Communication and engagement support for the Australian Rail Industry Standards Organisation

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION | COMMUNICATION STRATEGY & PLANNING | STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY | DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT | STORY TELLING & CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

Strategic communications advice to guide meaningful and purposeful engagement with key stakeholders and members.

Client

Australian Rail Industry Standards Organisation (ARISO, formerly RISSB)

Challenge

In June 2023, LKB was engaged by the Australian Rail Industry Standards Organisation (ARISO, formerly RISSB) to provide a review of their current communication approach and develop a new communication and engagement strategy that aligned to their new 2024-2030 Strategic Business Plan. The scope of work also included providing day to day communications support, to implement the strategy.

Strategy

Communication and Engagement Review

ARISO engaged LKB to carry out a strategic review of all their communication and engagement activities.

LKB produced a report with findings from a review and analysis of ARISO’s communication channels and materials and the ARISO membership research reports.

The Communication and Engagement Review report;

    • Identified the gaps and opportunities in ARISO’s communication and engagement with their stakeholders and members.
    • Made recommendations to achieve ARISO’s objectives going forward.

Communication and Engagement Strategy

Following the completion of the communication and engagement review, LKB developed a Communications and Engagement Strategy that aligned with ARISO’s new 2024-2030 Strategic Business Plan.

LKB produced a Communication and Engagement Strategy that guided when, how and why ARISO should be engaging with their audiences. It provided the messages and processes to ensure a consistent and effective approach to communicating and engaging with ARISO’s key stakeholders and members.

The findings and recommendations from the Communication and Engagement Review, informed the development of the new Strategy, and provided clear context of the communication and engagement activities ARISO needs to focus on.

Day to day communication support

LKB’s Communication and Engagement Manager, Elizabeth Ferguson was embedded into the ARISO team to support their day to day communication activities.

Elizabeth provided ARISO with communication and engagement advice, set up their communication processes and developed internal materials that would ultimately improve ARISO’s overall communications both externally and internally. Elizabeth’s support also helped establish and set up the Communications Advisor role.

Additionally, Elizabeth supported ARISO on the following projects;

    • AusRAIL PLUS Conference 2023 stand set up and management, and all communication activities.
    • Delivery and communications support for the 2023 Rail Human Factors Forum.

Elizabeth also supported the development and delivery of regular internal communications including;

    • Fortnightly MasterClass Webinars.
    • ARISO Connect weekly newsletter.
    • Process for publishing Calls for Public Consultation and Development Groups.
    • Updating and managing the website.
    • Industry media updates and monitoring.

    Results

    The Communication and Engagement Strategy was adopted and endorsed by the ARISO CEO and Board.

    Ongoing support to the ARISO team and CEO to implement the new strategy.

    The development and implementation of a suite of processes to guide ARISO’s internal and external communication, engagement and event activities.