Strategic Communications Plan – Implementation Matrix · Strategic Communications Plan 2015...

Pride.

Prestige.

Service.

Strategic Communications Plan 2015

Communications & Marketing

University of Regina

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PURPOSE & OVERALL GOALS 2

CHALLENGES & CONTEXT 3

PRIDE OBJECTIVES 5

PRESTIGE OBJECTIVES 8

SERVICE OBJECTIVES 12

NEXT STEPS 16

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART 17

EXPECTATIONS 18

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PURPOSE & OVERALL GOALS

The Communications and Marketing unit at the University of Regina is composed of a dedicated group

of professionals that work together to provide high-quality communications services for the University.

The purpose of this Strategic Communications Plan is to ensure that the collective efforts of this unit are

channeled effectively to support the University’s Vision, Mission and Values, as stated in the University’s

Strategic Plan 2015-2020. This document is intended to be a living document, reviewed and revised each

year over the five year lifespan of the University Strategic Plan to ensure it remains relevant and

continues to serve the University’s overall goals.

Over the next five years, Communications and Marketing will support the broader University Strategic

Plan by seeking to:

• Instil pride among students, faculty and staff by creating awareness about the University’s commitment to indigenization and sustainability, and by promoting the outcomes of the University’s three strategic priorities (Student Success, Research Impact and Commitment to our Communities).

Instil Pride

• Enhance the prestige of the University among key external stakeholders by promoting the University’s accomplishments and contributions to communities locally, nationally and internationally.

Enchance Prestige

• Improve service to the President’s Office and to faculties and administrative units.

Improve Service

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CHALLENGES & CONTEXT

KEY CHALLENGES: there are seven primary areas to consider when identifying the challenges the

University currently faces in managing public issues and telling its story effectively:

1. Fragmentation of the media landscape

2. Fast-changing nature of the media landscape

3. Short attention span of the media consumer

4. Short timelines expected by inquiring journalists 5. Growing inaccuracies in the media. 6. Fiscal restraint in the post-secondary sector 7. Decentralized nature of communications at post-secondary

institutions

These challenges require the University to focus on effective communications research, better

integrated communications across faculties and administrative units, and strategies that maximize

existing communications resources.

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KEY AUDIENCES: The University has a multitude of stakeholders. While some faculties and

administrative units are able to hone in on specific audiences, the central Communications and

Marketing unit must be conscious of all audiences when developing communications and marketing

material, including:

Key Internal Stakeholders:

o Students and their families o Faculty and staff o Board of Governors o Senate o Federated Colleges

Key External Audiences/Stakeholders:

o Provincial government o Federal government, and specifically the tri-council funding

agencies o Alumni and the Alumni Association o Donors and prospective donors o First Nations and Métis leaders and their communities o Prospective students and their families o Secondary school boards, high school teachers and guidance

counsellors o Prospective faculty and staff o Community leaders and local community partners o Partner organizations nationally and internationally o Local, provincial and national media outlets o Followers of the University’s institutional social media sites

With such a multitude of audiences, each communications and marketing campaign must be clearly

designed to account for the specific interests and media habits of the intended audience. However,

recent public opinion polling completed on attitudes about the University of Regina does indicate some

cross-cutting messages that resonate with the vast majority of the University’s external stakeholders.

They include:

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The multitude of course offerings and degree options at the University;

That the University offers a safe and secure environment for students;

The role of the University in keeping young people in the province;

The role of the University in giving students practical skills required in the work world, as

demonstrated by graduates who have a strong record of employment.

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PRIMARY CHANNELS OF COMMUNICATION

The Communications and Marketing unit is reliant on a number of communications vehicles to tell the

University’s story. These include: website features, news releases, mass emails, Facebook, Twitter,

Degrees magazine, posters/television screens on campus, and paid marketing of various types.

