Communications Challenge
In 2005, a staff survey was conducted at Saskatchewan Ag and Food to measure employee engagement. The results of the survey demonstrated a need for better internal communication between employees of various levels and locations. The survey also showed a need to inform employees of the department’s strategic plan, so that all employees were instilled with a sense of how their work contributes to the Saskatchewan Ag and Food’s overall goals and objectives. A communication plan is necessary to address the department’s Internal Communication needs.
Strategic Communications Considerations
SAF employees are part of a large, widely dispersed group with diverse communication skills and needs. A challenge exists in assessing those communication skills and needs, and providing information that addresses the knowledge and information gaps. There may be differing perceptions regarding what kind of information is necessary to pass on to employees.
Budget considerations and current time constraints are ongoing concerns with regards to creating a sustainable internal communications plan.
Research
In general, survey results indicate that employees are happy with their work, with their contribution to the department, and the level of communication. However, as mentioned previously, a disconnect exists with regard to the ability to appreciate key messages, whether they stem from above or below.
In comparison with overall Saskatchewan Public Service results, the Department scored significantly better in most areas of the survey. Key differences include areas with significantly higher ratings in: Leadership and Direction, Organizational Values and Behaviours, and Enabling Environment.
Research on the Communication Strategy included an initial meeting with Scott Brown, SAF Director of Communications, to discuss Internal Communications and the possibility of reviving the Insider Newsletter. Research interviews were conducted with Peter Mayne, Manager of Internal Communications, Farm Credit Canada (see attached PDF file), Wendy Johnson, Leader of Corporate Development and Public Affairs, SaskPower (see attached PDF file) and Josephine Bricic, Director of Internal Communications, SaskTel (see attached PDF file). A review of the information gathered from these interviews as well as a review of their respective print and online newsletters followed. A review of the employee survey and the previous internal communication strategy were conducted. Background research included a review of the old employee newsletter, the Insider, informal research on the general level of communication in the department. An online search provided some credible research on internal and organizational communication. Books, articles and manuals on Internal Communications were reviewed, including IABC’s “Inside Organizational Communication” by Al Wann. In addition, I contacted SAF’s Human Resources department for a possible joint collaboration on an Internal Communications Project.
Key Stakeholder Assessment
• SAF employees and management inside Regina/Saskatoon, and other Regional offices:
• employees in SAF offices are connected to SAFNet (our Intranet), and will have access to the online newsletter.
• SAF employees and management outside Regina/Saskatoon and other Regional offices:
• A small proportion of employees are “off the grid”, so to speak, and are not connected to SAFNet. They are, however, connected to SAF offices via email, and we would endeavour to reach them with an alternative version of the newsletter this way. For example, we could send them a small (file size) one-page email newsletter, based on the online version.
Communications Objectives
• Increase basic communication competencies across all levels of the department, including such areas as listening, speaking, giving feedback. Boost the number of occasions good communications practices are used;
• Increase two way and face to face communication across all levels of the department.
• Increase the number of occasions two way and face to face communication take place;
• Increase the number of occasions that senior management discusses the department activities with staff;
• Ensure that the right messages are getting to the people who need it.
Key Communications Messages
• SAF is committed to increasing the level of communication within the department;
• SAF is committed to sharing the department’s vision and shared values with its employees;
• SAF is responding to concerns in the most recent employee survey of declining levels of communication in the department.
Communications Action Plan
• Two way communication among staff could be improved by programs that link the Senior Management Group to employees. Suggestions include:
• opportunities for small groups of employees to go out for lunch with members of the SMG;
• allowing members of the SMG to sit in as guests at employee meetings; and
• creating an “Ask a question, Get an answer” program where employees can submit questions to someone in the Senior Management Group via a website contact form or via a suggestion box (cafeteria?)
• The creation of an integrated Internal Communications website, perhaps on SAF’s intranet, SAFNet, which would include a Web newsletter version of the Insider, as well as helpful features and information on topics relevant to internal communications. Topics could include speaking, listening, giving feedback, dealing with hostile clients, public speaking, and hosting effective meetings.
• The creation of a web-based Newsletter, an update of the Insider. The newsletter would include regular features such as Health and Safety, a Diversity Committee Report, SAF People, a SAFNet Report, SAFSA Report, an Event Calendar, Branch and Regional Updates. The newsletter would be produced monthly, with new and timely information uploaded on a regular basis. Email bulletins would be sent when new information or issues are available. The online Insider newsletter must have a contact form so people can be in touch with the editor or editorial board, to express their opinion, or to submit newsletter ideas or content. This contact form webpage contributes to the goal of increasing two way communications.
