Communications evaluation training Amsterdam to Zagreb – all from a small office in Cornwall

Earlier this year we heard Stephen Linzell talk about how we are using a digital analysis tool to manage the FCO’s online presence, evaluate our campaigns and respond to crises. He spoke about how we were beginning to use Ripjar, one of a suite of tools we have, to help us do this. We hope this will eventually enable us to change how we in London review our entire network’s activity.

Working with our local teams on specific campaigns, we’ve realised combining local knowledge, advanced algorithms and the correct training can be a powerful tool to target and evaluate our communications. After all, our staff in the network are the ones who work out how best to get our messages across – what to post and who to engage with locally.

This blog covers how we trained our European posts so they could access the information they need in a way that meets their various skills and needs.

Training people across our network has its challenges; first there are a lot of them, second we have a variety of digital and data analysis skills, and third, everyone is busy – often doing multiple roles. So we knew right from the start that we had to make it so that our staff had training that we could repeat at scale, that could be adapted for all levels of expertise and didn’t take up too much of our staff’s time.

We decided early on that the most practical way to deliver this training was to do it remotely. In fact, we realised our trainer running the training could also work remotely using a freely available webinar service. So we worked with Clare, one of the FCO’s remote workers who lives in Cornwall and works with the FCO’s Projects Task Force (PTF). The PTF is a team of 60 people, with a variety of working patterns, drawn from across the FCO who work on high priority projects. The PTF is designed to respond quickly to new and emerging priorities across the entire range of FCO policy and service delivery.

First, we needed to train Clare up in two weeks with enough knowledge to be able to train our regional staff. While doing this we developed a five-stage training package. This consisted of a one hour long introductory overview that covered what Ripjar is and why we’re using it. We then did four 20-minute bespoke workshops covering how to filter the data, how to create dashboards, how to create alerts and how to train the tool to identify known influencers. By practicing with Clare we refined these workshops and created scripts for a two week training programme which allowed plenty of time for our staff to get their hands dirty using the tool.

In November and early December Clare set up 36 sessions with 25 posts. Because we made the workshops bite-sized, 93% of the people who signed up for the training took the training. This is a pretty unprecedented number in the FCO. Staff really welcomed this approach, with 90% of staff saying that they found the training useful and were using what they had learned to deliver their objectives.

Our approach to working in the digital transformation unit, including practices like a 5 minute daily stand-up, fitted neatly with Clare. And because Clare works from home, she could extend the working day so we conquered the time difference and ran training courses in South East Asia as well as the Americas at nice times for our posts. Clare is now sharing the digital knowledge and experience she gained with her colleagues in the Projects Task Force – excellent advocates for us – as the PTF works with every directorate in the FCO.

We will keep looking at how Ripjar helps us evaluate our campaigns, day to day digital communications and our media work and will keep you all updated on the progress.