For many years companies focused on communication with external constituencies. A study by consulting firm Wyatt Watson, found that companies with the highest level of communications experienced a 26 percent total return to shareholders, from 1998 to 2002. In contrary, firms that communicated less effectively experienced a return to shareholders of only 25 percent. Therefore, it is important that companies consider all the stakeholders as constituencies, including the employees. Besides memos publications and broadcasts it is important to build a corporate culture.
Internal Communications and the Changing Environment
Over the past decades the environment for business has changed dramatically. Employees nowadays face greater workloads, longer hours, and a high emphasis on their performance. Today’s employees are increasingly demanding participation in conversations that are driving organizational change. This participation is important, because it gives employees the feeling to contribute to the organization’s culture. It is important the managers listen to the employees’ opinions and give feedback. This is important to do for all employees, even those on the lower levels. As managers listen, employees become more excited about their work and not only perform their tasks better, but also develop a higher loyalty toward the company. Therefore, companies should pursue an open door policy toward employees and improve the internal communication.
Organizing the Internal Communication Effort
First of all, it is to find out what attitudes employees have about the firm. A communication audit is a good way to find out about that. Once management knows how the employees feel about the company and its internal communications, they can implement an internal communication infrastructure in order to meet those needs.
It is important to display to employees that they are the company’s most important asset. Professionals from the human resource department and from the communications department should closely collaborate in order to communicate this message effectively. A two way channel, bottom up and top down, is essential for effective internal communications. In some cases, external consultants can be asked for help to improve the internal communication infrastructure. Employees should also as much as possible be involved in several constituency roles, like being stockholders, or customers etc. Furthermore, it is important that the company immediately responds to media reports with an own verion of the story.
Implementing an Effective Internal Communication Program
As mentioned before, it is important to develop a two way communication channel, bottom up and top down. Employees’ concerns should be heard by managers and managers should respond to those concerns. Employees should feel free to express their concerns without fear of reprisals. Regular meetings between employees and supervisors or managers are a good way to show the managements interest about the employees’ concerns. This finally leads also to a higher effectiveness, because managers can adapt changes in the workflow according to employees’ concerns. In large companies where such face to face meetings are virtually not realizable, managers could meet with representatives chosen by the employees, or supervisors could meet with employees and forward concerns to management.
An electronic internal network, intranet, should be implemented so that employees and managers can communicate with one another any time, through e-mail, chat room, or public discussion on forums and even blogs. An effective intranet should be regularly updated and maintained and should be also kept clear and transparent. The only thing to be paid attention to is, that the intranet does not replace personal and face to face communication.
Another medium that can be used to communicate with employees can be a company internal magazine that can be sent to the employees’ home. Also visual media, like a video magazine can be made available to employees. With help of those media an internal branding can also be established, with the result that employees feel proud and more committed to their company. Finally, some informality should be kept in the communications so that employees feel more comfortable to express themselves, and managers on the other can easier find out what employees really think.
Management’s Role in internal communications
Managers should be aware that they are opinion leaders and culture carriers within a company. They should embody the company’s culture, morals, and ethics. Furthermore, they should display their belonging to the employees, thus many managers nowadays voluntarily renounce an individual office in favor of a workplace among the employees. And management by walking around is a good way to keep in personal touch with the employees and give them the feeling that they are doing valuable work.
Examples:
Starbucks hires for example outside consultants to conduct internal communication audits in order to identify strengths and weaknesses in existing communication practices. Detailed questionnaires uncover precisely how employees view internal communications and help management to develop possible solutions to communication problems.
Another example for implementing an effective internal communication program is JetBlue, where each employee spends his or her first day at an orientation, including an hour with president and COO Dave Barger, CEO Dave Neeleman, and vice president of people Vincent Stabile to talk about the JetBlue brand, airline economics, how to interact with customers, as well as the fundamentals of the company’s culture and values.
Experiences:
During my time at a telephone service provider, meetings took place once a week, where employees could communicate their concerns about any aspect of the company. Furthermore, because this company consisted of many young employees, the managers tried to pursue a flat structure, and one way of implementing this was that every single person either employee or manager had to be addressed by his first name, no “Sirs”. This created a culture of affiliation among employees and managers. Additionally at least twice a day any operation was stopped by a manager, so that he could give some motivating words in order to keep the employees happy.
When I was doing an internship in a rather serious company where hierarchies were dominating, I realized that there are also ways to improve internal communication within a very hierarchical structure. One big effort, costing the company a lot of money to implement was Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Provided with special VOIP-phones at every work-place, every employee could reach any other employee either typing in his number or name. Furthermore, instant messages could be sent through this technology. In case of a missed call, one could see the name and time and even reference of the person who called. There was a strict guideline that every employee had to answer internal requests immediately as he got knowledge of it; this applied to every mean of communication VOIP, e-mail etc.
References:
Argenti, Paul A. (2007). Corporate Communication (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill, pp. 137-153.
