The Challenge
The Internal Communications team at NATS recognised a pivotal opportunity: to move from reactive to truly strategic communications.
As part of refreshing their five-year strategy, NATS aimed to:
- Build a stronger, people-first approach to Internal Communications.
- Deepen understanding of employees’ real needs and experiences.
- Strengthen ties between Internal Comms and Employee Experience (EX) efforts.
“We weren’t fixing something broken — we were building on a strong foundation to stretch towards our objective of becoming a Top 25 UK employer.” — Helen Sierwald, NATS
The Solution
NATS worked with People Lab to:
- Conduct 16 workshops and 6 in-depth interviews across all levels and demographics.
- Developed behaviour-based personas to bring employee needs, motivations and communication preferences to life.
- Delivered an Employee Insight Pack highlighting cultural strengths, challenges and opportunities.
- Upskilled the Internal Comms team with EX Design tools like journey mapping, empathy mapping and prototyping.
- Applied the personas immediately during a live design sprint to review and reimagine Internal Communications channels.
“The process was genuinely positive. People appreciated the opportunity to reflect and share what really matters to them.” – Lynsey Davidson, NATS
The Results
- New Strategic Foundations: Personas embedded into Internal Communications planning and campaigns.
- Mindset Shift: Deeper, more empathetic conversations around employee needs.
- Cross-Team Impact: Interest from other areas to expand the approach across the organisation.
- Future-Proofed Team: New capabilities to ensure continued strategic relevance and human-centred comms.
