Zoom creates vitality

 
Employee magazine Unilever has been consistently focusing on its "Vitality" mission since 2004. Zoom supports this process. 
The change began in 2004. Unilever, the global food and care products manufacturer, committed itself to a radical renewal process. The Group's new mission, which is also reflected in the revised corporate design, is called "Vitality": Unilever wants to improve quality of life with "better", i.e. healthy products and as a responsible company. For end consumers and for employees. This includes the environment in the sense of sustainable management of raw materials.
This already outlines the communication challenges. How, for example, does the end consumer in the supermarket find out which product is good for them? Or in relation to employees: how should information about "Vitality" be communicated in the national companies? First and foremost, the mission must be brought to life and experienced by the employees themselves.
The employee magazine as a source of informationUnilever's Swiss site is located in Thayngen. The 800 employees there are confronted with pieces of the Vitality puzzle every day. Be it through the new logo, the "Fit&Well" menus in the canteen or leaflets providing information about a healthy lifestyle, sporting activities, etc. Anne Zwyssig, Head of Communications: "It is important that our employees recognize the benefits that they too can derive from Vitality. Vitality is much broader than it appears at first glance. Our employee magazine Zoom, which we publish in collaboration with CP specialist Yesway AG, is an important tool for raising awareness."
The most important function of Zoom is to explain connections. Because as omnipresent as Vitality is in Thayngen, the various pieces of the puzzle have to be put together to form a whole. The employee magazine takes on this bracketing function and adds further facts to the impressions experienced in the workplace. "The topic of vitality is worthy of regular cover stories. It is exciting for us in Thayngen to find out how the mission is lived out in other national companies - and why we do certain things this way and not differently here," explains Anne Zwyssig. Together with Unicef, Unilever is trying to create better hygiene conditions in Asia, Latin America and Africa, for example. This also includes access to clean water and better nutrition. It is not immediately obvious that there is a connection to the sports club subscription for employees in Thayngen. Zoom explains and reports on both aspects of Vitality.
Lack of space signals relevanceBoth visually - Yesway AG consistently implemented the new corporate design in its design concept - and in terms of content, the Vitality mission runs like a red thread through the employee magazine: "Of course, we don't check every topic for its connection to Vitality during the internal editorial meeting. But the mission is present and flows into many articles," explains Anne Zwyssig. The internal editorial committee is made up of an equal number of employees from all departments, plus the editors from Yesway. This guarantees that the magazine reports directly from the company. The specified topics are then processed into articles by Unilever employees - who have the necessary insider information - together with the Yesway editors. Layout and print preparation are completely outsourced to Yesway. "The medium is relevant for the employees. We also notice this in the fact that we could always publish more articles than there is space for," says Anne Zwyssig.
A good three years after the launch of Vitality, it can be said that the vision is alive and well. One reason is certainly that Vitality brings added value to everyone involved and creates a positive environment in which people enjoy working. The employee magazine Zoom has actively contributed and continues to do so.
Michael Frischkopf
Yesway AGYesway AG specializes in editorially prepared corporate publications - for example employee magazines, customer newspapers, annual reports, newsletters and websites. The agency is the general contractor responsible for the concept, editing, design and implementation of Zoom, which is published three times a year in German. Further information can be found at www.yesway.ch.