisis communication module
• Role 5

Tasks

• Coordinate with concerned stakeholders, be it government departments and officials, associations, NGOs and also environmental groups.
• Be in regular touch with these parties and keep the senior management informed about their view points.
• Regular meetings with the identified stakeholders

The time allotment for each of the tasks is presented below:

Title	Tasks	Time allotment
Internal communications executive – Senior management, marketing and human resources	Gathering communication requirement brief from senior management team	Once every fortnight
	Draft of employee communication material	Once every fortnight
	Drafting of external communication materials	Once every fortnight
	Organizing photo shoots and bio-profiles	Once annually
	Preparation of relevant reports	Daily
	Liaisoning with marketing departments	Once every week
	Liaisoing with human resource departments	Once every week
Internal communications executive – Finance, audit, safety and geology	Preparation of relevant reports	Daily
	Liaisoning with all departments	Once every week
	Drafting of external communication materials	Once every fortnight
Internal communications executive – Social media and internal publications	Monitoring social media platforms	Daily
	Responding to external stakeholder complaints	As and when it comes up
	Upload all relevant information on social media platform	Once every week
	Preparation of internal publications	Half yearly
	Review meeting with agencies	Half yearly
External communications executive – Media relations management	Relationship meetings/Media rounds	One center every month
	Coordinating for participation of company spokesperson in industry stories	Once every week
	Coordinating for company specific stories	Once every week
	Preparation and dissemination of announcements, press releases and product launches	As and when required
	Informal meetings between senior management team members and media	Once every month at each center
Corporate Affairs executive	Relationship meetings with government departments and officials	Once every month for each center
	Relationship meetings with associations and industry bodies	Once every month for each center
	Relationship meetings with environment groups	Once every month for each center
	Relationship meetings with NGOs	Once every month for each center

Q2. The relevant details are tabulated and presented below:

Job Title	Reports to	List of Tasks	Responsibility	Terms and conditions of employment	Experience required	Personal attributes	Educational qualification
Internal communications executive – Senior management, marketing and human resources	Senior Manager Communications and Corporate Affairs	a) Coordinate with senior management for communication needs; b) Maintaining relevant database of senior management profiles; c) Understand internal and external communication needs to marketing and HR departments	a) Draft all external communication materials; b) Draft all internal employee communication; c) Coordinate with media manager for media opportunities for senior management; d) Organize photo shoots and update profiles periodically; e) Coordinate with media manager for media opportunities for marketing and human resource department heads; f)  help these departments in preparation of collaterals required.	Excellent writing and communication skills; good team player	2 years minimum	Good listener, update with industry development, courteous	Mass comm.
Internal communications executive – Finance, audit, safety and geology	Senior Manager Communications and Corporate Affairs	a) Coordinate with identified departments for communication requirement. b) Keeping department heads updated of latest developments	a) Draft all external communication materials; b) Draft all internal employee communication; c) Coordinate with media manager for media opportunities for senior management; d) Coordinate with media manager for media opportunities for department heads; f) help departments in preparation of employee announcements; g) help departments in preparation of collaterals required.	Excellent writing and communication skills; good team player	2 years minimum	Good listener, update with industry development, courteous	Mass comm.
Internal communications executive – Social media and internal publications	Senior Manager Communications and Corporate Affairs	a) Develop and maintain social media platforms. b) Effectively interfacing with stakeholders through these channels. c) Ensuring publication of employee newsletter periodically	a) Monitoring social media developments regularly; b) Posting of company announcements; c) Responding to queries from stakeholders; d) Responding to complaints from stakeholders	Awareness about social media and its operations	3 years	Social media savvy	Mass comm. and related technical qualifications
External communications executive – Media relations management	Senior Manager Communications and Corporate Affairs	a) Develop and maintain effective media relations. b) Ensuring regular interaction with media c) Crisis communication	a) Regular media rounds across centers; b) Developing media opportunities for company spokesperson and senior officials; c) Coordinating with departmental comms executive to ideate story opportunities; d) Coordinating with media during crisis	Strong media relations; good negotiation skills; keen eye for stories in media; willing to travel	3 years	Outgoing and communicative; good listener; courteous and cool headed	Mass comm.
Corporate Affairs executive	Corporate Affairs executive	Develop and maintain relations with government, associations, industry bodies, environment groups and NGOs	a) Regular coordination with identified levels; b) Setting up goodwill meetings between levels and company management; c) Drafting of all required comms documents	Willing to travel; willing to work on holidays, if required	5 years	Outgoing and communicative; good listener; courteous and cool headed	Master’s degree in communication, management or allied subjects

Q3. The representation below shows the direct reporting structure between the five executives and the senior manager in-charge of their functioning. Though two different arrows have been included, the implication remains the same.

The structure below shows the way the five executives will be coordinating with the departments they are in-charge of and also their internal coordination. All the lines depict dotted line reporting.

