Developing an Internal Communication Strategy to drive your organization past the competition

Rodney Gray, Director

Employee Communication & Surveys

Sydney, Australia

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What is internal communication?

Not essentially to do with media, messages, senders and receivers, noise or interference

It’s really about the transfer of MEANING or understanding (not just moving information)

More than this, it’s to do with changing the behavior of the organization’s employees

It’s an investment to facilitate or support the achievement of the organization’s goals

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“Turning all eyes outward”

“The real purpose of effective communication within an organization is to achieve a common understanding and focus on what the organization is trying to achieve in the marketplace.”

“The only argument powerful enough to encourage people to embrace change is one that is rooted in the marketplace.”

Roger D’Aprix p.3

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Exactly why does your organization communicate?

Do you have a communication strategy? How is your communication linked to the

organization’s vision, mission, objectives? Do you simply pump out more information in the

hope that employees will be better informed about the organization and thus perform better?

Take the test: assess your communication programs - what are you trying to achieve?

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Just how well do you understand your organization’s requirements?

What are the Charter, Vision, Mission, Goals? What are the key philosophies and values? What do the short and long-range plans for each

division or business unit tell you? How do various stakeholders think you’re going? What are the strengths and weaknesses? Do you need to interview executives of various

business units to find out communication needs?

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HOW EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION CAN HELP ACHIEVE ORGANIZATIONAL OBJECTIVES

ORGANIZATIONALPERFORMANCE

EMPLOYEEBEHAVIOUR

ORGANIZATIONALOBJECTIVES

EMPLOYEECOMMUNICATION

Organization’s•policies, procedures•processes, systems•rules, guidelines•culture, norms•formal training•etc.

Employee’s•skills•competence•knowledge•beliefs•values, habits•motivations etc.

The organization must “perform” if objectives are to be achieved

By assessing•organizational objectives•organizational performance•employee behaviour required- you can decide how to communicate to influence employee behaviour

Organizational performance depends on the behaviour of employees

Employee behaviour is influencedby organizationaland individual factors such as these© Rodney Gray, 1997

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Organiza-tional

Performance

Organiza-tional

Performance

Actions People Take

Actions People Take

Decision Moments

Decision Moments

FinancialPerforman

ce

FinancialPerforman

ceInfrastructure

Context

Vision/Strategy

Linkage

Role

Support

Infrastructure

Leadership

Media

James Shaffer’s model [Presentation to IABC Conference, June 1999]

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What leaders do and don’t do What they ask Who they recognise

Rewards Measurement Structure Programs, policies

Meetings/huddles Scorecards Financial statements Memos, publications Web-based technology

Infrastructure

Leadership

Media

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Context

Vision/Strategy

Linkage

Role

Support

The big picture

What we’ll look like and how we’ll get there

What’s in it for me

How I influence results

Resources including information I need to influence results

Leadership, infrastructure and media provide these things:

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How and what to communicate to support the organization strategy?

How exactly does the organization have to perform, or improve, to achieve success?

What do employees have to do, not do, or do differently, for the organization to perform better?

What behaviours can you influence? How? Can you change attitudes or understanding? What decision moments can be influenced so that

employees take the actions required?

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What internal communication approaches will have impact?

Leadership: what leaders do or not do; what they ask about; who they recognize

Infrastructure: reward, measures, structure, policy, procedures etc.

Media: has a very limited support role to leaders, infrastructure

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Source

Leader- shipInfra- structureMedia

Jim Shaffer

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How to measure your success

Measure the extent your communications have caused employee behaviour change

Measure progress towards achievement of goals, or performance of various divisions

Measure how satisfied your various internal audiences are with communication overall, and with different aspects and tools (but this is clearly not as good as the first above)

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Employees usually know what they have to do to perform well

It is not appropriate to specify the behaviour of knowledge workers as with some others

They need a degree of freedom as to how to achieve their objectives and perform well

They know what information and relationships they need to do their jobs well

So measuring employees’ opinion of the quality of communication with them is very useful

