Europe’s leading survey of corporate websites and the only global ranking that is based on stakeholders’ demands

Ranking is the engine

Criteria you can’t afford

to ignore

Insight from 4 specialists on

responsive design

Talent recruitment

MINDTHE GAP

HIGHLIGHTS 2014-2015

WEBRANKINGBY COMPREND

Contents

8 12 14

4 Ranking is the engine

6 Governance info

7 Market share and competitors

8 Diversity and equal opportunity

10 Close the gap

12 Investment story

14 Insight from 4 specialists on responsive design

Designer – Jaan Orvet Coder – Bryan Moore Content expert – Katrin Kolare Site owner – Gustaf Ekelund

20 The internal search engine checklist

22 How to get your career section right

24 Talent recruitment

26 Internal search as a navigation tool

Within our interactive online report you can find explanations about all the webranking sections and criteria.

Editor Linda HultbergContributors Katrin Kolare, Joakim ArhammarArt Directors Karin Henricsson, Torgny KarlssonPhotography & Illustrations Frida Vega Salomonsson, Sanna Stefansson, Carl Swahn © Comprend 2014 R

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Today, we decide the weekly menu and cook together which has made them more open to new versions of their favourite dishes and now I’m a happier chef in the kitchen.

There are two key steps here: the first step is to know what they want and the second is to know how to present it in a way that meets their expectations. That’s what Webranking by Comprend is all about.

Every year we ask corporate communication stakeholders what they look for on a corporate website and on social media. Then we analyse 830 companies’ digital communication efforts to see how they are performing. The gap between what the stakeholders want and how the companies – perhaps your company – communicate is often vast.

We want to close that gap and bring corporate communication stakeholders closer to the companies. That’s what makes us go to work every day. And that’s what this report is all about. It’s a dinner menu showing you exactly what your key stakeholders – analysts, investors, business journalists and job seekers – are looking for. And what you should be serving to make them happy.

I hope that our Webranking and this Highlight report will help you in your own attempts to communicate effectively.

Let us all mind the gap.

Mind the gap

Staffan Lindgren, Managing Director, Comprend

When my kids were small they had very specific demands on what they wanted for dinner. They wanted simple food like pasta and meatballs while I wanted more elaborate kitchen creations. The gap between their requests and the food on the table was too big, leaving both parties unhappy.

We combine communications know ledge and thought leadership with digital exper-tise and insight. Our international clients rely on us for their IR, media, CSR, employer branding, internal communications and social media needs for a unified approach to Digital Corporate Communications. Our work has global reach and successfully supports worldwide as well as local market-specific initiatives.

Our annual survey of corporate websites - Webranking by Comprend - gives us un -paralleled knowledge about our clients’ target groups. And with 18 years experience in this field, we can confidently call our-selves experts.

For more insights

Helena WennergrenHead of Marketing +46 70 971 12 10helena.wennergren@comprend.com

Linda HultbergProject Manager Webranking by Comprend+46 76 109 05 38linda.hultberg@comprend.com

We are ComprendAt Comprend we believe in creating stronger, more engaging Digital Corporate Communications solutions for our clients.

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Ranking is the engineThis year, we’ve ranked 830 companies from 41 countries and 20 sectors to measure how well they meet the expectations of their key stakeholders: analysts, institutional investors, business journalists and job seekers. The ranked companies are the largest by market cap in each country.

We began by asking the target groups directly about what kind of information they’re looking for on corporate websites and in companies’ social media channels. More than 460 people responded to our two surveys.

Webranking by Comprend, established 1997, is Europe’s leading survey of corporate websites and the only global ranking that is based on stakeholder demands.

Order online report www.bit.ly/OrderfullreportDownload Spotlights www.bit.ly/Downloadspotlight

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Webranking is the only global ranking that is based on stakeholder input.

Over 300 people from 41 countries in Europe participated in the Capital Market survey, covering the whole width of digital corporate communications.

164 people aged 18–55 from 20 countries in Europe participated in the career survey. We asked them 19 questions about employer branding.

The respondents rated the importance of each question from one to five, where 5 is most important and 1 is the least important.

Based on the respondents’ views and opinions we put together the review criteria for ranking the companies’ websites and corpo-rate social networks. This consists of 100 criteria covering 10 sections and 309 measurment-points. Most websites were ranked more than once – in total, there are more than 600,000 assessments is made.