Links:
http://www.watsonwyatt.com/
http://www.conference-board.org/
http://www.right.com/
http://www.towersperrin.com/
http://www.forrester.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Internal-Communication:-12-Essential-Elements&id=12286
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.work911.com/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.measure-x.com/publication/pubs10-05-internal.html
Internal Communications and the Changing Environment
Over the past decades the environment for business has changed dramatically. Employees nowadays face greater workloads, longer hours, and a high emphasis on their performance. Today’s employees are increasingly demanding participation in conversations that are driving organizational change. This participation is important, because it gives employees the feeling to contribute to the organization’s culture. It is important the managers listen to the employees’ opinions and give feedback. This is important to do for all employees, even those on the lower levels. As managers listen, employees become more excited about their work and not only perform their tasks better, but also develop a higher loyalty toward the company. Therefore, companies should pursue an open door policy toward employees and improve the internal communication.
Organizing the Internal Communication Effort
First of all, it is to find out what attitudes employees have about the firm. A communication audit is a good way to find out about that. Once management knows how the employees feel about the company and its internal communications, they can implement an internal communication infrastructure in order to meet those needs.
It is important to display to employees that they are the company’s most important asset. Professionals from the human resource department and from the communications department should closely collaborate in order to communicate this message effectively. A two way channel, bottom up and top down, is essential for effective internal communications. In some cases, external consultants can be asked for help to improve the internal communication infrastructure. Employees should also as much as possible be involved in several constituency roles, like being stockholders, or customers etc. Furthermore, it is important that the company immediately responds to media reports with an own verion of the story.
Implementing an Effective Internal Communication Program
As mentioned before, it is important to develop a two way communication channel, bottom up and top down. Employees’ concerns should be heard by managers and managers should respond to those concerns. Employees should feel free to express their concerns without fear of reprisals. Regular meetings between employees and supervisors or managers are a good way to show the managements interest about the employees’ concerns. This finally leads also to a higher effectiveness, because managers can adapt changes in the workflow according to employees’ concerns. In large companies where such face to face meetings are virtually not realizable, managers could meet with representatives chosen by the employees, or supervisors could meet with employees and forward concerns to management.
An electronic internal network, intranet, should be implemented so that employees and managers can communicate with one another any time, through e-mail, chat room, or public discussion on forums and even blogs. An effective intranet should be regularly updated and maintained and should be also kept clear and transparent. The only thing to be paid attention to is, that the intranet does not replace personal and face to face communication.
Another medium that can be used to communicate with employees can be a company internal magazine that can be sent to the employees’ home. Also visual media, like a video magazine can be made available to employees. With help of those media an internal branding can also be established, with the result that employees feel proud and more committed to their company. Finally, some informality should be kept in the communications so that employees feel more comfortable to express themselves, and managers on the other can easier find out what employees really think.
Management’s Role in internal communications
Managers should be aware that they are opinion leaders and culture carriers within a company. They should embody the company’s culture, morals, and ethics. Furthermore, they should display their belonging to the employees, thus many managers nowadays voluntarily renounce an individual office in favor of a workplace among the employees. And management by walking around is a good way to keep in personal touch with the employees and give them the feeling that they are doing valuable work.
Examples:
Starbucks hires for example outside consultants to conduct internal communication audits in order to identify strengths and weaknesses in existing communication practices. Detailed questionnaires uncover precisely how employees view internal communications and help management to develop possible solutions to communication problems.
Another example for implementing an effective internal communication program is JetBlue, where each employee spends his or her first day at an orientation, including an hour with president and COO Dave Barger, CEO Dave Neeleman, and vice president of people Vincent Stabile to talk about the JetBlue brand, airline economics, how to interact with customers, as well as the fundamentals of the company’s culture and values.
Experiences:
During my time at a telephone service provider, meetings took place once a week, where employees could communicate their concerns about any aspect of the company. Furthermore, because this company consisted of many young employees, the managers tried to pursue a flat structure, and one way of implementing this was that every single person either employee or manager had to be addressed by his first name, no “Sirs”. This created a culture of affiliation among employees and managers. Additionally at least twice a day any operation was stopped by a manager, so that he could give some motivating words in order to keep the employees happy.
When I was doing an internship in a rather serious company where hierarchies were dominating, I realized that there are also ways to improve internal communication within a very hierarchical structure. One big effort, costing the company a lot of money to implement was Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Provided with special VOIP-phones at every work-place, every employee could reach any other employee either typing in his number or name. Furthermore, instant messages could be sent through this technology. In case of a missed call, one could see the name and time and even reference of the person who called. There was a strict guideline that every employee had to answer internal requests immediately as he got knowledge of it; this applied to every mean of communication VOIP, e-mail etc.
References:
Argenti, Paul A. (2007). Corporate Communication (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill, pp. 137-153.
Links:
http://www.watsonwyatt.com/
http://www.conference-board.org/
http://www.right.com/
http://www.towersperrin.com/
http://www.forrester.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Internal-Communication:-12-Essential-Elements&id=12286
http://performance-appraisals.org/Bacalsappraisalarticles/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.work911.com/articles/comstrat.htm
http://www.measure-x.com/publication/pubs10-05-internal.html
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