Q4. Training will be organized for media relations executive, as he will be required to interact with an important stakeholder. He or she will represent the company to the media and hence training is important. The topic of the training will be Crisis Communication Preparedness. Training needs is identified as primarily helping the executive learn how to prepare a crisis communication module, which will be followed by all employees during a crisis. Second need is to help him or her learn, how to prepare documents required and keep updating them periodically. Third, need will be to expose the executive to the best ways to interact with the media during a crisis. In effect, this will essentially knowing what to say and what not to say to the media and how to handle queries. Steps will include deciding on the periodicity of the training, selecting the trainer after proper evaluation, deciding on the module format in consultation with the trainer, validating the module before the program, deciding on the venue where and the date when the training will be organized and finally devising a way to measure the effectiveness of the trainer and how help the module was to the employee. Materials will include finalization and sanctioning of the budget, ensuring preparation of handouts and presentations that will be used during the training, adequate venue arrangements like projector, mike and others.

Q5. The mock agenda below:

Main agenda of the meeting
Meeting Room No.		2
Date		6th December 2015
Time		3pm
Meeting facilitator		Sr. Manager – Comms & CA
Attendees of meeting		Internal comms executive, social media executive, media relations executive, corp affairs executive
	Agenda breakup
Serial No.	Topics	Action Points	Key Takeaway	Points for implementation	Process owner
1	Meeting with NGOS	Decide of meeting date and agenda	Meeting to focus on contribution of oil companies to climate change	Detail contributions of company; strategize of future approaches	Executive – Corp Affairs
2	Media Meeting for CEO	Decide key talk points	Meet CEO and get brief on business priorities	Coordinate for meeting and preparation of collaterals	Executive – Media Relations

Q6. Policy manual for the corporate communications and corporate affairs department covers four key points. They are mission, commitment, ethics and responsibility-liabilities. Mission sets out the foundation on which the departmental functioning is to be conducted. The primary mission of the department, communicate with the internal and external stakeholders about the company and the vision of the senior management. Such information constructs the path the organization is expected to follow. It also lays down the rules which employees are expected to abide by. Mode of information sharing will vary, but the sole objective of all pursuit will be to enhance the image of the company and give it a distinct edge. Departmental mission also includes the willingness to support all departments, who needs to communicate. Since government is an extremely important stakeholder in conducting business, supportive relation will be build with concerned authorities. This will ensure hassle free company operations. The commitment from the department includes extending all support for communication and stakeholder liaison requirements. Team members will hold regular meetings with departmental heads to gauge their requirements and mutually decide on opportunities. Communication team will cooperate with other teams to help them divide communication campaigns. This will ensure greater inter team exchanges and enhance the intra organization communication flow. Periodic non-agenda visits to government functionaries, to keep them abreast with company developments will be conducted. They will also be invited to special events of the company, and this will be organized by the team. Crisis communication and corporate affairs support, is a critical factor when the days are tough for business. Having a procedure in place to respond to such situation becomes a necessity. Team members will work closely with other seniors and developed a crisis communication and response manual. This will list down all the do’s and don’ts for employees. The communication patter to be followed will be enlisted and sample statements and other materials shall be included. This will become a ready reckoner during crisis and will help the company respond effectively to it.

Ethical consideration is an important policy of the company, given the sensitive nature of the job. All members will have to strictly abide by the ethical code and for any deviations, the concerned member will be deemed liable. Strict action will be taken in all such cases. As team members will be interacting with different individuals, each with differentiated interests, it is important that members adhere to some standards of business dealing. Because any unethical practise is liable to detection and such happening can spoil the image of the company. Therefore members will not be allowed to make any promises without consulting seniors. No bribes and gifts to be offered to officials, during business negotiations. Only occasion specific gifting will be permitted. Members will be barred from receiving any gifts from any stakeholders. The code of secrecy will be very important. Since team members will be privy to information, which are sensitive they will have to give an undertaking of secrecy. They will also be liable to investigation, if any suspicion of information leak is reported.

Policy on responsibilities and liabilities is also important for the department. This policy helps to put in motion a system of accountability and that will motivate and also push employees towards performance. According to this policy, jobs will be clearly demarcated for each member so that overlap is minimized. Only when jobs are specifically allotted can performance be tested, individually. Therefore each member will be given an independent area to work on. Though tasks will involve members working together, yet with clear division the point of failure can be identified. The liability clause ensures that members understand that onus of performance lies with them. For any failure, the concerned member will be held solely responsible. He or she can avail any support or help required for completion. But closing the task is ultimately the responsibility of the member and he or she is liable for effective closure.

 

Q7. Performance review process of the department will be conducted in sync with the performance appraisal process, outlined by HR, for the entire organization. The processes that will be followed for the same are outlined as below:

               

Q8. Within the corporate communication and corporate affairs department, a flat management structure will be followed. This implies that all members of the department are treated equal. Inter-member relations will not be determined by hierarchy, but more by team pride and spirit. All members will have uniform privilege to air their views, opinions, suggestions, inputs and insights. Key decisions, related to functioning and crisis handling, will be taken basis input of every member. During meetings, members will be free to share perspective, irrespective of his or her area of operation. Senior manager will maintain an open door policy, so that members can approach whenever required.