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We can see in the ranking results that companies within FT Europe 500 score poorly in the Corporate Governance section, which might imply the difficulty of transparency. There are many things to consider within the field of corporate governance. Fortunately there are ways to bring structure to it. A good place to start is by covering these three general areas: (1) authorities and regulations, (2) work processes, and (3) responsibilities and remuneration. Start off with the most requested content among your stakeholders.

Demand for transparency increasesOur research shows that investors are the corporate stakeholders most interested in corporate governance. They generally have good knowledge on how to govern companies and expect to be thoroughly informed about how companies that they invest in are managed.

But we live in transparent times and our research tells us that other stakeholders such as journalists and job seekers also want increasingly more information about the companies they’re interested in and specifically the people behind them.

When in doubt – always consult an expertHowever, be aware that there are times when full transparency might not be the best option – for example with regards to financial information and business strategies. Also, board members generally do not talk about the companies they’re representing and instead let the chairman of the board take the role of being the united voice.

Comply or explainGiven the fact that all governance information about your company is not supposed to be official, it is important to consider the term “comply or explain”. This means that you as a company either comply with the rules and publish specific information, or explain why you don’t do it.

Governance info – Be as transparent as possibleAGM information, committees, external auditors, lobbying policies, articles of associations… the list seems endless. Add country and industry specific laws, rules and recommendations together with the different stakeholders’ expectations and you might have a tough time presenting it all clearly and transparently.

ImportanceThe percentage of respondents that find the following governance information important on a corporate website.

FulfillmentThe percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that meet criteria that might be difficult to be transparent about.

Webranking data

AGM information Board’s and committees work Remuneration policy The remuneration for executives is presented

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Complete minutes, number of votes, total voting list Board’s achievements the past year An updated Board’s evaluation of the remuneration policy The remuneration for executives

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Key audiences want to get under-neath the skin of management. Yet the vast majority of European corporate websites offer just a dull, �short two cats and lives in Surrey’ biography.

Phil Marchant, Managing Director, Comprend London

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Market share and competitors– The case for and against transparency

Our case for transparency…We believe that companies should show a high degree of transpar-ency in their communication since this generally has positive effects on the perception of a company. Total transparency is not always an option when it comes to some aspects of corporate communica-tions, but we recommend that companies publish information about market shares and competitors since it shows that the company understands its position and possibilities.

The information about market shares and competitors will make it easier for investors to analyse your company, journalists to write more accurate articles, and potential employees to understand your market position in their local country.

…and others’ case againstMany companies are hesitant towards sharing information about their market shares and competitors on their corporate websites since it is regarded as sensitive information. They are often anxious about potentially losing business or employees to their competitors.

“This type of information, especially concerning competitors, can be hard to find on other sources so the companies sometimes have

the power to choose if the information should exist at all, which is quite unusual in today’s information society,” says Elisabeth Jagevik, Client Manager at Comprend.

Some of the most requested information from corporate stakeholders concerns market shares and competitors. Unfortunately, companies perform badly in this part of the Webranking, making it one of the ranking’s largest gaps between stakeholder demands and the content provided by corporate websites. Why?

Webranking data

ImportanceThe percentage of respondents that find information about market share, positioning and competitors important.

FulfillmentThe percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that meet the criteria.

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Market share/positioning (domestically and/or international)

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Diversity and equal opportunity – Be bold enough to show your imperfections

Diversity and equal opportunities are topics close to heart and find-ing information about these areas on the corporate website has increased in importance over the last couple of years. As many as nine out of ten job seekers are interested in finding out about the companies’ policy on diversity as well as numbers on the work-force’s gender, age and nationality.

But they’re out of luck!Large companies across Europe do a mediocre job in presenting

their policy and fail to give hard facts on what their reality actually looks like.

“In today’s connected society people ask Google about pretty much everything and they’re used to getting an answer – and when they don’t get one, they become distrustful. When job seekers have questions about equal opportunities within a company and cannot find the answer, they react in the same way. They get suspicious and start to wonder why the information isn’t out there,” says Tommie Cau, Talent Communications Specialist at Comprend.

