Digital transformation: why communications teams need better systems | GPhC

What do you think of when you hear the term digital transformation? For some people, it conjures images of new websites, the latest content management system or maybe even an AI tool. Sure, technology can be part of it. In our experience, though, the biggest barriers to effective communications don’t relate to technology. They’re often organisational.

Do issues like duplicated workloads, inconsistent editorial processes and unclear ownership sound familiar?

How about disconnected systems, inaccessible content and knowledge that only exists in someone’s head? Individually, these problems might seem insignificant.

Together, they can slow organisations down and make work harder than it needs to be. It’s one of the reasons why we believe digital transformation and content governance start with understanding how people work. That’s how our work with GPhC started.

What is the GPhC?

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is the independent regulator for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacies a cross Great Britain. When Restless Stories came on board, we didn’t start our year-long partnership recommending a new series of articles or a digital campaign (which to be fair wasn't on the cards yet!).

Instead, we connected with its communications, digital and policy teams. Our goal was to strengthen its systems underpinning day-to-day communications. That included content governance and editorial workflows, AI training, reporting, video production and public awareness campaigns. These are the steps we took.

Step one: understanding how communications really worked

The first place we started was understanding how communications moved through GPhC. We mapped editorial workflows, reviewed Drupal publishing processes and examined how SharePoint was being used to manage internal knowledge. We also assessed accessibility procedures and looked at how communications performance was being measured. More importantly, we spoke to the people using these systems every day.

What became clear was that GPhC had a highly capable communications team. The challenge was that knowledge, processes and guidance were spread across different teams and systems.

As team members changed roles and new colleagues came on board, maintaining consistency became more difficult. We could have treated them as isolated issues. Instead, we approached them as part of a wider content operations challenge.

Step two: designing content governance that reduce complexity

We find that the greatest improvements come from making existing systems easier to understand, easier to manage and easier to use. With that in mind, we began working closely with the GPhC team to redesign elements of its content governance and editorial processes. Some of the ways we did that included:

• Clarifying ownership, accessibility responsibilities and publishing workflows across the organisation
• Developing a SharePoint knowledge hub containing more than 30 pages of guidance, complete with screenshots, video tutorials (and the team was of huge help here) and practical documentation covering Drupal, SharePoint, accessibility and content publishing
• Creating planning tools with a clearer overview of the website
• Helping teams understand content ownership, review schedules and governance responsibilities

Instead of relying on institutional memory, editors now had a single source to find answers. It didn’t matter if they had worked at the GPhC for years or if it was their first day on the job. A lot of the work happened behind the scenes, but we found it changed how communications could be managed long term.

Step three: building confidence trough training

Throughout the partnership, we delivered practical workshops covering storytelling, accessibility, Canva, and AI/Microsoft Copilot. We helped colleagues understand how emerging technologies could support their daily tasks, rather than introduce another set of digital tools.

The conversations around AI stood out to us.Like most organisations, GPhC wanted to understand how tools like Microsoft Copilot could improve productivity while maintaining the high standards expected of a healthcare regulator.

Instead of focusing on the technology itself, we explored how AI could support drafting, planning, research in content production - but also understand some of the environmental considerations around it. We demonstrated how it could free up time for strategic thinking while keeping appropriate governance in place.

The highlight for us was seeing how the topic of digital transformation became less intimidating. Once the team understood how new tools could fit within their existing workflows, change became easier to embrace.

Step four: using data to make better decisions

As part of the project, we redesigned GPhC’s communications reporting. We created a new dashboard in Canva that collated website analytics, social media, email marketing, media monitoring, internal communications and qualitative reporting into a single, consistent framework.

Incorporating historical performance data also meant teams could easily compare results quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year, instead of reviewing them as isolated snapshots.

We also helped improve media monitoring processes by replacing time-consuming manual approaches with a dedicated platform. This freed the communications team to spend less time gathering information and more time understanding what it meant. Reporting became less about describing activity and more about identifying trends, measuring impact and planning for the future.

Step five: putting better content operations into practice

We supported several major communications initiatives during our time with GPhC. These helped the team put new workflows, content planning approaches and digital capabilities into practice. One focus area was the Common Registration Assessment for trainee pharmacists. Working closely with the communications team, we developed the GPhC’s first dedicatedInstagram strategy that included:

• Branded templates
• Educational content and graphics
• Short-form videos explaining different aspects of the assessment process

Within five months, the new account grew from zero to more than 570 followers and achieved an average engagement rate of 5.5%. These results significantly outperformed typical benchmarks for comparable public-sector organisations.

We also assisted in producing educational videos introducing new registration systems. These clips explained key changes for pharmacists and helped communicate complex regulatory information in a more accessible way.

Step six: delivering integrated public awareness campaigns

One of the more ambitious tasks involved putting together a GPhC campaign tackling fake online pharmacies (which is still ongoing!). Working with partners like the NHS, pharmacies and local authorities, we helped develop a multi-channel public awareness campaign encouraging people to check whether an online pharmacy was legitimately registered before purchasing medicines.

The campaign combined educational videos, social media content, paid advertising, audience research, landing pages and partner communications into one big push. A short video series explained the risks associated with fake pharmacies while keeping messaging consistent across all touch points. Paid advertising drove visits to the campaign landing page at a cost of less than 25 pence per visitor over a three month period.

While audiences only saw the finished campaign, the success relied on stronger processes, clearer governance and improved content production systems that we had helped establish earlier. We are looking forward to wrapping up the campaign to analyse the final results!

What we learned

This project reinforced several lessons that help us shape how we approach digital transformation for communications teams. The most obvious is that technology is not the starting point. New software is also rarely the answer. Clearer workflows, stronger content governance and systems that make communications easier to produce are what teams need.

Content operations also deserve more attention than they usually get. Elements like editorial workflows, accessibility processes, reporting frameworks, document management and knowledge sharing are not usually the visible parts of communications.

The thing is, they influence every campaign, website update and piece of content an organisation produces.Investing in these foundations creates benefits that often outlast individual projects. It also helps if the people using them feel confident.

When these elements come together, better campaigns happen naturally. They also become easier to produce. Ultimately, organisations spend less time navigating complexity, and more time communicating with the audiences that matter most.

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