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2017 has been an eventful year in corporate communications. With a slew of mergers and acquisitions, coupled with the flurry of political and social activity, leaders and communicators have faced an unprecedented amount of noise to cut through.

In response, communications teams around the globe have stepped up to the plate, delivering a tremendous amount of value to their businesses and stakeholders through well-executed, innovative programs, platforms and campaigns.

Through our daily interactions with communications executives in the Communications Leadership Council, we’re privileged to get an inside look at how progressive teams work and the projects they work on. While many of the examples we see have significant investment behind them -- global change communication initiatives, new enterprise social media platforms and intranet relaunches, to name a few -- it’s also possible to make a big impact with modest resources.

With ever-increasing pressure to do more with less, many communications teams have to make their budgets stretch further and further and are coming up with innovative ways to make a difference in their businesses.

Three companies that have achieved great results from relatively small investments are MyCSP, Stonewater and E.ON UK. Each of them were recognized as finalists for the 2017 CEB Internal Communications Awards in the category "Small Idea, Big Impact."

MyCSP’s Winter Wonderland

In September 2016, UK pension administrator MyCSP had a new chief executive, vision and business strategy. After such change, it was essential that its employees clearly understood and believed in the future direction of the company. However, data revealed that only 10% of employees understood the existing strategy, creating a major challenge for the communications team.

To address this, the team didn’t throw huge amounts of money at the problem. Instead, they decided to turn the typical roadshow on its head, holding fun, interactive winter wonderland–themed events (to coincide with the winter holiday) where employees could connect with colleagues from different areas of the business. By making the event fun – with market stalls, food and games – the communications team was able to expose people to key corporate messages in a way that was both engaging and memorable.

What was ultimately just a tweak to the existing format, requiring little additional investment, yielded great results: Employee understanding of the strategy jumped up to 99%.

Designing experiential learning opportunities is a particularly effective way to teach employees about new concepts, as it engages them directly and requires them to think and react in the moment. Interactive events, while effective, can be costly and resource-intensive. Get creative, as MyCSP did, to run them at small cost or use them only for big changes.

Stonewater’s #payitforward Initiative

When UK social housing provider Stonewater set up a new independent charity, the Longleigh Foundation, its communications department set out to promote understanding of the charity's formation and purpose among its people.

They wanted to do something that would capture hearts and minds and encourage staff to think about how small acts can make a big difference. Enter the #payitforward initiative: Each member of its 600-person staff was given a £5 note and challenged to add value (either financial or social) to it.

Staff enthusiastically embraced the idea, coming up with a whole range of unique and creative ways to add both financial and social value, such as buying umbrellas for soaking commuters or arranging bake sales. With an investment of just £2,800, the campaign had a big impact: £14,349 raised for the charity and staff awareness of the foundation increasing by 48%.

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Giving employees a sense of ownership and autonomy in initiatives like this is a great way to increase their motivation to participate. Create opportunities where all staff members can exercise their creativity, but set boundaries to ensure that their contributions are valuable. And don’t forget the power of peer pressure: A campaign hashtag and feature stories on the intranet or discussions on social networking platforms increase visibility into what peers are doing and create social cues around staff involvement.