Communicate the facts as they areTommie’s advice is that if you strive for diversity within your organi-sation but employ mainly Caucasian men in their thirties and are unhappy about this – but above all terrified about disclosing this – you should be open and communicate the facts as they are. Explain that you are on a journey working to improve the situation.

“Employers will be more credible if they provide transparency and information rather than if the target groups must find information from other sources, such as research institutes or glassdoor.com. But companies are just like humans in that they are wary of showing their imperfections. Most do not want to say that they’re on a jour-ney; they want to show that they are perfect from the very start.”

Ericsson is bold enough to step upA company that is, however, bold enough to step up is Ericsson. Their diversity report published in August this year, shows that they have employees representing 168 nationalities and 193 languages, but also that only 22 percent are women. You may find that this is grim reading but Ericsson’s intention is to show that diversity is important to them and that you must put everything on the table for change to happen.

“Ericsson wants to get the discussion going faster, both internally and externally. Sure, by doing this they risk getting some negative publicity, but now their stakeholders know their situation and Erics-son shows that they are working on it. They’re honest and open about it, which is very smart,” says Tommie.

“At the end of the day, these expectations will continue to grow. With the hunt for talent being so fierce, most companies cannot afford to be behind the curve. Ultimately, they run the risk of becoming irrelevant in the eyes of today’s talents if they don’t open up,” Tommie continues.

On a related note is social data. When asking the capital market, two out of three think that it is important that the company addresses issues such as discrimination, child labour, forced labour, health and safety and freedom of association on the corporate web-site. Yet only 28 percent of the European companies provide this kind of information. And very few, 17 percent, present their social targets along with their achievements.

In an increasingly open and transparent society, people quickly become suspicious of anyone who doesn’t dare to be open and honest. Yet companies become very silent when it comes to disclosing diversity – even though they would gain a lot by showing the truth as it is.

They get suspicious and start to wonder why the information isn’t out there.

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ImportanceThe percentage of respondents that find information about the diversity policy and equal opportunities important on a corporate website.

FulfillmentThe percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that meet the criteria.

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Policy on diversity & equal opportunities Data about diversity (e.g. age, gender, nationality) is presented

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27%

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Glassdoor www.glassdoor.com

Ericsson www.ericsson.com/thecompany/ diversity- inclusion

Webranking data

ericsson.com

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Close the gap

Company report• Your company’s complete ranking.• Detailed description of all 100 criteria including your and your

competitors’ score.• 300 best practice examples to be inspired from while planning

for your improvements.• Access to the data from the questionnaires.• Executive summary with key figures and your overall strengths

and weaknesses.

Benchmark report also includes• Interactive tool that lets you test how improvements would

affect your results.• Focused advice on the areas where improvement would see

you outperform your peers.

Benchmark plus also includes• A qualitative analysis of three competitors of your choice with

detailed recommendations on how to improve your online corporate communication.

• A face to face presentation of your results where we also share current trends and suggest possible ways forward for continuous improvement. We also review design, message and findability.

For more information or a demo of the report, contact webranking@comprend.com

The online Webranking report identifies the gap between your key stakeholders’ demands and your digital corporate communication. It provides you with tools to reach your goals, meet stakeholders’ demands, benchmark against peers and competitors or reach your anticipated ranking position.

Order

the full

report!

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Investment story– Tell your good investment storyGood investors look for a reason to invest in a company yet very few websites do a successful job in presenting an investment case.

Our results show that three out of four investors think it’s important to find an investment story on the corporate website.

However, only a few of the largest companies across Europe take the time and effort to clearly outline their investment story. All the others expect their visitors to do the work – to piece it together from random bits of information sprayed across the website.

The 12 percent that actually do present their investment story properly are surely at an advantage.

With a clear and engaging investment case their potential inves-tor can understand the key strengths, uniqueness and value drivers of the company in just a few seconds. This gives investors a coher-ent view of why they should invest and could consequently attract a broader shareholder base. It also serves as extra ammunition for attracting job seekers curious about where the company is heading and how it generates operational growth.

How do you create an engaging story?The recipe behind a successful investment story is a combination of hard facts and the ability to convey a feeling. According to Helena Nordman-Knutson, senior advisor in Investor Relations at our sister agency Hallvarsson & Halvarsson, the work includes both a commu-nicative review and a conceptualisation of the business model, strat-egy, goals and results.

