Barrick News Janet Wile, ABC Barrick Gold Corp. Toronto NEED/OPPORTUNITY Headquartered in Toronto, Barrick Gold Corporation is the world’s preeminent gold mining company with 27 operating mines and 20,000 employees worldwide. A key corporate information vehicle for employees is Barrick News, a global tabloid newsletter usually 24–28 pages in length, produced four times a year. This newsletter provides a focal point for all employees to be included in the context of the overall organization. A readers’ survey conducted in 2007 provided benchmark ratings and suggestions from employees for improvement. The team used this feedback to improve the newsletter throughout 2008. The survey found that Barrick News was among the top four most important sources of information for employees, along with e-mail, the intranet and supervisors. About 30 percent of employees have computers and intranet access, but most work in mines without computer access and rely on the hard copy newsletter as a key source of company information and recognition (second only to supervisors). Respondents gave the newsletter average to good ratings for being easy to read (79 percent) and visually appealing (72 percent), reflecting the company’s vision and values (70 percent), and including interesting content (64 percent). Sixty-eight percent rated it good to excellent and said it does a good job of creating a sense of community. The communication team saw a lot of room for improvement. Employees said they wanted more stories about operations, continuous improvement and innovation, and employee achievements. They wanted photos of other employees with captions that identify the people. They suggested numerous story ideas, such as information about Barrick’s product: gold. As part of the improvement effort, the team aligned the content to better reflect company priorities and to contribute to achieving company objectives related to safety, continuous improvement, security and operations, as well as celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary. INTENDED AUDIENCES The primary audience was Barrick’s 20,000 employees worldwide. This group is diverse in education, culture and profession. It includes miners, drivers, engineers, geologists, security and safety staff, and office professionals. Most work at the 27 operating mines located in Canada, the United States, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Peru, Chile and Argentina. Others work at remote exploration sites, or at regional or head offices in cities such as Toronto, Salt Lake City, Santiago, Perth, and Dar es Salaam. Employees in North America and Australia speak English, those in South America speak Spanish, and those in Africa speak Swahili. Barrick News is produced in all three languages. Managers and professionals in every region have intranet access and are generally English speakers, and many of them like to read Barrick News online.

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Supplementary audiences include contractors who work at Barrick locations, as well as suppliers and other visitors who pick up copies of the newsletter while visiting Barrick locations. OBJECTIVES

• Improve reader satisfaction and ratings by making improvements to the newsletter based on the results of the readership survey. Improvement was to be measured by a follow-up survey.

• Align content directly with company priorities to contribute to achievement of company objectives. Alignment was to be measured by a content analysis and progress of key company programs.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

• The communication team developed a 2008 editorial calendar that set out key topics. They distributed the calendar with deadline dates to regional communicators worldwide.

• To increase operations content, the team added a two-page mine profile in each issue. They asked regions to submit at least one operations story per issue and developed operations angles to other topics.

• The team emphasized recognition of employees by using their names, photos and quotes. They listed all 25-year employees, all Safety Awards winners and Continuous Improvement Award winners. They adjusted the editorial style to be less “corporate speak” and more about employee successes.

• The team gave employees a voice in a double-page spread called “Barrick People Speak Up,” which asked employees to comment on aspects of Barrick culture. This featured 16–20 employees each issue, with several people from each region and all levels.

• As an added feature for employees, the team initiated a series of inserts (posters), including a vision and values poster; a map of operations, projects and key facts; and a four-page foldout of the photo contest winners. These proved popular, and are now visible in cubicles and work areas worldwide. The map/key facts insert was also used as a handout for conferences to help other audiences learn about the company’s operations.

• The team acted on survey suggestions; for example, in response to a request for stories about gold, they produced a cover feature story “25 Facts about Gold” in conjunction with the company’s 25th anniversary.