Recent provincial polling cited above indicates that the general public in Saskatchewan primarily gets its

news about the University through traditional mediums like television and newspapers. The same poll

also indicates that when people seek information about the University they do so through the University

website more so than any other vehicle of communication. Several relevant considerations can be

drawn from this information:

The media consumption habits of the general public, as analyzed in this poll, are distinctly

different from the habits of students, who tend to readily adopt new technology and new

modes of communications. In this environment, regular research about the media consumption

habits of students is needed.

Workload pressures on communications staff are intensifying, as content is now expected for a

multitude of new media platforms, while polling of the general public still indicates a significant

demand to cater to more traditional media sources like television and newspapers. Adding to

this is the interactivity of the new mediums and the expectations they create in media

consumers for instant responses.

The website requires priority attention over all other modes of communication in terms of

investment in infrastructure. All communications vehicles either reside on the web or are aimed

at driving people to our website for additional information. And the opinion polling referenced

above shows that, by an overwhelming margin, people interested in the University seek out

their information through the website

These are significant challenges for the University in the context of the current climate of fiscal restraint.

There is a growing pressure on post-secondary institutions to keep their administrative and

communications costs low. This is, however, coupled with increasing stakeholder demands for easy

access to information and a user-friendly website.

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ACCOUNTABILITY STRUCTURE

The Communications and Marketing unit has historically relied on a flat organizational structure, with all

staff reporting directly to the head of the unit. Changes in fall 2014 re-organized the unit into three

teams: Strategic Communications, Marketing and Digital Outreach, and Public Affairs (see Appendix 1 at

the end of this document). The staff members leading each of these teams are as follows:

Strategic Communications Team = Manager, Strategic Communications

Marketing and Digital Outreach Team = Manager & Senior Marketing Advisor

Public Affairs Team = University Spokesperson & Community Affairs Advisor

The purpose of these changes was to clarify roles and responsibilities, better support the Director of the

unit to ensure that day-to-day work is aligned with strategic priorities, and to provide better service to

the President’s Office and other units at the University.

The lead for each of these teams will be responsible for monitoring and reporting progress and

outcomes on each of the key objectives and actions identified as necessary to support the goals of the

Communications and Marketing unit. They will also be responsible for measuring outcomes against

existing performance metrics and working with their respective teams to develop new performance

metrics, where required, for each of the objectives and supporting actions outlined in this plan. The

following sections outline the objectives and supporting actions for each key overall goal identified

earlier, indicating which Communications and Marketing team is responsible for leading the work

required in each of these areas.

PRIDE OBJECTIVES

The University’s reputation externally is dependent on its collective spirit internally. Cultivating pride is

an ongoing task, and a critical one that supports peak performance by engendering a sense of optimism

and creating the motivation necessary to propel members of the University community to future

accomplishments. Communications and Marketing is critical to this ongoing effort. That is why one of

the key goals of this plan is to:

“Instil pride among students, faculty and staff by creating awareness about the University’s

commitment to indigenization and sustainability, and by promoting the outcomes of the University’s

three strategic priorities (Student Success, Research Impact and Commitment to our Communities).”

Overall Benchmark:

In an effort to establish an overall benchmark for how the University is performing on this goal, the

Strategic Communications Team will perform a survey in 2015 of students, faculty and staff to assess the

awareness of the University’s efforts on indigenization and sustainability, as well as assessing whether

there is a positive outlook among these groups about the University’s accomplishments in the three

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areas of strategic priority. These surveys will continue annually to 2020 to determine attitude changes

over this time span and to guide decision-making each year about areas requiring attention. To further

enrich this data, employee engagement surveys conducted by Human Resources will also be used to

inform decision-making.

To support a positive change of attitudes in these surveys, a number of objectives and supporting

actions have been set out to help guide the activities of the Communications and Marketing unit in

2015:

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Pride Objective #1: Regularly communicate the successes and accomplishments of members of the

campus community.

