How we helped colleagues see themselves in UKNNL's future
Employee Engagement Strategy
the challenge
The National Nuclear Laboratory rebranded as UKNNL, and developed a new mission statement in collaboration with the UK Government, to help prioritise work, align decision-making and reinforce UKNNL's role as the UK's lead civil nuclear fission laboratory.
UKNNL needed colleagues to align their ways of working to the mission statement.
But launching a mission statement is the easy part. The real challenge is helping hundreds of colleagues understand what it means, why it matters, and how they contribute to it.
UKNNL didn't want a communications campaign, they wanted to signify a new chapter in their story
what we did
Rather than treating the mission as a one-off announcement, we developed ‘Our Story’; a year-long colleague engagement programme designed to bring the mission to life across the organisation.
Using our Chapter 1 storytelling methodology, we created a narrative framework that positioned the mission as a story colleagues could actively shape, not simply receive.
The programme combined:
Leadership briefing packs
Manager-led team conversations
Interactive Mission Focus workshops
Multi-channel internal communications
Physical Story Walls across UKNNL sites
Digital sentiment tracking and dashboards
Monthly deep dives into each element of the mission statement
Every month, colleagues would explore a different part of the mission, share examples of where they were already bringing it to life, and help to create a growing library of proof points from across the organisation.
the insight
People don't connect with mission statements. They connect with stories.
When colleagues were given the opportunity to discuss, interpret and contribute to the mission themselves, engagement shifted from passive awareness to active ownership. The mission became something they could shape, not simply receive.
People support what they help create.
“What UKNNL needed wasn’t more communication, it needed more conversation”
the outcome
We produced a year-long mission engagement programme, including narrative framework, communication campaign, manager toolkits, workshop materials, storytelling assets and a digital measurement dashboard.