Strategic Communication Plan For Engaging Millennials In Esplanade

The millennial generation is increasingly recognised as eager, ambitious and genuinely talented. Because the communication styles, expectations and work habits of millennials are different from those of other generations, integrating them into a company’s culture and communicating effectively with them must be done carefully.

Discuss the importance of distinguishing your organisation’s brand to raise its profile in the eyes of the local news media and target audiences.

Assuming the role of a communication manager, you are to formulate a six-month-long strategic communication plan for your organisation’s efforts in engaging millennials as key stakeholders, e.g. audiences, customers, staff members, volunteers. Keeping in mind the current landscape of your industry, propose an integrated strategic communication plan to distinguish the organisation’s brand in the eyes of the local media and millennials.

You are required to conduct secondary research and incorporate relevant information about the industry that your organisation is focused on, as well as your organisation’s mission/products/services, into the strategic communication plan. The secondary research you are asked to conduct involves finding and analysing information from third-party sources such as market research reports, company websites, news articles and other sources; you will be required to discuss this research and cite your sources.

Alternatively, you may choose to base your ECA on any organisation or company that is based in Singapore, for example:

• Esplanade – Theatres By The Bay

• National Library Board Singapore
  
  
• Singapore Committee for UN Women

Esplanade Theatres on the Bay or The Esplanade Theatre or The Esplanade is a centre of arts which is located near the Singapore River at Mariana Bay (Esplanade, 2017). The theatre consists of a huge seating capacity of 2000 and a seating capacity of 1800 in the concert hall. The Esplanade was official opened in the year 2002 in the month of October, by the then Singapore president S. R. Nathan. Esplanade is not an art centre which is focussed on the profit. They conduct of about 3000 shows yearly. All kinds of dance, musical as well as theatrical performances are held in Esplanade.

The vision of the company states that, Esplanade believes in creation of art for everyone. They try to make the art available for everyone and believe that every single role of each person is important to organize the events. Inspiring the spectators as well as cultivators of arts is the main aim of the company (Yoursingapore, 2017). The mission of Esplanade states that it is a non-profit arts centre and it engages them in the work of entertaining people, engaging people, inspiring and educating people. The Esplanade also performs communal motivation programme which try to engage everyone and participate in order to enjoy.

Esplanade is mainly a charitable organization which focuses on various genres such as dance, films, music, visual arts and also on theatrical dramas. Also, various kinds of performances are held which focuses on various age groups such as children, youth, seniors as well as families. The workshops are also held from time to time in order to enhance the skills of the performers and free programmes also takes place sometimes which attracts a large number of guests. Rehearsal studio, recital studio, annexe studio, hospitality spaces and so on are also there inside Esplanade apart from the theatre and the concert hall.

The Millennial is a term which is applied to the people who all reached the adulthood in the early 21^st century (Haugen and Musser, 2013). Approx, those people born between 1976 and 2004 are termed as millennial and they face a strong challenge while communicating in the workplace. These people have conflicts with different generations due to their conflicting ideas and moreover, Singapore is the country which ranks 1^st in the gloomiest millennial, which is followed by Japan, Italy and Greece. The millennials are also the largest generation that is present in Singapore workplaces. Among the present population of Singapore, there are about 1.2 million millennials that are engaged in different places in the Singapore workplaces. As the millennials live in a generation where the unemployment rate in Singapore is low, their expectation from the job is very high which tends a problem to this generation (Ng, Lyons and Schweitzer, 2012). There are various factors that are there in front of Esplanade to engage the millennials in their job role. The issues are discussed below:

The company culture is one of the most important determinants of the challenges faced by the millennials in workplace (Guirdham, 2009). As millennial is a young generation, it is sometimes though that engaging millennials in the workplace will require table tennis boards and no regulations and rules in the office. This is not necessarily the case at all. The millenials are the ones who want more team work and less working alone in an environment and they often require more off time from the work. Also, celebrating birthdays at workplace, pool parties, and hosting events like Secret Santa can keep the millennials happy at workplace.

Analysis of the situation and communication challenges for Esplanade

As there are less off time in the work for the millennials in Esplanade as well as less events to focus on the requirement stated above, the millennials are often found gloomy and are not able to concentrate on their work.

The communication style of the millenials also doesn’t match with that of the older and the younger generation people (Rainer, & Rainer, 2011). The older and the younger generation prefer e-mail contacting as well as phone calls, while the millennials are much dependent on tweets and instant messages using facebook, whatsap and so on. Communication breakdown of millennials takes place with the younger workers when they communicate with abbreviations, colloquialism and informal language. There are different generations which values diverse communication styles and working in teams plays a different role for them.

