1. The Power of Personas
Harnessing demographic segmentation in employee engagement
Judith Sparkes, Suncor Energy
Marcus Evans
2nd Internal Branding & Cultural Development
October 17, 2011
Background
• Suncor Energy
• Headquartered in Calgary,
Alberta
• 13,000 employees in Canada,
USA, Europe, Middle East,
North Africa
• Leading position in oil sands
supported by integrated
operations
• Pro-active advocate of
developing Canadian
sustainable energy strategy
• Focused on:
– Operational excellence
– Growth
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2. It’s hard to engage
employees in the
business if you can’t
connect with them.
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Before embarking on a communications
plan, it’s vital to understand interests,
perspectives and goals of audiences.
It’s the only way to connect
organizational goals with what’s
important to your audiences.
Personas can help bridge the gap.
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3. What are personas?
• Archetypes; hypothetical
“stand ins”
• Description of a fictional person
who represents major group of
employees
• Realistic but not real
• Although fictitious:
– Based on real employees
– Grounded in reality as much
as possible Source of example:
www.mollystevens.com/images/samplePersona.jpg
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Benefits of personas
• Common and shared understanding of
audience segments
• Engage employees
– Test plans and strategies against personas to assess:
• Reach
• Resonance
• Manage communications and HR functions and
resources effectively
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4. How to create personas
Research
• Invaluable but • Demographic data • Basic demographics
rarely provides • Surveys – Age, gender, years of service
richness required • Interview business • Job responsibilities and what typical
• Provide objective stakeholders who know day looks like
criteria – age, the audience well
gender etc. • What person likes best about their job
• Employee interviews • Teams or people person interacts
• Produces averages and focus groups with most
• Doesn’t necessarily • How time rich/poor
represent segments
which actually exist • Goals, attitudes, beliefs
• Doesn’t help • Characteristics
understand audience • Motivators
• Preferences
• Other relevant information:
– Work environment
– Information-seeking habits
– Personal and professional goals
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How to create personas
Develop
• Patterns in • One page • If narrative “too much”
attitudes and • Name and photo for your corporate culture
behaviours to • Personal details – Minimize amount
create clusters but don’t go of personal detail
overboard – Give persona a title
• Include elements rather than a name
that make sense – Write the persona as
in your context a list of bullet points
rather than a narrative
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6. Personas
Example of a detailed persona
“I have a computer in the control
room, but don’t use it to get to
company fluff stuff. My boss tells
me all I need to know to get my job
done and Sally in the front office
always makes sure that us guys
get print outs of the info that we
really need. I also flip through
the newsletter, but only really read
something when I know someone
in one of the pictures or articles.”
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Practical applications – Example #1
Using personas to test communications tools
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7. Practical applications – Example #2
Using personas in strategy development
“In the Know” initiative
• An employee communications
program that positions employees to
be ambassadors for Suncor and the
industry, called “In the Know”
• Opportunity to engage employees
in “new” Suncor
• Company-wide approach complemented
by tailored business unit approaches
• Example: Refining & Marketing
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Questions?
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