Engaging with government on a major digital transformation

The OneCX program is delivering significant improvements to the digital experience for customers when interacting with government, by organising website content based on customer needs rather than the structure of government. With over 750 websites across 10 NSW government clusters, we’re working with agencies to build nsw.gov.au as the single location for customers to source information.  

As an all of government initiative, our audience is large and diverse. How do we engage at scale, on a transformation piece of this size? And while doing so, ensuring our stakeholders feel informed, comfortable and confident about the purpose of the program, and what it means for their agency and customers.

The OneCX program engagement team are responsible for communicating the program highlights and progress with stakeholders, including its benefits to customers and agencies. Our purpose is to communicate and build trust in the program across all of government, through a variety of channels and forums. As with most major change programs, people simply want to understand, the ‘WIIFM’ - What’s in it for me? What’s involved and how will this affect my agency and my customers?

To effectively communicate the WIIFM, it’s important to focus on strategy. Firstly, the strategy of the program, and then formulating the supporting communication and engagement plan. The plan considers:

• purpose
• audience/reach
• channel
• frequency of communication
• key messages
• assets such as imagery, video and links.

This ensures all communication activities have a clear and consistent purpose, aligned to the program goals. By defining this upfront, the team can focus on achieving the desired, measurable outcomes. More on outcomes in a moment!

Which channels do we utilise to engage stakeholders?

The OneCX program engagement plan supports an agile delivery team. Whilst broadcast communications are planned for the year ahead, it is a constantly evolving and adaptive process.

Our communication pieces are centred on the premise of targeting our audience with informative and relevant updates on the program as we progress though our roadmap. We utilise a multi-channel strategy with carefully curated messaging and assets to build reach and cut through. 

We plan the content and activity on these channels in several ways. This includes a master broadcast communications plan, listing the activities each calendar month, and meeting regularly with members across the Digital Channels team to ensure we’ve got accurate information and a pipeline of noteworthy achievements to share.

Some of our key channels, spanning across government include:

• Newsletters
  • monthly OneCX program newsletter to approximately 2700 stakeholders, communications, and digital practitioners
  • monthly article submissions for other NSW Government publications.
• Events
  • 6-weekly Digital Channels stakeholder demonstrations, with an average audience of 65 participants
  • quarterly showcase, with an average attendance of 250 participants
  • targeted agency-specific information sessions and showcases
  • guest speaker opportunities at other NSW Government events.
• OneCX program hub
• OneCX program blog, published fortnightly
• Socials
  • Yammer
  • Teams.
• Agency-specific communications
  • we support the team in developing tailored communications materials for agencies, to help engage their staff and stakeholders.
     

The keynote event in our calendar is our quarterly all of government showcase. This event attracts much interest from stakeholders across all clusters, as they gather to hear the major milestone achievements and collaborations taking place within the OneCX program. In lieu of in person events, we seek to deliver a polished and professional event, ensuring the digital customer experience we promise our customers is also delivered to attendees. 

Our virtual events are conducted with accessibility in mind, with live captioning and Auslan interpreting. The format allows for multiple presenter layouts and the use of slido allows us to engage with our audience with live Q&A.

If you’d like to sign up for our next showcase, subscribe to our OneCX program newsletter to be alerted to the next event.

Key engagement pieces

To provide a succinct overview of the program, we worked with the social media and video content team to produce a short video on the OneCX program. Highlighting the purpose and key benefits of the program, it allows our team to communicate our key messages effectively in their presentations and stakeholder meetings. It’s a great engagement tool which can capture attention and help stakeholders recall the program. 

The OneCX program blog is published fortnightly on nsw.gov.au. Topics range from SEO, migration case studies and how our user experience teams conduct research. This engagement activity is designed to give a more in-depth view of the inner workings of the program and can be accessed at any time. 

How do we know if our engagement efforts are working?

As with all good communication and engagement plans, our activities have defined targets and reporting mechanisms. Each activity undertaken is measured and evaluated, to understand its effectiveness and identify areas of improvement. Across our activities, we have feedback channels, offering our audience the opportunity to provide suggestions and rate their satisfaction with the piece. This information is reviewed monthly with improvements being made each time. Below are some of the metrics we use.

We’re always looking for innovative ways to improve our communication, to effectively reach the right people at the right time. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you!

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