Key Supporting Actions in 2015:

Support the development of 12 emails to campus per year from the President that convey

information about the University’s successes in the areas of priority identified by the Strategic

Plan (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Produce 225 positive stories about the University of Regina for release to media and/or to

feature on the University’s home page. These stories would be primarily focused on the

strategic priorities areas outlined in the University’s Strategic Plan, as well as profiles of the

contributions and achievements of donors and alumni (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Repurpose paid marketing aimed at external audiences to internal channels of communication,

particularly advertisements used in national publications that may not be seen by members of

the campus community locally (Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach).

Examine the technical viability of having five story categories on the front page of the website

that are aligned with each of the three strategic priority areas and the two overarching themes

in the University’s Strategic Plan. This would allow one of each of these stories on the front web

page at all times (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Create a calendar of cyclical campaigns undertaken by other units at the University to ensure

home page content adds value to their efforts, should these campaigns result in visitors to the

website. For example, including profiles of out-of-province students on the front home page

during student recruitment drives in other provinces (Responsibility = Strategic Communications

Team).

Make better use of the pages on the website that are frequently visited by posting more positive

stories about the University and the campus community at these web locations. For example,

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the “Faculty & Staff” section of the website is the second most visited page on the University’s

website, behind only the front web page (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Create a research stories working group that includes representatives from all faculties aimed at

generating more and better stories about the University’s research community and its

accomplishments (Responsibility = Director).

Support the Human Resources unit in its effort to submit and win acknowledgments as a top

employer in Saskatchewan and across Canada (Responsibility = Marketing and Digital Outreach).

Continue to profile new Board of Governor appointments and appointments of Deans and

senior administrators in local and national publications (Responsibility = Strategic

Communications Team).

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Pride Objective #2: Utilize the personal engagement of the President and Executive Team to connect

with members of the campus community.


Facilitate more opportunities for the President, Executive Team and University Spokesperson to

speak to students, faculty and staff about the accomplishments of the University and the future

direction, as set out in the Strategic Plan (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Deliver or support at least 30 events in 2015 aimed at demonstrating the University’s

appreciation for the efforts and accomplishments of students, faculty and staff (Responsibility =

Strategic Communications Team). See Appendix 2 for tentatively proposed events for 2015.

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Pride Objective #3: Leverage internal and external anniversaries and milestones to instil pride and

enhance the prestige of the University.


Establish a comprehensive list of relevant events from 2015-2020 that the University could take

advantage of to enhance its reputation, from large external events like the 150th Anniversary of

Canada in 2017 down to small internal milestones like the anniversary of a building on campus

or the “birthday” of a long-time external partner of the University (Responsibility = Strategic

Communications Team):

Work with Donor Relations to establish a comprehensive list of major gift anniversaries from

2015-2020 (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team):

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PRESTIGE OBJECTIVES

Accomplishing the goals and objectives set out in the University’s Strategic Plan requires the support of

key external stakeholders. Their willingness to devote their time, money and effort in assisting the

University in achieving its aims is contingent on their perception of the University’s reputation for things

such as student achievement, research impact, innovation, community involvement and fiscal

responsibility. That is why one of the key goals of this plan is to:

Enhance the prestige of the University among key external stakeholders by promoting the University’s

accomplishments and contributions to communities locally, nationally and internationally.

Overall Benchmarks:

Public opinion surveying of 1,500 Saskatchewan residents in fall 2014 will enable the University to

establish benchmarks for attitudes about the University that can be compared to subsequent opinion

polling conducted at the half way point of the new five year Strategic Plan (Responsibility = Strategic


Nationally, the University can benchmark itself based on the reputational component of the annual

MacLean’s rankings. Though this is an imperfect measure, it is a low cost and effective tool for gauging

perceptions of the University across Canada, particularly when combined with other metrics and

university rankings by other publications.

The Provost is leading an internal task force to identify areas of weaknesses in the University’s

performance on these types of rankings and how the University can use this analysis to strengthen its

academic mission. Two people from the Communications and Marketing unit are participating on this

task force and will identify relevant action items pertaining to the reputational components of these

surveys to help inform future communications and marketing campaigns by the University.

