Strengthening knowledge transfer

 
Relaunch The employee magazine Member promotes the transfer of knowledge within the Atel family. The magazine has been redesigned in terms of content and graphics. 
In a globalized world, internal communication cannot stop at national borders. For Atel, as a leading energy service provider, this is a matter of course. Although its home base is in Switzerland, it has a market presence throughout Europe with various Atel companies stretching from Norway to the Czech Republic and Greece, and for many years the employee magazine Member has been published not only in German but also in English. It is produced by the corporate publishing specialist Infel AG. Member reaches 2,500 employees in Switzerland and throughout Europe four times a year. Crucially, the international commitment is by no means limited to the production of different language versions. Journalists and photographers regularly travel to hotspots in Europe on behalf of Atel. Interviews, reports and portraits from the outposts paint an authentic picture of everyday life at Atel. "Atel's focus is becoming increasingly international, and the employee magazine has to reflect this trend," says Andreas Meier, Editor-in-Chief of Member and Head of Internal Communications at Atel. Reader surveys have clearly shown that Atel employees in Switzerland are also very interested in developments at the foreign companies.
High-quality magazine layoutIn order to better document the various facets of the international Atel family, the content and graphics of Member were revised at the end of 2007. "With the relaunch, we have taken an important step towards reflecting the process of change in our company," Meier is convinced. The new concept impresses with a high-quality magazine layout that also incorporates newspaper elements and meets the need for rapid information coverage. The format - larger than A4, but handier than A3 - emphasizes Member's independence. The ambitious journalistic course with foreign reporting is costly for the company. This underlines the importance that Member attaches to change management.
Many employee magazines published by international companies provide one-way communication at best: from headquarters to the outposts. With Member, the transfer of knowledge between Atel employees in Switzerland and the companies abroad is strengthened in both directions. In this way, the employee magazine can assert itself as the leading medium for internal communication even in the online age.    
Peter Christoph, Infel AG