As there are different generations that work together in Esplanade, the communication is a serious issue and sometimes there is conflict in the workplace in terms of communication. The older generation and the younger generation tends to use phone calls as well as e-mails in communicating in Esplanade while the millennials tend to use instant messaging apps like whatsap and facebook messenger which causes a serious breakdown of communication is Esplanade (Pin, 2015).

The millennials are also termed as negative stereotypes as they are a lazy generation and needs more motivation to work (Weirich, 2017). Also, the millennials are obsessed with technology and smart phones as well as they are of very stereotypical type. The negative stereotype people or the millennials are also difficult to train as they are very stubborn in their way of thinking and doing works.

In Esplanade, exactly the same problem is faced by the trainers who are older and younger than the millennials. They face the stubbornness of the millennials while they are directed to perform a job. Also, the millennials are found to be lazy and not performing their job properly due to the gloominess in them. The millennials also stick to their mobile phones all the time during their work as they are tech-savvy and do not perform their task in Esplanade properly.

Millennials also have different expectation from the job (Miller, 2010). As they are more tech savvy and leaned towards technology, they want to work in the offices that make use of technology to the fullest. Making the millennials work without technology is very difficult as they believe spending more time in office is irrelevant when the work can be completed easily within few hours. So, making the millennials perform the work, where they cannot make use of the technology is very difficult.

As Esplanade make use of the technology in a moderate way and is not much focused in the technology working environment, the millennials lose their interest from time to time in order to work in an environment which supports less technological works. Also, in Esplanade, the workers have to stay in office for an allocated time by the authority, so making the millennial generation stay for a longer amount of time, make them frustrated as well as disinterested in performing their work.

Company Culture

The strategic communication of a company helps them to do the promotion of the brand and makes people of the company perform several actions in order to reach the objectives of the company (Heath, 2015). The strategic communication is beneficial for the company as it helps the company to reach their objectives by making the employees work together achieving individual objectives, so that the company objectives are fulfilled.

In this particular context, there are various problems that are faced by Esplanade in terms of millennials in the workforce of the organization as well as millennials present in the form of the customers of the organization. The main motive of the organization is to make the millennials as the stakeholders of the organization and for that purpose, to solve the problems that the millennials face in the workplace is very significant (Sauser, & Sims, 2012). The motive of the strategic communication plan is to push the information towards the public of the organization, especially to the media channels and also to those, to whom the communication is being directed, i.e. the millennials. Strategic communication procedure helps in delivering the message up to the targeted candidate with the help of the media channels.

There are various ways with the help of which the problems of the millennials can be solved in the Esplanade with a six months long plan in the organization. The plan is described below according to six month long plan:

From the first day to the 15^th day of the strategic communication plan, it is the focus of the plan to provide a flexible environment of working to the millennials. Building a relaxed workplace for the millennials is very important (Nakaya, 2010). Creating a fun workplace is very important for the millennials as they prefer working in an environment which is fun for them. Esplanade Theatre should be more focused towards providing the employees of the organization a more relaxed environment, where it is fun to work. The volunteers should also get time for relaxing as well as Esplanade theatre should held more fun dramas for the millennial customers in order to enhance the moods of the millennial customers who are working in other organization of Singapore.

Also creating opportunities of the millennials to interact with each other is very important. Making the millennials interact with each other will make them overcome the barriers that they face during their work. For this purpose, the employees, volunteers and the staff members will be allocated free time from work in Thursday or Friday afternoon in order to communicate with each other (Marston, 2007). This will help the millennials erase their barriers as they are the ones that put their lifestyle and friends above any other things in the workplace.

Providing training to the millennial employees, staff members as well as the volunteers is very significant. The employees and the staff members should be trained about the work culture and also about the job that they need to perform (Hess, 2012). The volunteers learning should also be enhanced in this procedure of training. As the millennials are taught more by their parents that education is the most important thing, they lack in the practical knowledge of how to perform in the business. So, training should be provided to infuse more practical knowledge in the millennials in order to make them perform their work in Esplanade.

Style of Communication

Providing the millennials exposure to different types of business environment is necessary as it will help the millennials to build various connections, as well as help it will help to satisfy their mentoring need. Esplanade should be able to use intranet to make the millennials work at their own working pace and help the millennials to build relations with various employees of the organization staring from their age group to the people who are from the older generation.

The work ethics should be infused in the mind of the millennials as the millennials are the ones who follow the work ethics at the least (Hatum, 2013). Millennials are the ones who are interested in knowing their job and find the easiest way of achieving their target. So, teaching the work ethics to the millennials is very important which will make the millennials work in a way which is the best according to the organization. Millennials also doesn’t look for what can be done next by them and so, in order to implement those characteristics in them, teaching the work ethics to the Esplanade employees, staffs and volunteers is very significant.