To support these efforts to enhance the University’s prestige externally, a number of objectives and

supporting actions have been set out to help guide the activities of the Communications and Marketing

unit in 2015:

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Prestige Objective #1: Improve the University’s profile among key decision-makers and leaders

provincially and nationally.


Regularly identify opportunities to submit editorials and letters to the editor on behalf of the

President or other members of the Executive Team to the Leader Post, the Star Phoenix and

selected national publications, working with the President’s Office to develop the content

necessary to support these submissions (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team)

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Look for opportunities to submit research-focused editorials on behalf of the President or Vice-

President (Research) to major Ottawa-based newspapers or publications on research impact or

international research collaboration, preferably connected to a current event so as to generate

widespread readership and increase the likelihood of acceptance by the editors (Responsibility =

Strategic Communications Team).

Facilitate meetings between the President and the editorial boards/managing editors of the

Leader Post, Star Phoenix, CBC Saskatchewan, CTV Regina and Global Regina (Responsibility =

Public Affairs Team).

Conduct a Fall 2015 marketing campaign in key Ottawa publications, targeted at Ottawa

policymakers and the tri-council funding agencies focusing on the University’s research impact,

(Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach Team).

Conduct a targeted marketing campaign in the spring of 2015 based on the recommendations of

the Task Force on University Rankings (Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach Team)

Design a strategy to improve the University’s rankings on the annual LinkedIn rankings of post-

secondary institutions (Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach Team).

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Prestige Objective #2: Recruit new students and profile the University as an institution that supports

student success while also maintaining a fun and vibrant campus for young people.


Conduct a marketing campaign for the next student recruitment cycle, as developed by

Enrolment Services with contributions from Communications and Marketing unit (Responsibility

= Marketing & Digital Outreach Team).

Produce social media content daily for the University’s major institutional social media sites that

conveys the day-to-day energy of campus, displaying the diversity and range of activities

available to students (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Repurpose resources within Communications and Marketing to support a more interactive

approach to social media, where students online can be better directed to services or activities

at the University in a timely fashion. (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Produce more graphics or images for use on multiple media platforms that convey the

University of Regina as a stable and growing institution that provides robust supports for

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students, produces innovative research and is committed to its communities. (Responsibility =

Marketing & Digital Outreach Team).

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Prestige Objective #3: Increase community engagement locally and across Saskatchewan


Provide support for the President’s Community Connections Tour, including a tour of Northern

Saskatchewan, visiting at least 12 Saskatchewan communities outside Regina in 2015. Tour

priorities will include engaging high school students, consulting with Aboriginal groups, and

meeting with local municipal officials and community partners. (Responsibility = Public Affairs

Team). Other supporting actions include:

o Creating a Community Connections Working Group chaired by the Community Affairs

Advisor and including representation from Enrolment Services, Alumni Relations, Donor

Relations and the Centre for Continuing Education.

o Ensuring the tour is well documented on social media in real time to enhance the profile

received for the University of Regina.

Identify and initiate speaking opportunities for the President with First Nations and Métis

groups in Saskatchewan (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Identify and help coordinate the attendance of the President and Executive Team to community

events in Regina (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Create or capitalize on opportunities for “local international” engagement by identifying and

facilitating opportunities for the President and Executive Team to attend the meeting and

events of ethnic, cultural or religious groups in Regina. Work with UR International to identify

groups that may provide key connections to priority recruitment regions (Responsibility = Public

Affairs Team).

Submit more stories to the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association to take advantage of

the need many of their member newspapers have for quality content, helping increase the

University’s profile and visibility in smaller communities across Saskatchewan (Responsibility =

Public Affairs Team)

Submit more editorials to the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association to take advantage

of the need many of their member newspapers have for quality content, helping increase the

University’s profile and visibility in smaller communities across Saskatchewan. These should be

used to convey information relevant to rural Saskatchewan (e.g. research in agriculture or

resource industries) or emphasize the partnerships we have in certain regions (Responsibility =

Strategic Communications Team)

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Pursue a regular appearance for the University Spokesperson to speak about upcoming

University events and initiatives on one of the local morning or noon hour TV news shows.

