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Hello again!

I’m half way through my internship at Minter Ellison, and am still thoroughly enjoying it! With new challenges and tasks keeping each day interesting my knowledge on public relations and marketing in the professional service industry is vastly improving. I have attended training sessions, created documents, continued to assist with events and learnt more about creating tenders and proposals.

I have really enjoyed styling the cover pages for a few proposals. This process normally involves creating three pages and then choosing the best one with relevant employees. I also had the opportunity to design a thank you advertisement under the guidance of the brand communications coordinator. The process was very similar to creating cover pages, using ‘in design’ and creating a sample of four – each with different tag lines and graphics and then choosing the one that would work best.

One thing that has greatly impressed me at Minters from day one has been the excellent level of internal communication. The firm as a whole, and on a smaller scale what I have witnessed and been involved with within the marketing team display clear, consistent and continued communication, ensuring the smooth execution of tasks as well as creating a sense of unity amongst the staff.

Given that the firm is spread out over four floors, with numerous operational divisions, email is the primary source used. The intrant houses a phone directory list of every employee’s telephone line extension so you can make direct internal calls with ease. The search function is also very efficient. Whilst on the topic of the Minter Ellison intranet... its interactivity and functionality make it a source you want to check more than once a day. With continual updates and a ‘shop’ section which is a bit like ebay -employees can post items for sale or post an advertisement seeking something, it really makes the firm seem more like a small community. All training sessions are booked here; upcoming events and feedback forums are posted amongst much more.

A weekly an email is sent to all staff describing what tenders (new client bills) were won, are in the pipeline or were unsuccessful and what staff members were involved.

A weekly national newsletter is sent out every Friday via email and is also available on the intranet. Fortnightly newsletters on the Perth office are produced by the marketing team – everyone is encouraged to send stories through to Abi who produces it. The good thing about the newsletter is that it has a balance of professional and social news, making it an interesting read.

The marketing team as well as hosting their own division meetings attend major monthly meetings of each law division, in order for them to know what is going on and what is planned for the near and long term future. Minutes of each meeting is shared via email and at marketing meetings, it also helps Abi with stories for the newsletter.

The marketing team have one major meeting a month on a Wednesday, and time restricted meetings every Tuesday to discuss what they have to work on, what they have been told about projects from other employees and so forth.

However with most of the team in close proximity general one on one conversation is the number one communication medium used by the marketing team. Given the real sense of help – and task sharing, most of the team know what is going on, and where each other is at. The meetings act as a formal way to ensure no information is lost and gives the team a chance to express concerns or suggest improvements.

Another element of Minter Ellison’s communication extends externally with its past employees. The section created and run by the marketing and IT team helps past Minters staff stay in touch and keep old colleagues informed about their new lives. It’s something Minters have found to be quite popular amongst the staff.

Given the vast amount of work we have done on internal communication I thought it would be good to share this with you all!

That’s all for now:)