Motivation is an important aspect which will work in case of the millennial employees, staffs and volunteers of Esplanade. Motivation to the employees can be provided in terms of providing them salaried time off from the work (Engels, 2011). The employees, staffs and volunteers can be made, work in shift in the organization and provide them off in order to provide motivation to them as the millennials are of lazy and are sluggish in their work process.

The millennials often crosses the line thinking that their higher management people are their friends and so, in order to teach them that they shouldn’t cross the line between the higher authority people and shouldn’t think them as their friends, a training session can be done among the employees, staff members and also among the volunteers. This training should be implemented in order to make the employees understand that the higher management people should be treated according to their posts in the organization. Millennials stay in the job, when there is a good manager under whom they are working and leave when the manager doesn’t help in their growth. So, in Esplanade, the millennials should be taught that how the relation improvement can be made between the higher authority and the employees.

Millennials are the people who love to do work in the form of a team and for that reason they should be assigned with tasks where they will be able to meet the clients in the form of a team and work together in order to achieve the target (Parker, 2008). As the millennials are multi-tuskers, they are able to do 10 tasks at a time and in order to achieve the goals they text their clients about all the needed details than phone calling them, which is a bright side of the millennials.

Esplanade can also make their employees, volunteers and staff members work together towards the objective of the organization by making them perform a team work.

Negative Stereotype

Millennials should also be provided with feedback from time to time as they are always eager to know that the work they are performing is according to the context of the organization. For this reason, the millennials should be provided feedback so that they can work in a better manner. Providing coaching sessions and reviewing the performance of the Esplanade employees and staff members can be helpful in this respect.

A great workforce in Esplanade can be built when the employee turnover is lowest and for that reason, the employee turnover should be reduced at any cost. The millennials are the ones who turn down their jobs the most when they are not produced with motivation and reward (Deering, 2016). For this reason, reward should be provided to the employees from time to time in order to reduce turnover in Esplanade and make the employees work towards the organization success.

Days	Activity	Implementation
1-15	Enhancing the work environment	· Creating fun in workplace · Relaxation time for employees and other staffs · Time off from work
16-30	Training and learning opportunity	· Work Culture training · Training about the work that the employees need to perform
31-50	Providing Exposure	· Exposure to different business environment · Making use of intranet
51-70	Work Ethics	· Making the employees perform which is best for the organization. · Making the millennials learn what work to be performed after one work is completed.
71-80	Motivation	· Providing time off to the employees and staff members to provide them motivation (Wilson, 2013).
81-100	Relationship improvement with higher authority	· Teaching the employees not to think that their immediate boss is their friends but when any assistance required, the manager can help them.
101-120	Team Work	· Making the millennials perform them in a team in order to achieve the goals of the organization.
121-150	Feedback	· Providing feedback to the employees of the organization in order to make them perform better in the manner of offering coaching for the employees.
151-180	Reducing Turnover	· Turnover reduction by providing the employees with reward.

There can be various reasons for the failure of a strategic communication plan (Mahoney, 2017). Many challenges are there in front of Esplanade while implementing and executing the communication plan. There are various challenges in front of Esplanade management while executing the communication plan as stated below:

The idea might clash with the older generation while implementing more fun in the workplace and providing the millennials with break from the work (Lancaster, & Stillman, 2010). The older generation might also want off time from their work and the idea might get clashed there. Motivation can be provided to the millennials in the workplace by providing them rewards which is an idea that can clash with the older generation as well. Also, making the millennials in the workplace communicate with the older generation might give rise to conflict in the workplace.

Esplanade can also fall short of achieving the target and objective of their work, as providing more time off to the millennials can make them lazy and they might not perform the work all together. The millennials are a lazy and gloomy generation and providing more off from the work can make them lazier to perform the work.

While training the millennials for respecting the managers and not to be too friendly with them, the millennials might get the feeling that they need to maintain a distance with the managers and this might result in the clash between two ideas (Emelo, 2013). A case might happen, when Esplanade employees need assistance from the mangers but they are not taking the help of the managers due to what was taught in the training.

While the millennials are performing in a team and the ideas of two employees differ, there can be a conflict among them and as a result, the target of the team might suffer (Atzeni, 2014). The teamwork of Esplanade will help the organization to achieve their goals, but when there is a conflict among the members of the members of the group, the objective of the whole team suffers due to less productivity of two members due to conflict.

The millennials have a bad reputation of being inattentive towards what they being taught and for that reason, if the employees are not attentive towards the training process, problems might arise in the work later on.

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