• They introduced a regular column on continuous improvement tools and techniques. • In each issue, the team ran stories on the 25th anniversary and featured the 25th

anniversary logo on the cover. • They leveraged the intranet to promote each new issue and posted all issues to the

intranet as an archive and for the convenience of those who prefer to read it online. • The team conducted a content analysis after each issue, classifying each story by category

and adjusting content to ensure balance between regions and topics as well as alignment with priorities.

IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES / BUDGET The cost to produce each issue varies with the number of pages and the nature of any inserts. Average cost per issue in 2008 was CDN$4,000 for translation, CDN$13,000 for design and artwork, and CDN$19,000 for printing three versions (English, Spanish and Swahili), before inserts. These services are contracted out. In terms of staff time resources, the publication uses

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about 70 percent of a writer’s time and about 35 percent of the director’s time. It also absorbs some time from regional communications staff and subject experts who submit or review articles. CHALLENGES

• To assist busy regional communicators, the team issued the 2008 editorial calendar and deadlines well in advance and provided timely reminders. They set clear expectations of topics desired and planned for two pages of content from each of the company’s four business regions (North America, South America, Australia Pacific and Africa).

• The team relies on photos submitted from field staff (who are not professional photographers). To improve shot quality, they advised safety, CI, and other site staff about the photo requirements and invited their story ideas and content. They hold an annual global photo contest that generates up to 1,000 photos a year, and the best photos are kept on a network drive for team use. In addition, they take photos whenever global meetings of functional groups are held in Toronto so that they have file photos of key people when needed for the newsletter and other purposes.

MEASUREMENT/EVALUATION OBJECTIVES MEASUREMENT AND RESULTS Improve reader satisfaction and ratings by making improvements to the newsletter based on the results of the benchmark readership survey.

From November 2008 through the end of January 2009, the team conducted a follow-up newsletter survey. The 2007 survey was conducted by paper as well as online; however, with budget constraints introduced in late 2008, they chose to conduct a shortened online survey. Because the methodology and sample differ from the 2007 survey, results are not perfectly comparable, but the follow-up survey indicates significantly higher employee ratings: • Easy to read: 96 percent (80 percent in 2007). • Visually appealing: 94 percent (72 percent in 2007). • Reflects vision and values: 96 percent (70 percent in 2007). • Interesting content: 88 percent (64 percent in 2007). • Good source of company information: 91 percent (60 percent in 2007). • Recognizes employee achievements: 88 percent (63 percent in 2007). • Ninety percent rated Barrick News good to excellent, up significantly

from 68 percent in 2007. • Eighty-eight percent of respondents agreed Barrick News improved in

2008. The team responded to employee suggestions, e.g., employees wanted more photos with the people identified. A photo count shows that the team significantly increased the photo content total from 213 in 2007 to 306 in 2008, a 44 percent increase. Of the 306 photos, 287 (or 94 percent) had explicit captions.

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Align content directly with company priorities to contribute to achievement of company objectives.

Content analysis indicates a heavy weighting on key company priorities. All priority areas improved their business performance in 2008. • Operations stories increased 63 percent from 11 to 18. The company

achieved its 2008 production targets and advanced its development projects.

• Safety items increased 16 percent from 25 to 29. During the year, the company’s safety record improved (lowering its lost-time-incident frequency to 0.20, surpassing its target of 0.25, and lowering its total-injury frequency rate to 1.3 from 1.48 in 2007). Nine locations had zero lost-time injuries in 2008. The safety team says the publicity keeps safety awareness high and helps to build a positive safety culture across the company.

• Security: A major article on gold theft created momentum for the implementation of new security standards, and an audit conducted in 2009 indicates that sites are improving compliance.

• Continuous improvement stories increased 50 percent from 10 to 15, including a regular column. Momentum at sites for improvement projects increased. Continuous improvement projects across the company achieved the target of US$163 million in savings.

• Reviews from internal clients (heads of safety, CI, security) indicate they see how communication can promote and accelerate their programs to achieve objectives. The newsletter was only one aspect of communication support for these functions, but they believe it was an influential and important one.