• The creation of a print and web-based manual called Basic Communications Skills: Best Practices (top 10). The Internal Communications Project team should consult with communication expert(s), in association with HR and SMG to identify the top communication issues at SAF. The department should ensure this manual is a part of every employee’s Orientation Package.
Pilot Project
The Internal Communications Project will study the possibility of including Web 2.0 technologies as a way to increase employee communication.
High quality Podcasts (or SAFCasts) can be produced with the help of the Communications Department’s A/V Division. Issues or topics of the interviews would be concurrent with newsletter. For example, a communications consultant can interview someone on the Diversity Committee on their most recent newsletter topic. Consultants can also interview members of SMG on Management communications or directives, members of the OH&S Committee on the latest OH&S issue, SAFSA, SAFNet, Branch Directors, etc. The interviews can be recorded on high quality equipment and converted to MP3s, which will in turn be made available on the Insider Newsletter website.
As part of this pilot project, the Internal Communications project team needs to conduct a survey to determine whether employees can or would use this Podcast technology. In order to receive messages from this channel, employees need the right technology, the interest, and a familiarity with Podcasting.
Budget
• Eight person hours per week, divided between the Communications and Human Resources Specialists assigned to the Joint Internal Communications Project; plus
• $3000 for printing and other related costs of the Basic Communication Manual;
• Total approximately $3,000 (not including employee time).
Evaluation
• Short and sweet yearly employee engagement surveys will be conducted, to assess increases in Best Practices in Basic Communications and the level of knowledge of Saskatchewan Ag and Food’s overall goals and objectives;
• Employee feedback (informal);
• Employee evaluations and/or exit meetings;
• Web site statistics for both the Internal Communications Project and the Insider Newsletter. Reports from website feedback.
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Peppers
The key to peppers, I've heard, is mixing epsom salts (1TBSP) and 1 gallon of H20. Spray it on the leaves of the plant as it is growing.
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Thursday, 25 January 2007
The PoCo Wranglers
Here are my high school soccer buddies. I think I decided to become a goalie in part because I wouldn't have to wear this hideous uniform. We were called the "wranglers" because at one time the jean company sponsored us.
Tuesday, 2 January 2007
Grandma in her Garden
| This is a video of my Grandma, Rose Holitzki, in her garden in the summer of August 2000, just a few months before she fell and had to move to a smaller apartment with grandpa to get care for her health problems. | |
Monday, 25 December 2006
My Father's Eulogy
Eulogy for Claude Hoedel, written and delivered by Simone Hoedel January 18th, 2006
Good morning everyone. My name is Simone. I want to thank you all for being here to remember my father, Claude Hoedel.
Claude was born in 1938 in Killaly, Saskatchewan. Both his parents, Elizabeth Baumgartner and Ewald Hoedel, grew up in German speaking households in this small farming community where most families struggled to make ends meet.
Claude was the youngest of 6 children in the Hoedel family. His father, Ewald, farmed just outside Killaly on the family homestead, and later moved the family into Killaly where Ewald worked as the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Agent.
Like my father, Ewald was a popular, intelligent and athletic fellow who liked his drinks. Ewald died in a boating accident in 1949, when my father was only 11 years old. I believe this was very hard for the family, especially for Claude.
My father was good in school and excelled at Sciences and Math. He was also a top-notch athlete. He admired his uncle, Jimmy Baumgartner, who was a famous baseball player in this area at that time.
Claude fell in love and got married in 1959 to Adeline Holitski, a local girl. They moved to Saskatoon where my dad went to the University of Saskatchewan to get his engineering degree. I was born in Saskatoon in 1961.
Our little family moved to Regina in 1964, where my dad worked for the Saskatchewan Power Corporation as an engineer. My 2 brothers, Craig and Shawn, were born in 1964 and 1966.
We moved to Alberta for a year or so, then in 1974 my dad found a job with BC Hydro. We lived in Port Coquitlam, BC for most of those years growing up. In BC, dad worked as the Superintendent of Gas Pipelines for the Fraser Valley.
In his spare time, he took up curling, and won a lot of championships as a skip. He also played on a team with my mom, Adeline, and together, they won a few trophies.
In 1982, dad returned to Regina to work for SaskPower and later TransGas. The family lived in a lovely home in Lakeview, which is a nice area. Dad did his best to provide for the family and be a husband and father.
My father, truthfully, struggled with an alcohol problem that curtailed his success and happiness. Although he always cared about us, sometimes we were in competition with the bottle for his affections, and this of course, cause a lot of grief.
Despite this problem, Claude worked until he retired in 1999. But after retirement, he began to suffer from more and more health problems. Years of heavy smoking and drinking took their toll, and he declined physically and mentally until he died last week.
I want to tell you how he died, because I was there.