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As a minimum you must satisfy employees’ information needs

Ideally you need to satisfy both organizational and employees’ communication needs

In Australia no research findings exist as yet as to how well organizational needs are met

But there is plenty of research as to how well employees’ communication needs are being met

Our research overseas indicates Australian findings are typical of those in Western countries

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Australian employees are not at all satisfied with communication

Overall, only 38% of Australian employees surveyed are satisfied with communication with them

More than 1 in 4 are not satisfied with communication with them

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Overall

Satisfied

Not sure

Notsatisfied

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Aspects which correlate strongly with overall satisfaction are poor

With senior 38% management

Upward 41% communication

Consultation 40% & involvement

About change 36% Across the 30%

organisation0

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Sen

. Mgt

.

Up

war

d

Con

sult

n.

Ch

ange

Acr

oss

Correlations 0.7 - 0.55

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Moderate correlates with overall satisfaction are a bit better

Strategic 51% direction

Performance 53% feedback

Immediate 61% supervisor

Job 71% information 0

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Dir

ecti

on

Fee

dbac

k

Supe

rvis

or

Job

info

.

Correlations around 0.5

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Tools are okay, but have a very low correlation with satisfaction

Executive 57% roadshows

Intranet 56% Results 52%

presentations Company 48%

publication Email 44%

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Roa

dsho

ws

Intr

anet

Res

ults

Pub

lica

tion

Em

ail

Correlations 0.3 or less

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Most Australian employees say internal communication is lousy

24% positive - leading regional bank 25% positive - financial services company 24% positive - state government department 25% positive - national insurance company 34% positive - another insurance company 47% positive - same company a year later 42% positive - leading transport company 47% positive - leading global merchant bank 55% positive - national food manufacturer

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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE COMMUNICATION MODEL

- two-way dialogue- employee feedback- effective listening- upward communications- involvement- recognition

Consider: - employees’ mindsets- what employees know - what you want them to know and understand- what they want to know- desired behaviours

Communication Strategy

Communication Objectives

Content Strategy

Consider employees’ preferred content:- impact on self- workplace future- business unit plans- personal goals- individual feedback

- customer feedback- what’s happening- change initiatives- career opportunities- training and development- “where do I fit in”- “how can I help”

Media Strategy

Consider employees’ preferred media:- face-to-face- immediate supervisor- local work group- one to one- small groups

Primary strategy: to communicate to andsupport supervisors orimmediate managersSecondary:news by e-mail orvoicemail

c Rodney Gray 1997

Organisational outcomes

Demonstrated- behaviour, skills- understanding- knowledge

Stakeholders or audiences

- apprentices- shopfloor- team leaders- supervisors- trades people- professionals- clerical staff- managers - executives

- various locations- various languages- illiterate

Evaluation Process

VisionMissionObjectivesGoalsStrategiesDirectionCharter

ValuesPhilosophiesGuiding principlesCredo

Long-term planFive-year planAnnual report

Organizational change objectives

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Communication Strategy

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE COMMUNICATION MODEL

Communication Objectives

Content Strategy

Media Strategy

Evaluation Process

c Rodney Gray 1997

Evaluation ProcessEvaluation Process

Stakeholders or audiences

Organizational outcomes

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Finally, please remember Meaning v. information Support organization’s

objectives not entertain Understand goals etc. Ensure communication

changes behaviour Regularly assess your

communications Leaders, infrastructure

more critical than media

As a minimum satisfy employees’ info needs - or they can’t perform well

Chances are employees are not satisfied with internal communication

Communication plan to cover strategy, content, media and evaluation

Measure impact on your organization’s objectives

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Take the test yourself - when was the last time you....?

...reviewed the operating plans for all divisions ...interviewed executives about what they need ...measured impact of programs on behaviour ...asked employee audiences how well internal

communication helps them do their jobs well ...worked with HR to measure and upgrade the

leadership/communication skills of all managers ...assessed the communication impact of the

infrastructure thoughout the organisation