CVRD strikes it rich: Brazilian mining giant Companhia Vale do Rio Doce digs into its myriad communication efforts and creates a unified approach that delivers a wealth of information to employees.

For years, Companhia Vale do Rio Dace (CVRD), one of the world's largest metal and mining companies and the largest privately owned company in Brazil, lacked a single internal communication process that would satisfy the demands of its diverse businesses and locations. Because there was no unified communication system, local and regional solutions were implemented whenever the need for information arose. Each region was concerned only with meeting its own demands, and each developed its own communication tools and channels informally, without following any corporate strategy.

As a result, more and more communication vehicles appeared over the years, which made the company's plan to develop a single approach to work with corporate objectives, strategies and results more complicated. In 2004, CVRD began expanding its production capacity and acquiring other companies, becoming one of the major diversified mining companies in the world, and it intensified its efforts to standardize, integrate and systematize its internal communication process.

CVRD has more than 25,000 employees, ranging from operational employees (such as mine technicians and railway workers) to senior executives. Thirty-seven percent are between 21 and 30 years old, and 55 percent have joined the company in the last five years.

Goals and objectives

The Samos Vale project (which translates to "We are CVRD") aimed to establish an official source of corporate information while acknowledging the value of local information. The communication team planned to accomplish this by standardizing and integrating the company's internal communication vehicles. Employees at all levels would be guaranteed access to highly reliable and organized information about company policies, guidelines and objectives for certain business areas. This information would also be made available to the communities in which CVRD operates.

Solution and implementation

To begin, the communication team assessed the demand for corporate and local information, taking into consideration the existing initiatives, using those that had shown satisfactory results and extending them to the whole company in order to reach the largest possible number of employees. The team also mapped out the areas and groups of employees that either did not receive the information or couldn't understand it because of literacy issues. Six complementary communication vehicles were developed that would provide employees with all company news and information. The project guaranteed that the same information would reach everyone through at least one of those channels.

The six Samos Vale programs were each designed to play specific roles: Vale@Informar is a daily digital newsletter e-mailed in both Portuguese and English to all CVRD employees; Jornal da Vale is a monthly newspaper sent to employees' homes; No Turno is an electronic bulletin sent via e-mail to supervisors three times a week, with information to pass on to employees; Jornal Mural includes bulletin boards that are updated weekly and located where employees are likely to see them, such as in the cafeteria and elevators; Intranet Portal Vale is the company intranet; and Ligue 100/ BIS is a telephone hotline where employees can leave complaints or suggestions that are then addressed in a weekly bulletin.

CVRD's main challenge was to convince employees that the six vehicles launched and managed by corporate would fully meet the demand for information. The first step was to create an identity for the project that integrated all the channels and their concepts. CVRD chose the image of a pinwheel with six blades, with each blade representing one of the vehicles. The project's name, "Somos Vale," represents employees' wish to think of the company as part of their identity; receiving better, broader information from a unified source might contribute to this feeling.

Before Somos Vale was launched, all employees received for their work areas a kit that could be assembled into a colorful pinwheel, with a characteristic attached to each of the blades: agility, integration, participation, dynamism, modernity and transparency. The Somos Vale logo and concept were used in outdoor advertisements and banners at CVRD facilities. Employees also participated in starting up the publishing and graphic projects.

Initially, Somos Vale reached all CVRD employees in Brazil and their dependents. An ambitious internal campaign launched the six vehicles gradually over a period of six months. The team decided to launch one vehicle per month in order to reinforce the importance of each one.

The project's second phase, which continued in 2005, involved a new internal campaign focusing on the importance of the six vehicles, their scope and their adaptation. For example, during the implementation phase, some employees suggested that No Turno be sent three times a week rather than daily, so the communication team made the change and communicated that.

The third phase, initiated in 2006, extended the program to employees working at CVRD's 50 affiliated and subsidiary companies in Brazil and abroad. At the same time, the company improved its process to orient CVRD leaders so that they will be able to take over a strategic role in the information process, complementing and supporting company efforts, and disseminating all the content published in the six vehicles through face-to-face communication.

Measurement and evaluation

The first phase of the program was assessed through a quantitative and qualitative survey by the Instituto Medida Certa, which showed that 13 out of 14 employees approved of the new process and of the level of information that they started receiving after the implementation. Ninety-three percent of the surveyed employees said that internal communication had improved and was fully performing its role of connecting the company with employees through information.

The assessment of the face-to-face communication initiative is still under development and has indicated a need for improvement. Company leaders are seen as inclined to communicate, and 72 percent of employees say they have noticed leaders' openness to dialogue. The positive results obtained so far gives the necessary support to the next phase, which will be extended to the international units and to affiliate and subsidiary companies in the CVRD group.

In addition to providing better, more democratic access to information concerning company objectives, strategies and results on the corporate and local levels, the Somos Vale project has raised employees' awareness of the paths the company has been opening for increasing their participation.

Today, all internal communication activities at CVRD are conducted via the six Somos Vale vehicles. Company units have fully adopted the process, using it for receiving and passing on corporate and local information. It is a unique process in which the entire company participates. More important, the company benefits because the global and local perspectives are now unified and able to translate the complex realities of the company to all employees.

about the authors

Paulo Henrique Soares is general manager of corporate communications and Rozalia Del Gaudio is internal communication coordinator at Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), a mining company based in Rio de Janeiro.