Marketing and Communications commitments

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Each year, we ask all colleagues to get involved in our Colleague Engagement Survey. We want to know what’s going well, what could be better, and how we can better support you at work. Your responses help shape how each service area moves forward.

With the next survey coming up in September 2025, we’re sharing a short series of conversations with our Senior Leaders. Each one is a chance to hear how they listened to your feedback and what they’ve done since last year’s survey.

Each service area has its own priorities, challenges and successes. These interviews highlight what’s changed, what’s still to come, and how your voice has made a difference.

We spoke to Alex Harvie, Head of Marketing and Communications to hear about the commitments the team has been introducing in 2025.

Hello Alex. What has your team been celebrating more after last year’s Colleague Survey?

We’re celebrating that most of the team (95%, 80% positive and 15% neutral) is happy with the test-and-learn culture we have in place.

We have delivered a series of bi-monthly full-team meetings throughout the year, focusing on different marcomms specialisms and incorporating training from both internal and external speakers.

This has enhanced the self-learning opportunities and individual training courses (both online and offline) that marcomms managers support through performance management objectives. 

It is great to see the team enjoying the benefits of this test and learn culture and putting it into practice across their work projects.

What areas are the Marketing and Communications team improving on?

13% of colleagues told us that they feel their workload isn’t manageable. While that is an improvement over last year (scoring 26%), we’re committed to continuing to improve in this area.

We aim to do this by:

  • Sharing the strategic marcomms plan earlier in the year so Business Partners can better link their plans to the strategic objectives of the team and those of Glasgow Life.
  • Reviewing the strategic and area-specific plans more regularly throughout the year. Ensuring we keep on top of changing priorities.
  • Conducting more interim check-ins on performance management objectives and making adjustments as necessary to reflect current workplans.
  • Creating top-line planners (like we did for 24/25) to identify any pinch points throughout the year and plan resources in advance to mitigate the impact of this.

It sounds as though you have been doing a lot since the results came out. What have you decided to start doing?

We have committed to including AI technology updates and best practices as a regular item on our team meeting agendas and to sharing useful online training that will help the team embed this into their marketing communications skillset.

We held a successful team meeting in December 2024 on AI technology. We were pleased to see the team energised by AI and the opportunities it brings to us.

We are aware that colleagues need to feel fully supported in the use of AI, as with any new or developing technology. We want all team members to feel confident about its use, including the website chatbot and the appropriate use of Chat GPT, to continue innovating our work practices and better serving the needs of our customers.