These past few months, Claude was mostly in the hospital receiving treatments. But starting New Years Eve, he stayed in the Executive Suite at the Delta Inn in Regina, because that was the only smoking suite available. He was very elated: “Wow! I made it,” he said.
But a few days later, he was readmitted to the hospital with a blood infection and he declined very rapidly.
I spent some time watching TV beside him in the Palliative Care ward at the Pasqua Hospital. He was at this point, not really responding to the world around him. He had received his Last Rites.
I was watching the news when I heard a little groan from Claude, so I went to the bedside to see if he was okay. Claude was staring wide-eyed at the ceiling with a blissful, childlike expression on his face. I’d never seen anything like it before.
I said to him: “What cha lookin’ at, dad?” and looked up at the ceiling tiles he seemed to be staring at. When I looked back at him, one tear had escaped his right eye, and I wondered why he was crying.
But this was actually his last moment.
I marvel at how a person who struggled personally for so many years could find peace at the very end of his life like this. You can be sure Claude left this world spiritually pure, like the moment he was born. I was there to witness it. And we can all feel good about that.
Thank you.
Good morning everyone. My name is Simone. I want to thank you all for being here to remember my father, Claude Hoedel.
Claude was born in 1938 in Killaly, Saskatchewan. Both his parents, Elizabeth Baumgartner and Ewald Hoedel, grew up in German speaking households in this small farming community where most families struggled to make ends meet.
Claude was the youngest of 6 children in the Hoedel family. His father, Ewald, farmed just outside Killaly on the family homestead, and later moved the family into Killaly where Ewald worked as the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Agent.
Like my father, Ewald was a popular, intelligent and athletic fellow who liked his drinks. Ewald died in a boating accident in 1949, when my father was only 11 years old. I believe this was very hard for the family, especially for Claude.
My father was good in school and excelled at Sciences and Math. He was also a top-notch athlete. He admired his uncle, Jimmy Baumgartner, who was a famous baseball player in this area at that time.
Claude fell in love and got married in 1959 to Adeline Holitski, a local girl. They moved to Saskatoon where my dad went to the University of Saskatchewan to get his engineering degree. I was born in Saskatoon in 1961.
Our little family moved to Regina in 1964, where my dad worked for the Saskatchewan Power Corporation as an engineer. My 2 brothers, Craig and Shawn, were born in 1964 and 1966.
We moved to Alberta for a year or so, then in 1974 my dad found a job with BC Hydro. We lived in Port Coquitlam, BC for most of those years growing up. In BC, dad worked as the Superintendent of Gas Pipelines for the Fraser Valley.
In his spare time, he took up curling, and won a lot of championships as a skip. He also played on a team with my mom, Adeline, and together, they won a few trophies.
In 1982, dad returned to Regina to work for SaskPower and later TransGas. The family lived in a lovely home in Lakeview, which is a nice area. Dad did his best to provide for the family and be a husband and father.
My father, truthfully, struggled with an alcohol problem that curtailed his success and happiness. Although he always cared about us, sometimes we were in competition with the bottle for his affections, and this of course, cause a lot of grief.
Despite this problem, Claude worked until he retired in 1999. But after retirement, he began to suffer from more and more health problems. Years of heavy smoking and drinking took their toll, and he declined physically and mentally until he died last week.
I want to tell you how he died, because I was there.
These past few months, Claude was mostly in the hospital receiving treatments. But starting New Years Eve, he stayed in the Executive Suite at the Delta Inn in Regina, because that was the only smoking suite available. He was very elated: “Wow! I made it,” he said.
But a few days later, he was readmitted to the hospital with a blood infection and he declined very rapidly.
I spent some time watching TV beside him in the Palliative Care ward at the Pasqua Hospital. He was at this point, not really responding to the world around him. He had received his Last Rites.
I was watching the news when I heard a little groan from Claude, so I went to the bedside to see if he was okay. Claude was staring wide-eyed at the ceiling with a blissful, childlike expression on his face. I’d never seen anything like it before.
I said to him: “What cha lookin’ at, dad?” and looked up at the ceiling tiles he seemed to be staring at. When I looked back at him, one tear had escaped his right eye, and I wondered why he was crying.
But this was actually his last moment.
I marvel at how a person who struggled personally for so many years could find peace at the very end of his life like this. You can be sure Claude left this world spiritually pure, like the moment he was born. I was there to witness it. And we can all feel good about that.
Thank you.
Saturday, 16 December 2006
The Game is Up
by Simone Hoedel
copyright 1992
I.
You are two odd men out
From the hinterland
Dropping poisoned stones into the well
Filling spaces with your grins
And your loose shifting gazes
It's a token to your enduring enmity
You never seem angry
While you smash our peace
Clawing at our soft underbellies
Drawing out, like blood,
Our liquid flesh
Let me tell you:
We are full of our portions
Of discipline and vague threats
Of long held vigilance against
Your snares and slaps
II.