Deliver or support at least 12 other events aimed at engaging local members of the community

and key leaders, and helping to demonstrate the University’s commitment to the community of

Regina and the Province of Saskatchewan (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

See Appendix 3 for tentatively proposed events.

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Prestige Objective #4: Facilitate opportunities to demonstrate the relevance of the University’s strategic

priorities to the general public.

Hold one news conference on campus per month on student success, teaching innovations,

research impact or community service (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Capitalize on current events to profile expertise at the University by making pitches to local and

national media when events arise pertaining to the expertise of a University of Regina faculty

member (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Pitch the stories outlined as supporting actions in the “Pride” section to local and national

media, where appropriate, aiming for 50 percent of stories produced receiving print, radio or

television coverage (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Create an “experts directory” online to facilitate media access to faculty members and improve

the coordination of media requests (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team/Public

Affairs Team).

Produce an edition of Degrees magazine in spring 2015 aimed at highlighting the strategic

priorities as set out in the University’s Strategic Plan.

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Prestige Objective #5: Continue to improve the experience for visitors to the University website.

Make the University website mobile-friendly.

Conduct a third-party usability study on the University website, using the results to create a

work plan for 2016-2020 to ensure the web reflects the user preferences of key stakeholders

and continues to improve by incorporating best practices. The work plan would include options

for creating an intranet site for faculty/staff and the creation of a new external facing website

for students and outside users.

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Survey campus web content managers and editors to ensure they are getting the required

professional development and guidance to employ best practices when managing their

respective websites.

SERVICE OBJECTIVES

Shared vision, mission and values are essential for any large organization to realize its full potential.

Group pride also serves to motivate and maximize performance. However, it is also incumbent on any

organization to look critically at the day-to-day processes and procedures it relies on to serve its

leadership team. These must be in a state of continuous review and improvement. Maintaining

practices that make leaders unnecessarily rushed, improperly briefed or unconfident in the follow

through on strategic priorities can create reputational risks. That is why one of the key goals of this plan

is to:

“Improve service to the President’s Office and to faculties and administrative units.”

Overall Benchmarks:

Internally, there are a number of channels that the Communications and Marketing unit will seek to

measure progress in this area. First and foremost, the Director’s annual performance review is a

significant and important mechanism for providing feedback on the health of services being provided by

Communications and Marketing to the President’s Office and the Executive Offices (Responsibility =

President).

Another tool that will be introduced internally is an annual and confidential survey on the quality of

services and the quality of communications produced by the Communications and Marketing unit. This

would be targeted at the President and University Executive Team, and members of the University

Leadership Team (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

To support these efforts to enhance service and quality of product from the Communications and

Marketing unit, a number of objectives and supporting actions have been set out to help guide the

activities of the Communications and Marketing Unit in 2015:

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Service Objective #1: Better coordination and planning with the President’s Office.


Hold monthly briefings to update and brief the President on upcoming University events

(Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

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Create a single transparent approval process for all written material, particularly material being

developed for the President (Responsibility = Director/Team Leads).

Director and Team Leads to meet weekly with President’s Office staff to review the President’s

schedule, provide project briefs for upcoming events, and discuss upcoming marketing and

communications needs (Responsibility = Director/Team Leads).

Track written material flowing to the President’s Office, using the information gathered to

improve processes (Responsibility = Director/Communications Assistant).

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Service Objective #2: Improve knowledge of services available from Communications and Marketing,

with the aim of developing better coordination with faculties and administrative units.


Revise the Communications and Marketing unit’s website to more effectively communicate

“what we do?” (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Do an annual call for proposals to the University Leadership Team for use of the marketing

services provided by the Marketing & Digital Outreach Team (Responsibility = Marketing &

Digital Outreach Team).