Make sure to explain trends and market expectations too Growth drivers are another decisive piece of information. Nine out of ten investors think that it’s important to read about future market trends, expectations and challenges and how these will affect the company’s operations and growth. But here again is a big gap between what stakeholders want and what the websites provide. Many companies talk about the challenges for the coming year but omit a comprehensive, long-term view of the market and its opportunities.

So, when planning your website content make sure to include your growth drivers and investment story as they give an overview of the company and its long-term goals ahead.

The investment story forms the alpha argument to why one should invest. The essence is that an elaborated story addresses both the logic and the emotion of an investor brain.

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Helena Nordman-Knutson, Senior Consultant, Hallvarsson & Halvarsson

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Online crash coursebit.ly/investmentstories

ImportanceThe percentage of respondents that find an investor proposition important on a corporate website.

FulfillmentThe percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that meet the criteria.

Webranking data

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Insight from 4 specialists on responsive designThe mobile revolution came fast, driven forward by smartphones, faster connections, news sites, social networks but most importantly, the user. Website owners have tried different ways to build their mobile communications with mobile sites and apps but the winner, by a mile, is the responsive website. According to Comprend’s 2014 Capital Market survey the traffic from mobile devices to corporate websites has increased from 17 percent in June 2012 to 27 percent in May 2014.

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Jaan Orvet– Head of Creative, Comprend

Design for people first – mobile and everything else secondBeing responsive is no longer just about adapting to different screen sizes. It is equally important to understand time, place and context. Most of us look at our smartphone screens more times a day than we look at our laptop computer screens, yet in much shorter bursts. The best responsive websites understand this and design for people with place, purpose and context at the forefront of their minds. They understand that we might start an activity on a smartphone and finish it on a laptop, and they make it easy for us to continue where we left off, regardless of which device we use.

Attention to detail is no longer about detailsDesign every interaction, every element, activity, input or page as if it is the only thing that matters. When a responsive website is viewed on the smartphone there is less screen real estate to work with, clumsy fingers in the way and perhaps less time. Thus, the fields for entering credit card information have to be scaled down to the bare minimum, maps need to be zoomed in to show enough detail to make sense, and so on. Those who do this well have designed their responsive website experiences to a single tap activity.

Embrace the longer page – don’t fear the thumb scrollOur brains process information faster than we think, literally. Most people will find what they are looking for - or find something of interest if they aren’t looking for anything in particular – more quickly when they scroll a long page of information than when entering text in to a search field. This is particularly the case when taking into consideration spelling errors, poor indexing, connection times, and weak search engine result pages. A visually well-struc-tured long page can guide a visitor, inspire them and ultimately help a business reach a conversion goal.

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Bryan Moore– Developer, Comprend

High density displays and responsive mediaHigh density displays have become a standard on mobile devices. The benefit to this is a crisp and clear user experience. On the down side, if your website is not adapted for these screens, your users will quickly see all the imperfections of your site. Make sure images, icons, and logotypes are at least twice their viewable size and scaled accordingly.

Use a grid layoutBase the design of your site on a strict grid system. This will make it much easier to scale the site and adapt your site’s content accord-ingly. It will also keep your content consistent and organised across all pages and devices. It can also speed up design in the way that every new element follows the predetermined grid, versus design-ing site elements independently.

Responsiveness based on content, not devicesLet the content of your site define your mobile breakpoints, not res-olutions of specific devices. To determine breakpoints, shrink your site horizontally in your browser to the point when the content looks squeezed, then create a breakpoint. There are no rules as to how many breakpoints you should have. Different layouts and designs will require different breakpoints.

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Katrin Kolare– Content Manager, Comprend

Intensify your old online writing tipsPretty much all the things you have learned about writing for the web apply to writing for responsive sites as well. The main differ-ence is that you will have to follow the rules more precisely if you want to create content that fits your mobile visitors as well as your desktop users. Apply the inverted pyramid with the most important content first, use descriptive and concise headlines and subhead-lines, utilise graphic elements and lists to explain complex content and be straight to the point in general.

Collaborate with your new content teamDo not just write your content in a Word document, hand it over to the web editor and move on the next task. Great content can begin in text form, but to enhance it and make it as good as it can be, you need the rest of your team – the designer, the coder, the distributor and the statistician. When writing for responsive websites, these roles become more complex and it’s important for you as a content provider to understand and follow the entire process to make sure that your content is presented in an engaging way to your users.

