Develop Your Communications Plan

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Step 4

Now you are ready to draft your plan! In this step, we'll take you through the four important elements of the Awareness Plan: communications plan, activities, schedule and budget. When you're finished, you'll be all set to take your plan forward for approval.

A. Communications plan

A most important factor for success is how you "position" energy management communication to your employees. Your positioning must be meaningful enough to motivate your employees to change some of their habits.

In simple terms, your communications will be made up of:

• the message (what you say)
• the style (how you say it)
• the vehicle (what you say it with)

Identify and document what you need to say to your employees, and how to say it. We have already created tools to get you started, such as sample communications from management, Power Smart Tips and a poster. You can then select the best communications tool. Of course, as your organization is unique, you will need to customize some of these tools to best reflect your requirements.

1. Define your key messages
Your communications must be positioned to provide a core benefit – or benefits – to your target employees or occupants. The benefits must be strong, relevant and articulated clearly to overcome the potential challenges associated with change.

Messages to consider:

1. Save energy at work.
2. Save energy at home.
3. Contribute to improving the environment.
4. Contribute to our bottom line, security and community.

Below are some common challenges you could face and the benefits you can cite to overcome them.

Challenges:

• "This energy awareness program provides limited tangible or direct personal benefits to me."
• "I don't have enough time and am already overloaded with information and work."
• "How can my small contribution really make a difference?"

Benefits of energy efficiency:

• Energy efficiency contributes to greater productivity and larger profits, leading to job security and higher wages.
• Energy efficiency establishes optimal levels of lighting and temperature control to ensure a comfortable and productive working environment.
• Energy efficiency savings will be allocated toward employee reward programs that recognize individual efforts.
• Energy efficiency benefits the environment by reducing the amount of harmful greenhouse gas emissions being used.
• Energy efficiency contributes to B.C.'s economic well-being and the provision of essential services.
• Once they become habits, implementing energy saving techniques does not take more time.
• Individuals play a key role in the success of an energy-efficiency program and should be proud of their conservation efforts. For example, If every person did x, y would be saved, enabling z.
• The few minutes spent now to learn how we can each contribute can have long-term benefits into the future.

2. The style
The style you use for your communications should be consistent with that used in your organization. We also suggest the following guidelines:

• Be brief, informative and avoid long, philosophical discussions.
• Make the communication useful and relevant to the recipients.
• While a serious topic, try to avoid sounding negative or assigning blame.
• If you have a number of different audiences, you need to establish styles to match them.

3. The vehicle
There are many communications vehicles to consider when promoting energy conservation. Here are a few to consider:

1. Letters, memos or e-mails from upper management
2. Company newsletter or special energy newsletter
3. Press releases
4. Talks or presentations (lunch time or other suitable times)
5. Custom pamphlets and brochures
6. Posters

B. Activities

Once your program is approved and your team is assembled, these activities can begin. There are some activities that may be unique or particularly meaningful to your organization.

Communication activities to consider include:

• Establish an Awareness Week or Day Executive launch
• Publication in company/organization newsletter
• Workshops/presentations
  • Lunch time workshops
  • Conserving energy at home
  • Conserving energy at work
• Invite guest speakers to some of your presentations – from BC Hydro and suppliers
• Circulate posters
• Send out letters and e-mails  
• Power Smart tips (provide concrete actions to save energy)
• Door prizes or incentives (for example, energy-saving prize giveaways) at your talks
• Magnets
• Displays
• Contests
  • Facility with most savings (in %)
  • Facility with best participation (turn out)
  • "Kill-a-Watt" (After-hours energy workplace check)
  • Energy quizzes (with draws from correct answers) – see sample quiz [PDF, 23 Kb]
  • Prize packs (for example, a gift basket of Power Smart products)
• Integrate your activities with other companies'
• Relate behavioural changes to the home and personal savings (visit our Power Smart Green Your Home guide for a home energy profile and ways to save)
• Insert information in employee paycheque stubs
• Create t-shirts, buttons and/or coffee cups as giveaways and prizes
• Place signage to remind employees to turn equipment off

BC Hydro also has a number of other tools that are available for you to use. Check back often to see new additions to this list.

C. Schedule

Establishing a schedule is important at the planning stage. Once the team is established, the activities schedule can be fine-tuned and detailed further. When establishing the schedule of activities, be realistic. It's better to do a few things well.

Tip: Prepare a blocking chart that will show the activities and dates or duration they will be implemented.

D. Budget

A high-level budget will likely be required to get approval in principle to proceed. Once your team is in place, you can flesh out the specific details of your budget.

In addition to the cost of the communications and activities identified above, be sure to consider the following expenses when preparing your budget:

Labour:

• Program management
• Energy champion
• Support staff
• Guest speakers

Operating expenses:

• Administrative expenses
• Management and reporting systems
• Travel
• Long distance telephone calls
• Printing
• Other

Tip: When determining costs for communication tools, such as posters, be sure to consider the economies of scale for printing larger volumes to last for the entire campaign.

Congratulations! You have now completed your draft plan and are ready to go forward for approval.