Do an annual call for creative and strategic services to the University Leadership Team for use of

the Communications and Marketing unit to help develop things like annual reports, special

publications, video production, website content, and so on (Responsibility = Strategic


Do a call for story ideas to the University Leadership Team before the fall and winter semesters.

(Responsibility = Public Affairs Team)

In coordination with Printing Services, create a joint work plan that identifies the technical

requirements and budget for creating a searchable database for University-owned photography

similar to iStock (Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach Team).

Establish a definition of “marketing” and create a “MARKET” expense code in FAST to better

track spending on marketing across the University (Responsibility = Marketing and Digital

Outreach Team).

Provide analysis and recommendations on making better use of third-party creative/advertising

services to produce better and more consistent marketing materials (Responsibility = Strategic

Communications Team and Marketing and Digital Outreach Team).

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Complete a social media policy aimed at eliminating ambiguity about the ownership of social

media sites across various faculties and units, as well as to ensure that a minimum standard for

social media content is maintained, if not exceeded.

Complete a trademark policy aimed at creating greater control and consistency in how the

University name and the various graphics and logos associated with the University are used.

Complete the visual identity guidelines for use of the new University Coat of Arms (Crest).

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Service Objective #3: Improve internal planning and feedback processes


Produce project briefs for all major university events and initiatives led by Communications and

Marketing unit and provide to the President’s Office (Responsibility = Strategic Communications

Team).

Research and provide a recommendation on an automated or improved tracking of attendance

at events (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Complete the Business Continuity Plan for the Communications and Marketing unit

(Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

Refresh the Emergency Communications Plan and also improve emergency preparedness by: (1)

providing emergency communications training for Communications and Marketing unit staff; (2)

holding post-event debriefs for all emergencies or major service disruptions, including an

analysis of where people got their information during the event; and (3) incorporating

emergency alerts into the proposed new University mobile application (Responsibility =

Strategic Communications Team).

Use technology to support more effective staff meetings (Responsibility =

Director/Communications Assistant).

Draft all new job descriptions for all staff members to ensure duties are aligned with the

Strategic Communications Plan (Responsibility = Director/Team Leads)

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Service Objective #4: Increase use of key performance metrics to guide future decision-making

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Establish a monthly “earned media score card”, providing a snapshot of how much media was

received as a direct result of events and stories done by the Public Affairs Team (Responsibility =

Strategic Communications Team/Public Affairs Team).

Establish a monthly “social media score card”, providing a snapshot of activity on the

University’s main social media sites and progress extending reach of the University through this

medium and the depth of connection with users (Responsibility = Marketing & Digital Outreach

Team).

Establish a monthly “web scorecard”, providing a snapshot of key traffic patterns on the

University website and key engagement statistics about web content (Responsibility = Strategic


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Service Objective #5: Better identify and prepare for upcoming issues


Build automatic notification of Communications and Marketing into key policies and practices

where public relations issues often arise. For example, campus security policies and incidents,

health and safety policies and issues, academic misconduct (students), scholarly misconduct

(professors), non-academic misconduct, and so on (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Establish common briefing notes and briefing note practices across all faculties and

administrative units (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Provide a briefing book at the beginning of every term to the President’s Office that highlights

the University’s accomplishments in key areas of priority and includes briefing notes on each of

the top issues facing the University (Responsibility = Public Affairs Team).

Invest in effective media monitoring and social media monitoring (Responsibility = Public Affairs

Team, with assistance from the Marketing and Digital Outreach Team)

Create a section on the Communications and Marketing unit website to address inaccuracies in

the media (Responsibility = Strategic Communications Team).

