SMART

About 50% of my placement was conducted in the Corporate Head office in Osborne Park. The first day in the head office was quite daunting, as I realised that my office was located conveniently next to the CEO of the company.    However I soon found out that the friendly work environment, allowed a low-key atmosphere where I was able to ask any questions and queries’ of the company.

The Marketing Manager Julia Dalby, set out a task of reading all the internal resources on the shared drive “QMS”.  Julia told me that Workpower Incorporated believed that internal communications was integral, as part of how the company was represented and that she was in charge of creating the various Newsletters that were sent out. On her computer I noticed a sticky note which spelt out “SMART” which represented “Specific, Measurable, Relevant and timely”, the acronym which I used in nearly every Public Relation assignment that I had ever written. I was contented to find that my previous assignments were definitely going to assist the tasks assigned by the company.

Through the various internal communications newsletters which included Greenflash – Sustainability within the Organisation and WiSH- Occupational Health and Safety, I learnt that Workpower’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility was a large part of the organisation and this was vital in terms of the way that the company was represented to external stakeholders.

 I was also required to read policies and procedures of the company and the one that really stuck out at me was the “Trade Practices Act 1974( The Act)” in the areas of Green Marketing, which  stated that businesses must not mislead or deceive consumers in anyway, which applied to all forms of advertising and promotions in all mediums. In the unit Public Relations Media, I clearly remembered the unethical behaviour of Greenwashing, which directly related to this act. Workpower’s division QualipacPlus specialises in the manufacturing of pin markers, blister packaging and fly curtains, which is what this policy was directed at.

 The second task, was to inspect the Website and to make observations upon what could be improved and what was already effective. The first problem that I noticed upon the website was the same conflict I received in feedback, on my PR Consultancy PR Pitch. This was the importance of the right colour scheme in order for the writing to be easy to read and legible. The yellow writing chosen to convey Workpowers slogan “ people choose us” against the green background, caused the words to fade and was in severe need of change. I remember the exactly problem, with the class squinting their eyes to view our slides. I sure learnt my lesson.

I did notice one important aspect that related to theory that I have learnt in my last 3 years of Public Relations degree and this was the PR principle of one message across all mediums. Whether it was internal or an external resource of Workpower, there was one main message, which was too

 “Promote, enable and support the increased participation and inclusion of people with disability and people with mental illness in our community”.

Until next time, Amira.