Avoid the pitfallsSome things you will learn by doing, but some common mistakes include making references in the text to things that only exist in the desktop mode, such as “read more about this in the column on the right” and putting content in tables that will not transform to the responsive mode. One advice to rule them all: take a look at your content on different devices, learn and adapt.

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Gustaf Ekelund– Head of Digital Management, saabgroup.comWhy responsive?We can see from statistics that mobile visitors are a rapidly growing segment of our current website’s visitors and in a few years they will the majority. We have to adapt to this, and a responsive site is the obvious and best choice, allowing us to work with design, code and content on one platform instead of two applications.

Where do you start? Platform, design or content?The natural place to start was, firstly, to choose a platform – in our case EPiServer, which allowed us to develop the website the way we wanted. Content was our second stop. We knew what type of content we had and what we wanted to create, so the design had to support this. Platform first, content second, and then design.

Will the responsive website change the way you communicate?The main change concerns the mobile approach. Right now, we are benchmarking and gathering knowledge on how to meet the demands from our increasingly mobile target groups. We are thinking mobile first with the content we create and we will continue to test the usability once the new website is in place.

SAAB launch their new website in March 2015.

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Visits from mobile devicesPercentage of traffic to corporate websites from mobile devices, according to Comprend’s 2014 Capital Market survey.

FulfillmentThe percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that meet the criteria.

Webranking data

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Mobile website Responsive website

16% 11% 15%

24% 25%

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of companies in FT Europe 500 do not have a

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Talent recruitment– Using your career section correctly

Do a target group analysis and identify the different types of job seekers you want to attract and recruit.

Now put yourself into your job seekers’ shoes – for instance, the student. What type of experience do you have when browsing through the career section of your company’s corporate website? Does it reflect your company and who you are? Do you meet people, hear stories about your culture and values and is the information personalised? Is the website informative, engaging, helpful, credible, shareable or easy to digest? Make a note of this.

Do the same thing again, but this time as a different job seeker – for instance, the young professional. How well does the website answer your questions? Is there a gap between the information you’re looking for and what is available?

Repeat the process using your smartphone.

Create an action plan. Focus on the most important gaps and build a career section which fulfills your target groups’ goals and expectations.

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Tommie Cau � Talent Communications Specialist, Comprend

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Meet the people who want to work for youGiven that you only have a few seconds to capture a job seeker’s attention, is your online careers presence engaging enough to keep them en route to pursuing an opportunity at your company? In Comprend’s 2014 Career survey we extracted three typical job seekers who visit your corporate website and social networks. Say hello to Daniel, Peter and Anna.

Daniel – Student and idealistDaniel is a student who wants to understand your company’s corpo-rate culture and values before committing. He also feels that it’s important for the company to share its views on sustainability, par-ticularly around equal opportunities and diversity the workplace. Daniel trusts his personal and professional contacts above all, and uses Facebook to find jobs. He’ll visit Wikipedia to get general infor-mation about the company and searches the corporate website and Facebook for job openings.

Companies’ performanceThe data shows the percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that provide content which is of key importance to students.1. Values and culture: 47%2. Sustainability: 34%3. Introduction to job seekers about the company: 72%4. Internships and summer jobs: 45%5. Work environment and working conditions: 13%6. Data on diversity and equal opportunities: 27%

I’m not impressed! Websites hardly ever provide the information I’m looking for, especially social data and information on sustainability.

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Peter – Young employee and careeristPeter is hungry to climb the ranks within a company that presents a solid employee strategy, comprehensive compensation package, and attractive office location. Steering clear of Facebook, he trusts the personal contacts he has built up as well as professional networks such as LinkedIn. Unique to careerists like Peter is the demand for content on compensation and benefits packages, as well as training and development opportunities.

Companies’ performanceThe data shows the percentage of companies in FT Europe 500 that provide content which is of key importance to careerists.1. Values and culture: 47%2. Detailed description of the HR strategy: 11%3. Promotion opportunities: 10%4. Competence development: 63%5. Career perspective: 72%

Anna – Senior employee and realistStability and security are vital to Anna. She is a senior employee who seeks a firm business strategy, strong financial figures and sound ownership in a potential employer. She secured her latest job through a head-hunter, but from time-to-time will browse LinkedIn for opportunities. If she does see a job on a corporate website, it’s important that she is able to contact someone in HR directly to ask about the position before applying.