We go to the barrier
And toss off another load
Of useless metal for scrap
And bag up a pile of your
Anti-words for recycling
Ín our country these things
Have no meaning
Until they're destroyed
III.
You are two men
From the hinterland
Picking through the rubble
Of a lost time.
In the barrios and shantytowns
You shave your heads
And begin a chant
And far off to the north and east
The drumbeats enjoin
An old old rhythm
Buried for generations
Deep, and far from home.
copyright 1992
I.
You are two odd men out
From the hinterland
Dropping poisoned stones into the well
Filling spaces with your grins
And your loose shifting gazes
It's a token to your enduring enmity
You never seem angry
While you smash our peace
Clawing at our soft underbellies
Drawing out, like blood,
Our liquid flesh
Let me tell you:
We are full of our portions
Of discipline and vague threats
Of long held vigilance against
Your snares and slaps
II.
We go to the barrier
And toss off another load
Of useless metal for scrap
And bag up a pile of your
Anti-words for recycling
Ín our country these things
Have no meaning
Until they're destroyed
III.
You are two men
From the hinterland
Picking through the rubble
Of a lost time.
In the barrios and shantytowns
You shave your heads
And begin a chant
And far off to the north and east
The drumbeats enjoin
An old old rhythm
Buried for generations
Deep, and far from home.
The Green Woman
by Simone Hoedel
copyright 2002
In the little Peruvian pueblo of Aguascaliente, at the foot of Machu Picchu, I discovered a very decent earthy restaurant called Chez Maggy's.
One afternoon, after an arduous day with hordes of tourists on the ancient site, I visited the spot for a bite to eat. After the meal, I asked for Mate de Coca, a medicinal Andes drink, because I wasn't feeling very well, I said. Coca tea is very popular and common among tourists and locals, and bags of coca leaves sell in stalls on the street for about two dollars.
I asked the server, a Native American, what the relationship was between this Coca leaf tea and cocaine. He came to join me at my table and asked me, in Spanish, if I would like to hear a traditional story about coca. Of course, I was delighted.
A long time ago, a woman arrived in the land of the Incas who was very beautiful, and whose skin was green. She was from the "Selva", jungle or forest, and her name was "Quolka". All the Incas fell in love with her, so that whenever she left, all the people were so despondent they didn't work or eat or do anything productive.
Eventually "Los Sabios" (wise ones) felt the problem was so great for the people, they decided they had to get rid of the woman of the Selva. One of the wise men met with Quolka and killed her, then caused the green woman to be caught up in a flame, which burned her to ashes.
And while the people were despondent after Quolka died, after a while, a plant grew out of the ashes where the woman of the Selva had died and burned. The people noticed the plant was very "suave" (sweet, soft) and had a lovely scent.
Then he demonstrated how they took three leaves fanned out between two fingers, bit off all of the leaves but the very bottom of the stems, and chewed the hojas de Coca. So I did the same.
"Gracias", I said, "Me siento mejor." (I feel better, thanks)
copyright 2002
In the little Peruvian pueblo of Aguascaliente, at the foot of Machu Picchu, I discovered a very decent earthy restaurant called Chez Maggy's.
One afternoon, after an arduous day with hordes of tourists on the ancient site, I visited the spot for a bite to eat. After the meal, I asked for Mate de Coca, a medicinal Andes drink, because I wasn't feeling very well, I said. Coca tea is very popular and common among tourists and locals, and bags of coca leaves sell in stalls on the street for about two dollars.
I asked the server, a Native American, what the relationship was between this Coca leaf tea and cocaine. He came to join me at my table and asked me, in Spanish, if I would like to hear a traditional story about coca. Of course, I was delighted.
A long time ago, a woman arrived in the land of the Incas who was very beautiful, and whose skin was green. She was from the "Selva", jungle or forest, and her name was "Quolka". All the Incas fell in love with her, so that whenever she left, all the people were so despondent they didn't work or eat or do anything productive.
Eventually "Los Sabios" (wise ones) felt the problem was so great for the people, they decided they had to get rid of the woman of the Selva. One of the wise men met with Quolka and killed her, then caused the green woman to be caught up in a flame, which burned her to ashes.
And while the people were despondent after Quolka died, after a while, a plant grew out of the ashes where the woman of the Selva had died and burned. The people noticed the plant was very "suave" (sweet, soft) and had a lovely scent.
Then he demonstrated how they took three leaves fanned out between two fingers, bit off all of the leaves but the very bottom of the stems, and chewed the hojas de Coca. So I did the same.
"Gracias", I said, "Me siento mejor." (I feel better, thanks)
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