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NEXT STEPS

The purpose and key overall goals identified in this plan are designed to remain in place for the full five

year life span of the University’s Strategic Plan. However, the remainder of this plan is to be revisited

each December by the entire Communications and Marketing unit to:

Ensure the challenges identified remain relevant in a fast-changing media climate;

Ensure the outcomes from the actions chosen are actually advancing the overall goals of the

unit and supporting the University’s Strategic Plan;

Evaluate progress and identify new and better performance metrics, as required;

Help inform the University budget process and budget decisions on communications and

marketing, both centrally and across all faculties and administrative units.

Significant day-to-day business continues outside of the objectives and actions identified in this plan.

Included in this plan are new items or items that clarify certain existing practices. The Director and each

of the Team Leads will be working on an implementation framework for each of the goals and objectives

identified in this plan that can be renewed and revised each year over the lifespan of the University’s

Strategic Plan.

Year one of this strategy is primarily focused on priorities and practices in the central communications

unit at the University. This is aimed at maximizing the collective efforts of the highly qualified and highly

professional individual staff members that make up the Communications and Marketing unit, mobilizing

them to support the University’s overall Strategic Plan. Years two and three will include more and more

initiatives aimed at better coordination across faculties and administrative units.

Overall, this plan is to be judged against how well it serves the broader University’s progress on its

strategic priorities. The Communications and Marketing unit is committed to continuous re-evaluation

of our performance in serving the vision and mission of the University of Regina, and to conduct ongoing

research and external consultations to improve on our efforts to support the University’s Strategic Plan.

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APPENDIX 1 – ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

Director

Communications & Marketing

Manager, Strategic Communications

Web Strategist

Creative Projects Specialist

Events Coordinator

University Spokesperson &

Community Affairs Advisor

Communications Strategist - Community

Communications Strategist - Academic

Public Affairs Strategist

Social Media Specialist

Manager & Senior Marketing Advisor

Digital Outreach Strategist

Marketing & Production Assistant

Communications Assistant

Red = Strategic

Communications Team

Yellow = Public Affairs Team

Blue = Marketing & Digital

Outreach Team

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APPENDIX 2 - EXPECTATIONS

1. Agendas, event briefs, news releases, features stories and all other written content

going to the President’s Office is due a minimum of four business days in advance of

the event or release date.

Exceptions must be pre-approved by the Director. Exceptions will be granted

primarily for unforeseen circumstances and should only be sought where

absolutely necessary.

Agendas for the Community Connections Tours are required 10 days in

advance to ensure enough time for the President to suggest changes or

adaptations to the agenda.

2. All agendas, event briefs, news releases, feature stories and all other written content

going to the President’s Office must use the templates provided.

3. Materials should be of the highest quality possible. All attempts should be made to

avoid extensive editing by President’s Office staff.

4. To ensure quality and consistency, all written materials for public release or public

use requiring the President’s approval must be signed off by the Manager, Strategic

Communications and the appropriate Team Lead before they can be sent to any

member of the President’s Office staff.

Staff must allow at least three full business days for approval of routine items.

Note: this does not apply to non-public materials like project briefs, agendas, etc.

These require the sign-off of the appropriate Team Lead.

Typical items requiring this approval are news releases with a quote from the

President, a speech for the President or advertisement featuring the President.

Note: with the expectation that staff provide to the President’s Office four full

business days in advance, this means completing these materials seven days in

advance wherever possible.

5. All agendas, project briefs, news releases, feature stories and all other written

content going to the President’s Office must be tracked on the central spreadsheet.

6. Requests for written or creative content from other staff members must be made to

the appropriate Team Lead at least 15 business days in advance of when it is

required.

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Staff members must use their discretion for more complex projects, as even

more than 15 business days may be required in some cases.

7. Project leads for each respective event led by Communications, Marketing and

Alumni Relations should send an email reminder at the start of every month to team

members who have required duties that month outlined in the project brief.

8. Doing course work or doing work for outside sources during regular work hours is

not acceptable.

Exception: using holiday days to take a class during work hours is acceptable,

with pre-approval from the Director.

9. Accountability: Consistent failure to meet these expectations will be noted on an

employee’s performance review.

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