Companies’ performanceThe data shows how many of the largest companies in Europe provide content which is of key importance to realist.1. Company at a glance (financial highlights, market facts,

business purpose, products/services): 25%2. Business strategy: 62%3. Values and culture: 47%4. HR contact: 30%5. Company expectations of future employees: 35%

They are so bad. Hardly any company presents its HR strategy thoroughly nor what the career ladder looks like.

I wish there was more information in general about the company and that I could find contact details to the HR department.

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The internal search engine checklist� Visible search buttons

Give the search box the attention it deserves. Make it visible on the start page and well designed.

� Show clear results The search result should have relevant and specific titles and descriptions – there should be no doubt about what information the user will find when clicking on the link in the search results list.

� Highlight the search terms Words that appear in the search box should also be highlighted or shown in bold text in the search results.

� Auto-suggest Auto-suggest is a great tool for guiding the user when searching and can also be used for spell check.

� Editor’s choice Your search engine should offer the possibility for the editor to manually add suggestions in the search results. This can be used when your stakeholders call products or services a different name than your company does.

� Learn from your users Do you have a lot of people searching for the same information? Note it and make the information more accessible in the regular navigation.

� Offer customisation Customise your search result to be appropriate for the informa-tion searched for. You can offer filtering for dates and type of content, and if, for example, a user searches for career opportu-nities, then why not show a box with jobs listings within your search result page?

� Pictures in search results Function that few corporate websites offer, but pictures in the search results is appreciated by users. If possible, connect your internal search engine with your media bank.

� Group results into categories Sometimes clearer search results can be presented by grouping the results into categories such as articles, contacts and number facts. However, make sure that they actually bring value to your visitors rather than confusing them.

� Don’t forget the obvious Display the number of search results, avoid duplicate results, be clear about the document type (regular page/PDF/Excel, etc). The devil is in the details.

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Internal search as a navigation toolWhen your users arrive at your website’s homepage, what do they do next? Without thinking, most people would answer that they start clicking their way through to the information that they want. Our research shows a different truth: 59 percent of your stakeholders frequently use the internal search engine to navigate on your website, making it a crucial tool for navigation.

We’ve all learned the trade of grouping information on websites menus under top sections such as “About us”, “Contact” and “Inves-tor relations”. After that we spend time creating second, third and fourth levels of navigation. While there is nothing wrong with doing this, too few website owners spend an equal amount of time on the internal search function, even though 59 percent use it frequently and 15 percent would rather use the search function than the hierarchical menu.

How people use internal search on corporate websitesThe most common way to navigate is by using the menu. However, the growing content and deeper content structure on websites demands a good internal search function as a support to the web-site navigation for finding relevant information.

Behavioural studies from the Nielsen Group and other research findings show that more than 50 percent of people visiting a start

page on a website go straight to the internal search engine to navi-gate. This research is usually focused on commercial sites and the comparable numbers for corporate websites in our research show a lower level of use for corporate communication stakeholders.

Robin Westerlund, Google Analytics expert at Comprend, thinks that the simple explanation is that the internal search engines on corporate sites generally lag behind those on commercial sites in terms of quality.

“19 percent of the corporate websites surveyed either have a dysfunctional internal search function or no search function at all,” says Robin Westerlund.

He continues: “In addition, only one in five search engines have a suggest function or a spell check. You should do everything possible to minimise the risk that the visitor is shown a ‘no results found’ page, both for misspellings and for search terms that do not exactly match the content. It is obviously better to offer the visitor a results page with related content, rather than no content at all.”

Experienced relevant search resultsThe percentage of respondents to Comprend’s 2014 Capital Market survey that experience relevant search results from internal search engines on corporate websites.

Webranking data

Dysfunctional internal search enginesThe percentage of corporate websites that either have no search function at all or does not generate any relevant search results on terms tested in the Webranking 2014.

All respondents Business journalists

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Sell side analysts Institutional investors/ Buy side analysts

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Keep up to date with the latest research on digital corporate communications on comprend.com

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